AISHELL-2

by Beijing Shell Shell Technology

Don’t want to install AISHELL-2? Drop the file here.

The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free: a recording up to 20 minutes transcribes in full, a longer one is previewed, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export, and credits never expire.

1000h Mandarin read-speech corpus — scaled-up successor.

Web  ·  research-only

TL;DR

Best for production-scale Mandarin ASR with broader vocabulary. Pricing: research-only.

Category
Open source
Pricing
research-only
Platforms
Web

What it is

AISHELL-2 is 1000 hours of Mandarin read speech across iOS / Android / studio microphone channels, 1991 speakers. Research-only license.

Best for: Production-scale Mandarin ASR with broader vocabulary.
Watch out for: Research-license · request form · 1991 speakers · iOS/Android/Mic channel variants. Cite: Du et al., 2018.

Install / use

Go to AISHELL-2 www.aishelltech.com

What people actually do with AISHELL-2-style transcription

The tool is the means. These are the jobs — each one priced at published rates, each one wired up on its own page.

Transcribe a whole back catalogue in one runThe archive is the asset, but one-at-a-time upload means it never gets done.…1,000 hours ≈ $480, onceTranscribe every new file in a Drive folderFiles accumulate in a folder nobody opens, and the knowledge in them is invisible to search.…≈ $0.29 per audio hour on the $24 packCut short-form clips out of a webinar automaticallyThe clips worth posting are buried somewhere in a 60-minute recording and finding them by scrubbing costs more than the…60-min webinar ≈ $0.72

Wire it into Amazon S3n8nMake.comGoogle DriveZapierSlack

Features

Speaker diarizationNo
Word-level timestampsNo
Streaming / real-timeNo
Languages supported1
HIPAA eligibleNo

AISHELL-2 vs Whipscribe

FeatureAISHELL-2Whipscribe
CategoryOpen sourceTranscription APIs
Pricingresearch-only$6–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · first 20 minutes free
Speaker identificationNoNamed in the summary, key quotes and chapters
Word timestampsNoYes
StreamingNoNo
Languages199
PlatformsWebWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to AISHELL-2

OpenAI Whisper
OpenAI

The reference open-source multilingual ASR model from OpenAI.

OSS · MIT ★ 108.7k
whisper.cpp
Georgi Gerganov

C/C++ port of Whisper — runs on anything, from a Raspberry Pi to Apple Silicon.

OSS · MIT ★ 53.5k
faster-whisper
SYSTRAN

4× faster than reference Whisper using CTranslate2 — production sweet spot.

OSS · MIT ★ 25.3k

Frequently asked about AISHELL-2

Does AISHELL-2 work on Mac, Windows and Linux?

AISHELL-2 runs in the browser, so it works on any desktop OS with a modern browser, and on phones and tablets.

How do I install AISHELL-2?

Download the installer for your platform from https://www.aishelltech.com/aishell_2 # request form. No terminal needed.

How many languages does AISHELL-2 support?

AISHELL-2 lists 1 languages.

Does AISHELL-2 identify different speakers?

No. AISHELL-2 does not label speakers; a conversation comes back as one continuous text. If you need speaker labels, that is a separate tool or a different service.

Does AISHELL-2 give word-level timestamps?

No — AISHELL-2 produces segment or sentence timing only, so subtitle cues can land mid-word.

Can AISHELL-2 transcribe live audio?

No — AISHELL-2 works on finished files, not a live stream.

Is AISHELL-2 HIPAA compliant?

AISHELL-2 does not claim HIPAA compliance. For PHI, run it on infrastructure you control or choose a service that will sign a BAA.

What are the limitations of AISHELL-2?

Research-license · request form · 1991 speakers · iOS/Android/Mic channel variants. Cite: Du et al., 2018.

Who is AISHELL-2 best for?

Production-scale Mandarin ASR with broader vocabulary.

Does AISHELL-2 run offline?

AISHELL-2 runs on your own machine — it is open source, so nothing leaves the computer unless you configure it to.

Is there a AISHELL-2 desktop app?

No — AISHELL-2 is browser-only. There is nothing to install and nothing runs on your machine.

Who makes AISHELL-2?

AISHELL-2 is made by Beijing Shell Shell Technology.

What kind of tool is AISHELL-2?

In this directory AISHELL-2 is filed under dataset as a open-source tool.

What are the alternatives to AISHELL-2?

There is a side-by-side page at /tools/aishell-2-alternatives comparing AISHELL-2 with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.

Can I automate AISHELL-2-style transcription without running it myself?

Yes. If what you want is transcripts rather than the tool itself, Whipscribe does the same job as a hosted API: submit a file or URL, poll a job id, pull the result as txt, json, srt, vtt or docx. $0.012 a minute — about $0.72 an audio hour — bought as credits that never expire. The automation recipes on this site show it wired to Drive folders, Zoom recordings, S3 buckets and no-code platforms.

Whipscribe is a hosted transcription service. If you want transcripts without running infrastructure, paste a URL or drop a file in the form below — you'll have a transcript in seconds.

Transcribe your recordings

Running AISHELL-2 yourself? Send the same file here and compare the transcript. Transcribe any language, any recording · Transcription services from $0.29 an hour · Transcribe from any meeting or recording platform · How to transcribe, step by step

Explore

All transcription tools · By language · By platform · By file format · How-to guides · Transcription services · Transcription API · Pricing

Have the recording already?

Skip the setup and send the file or the link: see transcribing a long MP3 or M4A, a podcast episode as text from its link and an SRT subtitle file from any recording.

Rather have it done for you?

Free tools cost setup time. When you want a finished transcript instead: see the best transcription services side by side, affordable transcription priced per hour and transcription services from $6.