Why we said Use
What it is
OpenAI’s open speech-recognition models and code. See the official page. This profile describes public documentation, not a Loaded Tokens hands-on test.
Who it is for
People who want transcription on their own machine. The recommendation is scoped to that job.
The evidence behind Use
Whisper is the local model. The API product with a similar name is not this download. The source page is the receipt. No speed ranking or reliability score is implied.
Pricing and the catch
The repository is free to download. OpenAI’s hosted transcription API is a separate, metered product. Public pricing or license checked November 7, 2026. Amounts are as stated on that page. Tax, region, annual billing, and extra usage can change the bill.
A sensible first workflow
Transcribe one file you already have the rights to, on a machine you control. This is a suggested evaluation, not a test we ran.
Bottom line: Use it locally. Do not confuse it with the paid API.