#1010th of 12 in Voice
whisper
Multilingual speech recognition and translation model with Python and CLI interfaces
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- Stars
- 110.4k
- License
- MIT
- Last commit
- Aug 2026
- Last release
- Jun 2025
- Language
- Python
Checked on GitHub.
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Overview
Whisper is a Transformer sequence-to-sequence model for speech recognition, speech-to-English translation, and language identification. It ships as a pip package with a `whisper` command and a Python API, in six sizes from tiny (39M parameters) to large (1550M), plus a turbo variant. Code and weights are MIT licensed.
Who it is for: Developers needing local speech-to-text or translation in Python or scripts
Strengths
- Six model sizes (39M to 1550M parameters) trade accuracy for speed and VRAM
- Handles transcription, translation to English and language identification in one model
- Simple `whisper audio.mp3 --model turbo` CLI and a short Python API
- Code and weights both under MIT license
Weaknesses
- No built-in HTTP server or web UI; you wrap it yourself
- The turbo model is not trained for translation and returns the original language
- Requires ffmpeg, and possibly Rust for tiktoken if no prebuilt wheel exists
- Accuracy varies widely by language; large model needs about 10 GB VRAM
What it needs
- GPU optional
- Needs ffmpeg, PyTorch, tiktoken, Rust (if no prebuilt tiktoken wheel)
- Models: tiny, base, small, medium, large
Also in Voice
See all 12| Rank | Project | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | VoiceboxLocal voice studio for cloning, TTS, dictation and agent speech | 68 out of 100 |
| 2 | Speech-to-SpeechModular voice-agent pipeline exposed through the OpenAI Realtime API | 68 out of 100 |
| 3 | Kokoro-FastAPIOpenAI-compatible text-to-speech server for the Kokoro-82M model | 66 out of 100 |
| #4 | Pocket TTSCPU-only text-to-speech model with voice cloning and streaming | 65 out of 100 |
| #5 | IndexTTSZero-shot TTS with emotion, speed and pronunciation control | 60 out of 100 |