Transcribe audio

whisper.cpp

Open-source C/C++ port of OpenAI Whisper that transcribes audio to text locally, from a CLI or an HTTP server.

At a glance

Provider: ggml-org
Category: Transcribe audio
Type: Runs on your machine
Pricing model: Free, open-source (MIT licence)2
Free tier: Everything is free; no account2
Authentication: None: runs on your machine1
Connect via: CLI (whisper-cli), HTTP server (whisper-server), C API, bindings1
Read from the provider's pages: 2026-11-04

Pricing

Pricing model: Free, open-source software (MIT licence); no hosted service
Free tier: Everything is free to use
Card required for free tier: No: nothing to pay for

Pricing in full →Tools

Official MCP server: Not published
Address or package: Not published

Tools in full →Authentication

Who creates the account: No account: runs on your machine
Where to get a key: No key: clone the repository from GitHub
Other requirements: A C/C++ build toolchain with CMake; a ggml model file; ffmpeg for non-WAV input to the server

Authentication in full →Setup

REST API: http://127.0.0.1:8080/inference once you run whisper-server (host and port are options)
MCP server: Not published
OpenAPI spec: Not published

Setup in full →Limits

Rate limits: No account: runs on your machine; the server defines no rate limit option

Limits in full →Privacy

Data location: Your machine; the README describes on-device use
Retention: Not applicable: no hosted service; output goes to stdout or files you choose
Used for training: Not published

Privacy in full →

Read from ggml-org’s own pages on 2026-11-04. Every number links to the page a value came from. For agents, the same facts as markdown: /tools/transcribe-audio/whisper-cpp.md