Whisper
Whisper is OpenAI's general-purpose speech recognition model, trained on 680,000 hours of multilingual audio and able to transcribe speech, translate it to English, and identify languages as a single multitask model.
- Price
- $0.36, Per hour of audio
import { experimental_transcribe as transcribe } from 'ai';import { gateway } from '@ai-sdk/gateway';import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
const result = await transcribe({ model: gateway.transcriptionModel('openai/whisper-1'), audio: await readFile('audio.mp3'),});Copy link to headingPlayground
Try out Whisper by OpenAI. Usage is billed to your team at API rates. Free users (those who haven't made a payment) get $5 of credits every 30 days.
WhisperSpeech to text
Record a short clip from your microphone and the model transcribes it to text.
Record a clip to see the transcript here.
Copy link to headingProviders
Route requests across multiple providers. Copy a provider slug to set your preference. Visit the docs for more info. Using a provider means you agree to their terms, listed under Legal.
Copy link to headingMore models by OpenAI
| Model |
|---|
| 1.1M | 2.9 s | 56 tps | $10/M+2 more | $50/M+2 more | Read$1/M Write$12.50/M | $10/K | +4 |  | 09/04/2026 | |||||
| 1.1M | 2.4 s | 156 tps | $0.20/M+2 more | $1.20/M+2 more | Read$0.02/M Write$0.25/M | $10/K | +4 |  | 07/09/2026 | |||||
| 1.1M | 2.6 s | 69 tps | $2/M+2 more | $10/M+2 more | Read$0.20/M Write$2.50/M | $10/K | +4 | | 07/09/2026 | |||||
| 1.1M | 2.6 s | 94 tps | $2/M+2 more | $12/M+2 more | Read$0.20/M Write$2.50/M | $10/K | +4 | | 07/09/2026 | |||||
| 1.1M | 3.5 s | 88 tps | $2.50/M+2 more | $15/M+2 more | Read$0.25/M | $10/K | +4 | | 03/05/2026 | |||||
| 400K | 4.4 s | 208 tps | $0.05/M | $0.40/M | Read$0.005/M | $14/K | +3 | | 08/07/2025 |
Copy link to headingAbout Whisper
OpenAI released Whisper as an open-source speech recognition system in September 2022, trained on 680,000 hours of multilingual and multitask supervised data collected from the web. That scale and diversity made Whisper robust to accents, background noise, and technical language. The hosted API model, Whisper, arrived on September 21, 2022 alongside the GPT-3.5 Turbo API, serving the large-v2 weights through a managed endpoint.
Whisper is a multitask model. Beyond multilingual transcription, Whisper performs speech translation into English and language identification, so one model covers the common speech workflows without separate systems.
Because the underlying model is open source, Whisper became the reference point for speech-to-text across the industry. Teams that run open-source Whisper locally can use Whisper through AI Gateway for the hosted path, keeping output behavior familiar while gaining unified authentication, observability, and spend controls.
Copy link to headingWhat To Consider When Choosing a Provider
- Configuration: Newer transcription models exist in the catalog:
gpt-4o-transcribeandgpt-4o-mini-transcribeimprove word error rate over Whisper-generation models. Whisper remains the pick when you want the multitask capabilities, duration-based pricing, or consistency with self-hosted open-source Whisper deployments. - Zero Data Retention: Zero Data Retention is offered on a per-provider and model basis. See the documentation for details.
- Authentication: AI Gateway authenticates requests using an API key or OIDC token. You do not need to manage provider credentials directly.
Copy link to headingWhen to Use Whisper
Best for
- Multilingual transcription: One model handles many languages without per-language configuration
- Speech translation: Non-English audio translated directly into English text
- Language identification: Detecting the spoken language as a pipeline preprocessing step
- Duration-based billing: Costs scale with audio length, which simplifies budget modeling
- Open-source consistency: Hosted behavior that matches self-run Whisper deployments
Consider alternatives when
- Accuracy-critical transcripts:
gpt-4o-transcribeandgpt-4o-mini-transcribedeliver lower word error rates - Live voice experiences: The gpt-realtime family handles speech-to-speech conversation directly
- High-volume token pricing: The newer transcribe models bill by tokens if that fits your cost model better
Copy link to headingConclusion
Whisper remains the versatile workhorse of speech recognition: multilingual, multitask, and consistent with the open-source model the industry standardized on. Use Whisper through AI Gateway for translation and language identification, and reach for gpt-4o-transcribe when accuracy alone decides.
Copy link to headingFrequently Asked Questions
How do I access Whisper through AI Gateway?
Use the AI SDK's
transcribefunction from theaipackage with this model's slug, passing audio as a file buffer, base64 string, or URL. Audio support on AI Gateway is in beta. Authenticate with an AI Gateway API key or OIDC token.What tasks can Whisper perform beyond transcription?
Whisper is a multitask model: multilingual speech recognition, speech translation into English, and language identification. That breadth is what distinguishes Whisper from single-purpose transcription models.
Is Whisper the same as open-source Whisper?
Whisper serves OpenAI's large-v2 Whisper weights through a hosted endpoint. Teams running open-source Whisper can expect familiar transcription behavior from the managed model.
How does Whisper compare to gpt-4o-transcribe?
GPT-4o Transcribe and GPT-4o mini Transcribe improve word error rate and language recognition over the original Whisper models. Whisper counters with multitask coverage, translation and language identification, and duration-based pricing.
How is Whisper priced?
Transcription is billed by audio duration. Current rates are listed on this page and update when providers change list prices.
Does Whisper support zero data retention through AI Gateway?
Zero Data Retention is not currently available for this model. Zero Data Retention is offered on a per-provider basis. See https://vercel.com/docs/ai-gateway/capabilities/zdr for details.
What are typical latency characteristics?
This page shows live performance metrics measured across real AI Gateway traffic.