Registry / ai-ml / whisper-timestamped

whisper-timestamped

library1.15.9pypypi✓ verified 84d ago

Multi-lingual Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) based on OpenAI Whisper models, with accurate word-level timestamps, language detection confidence, Voice Activity Detection (VAD) options, and more. Current version: 1.15.9. Release cadence: irregular.

ai-ml llm-agents

pip install whisper-timestamped

github ↗package ↗

INSTALL

IMPORT

SIG · WHISPER-TIMESTAMPE

whisper-timestamped

ai-mlpythonv1.15.9

Install

81.1s avg

Import

9713ms

Disk

5197MB

Pass rate

4/ 10

Env Coverage4 / 10

glibc

3.9–3.13

musl

3.9–3.13

Install & Compatibility

Where this runs

tested against v1.15.9 · pip install

no network on importno background threads

Install × environment matrix

Each cell = how many times install + import succeeded across repeated harness runs. Partial = flaky.
glibc = Debian/Ubuntu slim · musl = Alpine Linux

musl

glibc

py 3.10

✕ build_error

✓ 90.9s

py 3.11

✕ build_error

✓ 86.9s

py 3.12

✕ build_error

✓ 75.5s

py 3.13

✕ build_error

✓ 71s

py 3.9

✕ build_error

✕ timeout

5197MB installed

● package 5197MB

Code

Verified usage

Verified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.

load_model

✓ from whisper_timestamped import load_model

✗ from whisper import load_model

OpenAI Whisper's load_model returns a different object without timestamp alignment. Use whisper-timestamped's load_model for correct word timestamps.

transcribe

✓ from whisper_timestamped import transcribe

✗ from whisper import transcribe

Standard whisper.transcribe() does not return word timestamps; this function does.

transcribe_timestamped

✓ from whisper_timestamped import transcribe_timestamped

Legacy function name; still works but transcribe is preferred.

Load a Whisper model, transcribe an audio file, and print word timestamps.

import whisper_timestamped as whisper model = whisper.load_model("base") audio = whisper.load_audio("audio.mp3") result = whisper.transcribe(model, audio, language="en") # Access word-level timestamps for segment in result["segments"]: for word in segment["words"]: print(f"{word['text']}: {word['start']:.2f} - {word['end']:.2f}")

whisper-timestamped --version

Debug

Known issues

gotchaThe library imports as 'whisper_timestamped' (with underscore) not 'whispertimestamped'. Typing 'pip install whisper-timestamped' but importing 'whisper_timestamped' is correct. Do not import from 'whisper' as that is OpenAI's official package.

fix

Use 'import whisper_timestamped' or 'import whisper_timestamped as whisper'.

affects: all

deprecatedThe function 'transcribe_timestamped' is deprecated but still works. New code should use 'transcribe' instead.

fix

Replace 'transcribe_timestamped' with 'transcribe'.

affects: >=1.15.0

gotchaVAD (Voice Activity Detection) requires installing optional dependencies: 'pip install whisper-timestamped[all]'. Without VAD, the library uses fixed 30-second window alignment which may be less accurate.

fix

Install with extra: 'pip install whisper-timestamped[all]'.

affects: all

gotchaWhen using 'model = whisper.load_model("large")', ensure you have sufficient GPU memory (≥8GB) or use CPU with increased memory. Loading a model larger than available memory may cause silent crashes.

fix

Use a smaller model like 'base' or 'small' if memory is limited.

affects: all

breakingIn version 1.15.0, the transcribe function signature changed: 'language' parameter now expects a string (e.g., 'en') instead of language code integer. Passing 'language=0' no longer works.

fix

Use language code strings: 'language="en"', 'language="fr"', or set to None for auto-detection.

affects: >=1.15.0

Errors

Common errors & fixes

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'whisper_timestamped'

Attempting to import after installing 'whisper-timestamped' with a typo in the import statement or missing install.

fix

Ensure you run 'pip install whisper-timestamped' and use 'import whisper_timestamped' (underscores, not hyphens).

AttributeError: module 'whisper' has no attribute 'load_model'

Importing from the wrong module (e.g., 'import whisper' instead of 'import whisper_timestamped'). The standard 'whisper' package does not have the same load_model signature.

fix

Use 'from whisper_timestamped import load_model' or 'import whisper_timestamped as whisper'.

KeyError: 'words'

Trying to access word timestamps from result but using standard OpenAI whisper's transcribe instead of whisper-timestamped's transcribe. The standard result does not contain 'words' keys.

fix

Use 'from whisper_timestamped import transcribe' and call transcribe with the model and audio.

RuntimeError: No available backend for audio loading. Install soundfile or librosa.

Missing audio loading library. whisper-timestamped uses soundfile or librosa under the hood.

fix

Install required backend: 'pip install soundfile' or 'pip install librosa'.

Upgrade

Version history

1.15.9latest on PyPI · released Sep 9, 2025

Audit

Dependencies

whisper-timestamped[all]optionalInstalls optional dependencies including VAD libraries (silero-vad) and audio backends

Agent activity

64 hits · last 30 days

node

Perplexity

OpenAI (training)

Resources

githubhttps://github.com/linto-ai/whisper-timestamped ↗

packagehttps://pypi.org/project/whisper-timestamped/ ↗