whisper vs whisper.cpp
Updated
Both are free, open-source speech-to-text tools. whisper is more popular (111k vs 55k GitHub stars). Pick whisper if you want the bigger community (111k vs 55k GitHub stars); pick whisper.cpp if you want more active development (updated 6d ago, vs 1mo ago).
Side by side
 whisper |  whisper.cpp | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Voice & audio | Voice & audio |
| GitHub stars | 111,257 | 54,667 |
| Stars this week | +338 | +156 |
| Last update | 1mo ago | 6d ago |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Commercial use | ||
| Language | Python | C++ |
| Runs on Mac | ||
| Runs without a GPU | ||
| GPU memory | 8 GB+ | Not stated |
| Needs a paid API key | No | No |
| Self-hostable | ||
| Trending this week | – | – |
Hardware details are as stated by each project and may be incomplete.
Choose whisper if…
Speech recognition model for multilingual transcription and translation.
- you want the bigger community (111k vs 55k GitHub stars)
- you want the one with more momentum right now (+338 stars this week)
- your team works in Python
Choose whisper.cpp if…
Port of OpenAI's Whisper model in C/C++
- you want more active development (updated 6d ago, vs 1mo ago)
- your team works in C++
FAQ
Is whisper better than whisper.cpp?
Both are free, open-source speech-to-text tools. whisper is more popular (111k vs 55k GitHub stars). Pick whisper if you want the bigger community (111k vs 55k GitHub stars); pick whisper.cpp if you want more active development (updated 6d ago, vs 1mo ago).
Which is better for commercial use, whisper or whisper.cpp?
Both use permissive licenses (MIT and MIT), so both allow commercial use.
Do whisper and whisper.cpp run on a Mac?
Yes. According to both projects, they run on macOS.
Are whisper and whisper.cpp free?
Yes. Both are open source and free to use.