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OpenAI Whisper (API) Review

Low-cost pay-as-you-go file transcription from OpenAI; no first-party streaming or diarization

Among the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, OpenAI Whisper (API) has the 21st-widest language coverage.

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Facts verified Jul 20, 2026Try OpenAI Whisper (API) →

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What we know about OpenAI Whisper (API)

OpenAI Whisper (API) sits in the speech-to-text apis category, where it is low-cost pay-as-you-go file transcription from OpenAI; no first-party streaming or diarization. We keep this OpenAI Whisper (API) profile grounded in primary sources, each fact dated to when we last confirmed it.

OpenAI Whisper (API) does not publish a public per-minute rate we have been able to verify, so the price figure here stays blank until we can confirm one. We would rather show nothing than a guessed number; if you have a current OpenAI Whisper (API) quote, it is the fastest way for us to close that gap.

On capabilities, OpenAI Whisper (API) covers language auto-detection, word-level timestamps, custom vocabulary / keyterm boosting, speech translation, soc 2 type ii, and gdpr / eu data residency, and does not offer entity detection, sentiment analysis, and summarization endpoint. Each of those is verified against OpenAI Whisper (API)'s own docs or dashboard, not marketing copy.

For compliance, with OpenAI Whisper (API): SOC 2 Type II is in place. If you are in a regulated space, confirm the current posture with OpenAI Whisper (API) before you commit, since these change plan by plan.

OpenAI Whisper (API) ranks the 21st-widest language coverage of the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, so where it lands for you depends on which of those matters more.

In total we track 23 verified facts for OpenAI Whisper (API) today, each linking the primary source it came from so you can check our work - and vendor claims we have not measured ourselves are labeled as such on the OpenAI Whisper (API) fact sheet below.

Reviewed by vsref Editorialfacts verified Jul 20, 2026Methodology →

Fact sheet

Pricing
Pricing facts
Batch price per audio minute0.006 $/audio-minJul 20
Pricing modelusageJul 20
Concurrency on base planTier 1: 500 RPM; scales to 10,000 RPM at Tier 5Jul 20
Capabilities
Capabilities facts
WER (third-party benchmark)4.06 % WERJul 20
Languages supported57 languagesJul 20
Language auto-detection✓ YesJul 20
Speaker diarization✗ Not availableJul 20
PII redaction✗ Not availableJul 20
Word-level timestamps✓ YesJul 20
Custom vocabulary / keyterm boosting✓ YesJul 20
Entity detection✗ NoJul 20
Sentiment analysis✗ NoJul 20
Summarization endpoint✗ NoJul 20
Speech translation✓ YesJul 20
Compliance & trust
Compliance & trust facts
HIPAA BAA available✓ YesJul 20
SOC 2 Type II✓ YesJul 20
GDPR / EU data residency✓ YesJul 20
Self-host / on-prem option✗ NoJul 20
Model weights licenseMITJul 20
Build experience
Build experience facts
Official SDKsPython, JS/TS, .NET, Ruby, Java (beta), Go (beta)Jul 20
Max file size / duration25 MB max upload per requestJul 20
Supported audio formatsflac, mp3, mp4, mpeg, mpga, m4a, ogg, wav, webmJul 20
Websocket streaming API✗ NoJul 20

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OpenAI Whisper (API) head-to-head

OpenAI Whisper (API) vs Deepgram →won 1 · lost 5 · tied 1
Call CenterslostDeveloperslostDictationtieMedicallostMeetingslostSelf-HostedwonVoice Agentslost
OpenAI Whisper (API) vs AssemblyAI →won 1 · lost 4 · tied 1
DeveloperslostDictationtieMedicallostMeetingslostSelf-HostedwonVoice Agentslost
OpenAI Whisper (API) vs ElevenLabs Scribe →won 2 · lost 4 · tied 1
Call CenterslostDeveloperslostDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingslostSelf-HostedwonVoice Agentslost
OpenAI Whisper (API) vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe →won 1 · lost 5 · tied 1
Call CenterslostDeveloperslostDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingslostSelf-HostedlostVoice Agentslost
OpenAI Whisper (API) vs OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe →won 0 · lost 3 · tied 3
Call CenterslostDictationtieMedicaltieMeetingslostSelf-HostedtieVoice Agentslost
OpenAI Whisper (API) vs Groq (hosted Whisper) →won 1 · lost 4 · tied 2
Call CenterslostDeveloperslostDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingslostSelf-HostedlostVoice Agentstie
OpenAI Whisper (API) vs NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva →won 2 · lost 4 · tied 1
Call CenterslostDeveloperswonDictationlostMedicalwonMeetingslostSelf-HostedlostVoice Agentstie
OpenAI Whisper (API) vs Gladia →won 2 · lost 3 · tied 2
Call CenterstieDeveloperswonDictationtieMedicallostMeetingslostSelf-HostedwonVoice Agentslost
OpenAI Whisper (API) vs Moonshine →won 2 · lost 3 · tied 2
Call CenterslostDeveloperswonDictationlostMedicalwonMeetingstieSelf-HostedlostVoice Agentstie
OpenAI Whisper (API) vs Qwen3-ASR →won 1 · lost 4 · tied 2
Call CenterslostDeveloperslostDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingstieSelf-HostedlostVoice Agentslost