Whisper (OpenAI) vs AWS Transcribe
Ai Transcription Apis pricing comparison · 2026
Whisper (OpenAI) pricing ranges from $0.003–$0.006/minute, while AWS Transcribe ranges from $0–$6.75/minute. These products use different pricing models (Usage-based (pay per token/image/minute) vs Per-seat subscription), so a direct price comparison isn't meaningful — costs depend on usage volume and mix.
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Whisper (OpenAI) and AWS Transcribe both operate in the ai transcription apis category. This page compares their published pricing.
Plan-by-Plan Pricing
| Plan | Whisper (OpenAI) | AWS Transcribe |
|---|---|---|
| GPT-4o Mini Transcribe | Free /minute | Free /minute |
| Whisper / GPT-4o Transcribe | Free /minute | Free /minute |
| Enterprise (via ChatGPT Enterprise / API) | Free | Free /minute |
Cost at Scale
Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.
Whisper (OpenAI)
3 scenarios$36/month ($432/year)
Startup Podcast Transcription (100 hours/month)
6,000 minutes at $0.006/min. With GPT-4o Mini Transcribe at $0.003/min, cost drops to $18/month ($216/year). No add-on fees for diarization. First month partially offset by $5 free credit.
$180/month ($2,160/year)
SaaS Meeting Recorder (500 hours/month)
30,000 minutes at $0.006/min with diarization included. Using GPT-4o Mini Transcribe reduces to $90/month ($1,080/year). At this volume, self-hosting open-source Whisper on GPU infrastructure ($276/month fixed) becomes cost-comparable and may be cheaper with dedicated hardware.
$1,800/month ($21,600/year)
Enterprise Call Center (5,000 hours/month)
300,000 minutes at $0.006/min. At this volume, self-hosting Whisper on dedicated GPU clusters ($500-$800/month) offers 55-70% savings but requires DevOps investment. Enterprise API pricing with volume discounts may be available through OpenAI sales.
AWS Transcribe
3 scenarios$1,440/month ($17,280/year)
Small SaaS Voice Feature (1,000 hours/month)
60,000 minutes at $0.024/min (Tier 1). Add ~$300-$600/month for speaker diarization and custom vocabulary add-ons, plus $100-$200/month for supporting AWS services (S3, Lambda, CloudWatch). Total effective cost: $1,840-$2,240/month.
$9,000
Contact Center Analytics (10,000 hours/month)
$10,440/month ($108,000-$125,280/year) -- First 250K min at $0.024/min ($6,000) + next 350K min at $0.015/min ($5,250) = $11,250 base. PII redaction adds $1,440 ($0.0024/min x 600K). With volume blending, effective rate is ~$0.015-$0.017/min. Supporting AWS service costs add $200-$400/month.
$9,000/month ($108,000/year)
Healthcare Transcription Platform (2,000 hours/month)
120,000 minutes at $0.075/min for Medical transcription. No volume discounts apply to Medical tier. Add $200-$500/month for HIPAA-compliant AWS infrastructure (dedicated VPC, encryption, audit logging). Total: ~$9,200-$9,500/month.
Market Intelligence
Whisper (OpenAI)
- Median annual cost
- $169
- Based on
- 8 deals
AWS Transcribe
- Median annual cost
- $196
- Based on
- 13 deals