Last refreshed 2026-06-07. Next refresh: weekly.
Why use Whisper on OpenAI API?
OpenAI API offers Whisper with pay-as-you-go pricing at $0.006/minute. OpenAI is a leading AI research and deployment company dedicated to developing safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI) for humanity.
Setup recipe
Python + curlpip install openaiexport OPENAI_API_KEY=...import os
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI() # reads OPENAI_API_KEY from env
response = client.chat.completions.create(whisper-1Request example
import os
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI() # reads OPENAI_API_KEY from env
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="whisper-1",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)Gotchas
- Use the model slug directly, e.g. "gpt-4o" or "gpt-4.1-mini".
- The examples expect OPENAI_API_KEY; rename it only if your application config maps the new variable.
Capabilities
About Whisper
Whisper 1 is OpenAI's general-purpose speech recognition API model, based on Whisper large-v2, released March 2023. Supports multilingual transcription across 50+ languages, speech translation into English, and language identification. Priced at $0.006/min of audio (flat per-minute rate). Exposed via /v1/audio/transcriptions and /v1/audio/translations. For new applications, gpt-4o-transcribe offers better accuracy. API ID: whisper-1.
FAQ
What API model ID do I use for Whisper on OpenAI API?
Use the model ID whisper-1 when calling OpenAI API's API.
Who created Whisper?
Whisper was created by OpenAI as part of the OpenAI Transcribe model family.
Is Whisper open source?
Whisper is not open source; the seed data lists it as proprietary.