diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f7294fd00..1a67612b9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,10 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Changed
 
+- STT services now passthrough audio frames by default. This allows you to add
+  audio recording without worrying about what's wrong in your pipeline when it
+  doesn't work the first time.
+
 - Input transports now always push audio downstream unless disabled with
   `TransportParams.audio_in_passthrough`. After many Pipecat releases, we
   realized this is the common use case. There are use cases where the input
diff --git a/src/pipecat/services/stt_service.py b/src/pipecat/services/stt_service.py
index 56367f46e..5e57b3104 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/services/stt_service.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/services/stt_service.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ class STTService(AIService):
 
     def __init__(
         self,
-        audio_passthrough=False,
+        audio_passthrough=True,
         # STT input sample rate
         sample_rate: Optional[int] = None,
         **kwargs,