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Welcome to OpenTranscribe

OpenTranscribe is a powerful, self-hosted AI-powered transcription and media analysis platform that turns your audio and video files into searchable, analyzable text with advanced features like speaker identification, AI summarization, and cross-media intelligence.

What is OpenTranscribe?​

OpenTranscribe combines state-of-the-art AI models with a modern web interface to provide:

  • High-accuracy transcription using WhisperX with word-level timestamps
  • Automatic speaker identification with voice fingerprinting across videos
  • AI-powered summarization with customizable prompts and LLM integration
  • Full-text and semantic search powered by OpenSearch
  • Privacy-first processing - everything runs locally on your infrastructure

Key Features​

Advanced Transcription​

  • WhisperX 3.8.1 with faster-whisper BatchedInferencePipeline backend
  • Native word-level timestamps via cross-attention DTW (all 100+ languages, no separate alignment model)
  • Multi-language support with optional translation to English (requires large-v3 model)
  • 40x+ realtime speed on GPU (large-v3-turbo default, 6x faster than large-v2)
  • Support for audio (MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A) and video (MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV)
  • Cloud ASR providers: Deepgram, AssemblyAI, OpenAI, Google, AWS, Azure, Speechmatics, Gladia

Smart Speaker Management​

  • Automatic speaker diarization using PyAnnote.audio
  • Cross-video speaker recognition with voice fingerprinting
  • LLM-enhanced speaker identification
  • Global speaker profiles that persist across transcriptions
  • Confidence scoring and manual verification workflow

AI-Powered Features​

  • LLM summarization with BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) format
  • Support for multiple LLM providers (OpenAI, Claude, vLLM, Ollama, OpenRouter)
  • Custom AI prompts for different content types
  • Intelligent section-by-section processing for unlimited transcript lengths
  • Speaker analytics and interaction patterns

Search & Discovery​

  • Hybrid search combining BM25 keyword and neural semantic search via OpenSearch ML Commons
  • OpenSearch 3.4.0 with ML Commons native neural search and RRF merging
  • Advanced filtering by speaker, date, tags, duration
  • Collections for organizing related media with group sharing
  • Interactive waveform visualization with click-to-seek

Analytics & Insights​

  • Speaker analytics (talk time, interruptions, pace)
  • Meeting efficiency metrics
  • Action item extraction
  • Cross-video speaker tracking

Why OpenTranscribe?​

Open Source & Self-Hosted​

  • Full control over your data - nothing leaves your infrastructure
  • AGPL-3.0 License - open source with network copyleft protection
  • No subscription fees - one-time setup, unlimited use
  • Privacy-first - ideal for sensitive content (legal, medical, business)

Production-Ready​

  • Docker-based deployment - runs anywhere
  • GPU acceleration - NVIDIA GPUs supported
  • Multi-worker architecture - process multiple files in parallel
  • Offline capable - works in airgapped environments

Enterprise Security​

  • Multiple authentication methods - Local, LDAP/AD, OIDC/Keycloak, PKI/X.509
  • Multi-factor authentication - TOTP-based MFA with backup codes
  • Password policies - Configurable complexity, history, and expiration
  • Audit logging - FedRAMP-compliant structured logging
  • Account lockout - Progressive lockout after failed attempts

Modern Stack​

  • Svelte + TypeScript frontend - responsive, PWA-enabled
  • FastAPI backend - high-performance Python
  • PostgreSQL + OpenSearch - reliable, scalable storage
  • Celery workers - distributed background processing

User Interface​

  • Light and dark mode - Toggle between themes via the sun/moon icon in the navbar, or let the app follow your system preference automatically
  • 8 UI languages - Switch the interface language from Settings: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. The app also detects your browser language on first visit
  • Grid and list views - Toggle between card-based grid view (with thumbnails) and compact list view in the file gallery using the view toggle button
  • Virtual scrolling - Smooth performance when browsing large libraries with thousands of files, loading only visible items
  • Progressive Web App (PWA) - Install OpenTranscribe as a standalone app on desktop or mobile from your browser's "Install" or "Add to Home Screen" option for a native app experience

Use Cases​

OpenTranscribe is perfect for:

  • Meeting transcriptions - Record and analyze team meetings with speaker identification
  • Podcast production - Generate transcripts and show notes automatically
  • Academic research - Transcribe interviews and lectures for analysis
  • Legal & compliance - Accurate transcripts with speaker identification for depositions
  • Customer service - Analyze support calls for quality and training
  • Content creation - Generate subtitles and content from videos

Quick Look​

# Install with one command
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/davidamacey/OpenTranscribe/master/setup-opentranscribe.sh | bash

# Start the application
cd opentranscribe
./opentranscribe.sh start

# Access at http://localhost:5173

Architecture Overview​

┌─────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│  Frontend   │────▶│   Backend    │────▶│   Workers   │
│   (Svelte)  │     │  (FastAPI)   │     │  (Celery)   │
└─────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └─────────────┘
                            │                    │
                            ▼                    ▼
                    ┌──────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
                    │  PostgreSQL  │     │  WhisperX   │
                    │    MinIO     │     │  PyAnnote   │
                    │ OpenSearch   │     │     LLM     │
                    └──────────────┘     └─────────────┘

System Requirements​

Minimum:

  • 8GB RAM
  • 4 CPU cores
  • 50GB disk space
  • Docker & Docker Compose

Recommended:

  • 16GB+ RAM
  • 8+ CPU cores
  • 100GB+ SSD
  • NVIDIA GPU with 8GB+ VRAM (RTX 3070 or better)

Next Steps​

Ready to get started? Follow our Quick Start Guide to install OpenTranscribe in minutes.

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