2 models compared on the same benchmark — accuracy, latency, price, language coverage and capabilities. Amazon Transcribe leads on raw accuracy; Amazon Transcribe is fastest; Whisper 1 (API) covers the most languages.
Verdict · who wins what
Most accurate
Amazon Transcribe
13.0% WER
Amazon Web Services
Fastest
Amazon Transcribe
0.4× realtime
Amazon Web Services
Most languages
Whisper 1 (API)
98 languages
OpenAI
Cheapest
—
—
Comparing
2 models · same benchmark
1
Amazon Transcribe
Amazon Web Services
AWS foundation model-powered ASR — 100+ languages
30-day benchmark average
overall WER vs price
Amazon Transcribe
Whisper 1 (API)
field · 26 models
lower-left is better
WER · lower is better
WER · English
p50 → p99
Streaming benchmark averages
Rolling 30 days
billed per second
Feature support
Languages · formats · regions
general
legal
medical
noisy
technical
uk
us
Latency p99
13.0s
3.6s
$36.00
$36.00
1,000 hours
$360.00
$360.00
No
Auto-detect language
Yes
Yes
Live / streaming
No
No
Custom vocabulary
No
No
Compliance
Is Amazon Transcribe or Whisper 1 (API) more accurate?
Amazon Transcribe is more accurate, with a 13.0% word error rate versus 17.6% for Whisper 1 (API), on our standardized benchmark.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Transcribe or Whisper 1 (API)?
Amazon Transcribe and Whisper 1 (API) cost the same at $0.0060/min.
Should you choose Amazon Transcribe or Whisper 1 (API)?
Choose Amazon Transcribe for accuracy and speed; choose Whisper 1 (API) for language coverage.
