Model rankings updated May 2026 based on real usage data.
Speech-to-text models convert spoken audio into text for transcription, captions, voice notes, meeting summaries, call analysis, and speech-driven applications. This collection helps you compare the best transcription models on OpenRouter by accuracy, speed, language support, and cost for your audio workflows.
GPT-4o Transcribe is OpenAI's high-quality speech-to-text model built on GPT-4o audio capabilities. It's priced per token (input and output), making it suitable for workflows that benefit from token-level billing transparency.
GPT-4o Mini Transcribe is OpenAI's smaller, cost-efficient speech-to-text model built on GPT-4o Mini audio capabilities. It's priced per token (input and output), making it suitable for high-volume transcription workflows that benefit from token-level billing transparency at a lower cost point.
Whisper Large V3 Turbo is an optimized version of OpenAI's Whisper Large V3 speech recognition model, designed for speed and cost efficiency. It supports transcription across 99+ languages with a 12% word error rate, and accepts common audio formats including mp3, mp4, wav, webm, flac, and ogg. Achieves real-time speed factors up to 216x, making it well-suited for latency-sensitive and high-throughput transcription workloads.
Whisper Large V3 is OpenAI's open-source automatic speech recognition model offering both audio transcription and translation. It supports 99+ languages and accepts common audio formats including mp3, mp4, wav, webm, flac, and ogg. With 1,550M parameters, it achieves a 10.3% word error rate and is well-suited for noise-robust, multilingual transcription in demanding conditions. Supports timestamp granularities at word and segment levels.
Whisper is OpenAI's open-source automatic speech recognition model, available via API as whisper-1. It supports transcription and translation across 50+ languages from audio files up to 25 MB. Accepts formats including mp3, mp4, wav, and webm. Priced per minute of audio duration, billed to the nearest second.