RWTH i6

by RWTH Aachen University

Don’t want to install RWTH i6? 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.

RWTH Aachen i6 group — RASR toolkit + IWSLT speech translation history.

Web  ·  free

TL;DR

Best for statistical machine translation + ASR theoretical research. Pricing: free.

Category
Open source
Pricing
free
Platforms
Web

What it is

RWTH i6 (Hermann Ney group) built RASR + RETURNN, won multiple IWSLT speech-translation tracks, and is the historical home of statistical-MT research.

Best for: Statistical machine translation + ASR theoretical research.
Watch out for: RASR toolkit license is non-commercial.

Install / use

Go to RWTH i6 www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachen.de

What people actually do with RWTH i6-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 supported0
HIPAA eligibleNo

RWTH i6 vs Whipscribe

FeatureRWTH i6Whipscribe
CategoryOpen sourceTranscription APIs
Pricingfree$6–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · first 20 minutes free
Speaker identificationNoNamed in the summary, key quotes and chapters
Word timestampsNoYes
StreamingNoNo
Languages099
PlatformsWebWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to RWTH i6

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

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

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Frequently asked about RWTH i6

Is RWTH i6 free?

Yes. RWTH i6 is free and open source.

Does RWTH i6 work on Mac, Windows and Linux?

RWTH i6 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 RWTH i6?

There is nothing to install — RWTH i6 is used in the browser. Create an account on the vendor's site and upload or connect your audio.

Does RWTH i6 identify different speakers?

No. RWTH i6 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 RWTH i6 give word-level timestamps?

No — RWTH i6 produces segment or sentence timing only, so subtitle cues can land mid-word.

Can RWTH i6 transcribe live audio?

No — RWTH i6 works on finished files, not a live stream.

Is RWTH i6 HIPAA compliant?

RWTH i6 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 RWTH i6?

RASR toolkit license is non-commercial.

Who is RWTH i6 best for?

Statistical machine translation + ASR theoretical research.

Does RWTH i6 run offline?

RWTH i6 runs on your own machine — it is open source, so nothing leaves the computer unless you configure it to.

Is there a RWTH i6 desktop app?

No — RWTH i6 is browser-only. There is nothing to install and nothing runs on your machine.

Who maintains RWTH i6?

RWTH i6 is open source on GitHub, maintained by RWTH Aachen University.

What kind of tool is RWTH i6?

In this directory RWTH i6 is filed under research lab as a open-source tool.

What are the alternatives to RWTH i6?

There is a side-by-side page at /tools/rwth-i6-alternatives comparing RWTH i6 with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.

Can I automate RWTH i6-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 RWTH i6 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

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Have the recording already?

Skip the setup and send the file or the link: see how to transcribe an MP3 of any length, a podcast episode as text from its link 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 transcription services from $6.