Idea checked
an AI transcription service
AI transcription is crowded with active open-source tools, APIs, and complaints about accuracy, latency, and missing features.
Confidence: high — This search found 12 named open-source projects, 11 active and 1 slow, plus 35 first-hand complaints, 4 unsolved questions, 2 stated wants, and several high-download SDK packages. The market is clearly real, but not empty.
- hackernews 30
- github 20
- githubissues 20
- discourse 15
- intent 2
- stackexchange 4
- registries 6
- tavily 9
- devto 10
Interest over time From data
Hacker News stories mentioning transcription speech-to-text whisper (topic read as “AI transcription”), by year — 30 in total, currently rising.
- 2021
- 2022
- 2023
- 2024
- 2025
- 2026
This counts discussion on Hacker News, not global search demand. For developer tooling the two move together; for a local service business they do not.
Who is already building this From data
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Meetily is a privacy-first, local AI meeting assistant with 27,920 stars and a last push on 2026-06-05. It does live transcription, speaker diarization, and summarization.
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Omi has 13,100 stars and was pushed on 2026-08-02. It listens to conversations and tells you what to do, so transcription is part of a broader assistant layer.
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Vexa has 2,634 stars and was pushed on 2026-07-30. It is an open-source meeting transcription API for Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, with real-time WebSocket transcripts and self-hosting.
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Whishper has 3,049 stars and was pushed on 2026-07-31. It transcribes, translates, and edits subtitles 100% locally with a web UI.
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Scriberr has 2,875 stars and was pushed on 2026-06-01. It is a self-hosted AI audio transcription project.
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TypeWhisper has 1,660 stars and was pushed on 2026-08-02. It offers local speech-to-text for macOS, with optional cloud support.
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The npm package @ai-sdk/elevenlabs had 740,566 downloads last month and includes batch and realtime transcription support. The npm package @ai-sdk/deepgram had 669,249 downloads last month and also exposes transcription model support.
What people actually say From data
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"I was tired of waiting hours for transcription services and didn't want to upload sensitive recordings to the cloud." A Hacker News founder says the pain is speed plus privacy.
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"Most notably, transcription is sl..." A Hacker News builder of voice chat with AI says the cascaded transcription step is a major limitation.
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"I don't want every dictation to automatically go through AI." A GitHub issue asks for raw transcription without forced post-processing.
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"I'd spent quite a bit of time looking." An HN commenter says they searched for a 24/7 real-time voice transcription tool and still had not found a good fit.
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"transcription session is successfully created, but I am not receiving the transcription text." A Discourse user is hitting a live transcription delivery failure.
People asking to be sold to From data
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"Looking for a 24-7 Real-Time Voice Transcription Tool" is a direct ask HN intent signal from someone describing an unmet need.
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"What is your recommended speech to text/audio transcription tool?" is another intent signal asking for a tool choice rather than a general discussion.
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"The current approaches all do a cascaded approach... This approach is easy to get started with, but requires lots of complexity" shows a willingness to replace the current stack with something simpler.
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"I'd wish there was a better faster one built on top of Whisper" is a stated want for a better product than current options.
Where the opening is Model estimate
The model's read of the signals below — not something anyone measured.
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The clearest gap is not basic speech-to-text. It is a dependable 24/7, low-latency transcription workflow that handles long sessions, live delivery, and optional raw-vs-AI post-processing without breaking.
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Several tools are local-first or self-hosted, but the signals do not show a dominant product focused on always-on transcription for people who need long-running capture, editable output, and strong privacy in one workflow.
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The data also suggests a feature gap around reliability controls: word timestamps, response format options, chunking, multilingual output, and failure handling keep coming up in issue threads.
- githubissues @ai-sdk/openai transcription response_format is missing from the providerOptions 2025-05-31
- githubissues @ai-sdk/openai transcription providerOptions timestamp_granularities is broken 2025-05-31
- discourse Audio Transcription API chunking_strategy option 2025-05-14
- githubissues Enable other languages for meeting AI transcription 2025-06-06
- discourse Recurring `TypeError: 'tuple' object has no attribute 'lower'` from `gpt-4o` / `gpt-4o-mini` transcription API (Streaming) 2025-07-21
- discourse Why does transcription_session.update cause an error? Realtime transcription API bug 2025-12-31
How big the market might be Model estimate
The model's read of the signals below — not something anyone measured.
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This search found 12 named open-source projects, and 11 of them are still active. One is slow, but none look dead from the data given.
- github Zackriya-Solutions/meetily 2024-12-26
- github BasedHardware/omi 2024-03-22
- github tmoroney/auto-subs 2023-03-15
- github pluja/whishper 2023-08-26
- github rishikanthc/Scriberr 2024-10-04
- github Vexa-ai/vexa 2025-02-07
- github sindresorhus/awesome-whisper 2023-05-10
- github floneum/kalosm 2023-05-24
- github Natively-AI-assistant/natively-cluely-ai-assistant 2026-01-27
- github kaixxx/noScribe 2023-05-12
- github TypeWhisper/typewhisper-mac 2026-02-12
- github royshil/obs-localvocal 2023-08-10
- github amicalhq/amical 2025-05-08
- github silverstein/minutes 2026-03-18
- github alesaccoia/VoiceStreamAI 2023-12-26
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There were 35 first-hand complaints, 4 unsolved Stack Exchange questions, and 2 stated wants. That is enough to show repeated friction, not a one-off issue.
