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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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 →
OpenAI Whisper (API) pricing
Published rates: batch $0.006/min, verified Jul 20, 2026 (source).
| Monthly volume | Monthly bill (batch) |
|---|---|
| 1K min/moSide project | $6 |
| 10K min/moProduction app | $60 |
| 100K min/moCall-center scale | $600 |
Sticker rates only; diarization and PII redaction add-ons price in the stack builder. How we compute costs →
Fact sheet
Every row independently verifiedConsidering a switch? Best OpenAI Whisper (API) alternatives →
Voice agents in this stack
The engine is one layer: a voice agent hears through its transcription engine, but orchestration, telephony, and turn-taking come from the agent platform. Compare the platforms builders pair OpenAI Whisper (API) with: Pipecat, OpenAI Realtime API, Twilio ConversationRelay, or the full voice-agent comparison →
Want it done for you?
OpenAI Whisper (API) gets you a transcript; the bot that joins the call, labels speakers, and writes the summary is still your build. If that is more pipeline than you want to own, AI meeting notetakers do the whole job end to end: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, or the full notetaker comparison.