IIT Madras Speech Lab
Don’t want to install IIT Madras Speech Lab? 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.
IIT Madras speech group — academic Indian-language ASR research and AI4Bharat home.
Best for researchers and Indian-language product teams building on IIT Madras / AI4Bharat outputs. Pricing: free.
What it is
IIT Madras hosts AI4Bharat and one of India's largest academic speech-processing groups. The lab publishes Indian-language datasets, baselines, and Conformer models that are widely used downstream in both research and Indic-language products. For any Indian-language ASR project, IIT Madras / AI4Bharat is the canonical first stop. Best fit when the buyer is researchers and indian-language product teams building on iit madras / ai4bharat outputs. The honest caveat: academic outputs; production support is the integrator's responsibility. As with any open-weights release, the integrator owns hosting, scaling, and SLA — but the licensing cost is zero and the model can be fine-tuned on in-house audio.
Watch out for: Academic outputs; production support is the integrator's responsibility.
Install / use
asr.iitm.ac.in — dataset and model downloads
What people actually do with IIT Madras Speech Lab-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.
Features
| Speaker diarization | No |
| Word-level timestamps | Yes |
| Streaming / real-time | No |
| Languages supported | None |
| HIPAA eligible | No |
IIT Madras Speech Lab vs Whipscribe
| Feature | IIT Madras Speech Lab | Whipscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Open source | Transcription APIs |
| Pricing | free | $6–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · first 20 minutes free |
| Speaker identification | No | Named in the summary, key quotes and chapters |
| Word timestamps | Yes | Yes |
| Streaming | No | No |
| Languages | — | 99 |
| Platforms | Linux | Web, API, MCP |
Alternatives to IIT Madras Speech Lab
Frequently asked about IIT Madras Speech Lab
Is IIT Madras Speech Lab free?
Yes. IIT Madras Speech Lab is free and open source.
Does IIT Madras Speech Lab work on Mac, Windows and Linux?
IIT Madras Speech Lab runs on Linux. It is not listed for other platforms; check the vendor for anything beyond Linux.
How do I get started with IIT Madras Speech Lab?
There is nothing to install — IIT Madras Speech Lab is used in the browser. Create an account on the vendor's site and upload or connect your audio.
Does IIT Madras Speech Lab identify different speakers?
No. IIT Madras Speech Lab 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 IIT Madras Speech Lab give word-level timestamps?
Yes — IIT Madras Speech Lab produces timing per word, which is what subtitle cues and clip boundaries need.
Can IIT Madras Speech Lab transcribe live audio?
No — IIT Madras Speech Lab works on finished files, not a live stream.
Is IIT Madras Speech Lab HIPAA compliant?
IIT Madras Speech Lab 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 IIT Madras Speech Lab?
Academic outputs; production support is the integrator's responsibility.
Who is IIT Madras Speech Lab best for?
Researchers and Indian-language product teams building on IIT Madras / AI4Bharat outputs.
Does IIT Madras Speech Lab run offline?
IIT Madras Speech Lab runs on your own machine — it is open source, so nothing leaves the computer unless you configure it to.
Can I use IIT Madras Speech Lab in the browser?
No — IIT Madras Speech Lab is a Linux application, not a web app. You install it rather than sign in to it.
Who maintains IIT Madras Speech Lab?
IIT Madras Speech Lab is open source on GitHub.
What kind of tool is IIT Madras Speech Lab?
In this directory IIT Madras Speech Lab is filed under regional india, oss engine as a open-source tool.
What are the alternatives to IIT Madras Speech Lab?
There is a side-by-side page at /tools/iit-madras-asr-alternatives comparing IIT Madras Speech Lab with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.
Can I automate IIT Madras Speech Lab-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
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Long recording to get through?
One file up to 10 hours, as an upload or a link: see how to transcribe an MP3 of any length, how to transcribe a podcast and the SRT generator.
Rather have it done for you?
Free tools cost setup time. When you want a finished transcript instead: see how the best transcription services compare, affordable transcription priced per hour and our transcription service with prices and turnaround.