diff --git a/system_tests/attempt_system_tests.py b/system_tests/attempt_system_tests.py
index 3cdf93b0e9a7..c6e7297a5fa0 100644
--- a/system_tests/attempt_system_tests.py
+++ b/system_tests/attempt_system_tests.py
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@
 MODULES = (  # ordered from most to least stable
     'datastore',
     'storage',
+    'speech',
     'bigquery',
     'pubsub',
     'language',
diff --git a/system_tests/data/hello.wav b/system_tests/data/hello.wav
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0378f790119f
Binary files /dev/null and b/system_tests/data/hello.wav differ
diff --git a/system_tests/run_system_test.py b/system_tests/run_system_test.py
index 57780c62cdc2..ef38e1df4d26 100644
--- a/system_tests/run_system_test.py
+++ b/system_tests/run_system_test.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 import logging_
 import monitoring
 import pubsub
+import speech
 import storage
 import system_test_utils
 import translate
@@ -30,6 +31,7 @@
 
 TEST_MODULES = {
     'datastore': datastore,
+    'speech': speech,
     'storage': storage,
     'pubsub': pubsub,
     'bigquery': bigquery,
diff --git a/system_tests/speech.py b/system_tests/speech.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1097bb73e926
--- /dev/null
+++ b/system_tests/speech.py
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+# Copyright 2016 Google Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import os
+import unittest
+
+from google.cloud import exceptions
+from google.cloud import speech
+from google.cloud import storage
+from google.cloud.speech.transcript import Transcript
+
+from system_test_utils import unique_resource_id
+from retry import RetryErrors
+
+AUDIO_FILE = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'data', 'hello.wav')
+
+
+class Config(object):
+    """Run-time configuration to be modified at set-up.
+
+    This is a mutable stand-in to allow test set-up to modify
+    global state.
+    """
+    CLIENT = None
+    TEST_BUCKET = None
+
+
+def setUpModule():
+    Config.CLIENT = speech.Client()
+    # Now create a bucket for GCS stored content.
+    storage_client = storage.Client()
+    bucket_name = 'new' + unique_resource_id()
+    Config.TEST_BUCKET = storage_client.bucket(bucket_name)
+    # 429 Too Many Requests in case API requests rate-limited.
+    retry_429 = RetryErrors(exceptions.TooManyRequests)
+    retry_429(Config.TEST_BUCKET.create)()
+
+
+def tearDownModule():
+    # 409 Conflict if the bucket is full.
+    # 429 Too Many Requests in case API requests rate-limited.
+    bucket_retry = RetryErrors(
+        (exceptions.TooManyRequests, exceptions.Conflict))
+    bucket_retry(Config.TEST_BUCKET.delete)(force=True)
+
+
+class TestSpeechClient(unittest.TestCase):
+    ASSERT_TEXT = 'thank you for using Google Cloud platform'
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.to_delete_by_case = []
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        for value in self.to_delete_by_case:
+            value.delete()
+
+    def _make_sync_request(self, content=None, source_uri=None,
+                           max_alternatives=None):
+        client = Config.CLIENT
+        sample = client.sample(content=content,
+                               source_uri=source_uri,
+                               encoding=speech.Encoding.LINEAR16,
+                               sample_rate=16000)
+        result = client.sync_recognize(sample,
+                                       language_code='en-US',
+                                       max_alternatives=max_alternatives,
+                                       profanity_filter=True,
+                                       speech_context=['Google', 'cloud'])
+        return result
+
+    def _check_best_results(self, results):
+        top_result = results[0]
+        self.assertIsInstance(top_result, Transcript)
+        self.assertEqual(top_result.transcript,
+                         'hello ' + self.ASSERT_TEXT)
+        self.assertGreater(top_result.confidence, 0.90)
+
+    def test_sync_recognize_local_file(self):
+        with open(Config.AUDIO_FILE, 'rb') as file_obj:
+            results = self._make_sync_request(content=file_obj.read(),
+                                              max_alternatives=2)
+            second_alternative = results[1]
+            self.assertEqual(len(results), 2)
+            self._check_best_results(results)
+            self.assertIsInstance(second_alternative, Transcript)
+            self.assertEqual(second_alternative.transcript, self.ASSERT_TEXT)
+            self.assertEqual(second_alternative.confidence, 0.0)
+
+    def test_sync_recognize_gcs_file(self):
+        bucket_name = Config.TEST_BUCKET.name
+        blob_name = 'hello.wav'
+        blob = Config.TEST_BUCKET.blob(blob_name)
+        self.to_delete_by_case.append(blob)  # Clean-up.
+        with open(Config.AUDIO_FILE, 'rb') as file_obj:
+            blob.upload_from_file(file_obj)
+
+        source_uri = 'gs://%s/%s' % (bucket_name, blob_name)
+        result = self._make_sync_request(source_uri=source_uri,
+                                         max_alternatives=1)
+        self._check_best_results(result)