Content streaming

This guide describes the Azure OpenAI content streaming experience and options. Customers can receive content from the API as it's generated, instead of waiting for chunks of content that have been verified to pass the content filters.

Default filtering behavior

The content filtering system is integrated and enabled by default for all customers. In the default streaming scenario, completion content is buffered, the content filtering system runs on the buffered content, and – depending on the content filtering configuration – content is either returned to the user if it doesn't violate the content filtering policy (Microsoft's default or a custom user configuration), or it is immediately blocked and a content filtering error is returned instead. This process is repeated until the end of the stream. Content is fully vetted according to the content filtering policy before it's returned to the user. Content isn't returned token-by-token in this case, but in "content chunks" of the respective buffer size.

Asynchronous filtering

Customers can choose the Asynchronous Filter as an extra option, providing a new streaming experience. In this case, content filters are run asynchronously, and completion content is returned immediately with a smooth token-by-token streaming experience. No content is buffered, which allows for a fast streaming experience with zero latency associated with content filtering.

Customers must understand that while the feature improves latency, it's a trade-off against the safety and real-time vetting of smaller sections of model output. Because content filters are run asynchronously, content moderation messages and policy violation signals are delayed, which means some sections of harmful content that would otherwise have been filtered immediately could be displayed to the user.

Annotations: Annotations and content moderation messages are continuously returned during the stream. We strongly recommend you consume annotations in your app and implement other AI Guidelines & control mechanisms, such as redacting content or returning other safety information to the user.

Content filtering signal: The content filtering error signal is delayed. If there is a policy violation, it’s returned as soon as it’s available, and the stream is stopped. The content filtering signal is guaranteed within a ~1,000-character window of the policy-violating content.

Customer Copyright Commitment: Content that is retroactively flagged as protected material might not be eligible for Customer Copyright Commitment coverage.

To enable Asynchronous Filter in Azure AI Foundry portal, follow the Content filter how-to guide to create a new content filtering configuration, and select Asynchronous Filter in the Streaming section.

Comparison of content filtering modes

Annotations and sample responses

Prompt annotation message

This is the same as default annotations.

data: { 
    "id": "", 
    "object": "", 
    "created": 0, 
    "model": "", 
    "prompt_filter_results": [ 
        { 
            "prompt_index": 0, 
            "content_filter_results": { ... } 
        } 
    ], 
    "choices": [], 
    "usage": null 
} 

Completion token message

Completion messages are forwarded immediately. No moderation is performed first, and no annotations are provided initially.

data: { 
    "id": "chatcmpl-7rAJvsS1QQCDuZYDDdQuMJVMV3x3N", 
    "object": "chat.completion.chunk", 
    "created": 1692905411, 
    "model": "gpt-35-turbo", 
    "choices": [ 
        { 
            "index": 0, 
            "finish_reason": null, 
            "delta": { 
                "content": "Color" 
            } 
        } 
    ], 
    "usage": null 
} 

Annotation message

The text field is always an empty string, indicating no new tokens. Annotations are only relevant to already-sent tokens. There might be multiple annotation messages referring to the same tokens.

"start_offset" and "end_offset" are low-granularity offsets in text (with 0 at beginning of prompt) to mark which text the annotation is relevant to.

"check_offset" represents how much text has been fully moderated. It's an exclusive lower bound on the "end_offset" values of future annotations. It's non-decreasing.

data: { 
    "id": "", 
    "object": "", 
    "created": 0, 
    "model": "", 
    "choices": [ 
        { 
            "index": 0, 
            "finish_reason": null, 
            "content_filter_results": { ... }, 
            "content_filter_raw": [ ... ], 
            "content_filter_offsets": { 
                "check_offset": 44, 
                "start_offset": 44, 
                "end_offset": 198 
            } 
        } 
    ], 
    "usage": null 
} 

Sample response stream (passes filters)

Below is a real chat completion response using Asynchronous Filter. Note how the prompt annotations aren't changed, completion tokens are sent without annotations, and new annotation messages are sent without tokens—they're instead associated with certain content filter offsets.

{"temperature": 0, "frequency_penalty": 0, "presence_penalty": 1.0, "top_p": 1.0, "max_tokens": 800, "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What is color?"}], "stream": true}

data: {"id":"","object":"","created":0,"model":"","prompt_annotations":[{"prompt_index":0,"content_filter_results":{"hate":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"self_harm":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"sexual":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"violence":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"}}}],"choices":[],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-7rCNsVeZy0PGnX3H6jK8STps5nZUY","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1692913344,"model":"gpt-35-turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"delta":{"role":"assistant"}}],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-7rCNsVeZy0PGnX3H6jK8STps5nZUY","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1692913344,"model":"gpt-35-turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"delta":{"content":"Color"}}],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-7rCNsVeZy0PGnX3H6jK8STps5nZUY","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1692913344,"model":"gpt-35-turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"delta":{"content":" is"}}],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-7rCNsVeZy0PGnX3H6jK8STps5nZUY","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1692913344,"model":"gpt-35-turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"delta":{"content":" a"}}],"usage":null} 

... 

data: {"id":"","object":"","created":0,"model":"","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"content_filter_results":{"hate":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"self_harm":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"sexual":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"violence":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"}},"content_filter_offsets":{"check_offset":44,"start_offset":44,"end_offset":198}}],"usage":null} 

... 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-7rCNsVeZy0PGnX3H6jK8STps5nZUY","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1692913344,"model":"gpt-35-turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":"stop","delta":{}}],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"","object":"","created":0,"model":"","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"content_filter_results":{"hate":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"self_harm":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"sexual":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"violence":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"}},"content_filter_offsets":{"check_offset":506,"start_offset":44,"end_offset":571}}],"usage":null} 

data: [DONE] 

Sample response stream (blocked by filters)

{"temperature": 0, "frequency_penalty": 0, "presence_penalty": 1.0, "top_p": 1.0, "max_tokens": 800, "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Tell me the lyrics to \"Hey Jude\"."}], "stream": true}

data: {"id":"","object":"","created":0,"model":"","prompt_filter_results":[{"prompt_index":0,"content_filter_results":{"hate":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"self_harm":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"sexual":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"violence":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"}}}],"choices":[],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-8JCbt5d4luUIhYCI7YH4dQK7hnHx2","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1699587397,"model":"gpt-35-turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"delta":{"role":"assistant"}}],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-8JCbt5d4luUIhYCI7YH4dQK7hnHx2","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1699587397,"model":"gpt-35-turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"delta":{"content":"Hey"}}],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-8JCbt5d4luUIhYCI7YH4dQK7hnHx2","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1699587397,"model":"gpt-35-turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"delta":{"content":" Jude"}}],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-8JCbt5d4luUIhYCI7YH4dQK7hnHx2","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1699587397,"model":"gpt-35-turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"delta":{"content":","}}],"usage":null} 

... 

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-8JCbt5d4luUIhYCI7YH4dQK7hnHx2","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1699587397,"model":"gpt-35- 

turbo","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"delta":{"content":" better"}}],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"","object":"","created":0,"model":"","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":null,"content_filter_results":{"hate":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"self_harm":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"sexual":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"},"violence":{"filtered":false,"severity":"safe"}},"content_filter_offsets":{"check_offset":65,"start_offset":65,"end_offset":1056}}],"usage":null} 

data: {"id":"","object":"","created":0,"model":"","choices":[{"index":0,"finish_reason":"content_filter","content_filter_results":{"protected_material_text":{"detected":true,"filtered":true}},"content_filter_offsets":{"check_offset":65,"start_offset":65,"end_offset":1056}}],"usage":null} 

data: [DONE]