Whisper Live installation guide
Note: it is preferable to use a machine with NVidia GPU in order to use the most accurate whisper models. Else on CPU most probably you will be limited to 'base' or 'small' models.
- Install Docker in it is not already installed. For Windows install Docker Desktop from here: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/
- If you have NVidia GPU make sure you have installed the latest drivers from NVidia
- Install and run Whisper Live:
-
- No GPU:
Powershell:
docker run `
--name whisper-live `
--restart=unless-stopped `
-e WHISPERLIVE_API_KEY=mysecretkey `
-e WHISPERLIVE_MODEL=base `
-e WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CLIENTS=4 `
-e WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CONNECTION_TIME=300 `
-e WHISPERLIVE_USE_VAD=true `
-v whisper-live-data:/var/lib/whisper-live `
-p 9090:9090 `
-p 8000:8000 `
-d hwdsl2/whisper-live-server
Bash:
docker run \
--name whisper-live \
--restart=unless-stopped \
-e WHISPERLIVE_API_KEY=mysecretkey \
-e WHISPERLIVE_MODEL=base \
-e WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CLIENTS=4 \
-e WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CONNECTION_TIME=300 \
-e WHISPERLIVE_USE_VAD=true \
-v whisper-live-data:/var/lib/whisper-live \
-p 9090:9090 \
-p 8000:8000 \
-d hwdsl2/whisper-live-server
-
- NVIDIA GPU:
Powershell:
docker run `
--name whisper-live `
--gpus=all `
--restart=unless-stopped `
-e WHISPERLIVE_API_KEY=mysecretkey `
-e WHISPERLIVE_MODEL=base `
-e WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CLIENTS=4 `
-e WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CONNECTION_TIME=300 `
-e WHISPERLIVE_USE_VAD=true `
-v whisper-live-data:/var/lib/whisper-live `
-p 9090:9090 `
-p 8000:8000 `
-d hwdsl2/whisper-live-server:cuda
Bash:
sudo docker run \
--name whisper-live \
--gpus=all \
--restart=unless-stopped \
-e WHISPERLIVE_API_KEY=mysecretkey \
-e WHISPERLIVE_MODEL=base \
-e WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CLIENTS=4 \
-e WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CONNECTION_TIME=300 \
-e WHISPERLIVE_USE_VAD=true \
-v whisper-live-data:/var/lib/whisper-live \
-p 9090:9090 \
-p 8000:8000 \
-d hwdsl2/whisper-live-server:cuda
Change the values of the environment as per your needs, for example WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CONNECTION_TIME=300 allow sessions up to 300 seconds (5 minutes), so you may want this to be WHISPERLIVE_MAX_CONNECTION_TIME=3600 for example.
Important ones are the model and API key. For GPU the good results are achieved with large-v3-turbo.
Available models:
| Model | Disk | RAM (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
tiny |
~75 MB | ~250 MB | Fastest; lower accuracy |
tiny.en |
~75 MB | ~250 MB | English-only |
base |
~145 MB | ~700 MB | Good balance — default |
base.en |
~145 MB | ~700 MB | English-only |
small |
~465 MB | ~1.5 GB | Better accuracy |
small.en |
~465 MB | ~1.5 GB | English-only |
medium |
~1.5 GB | ~5 GB | High accuracy |
medium.en |
~1.5 GB | ~5 GB | English-only |
large-v1 |
~3 GB | ~10 GB | Older large model |
large-v2 |
~3 GB | ~10 GB | Very high accuracy |
large-v3 |
~3 GB | ~10 GB | Best accuracy |
large-v3-turbo |
~1.6 GB | ~6 GB | Fast + high accuracy ⭐ |
turbo |
~1.6 GB | ~6 GB | Alias for large-v3-turbo |
If you need to start the container with another parameters do:
docker rm -f whisper-live
and then start it again with the new parameters. Note that the downloaded models will be preserver in whisper-live-data volume.
In SubtitleNEXT use the following URL: ws://127.0.0.1:9090/ (if it is on different machine use its IP instead) and for API key the value you have set to WHISPERLIVE_API_KEY ('mysecretkey' in the examples above).