Alibaba DAMO ASR

by Alibaba Cloud

Don’t want to wire up the Alibaba DAMO ASR API? 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.

Alibaba Cloud / DAMO Academy speech recognition with Paraformer non-autoregressive models.

Web, Linux, Android, iOS  ·  tiered · per-hour pricing in CNY/USD

TL;DR

Best for mandarin transcription with the option to self-host DAMO's open Paraformer checkpoints separately. Pricing: tiered · per-hour pricing in CNY/USD.

Category
Transcription APIs
Pricing
tiered · per-hour pricing in CNY/USD
Platforms
Web, Linux, Android, iOS

What it is

DAMO Academy is Alibaba's research arm; its Paraformer family of non-autoregressive Mandarin ASR models powers Alibaba Cloud's Intelligent Speech Interaction product. DAMO also publishes open-source variants via ModelScope, so teams can prototype on the same architecture they pay for in production. Strongest fit for e-commerce voice search, call-center analytics, and any workload already routed through Alibaba Cloud. Best fit when the buyer is mandarin transcription with the option to self-host damo's open paraformer checkpoints separately. The honest caveat: cross-region availability varies; english support is secondary to mandarin and cantonese. Developer-grade API with self-serve signup; validate accuracy on representative audio for the target dialect before committing volume.

Best for: Mandarin transcription with the option to self-host DAMO's open Paraformer checkpoints separately.
Watch out for: Cross-region availability varies; English support is secondary to Mandarin and Cantonese.

Install / use

Go to Alibaba DAMO ASR alibabacloud.com

What people actually do with Alibaba DAMO ASR-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.

Wire it into Amazon S3n8nMake.comGoogle DriveZapierSlack

Features

Speaker diarizationNo
Word-level timestampsYes
Streaming / real-timeYes
Languages supportedNone
HIPAA eligibleNo

Alibaba DAMO ASR vs Whipscribe

FeatureAlibaba DAMO ASRWhipscribe
CategoryTranscription APIsTranscription APIs
PricingNot verified$6–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · first 20 minutes free
Speaker identificationNot verifiedNamed in the summary, key quotes and chapters
Word timestampsNot verifiedYes
StreamingNot verifiedNo
Languages—99
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Android, iOSWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to Alibaba DAMO ASR

Frequently asked about Alibaba DAMO ASR

How much does Alibaba DAMO ASR cost?

Alibaba DAMO ASR is a paid product — published pricing: tiered · per-hour pricing in CNY/USD. Pricing changes; verify on the vendor's own page before budgeting.

Does Alibaba DAMO ASR work on Mac, Windows and Linux?

Alibaba DAMO ASR runs on Web, Linux, Android and iOS.

How do I get started with Alibaba DAMO ASR?

There is nothing to install — Alibaba DAMO ASR is used in the browser. Create an account on the vendor's site and upload or connect your audio.

What are the limitations of Alibaba DAMO ASR?

Cross-region availability varies; English support is secondary to Mandarin and Cantonese.

Who is Alibaba DAMO ASR best for?

Mandarin transcription with the option to self-host DAMO's open Paraformer checkpoints separately.

Is Alibaba DAMO ASR open source?

No. Alibaba DAMO ASR is a proprietary API from Alibaba Cloud. If you need source you can read and run yourself, the open-source tools in this directory are the place to look.

Who makes Alibaba DAMO ASR?

Alibaba DAMO ASR is made by Alibaba Cloud.

What kind of tool is Alibaba DAMO ASR?

In this directory Alibaba DAMO ASR is filed under regional asia, api as a API.

What are the alternatives to Alibaba DAMO ASR?

There is a side-by-side page at /tools/alibaba-damo-asr-alternatives comparing Alibaba DAMO ASR with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.

Can I automate Alibaba DAMO ASR-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.

How is Whipscribe different from Alibaba DAMO ASR?

Alibaba DAMO ASR is another vendor's product; Whipscribe is a per-minute transcription service. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and never used for training, and every job returns five formats plus an AI summary, quotes and topics. The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export.

What does transcription cost if I use Whipscribe instead of Alibaba DAMO ASR?

$0.012 a minute — about $0.72 an audio hour — bought as credits that never expire. There is no subscription and no monthly minimum: a 3-hour recording is about $2.16, a thousand-hour archive is about $720 once. The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export, so you can see what your recording holds before paying anything.

Where is the Alibaba DAMO ASR category heading?

Three things are moving across the whole speech-to-text market right now: summaries, action items and speaker insights generated on top of the transcript rather than sold separately; private, secured deployment where the audio never leaves a boundary you control; and agent access — transcription exposed as a tool that Claude, Cursor or a workflow runner can call directly. Whipscribe ships all three today: per-job insights, our own servers, and an MCP server.

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

Explore

Have the recording already?

Skip the setup and send the file or the link: see MP3 to text for long recordings, how to transcribe a podcast and the SRT file generator.

Comparing tools before you pay?

If you would rather pay a service than run software yourself: see how the best transcription services compare, cheap transcription services and the real cost per hour and transcription services from $6.