WhisperKit
Swift framework running Whisper on-device across Apple platforms via Core ML and the Neural Engine.
About
WhisperKit compiles OpenAI's Whisper models to Core ML so transcription runs entirely on Apple devices, using the Neural Engine on Apple silicon with no server or network round trip. The Swift package delivers streaming transcription with realtime partial results, word and segment timestamps, voice activity detection for chunking, automatic language detection, and memory-efficient incremental loading for long recordings. Model options span tiny through large-v3 turbo, including a compressed 626 MB turbo build that keeps multilingual accuracy practical on phone-class hardware, and custom fine-tuned models can be pulled through Hugging Face. Developers add it via Swift Package Manager on macOS 14 or newer, a command line build installs with brew install whisperkit-cli, and a bundled local server exposes an OpenAI-compatible audio API with server-sent event streaming. Argmax ships it under the MIT license at around 6,300 stars, and since version 1.0 the repository has been renamed argmax-oss-swift, pairing WhisperKit with SpeakerKit diarization on Pyannote and TTSKit on Qwen3-TTS, alongside a commercial Pro SDK.
Should you use WhisperKit?
Pick it when
Pick WhisperKit when you build a Swift app for macOS 14+ or iOS and want on-device Whisper on the Neural Engine with streaming partial results, timestamps, and a local OpenAI-compatible server, all MIT.
Look elsewhere when
Skip it for Android, Windows, Linux, or web targets, since it is Apple-only; Whisper.cpp or Sherpa-ONNX cover those. Argmax also sells a commercial Pro SDK, so check which features the MIT package includes.
Alternatives to WhisperKit
- Whisper.cpp
Runs Whisper everywhere, including Apple with Metal and Core ML, plus Android, Windows, Linux, and WebAssembly, in plain C/C++.
- Moonshine
Smaller edge models with Swift, Android, and C++ packages and low latency, but eight ASR languages versus Whisper's broad coverage.
- Sherpa-ONNX STT
Cross-platform ONNX runtime for the same offline use on Android, iOS, and desktop, with a choice of non-Whisper models.
- Whisper
The reference Python model for servers and batch jobs, when your workload is not an on-device Apple app.
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Details
- Price
- Freemium
- Platform
- Local/Desktop
- Difficulty
- Easy (2/5)
- License
- MIT
- Added
- Jul 29, 2026