# Amazon Transcribe vs faster-whisper

| Attribute | Amazon Transcribe | faster-whisper |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 49.7 (45% (low)) | 51.5 (33% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 7 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 35 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 25,877 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A fully managed API service that converts speech to text using advanced AI, supporting over 100 languages with features like speaker identification, custom vocabularies, and content filtering. It is indexed under Speech To Text.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/pricing/?nc=sn&loc=3","question":"What is Amazon Transcribe?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Amazon Transcribe offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $0.01. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/pricing/?nc=sn&loc=3","question":"Is Amazon Transcribe free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Amazon Transcribe, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/pricing/?nc=sn&loc=3","question":"Can Amazon Transcribe be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed HIPAA and GDPR for Amazon Transcribe. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Amazon Transcribe not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/trust-center/?nc2=h_dsc_aa_trc","question":"What security certifications does Amazon Transcribe have?","confidence":0.7}]` | `[{"answer":"An open-source implementation of speech recognition that accelerates transcription using optimized machine learning inference, with support for multiple platforms and container deployment. It is indexed under Speech To Text.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"What is faster-whisper?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"faster-whisper is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"Is faster-whisper free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"faster-whisper supports Windows, macOS, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"What platforms does faster-whisper support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. faster-whisper can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"Can faster-whisper be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 8 integrations for faster-whisper, including OpenAI API, OpenAI SDK, OpenAI CLI, HomeAssistant, Konele, Docker, AzureML and FastAPI. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"What does faster-whisper integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. faster-whisper is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper","question":"Is faster-whisper open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"on_prem":true,"air_gapped":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A fully managed API service that converts speech to text using advanced AI, supporting over 100 languages with features like speaker identification, custom vocabularies, and content filtering. | A high-performance implementation of OpenAI's Whisper for converting speech to text, with features for word-level timing and offline processing. |
| features.capabilities | `{"fine_tuning":true,"pii_redaction":true,"vertical_model":true,"custom_vocabulary":true,"real_time_streaming":true,"speaker_diarization":true,"punctuation_formatting":true}` | `{"fine_tuning":true,"open_source":true,"word_timestamps":true,"offline_on_device":true,"real_time_streaming":true,"speaker_diarization":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 5 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"OpenAI API"},{"name":"OpenAI SDK"},{"name":"OpenAI CLI"},{"name":"HomeAssistant"},{"name":"Konele"},{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"AzureML"},{"name":"FastAPI"},{"name":"OpenAI SDKs/CLI","native":false},{"name":"pyannote.audio","native":false},{"name":"pyannote.ai","native":false},{"name":"OpenAI SDK/CLI","native":false},{"name":"Azure ML","native":false},{"name":"Transformers library","native":false},{"name":"OpenAI","native":true}]` |
| language.primary | - | Python |
| license.spdx | - | MIT |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Streaming Transcription","summary":"$0.01/minute","features":["Real-time transcription","100+ language support","Custom vocabulary","Speaker diarization","Automatic punctuation","Word-level confidence scores"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Real-time audio transcription","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Batch Transcription","summary":"$0.006/minute","features":["Batch audio processing","Recorded file support","100+ language support","Custom vocabulary","Automatic language detection","Vocabulary filtering"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.006,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Recorded audio file transcription","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Call Analytics","summary":"$0.03/minute (Tier 1, up to 250k minutes)","features":["Sentiment analysis","Call categorization","Call characteristics tracking","Speaker identification","Compliance monitoring","Automatic summaries"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.03,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Advanced call transcription with conversation insights","contactSales":false}],"addOns":[{"name":"Automatic Content Redaction"},{"name":"Custom Language Models"},{"name":"Generative Call Summarization","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0024,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"From $0.006/minute for batch transcription. Free tier: 60 minutes/month for 12 months.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/pricing/?nc=sn&loc=3","retrievedAt":"2026-08-19T21:37:22.238Z","startingPrice":{"unit":"minute","amount":0.006,"currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://github.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-15T20:28:12.642Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":0.006,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | no | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 27 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v1.2.1","date":"2025-10-31T11:34:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v1.2.0","date":"2025-08-06T00:32:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v1.1.1","date":"2025-01-01T14:45:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v1.1.0","date":"2024-11-21T17:19:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v1.0.3","date":"2024-07-01T10:05:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v1.0.2","date":"2024-05-06T02:08:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v1.0.1","date":"2024-03-01T10:46:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v1.0.0","date":"2024-02-22T08:56:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.10.1","date":"2024-02-22T12:08:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.10.0","date":"2024-02-22T11:55:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.9.0","date":"2023-09-18T14:34:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.8.0","date":"2023-09-04T10:01:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.7.1","date":"2023-07-24T09:20:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.7.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.7.0","date":"2023-07-18T13:30:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.6.0","date":"2023-05-24T14:22:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.5.1","date":"2023-04-26T15:41:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.5.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.5.0","date":"2023-04-25T15:04:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.4.1","date":"2023-04-04T10:58:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.4.0","date":"2023-04-03T15:29:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper/releases/tag/v0.3.0","date":"2023-03-24T10:00:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.3.0"}]` |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.trust_center | https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/?nc2=h_dsc_aa_cmp | https://github.com/security |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=faster-whisper&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Speech To Text)

| Capability | Amazon Transcribe | faster-whisper |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Real time streaming | ✓ | ✓ |
| Speaker diarization | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom vocabulary | ✓ | - |
| Fine tuning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Word timestamps | - | ✓ |
| Punctuation formatting | ✓ | - |
| Pii redaction | ✓ | - |
| Vertical model | ✓ | - |
| Offline on device | - | ✓ |
| Open source | - | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T18:33:37.320Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*