whisper-ctranslate2

by Softcatalà

Command-line Whisper using CTranslate2 — closest match to openai/whisper CLI.

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TL;DR

Best for drop-in replacement for the official Whisper CLI with 4x throughput. Pricing: free.

Category
Open source
License
MIT
Stars
★ 1.3k
Last push
2026-02-14
Pricing
free
Platforms
Linux, macOS, Windows

What it is

The Catalan-language nonprofit's CLI keeps the original openai/whisper command-line surface but routes inference through CTranslate2. Adds diarization via pyannote and VAD filters. MIT.

Best for: Drop-in replacement for the official Whisper CLI with 4x throughput.
Watch out for: Same model family as faster-whisper; no Mac MPS acceleration.

Install / use

pip install whisper-ctranslate2

Features

Speaker diarizationYes
Word-level timestampsYes
Streaming / real-timeNo
Languages supported99
HIPAA eligibleNo

Links

GitHub repo ↗

whisper-ctranslate2 vs Whipscribe

Featurewhisper-ctranslate2Whipscribe
CategoryOpen sourceTranscription APIs
Pricingfree$4–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · $2 single unlock · 60 min free on signup
Speaker diarizationYesYes
Word timestampsYesYes
StreamingNoNo
Languages9999
PlatformsLinux, macOS, WindowsWeb, API, MCP

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