The People's Speech
Don’t want to install The People's Speech? 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.
30,000h CC-BY-licensed English ASR corpus — Internet-Archive sourced.
Best for commercial-friendly English ASR training (CC-BY allows commercial use) at scale. Pricing: free.
What it is
MLCommons People's Speech is a 30k-hour CC-BY English ASR corpus — the largest commercially-permissive labeled English speech corpus. Two splits: 12kh clean (CC BY-SA) + 18kh dirty (CC BY-NC-SA).
Watch out for: CC BY-SA 4.0 (clean) · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (dirty) · Internet Archive crawl · long-form audio with alignment noise · ~20% transcripts via forced alignment. Cite: Galvez et al., NeurIPS 2021.
Install / use
from datasets import load_dataset; ds = load_dataset('MLCommons/peoples_speech', 'clean')What people actually do with The People's Speech-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 | No |
| Streaming / real-time | No |
| Languages supported | 1 |
| HIPAA eligible | No |
Links
The People's Speech vs Whipscribe
| Feature | The People's Speech | 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 | No | Yes |
| Streaming | No | No |
| Languages | 1 | 99 |
| Platforms | HuggingFace | Web, API, MCP |
Alternatives to The People's Speech
Frequently asked about The People's Speech
Is The People's Speech free?
Yes. The People's Speech is free and open source.
Does The People's Speech work on Mac, Windows and Linux?
The People's Speech runs on HuggingFace. It is not listed for other platforms; check the vendor for anything beyond HuggingFace.
How do I install The People's Speech?
Download the installer for your platform from the vendor. No terminal needed.
How many languages does The People's Speech support?
The People's Speech lists 1 languages.
Does The People's Speech identify different speakers?
No. The People's Speech 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 The People's Speech give word-level timestamps?
No — The People's Speech produces segment or sentence timing only, so subtitle cues can land mid-word.
Can The People's Speech transcribe live audio?
No — The People's Speech works on finished files, not a live stream.
Is The People's Speech HIPAA compliant?
The People's Speech 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 The People's Speech?
CC BY-SA 4.0 (clean) · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (dirty) · Internet Archive crawl · long-form audio with alignment noise · ~20% transcripts via forced alignment. Cite: Galvez et al., NeurIPS 2021.
Who is The People's Speech best for?
Commercial-friendly English ASR training (CC-BY allows commercial use) at scale.
Does The People's Speech run offline?
The People's Speech runs on your own machine — it is open source, so nothing leaves the computer unless you configure it to.
Can I use The People's Speech in the browser?
No — The People's Speech is a HuggingFace application, not a web app. You install it rather than sign in to it.
Where is the The People's Speech source code?
On GitHub at github.com/mlcommons/peoples-speech. It is maintained by MLCommons.
What kind of tool is The People's Speech?
In this directory The People's Speech is filed under dataset as a open-source tool.
What are the alternatives to The People's Speech?
There is a side-by-side page at /tools/peoples-speech-alternatives comparing The People's Speech with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.
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 The People's Speech 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
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.
Looking at paid options?
Before you choose a transcription tool or service: see the best transcription services side by side, cheap transcription services and the real cost per hour and how our transcription services work.