Run OpenAI Whisper Locally (Offline) - Fast Speech-to-Text with whisper.cpp
In this video, I show you how to run OpenAI Whisper locally on your own machine using whisper.cpp — a fast, lightweight C++ implementation of the Whisper speech-to-text model.
You will learn how to:
Run OpenAI Whisper locally (offline, no API key)
Use whisper.cpp for fast audio-to-text transcription
Download and use quantized Whisper models
Convert audio to 16-bit format using FFmpeg
Transcribe speech to text with timestamps
Generate word-level (token-level) transcription
Run whisper.cpp as a local speech-to-text server
Use Whisper for local AI and developer applications
This setup works fully offline, protects your privacy, and does not require installing or writing C++ code. It is ideal for developers building speech-to-text tools, transcription pipelines, and audio-to-text applications using OpenAI Whisper.
Technologies used in this video:
OpenAI Whisper (open-source speech recognition model)
whisper.cpp (fast local Whisper inference)
FFmpeg (audio preprocessing)
This tutorial is perfect if you want:
Offline speech recognition
Local audio transcription
Fast and private speech-to-text
Whisper without internet or API costs
Links to whisper.cpp, Whisper models, and commands used in this video are provided below:
Links:
Whisper CPP Repo: https://github.com/ggml-org/whisper.cpp
Hugging Face Whisper GGML Models: https://huggingface.co/ggerganov/whis...
FFmpeg Website: https://www.ffmpeg.org/
Commands:
Convert Audio to 16-bit: `ffmpeg -i myaudio.wav -ar 16000 -ac 1 -c:a pcm_s16le myaudio16.wav`
Run Whisper: `"whisper/whisper-cli.exe" -m ggml-large-v3-turbo-q8_0.bin -f myaudio16.wav` ("whisper/whisper-cli.exe" is path to executable)
Word Level Transcription: `"whisper/whisper-cli.exe" -m ggml-large-v3-turbo-q8_0.bin -f myaudio16.wav --max-len 1`
⏱️ Video Timestamps:
00:00 Run OpenAI Whisper Locally (Intro)
00:17 Setup & Install Whisper.cpp
02:53 Convert Audio to 16-Bit
03:32 Audio to Text Transcription
04:29 Word-by-Word Transcription
04:51 Running Whisper.cpp as a Server
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BG Music Credit: @TheGreyRoom from Youtube Audio Library
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