Whisper.cpp Has a Free API — Run OpenAI Whisper Speech-to-Text on CPU

Whisper.cpp is a C/C++ port of OpenAI's Whisper speech recognition model. It runs entirely on CPU (no GPU needed), supports 99 languages, and includes a built-in HTTP server with an OpenAI-compatible API. Free, open source, blazing fast on Apple Silicon and modern CPUs. Why Use Whisper.cpp? No GPU needed — optimized for CPU, especially Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) OpenAI-compatible API — same endpoint format as OpenAI's Whisper API 99 languages — automatic language detection Real-time — process audio faster than real-time on modern hardware Tiny models — from 39MB (tiny) to 1.5GB (large), run on any machine Quick Setup 1. Build from Source git clone https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp cd whisper.cpp make # Download a model bash models/download-ggml-model.sh base.en # Available: tiny, base, small, medium, large-v3 2. Transcribe Audio (CLI) # Transcribe a WAV file ./main -m models/ggml-base.en.bin -f audio.wav # With timestamps ./main -m models/ggml-base.en.bin -f audio.wav --output-srt