OpenAI Whisper Playground

by OpenAI

Don’t want to sign up for OpenAI Whisper Playground? 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.

OpenAI's docs playground with file-upload and translation against the Whisper API.

Web  ·  free

TL;DR

Best for developers piloting the Whisper API before writing integration code. Pricing: free (signed-in) / API billed.

Category
Products
Pricing
free (signed-in) / API billed
Platforms
Web

What it is

OpenAI's docs site embeds a try-it console where a developer can upload audio (up to 25MB) and get a transcript or translation back from Whisper. Useful for quick evaluation in the browser before scripting.

Best for: Developers piloting the Whisper API before writing integration code.
Watch out for: Files capped at 25MB per request; audio sent to OpenAI for inference.

Install / use

Go to OpenAI Whisper Playground platform.openai.com

What people actually do with OpenAI Whisper Playground-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-timeNo
Languages supported99
HIPAA eligibleNo

OpenAI Whisper Playground vs Whipscribe

FeatureOpenAI Whisper PlaygroundWhipscribe
CategoryProductsTranscription 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
Languages9999
PlatformsWebWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to OpenAI Whisper Playground

Frequently asked about OpenAI Whisper Playground

Is OpenAI Whisper Playground free?

Yes. OpenAI Whisper Playground is free (free (signed-in) / API billed).

Does OpenAI Whisper Playground work on Mac, Windows and Linux?

OpenAI Whisper Playground runs in the browser, so it works on any desktop OS with a modern browser, and on phones and tablets.

How do I get started with OpenAI Whisper Playground?

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

How many languages does OpenAI Whisper Playground support?

OpenAI Whisper Playground lists 99 languages. That is the Whisper-family multilingual set, so quality varies by language — English and the large European languages are strongest.

What are the limitations of OpenAI Whisper Playground?

Files capped at 25MB per request; audio sent to OpenAI for inference.

Who is OpenAI Whisper Playground best for?

Developers piloting the Whisper API before writing integration code.

Is OpenAI Whisper Playground open source?

No. OpenAI Whisper Playground is a proprietary product. If you need source you can read and run yourself, the open-source tools in this directory are the place to look.

Is there a OpenAI Whisper Playground desktop app?

No — OpenAI Whisper Playground is browser-only. There is nothing to install and nothing runs on your machine.

What kind of tool is OpenAI Whisper Playground?

In this directory OpenAI Whisper Playground is filed under playground, web app, developer as a product.

What are the alternatives to OpenAI Whisper Playground?

There is a side-by-side page at /tools/openai-whisper-playground-alternatives comparing OpenAI Whisper Playground with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.

Can I automate OpenAI Whisper Playground-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 OpenAI Whisper Playground?

OpenAI Whisper Playground 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 OpenAI Whisper Playground?

$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 OpenAI Whisper Playground 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

Long recording to get through?

One file up to 10 hours, as an upload or a link: see MP3 to text for long recordings, how to transcribe a podcast and an SRT subtitle file from any recording.

Looking at paid options?

Before you choose a transcription tool or service: see an honest roundup of the best transcription services, affordable transcription priced per hour and transcription services from $6.