- stackexchange Open AI Whisper is returning the transcription in English instead of the native language 2022-10-02
- stackexchange How to transcribe Whisper Open AI transcription for large video files larger than 25mb using python? 2023-06-06
- stackexchange Using Whisper AI for transcription from Polish - encoding error? 2024-05-14
- stackexchange Is there a way to disable content filteration in Azure OpenAi or to process the prompt before using it 2025-03-08
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The largest usage signals are very large: @ai-sdk/elevenlabs at 740,566 monthly downloads and @ai-sdk/deepgram at 669,249 monthly downloads.
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Matching discussion appeared across at least 5 community forums: community.home-assistant.io, community.openai.com, discuss.elastic.co, discuss.python.org, and meta.discourse.org.
- discourse GPT-Live-Transcribe and GPT-Transcribe: Two New Transcription Models in the API 2026-07-29
- discourse Realtime transcription issue 2025-03-24
- discourse Audio Transcription API chunking_strategy option 2025-05-14
- discourse Recurring `TypeError: 'tuple' object has no attribute 'lower'` from `gpt-4o` / `gpt-4o-mini` transcription API (Streaming) 2025-07-21
- discourse Why does transcription_session.update cause an error? Realtime transcription API bug 2025-12-31
- githubissues Enable other languages for meeting AI transcription 2025-06-06
What could go wrong Model estimate
The model's read of the signals below — not something anyone measured.
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This is a crowded market with strong incumbents and many adjacent open-source tools, so a generic transcription API will be hard to differentiate.
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Accuracy and hallucination risk is a real trust problem, especially in regulated or high-stakes use cases.
- hackernews AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said 2024-10-26
- hackernews Researchers say AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things 2024-10-26
- hackernews AI transcription tools 'hallucinate,' too 2024-04-27
- hackernews AI transcription tool 'hallucinates' medical interactions 2025-01-26
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Platform and provider friction is another risk: developers are already dealing with provider option bugs, chunking issues, language handling, and realtime API problems.
- githubissues Experimental transcription using Vercel AI Gatway 2026-03-16
- githubissues @ai-sdk/openai transcription response_format is missing from the providerOptions 2025-05-31
- githubissues @ai-sdk/openai transcription providerOptions timestamp_granularities is broken 2025-05-31
- discourse Realtime transcription issue 2025-03-24
- discourse Audio Transcription API chunking_strategy option 2025-05-14
- githubissues Enable other languages for meeting AI transcription 2025-06-06
- discourse Recurring `TypeError: 'tuple' object has no attribute 'lower'` from `gpt-4o` / `gpt-4o-mini` transcription API (Streaming) 2025-07-21
- discourse Why does transcription_session.update cause an error? Realtime transcription API bug 2025-12-31
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Some demand may already be met by local-first tools and by major API providers, which makes a standalone service vulnerable to pricing and model commoditization.
What to do this week Model estimate
The model's read of the signals below — not something anyone measured.
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Pick one narrow wedge: 24/7 real-time transcription for long-running calls or meetings, with privacy-first defaults and a hard focus on reliability.
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Make raw transcription and AI post-processing separate toggles, because one user explicitly asked for that split.
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Support long-audio chunking, word-level timestamps, and multilingual output on day one, because those are recurring pain points in the issue and Stack Exchange signals.
- githubissues @ai-sdk/openai transcription response_format is missing from the providerOptions 2025-05-31
- githubissues @ai-sdk/openai transcription providerOptions timestamp_granularities is broken 2025-05-31
- stackexchange Open AI Whisper is returning the transcription in English instead of the native language 2022-10-02
- stackexchange How to transcribe Whisper Open AI transcription for large video files larger than 25mb using python? 2023-06-06
- stackexchange Using Whisper AI for transcription from Polish - encoding error? 2024-05-14
- githubissues Enable other languages for meeting AI transcription 2025-06-06
- discourse Recurring `TypeError: 'tuple' object has no attribute 'lower'` from `gpt-4o` / `gpt-4o-mini` transcription API (Streaming) 2025-07-21
- discourse Why does transcription_session.update cause an error? Realtime transcription API bug 2025-12-31
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Decide whether the product is a hosted service, a local app, or a self-hosted API. The signals show all three models already exist, so the wedge has to be use case and reliability, not just deployment style.
Competitor strength From data
Counted, not judged. Only projects that expose a hard number — stars, downloads, last commit — appear here, so they stop looking identical to each other. Products with no public metrics are discussed above instead of being given a row they cannot fill.
| Project | Stars | Downloads / mo | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zackriya-Solutions/meetily | 27,920 | — | Active 2026-06-05 |
| BasedHardware/omi | 13,100 | — | Active 2026-08-02 |
| Anil-matcha/AI-Youtube-Shorts-Generator | 4,453 | — | Active 2026-07-29 |
| tmoroney/auto-subs | 3,953 | — | Active 2026-08-01 |
| pluja/whishper | 3,049 | — | Active 2026-07-31 |
| rishikanthc/Scriberr | 2,875 | — | Active 2026-06-01 |
| Vexa-ai/vexa | 2,634 | — | Active 2026-07-30 |
| sindresorhus/awesome-whisper | 2,364 | — | Slow 2026-03-17 |
| floneum/kalosm | 2,215 | — | Active 2026-08-01 |
| Natively-AI-assistant/natively-cluely-ai-assistant | 2,096 | — | Active 2026-08-02 |
| kaixxx/noScribe | 2,076 | — | Active 2026-07-21 |
| juanmc2005/diart | 2,009 | — | Active 2026-06-19 |
- 12 open source
- 11 active
- 1 slow
- 35 first-hand complaints
- 2 stated wants
- 5 communities discussing it
Domain names From data
Checked live against the registry, built from the subject of the idea rather than the first words of the sentence. A literal check is a fact; a brandable suggestion would be noise.
- transcriptionwhisper.com available
- transcriptionwhisper.io available
- transcription.com taken
- gettranscription.com taken
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