OpenAI releases GPT-Transcribe and GPT-Live-Transcribe, then deprecates Whisper API
Confirmed
The takeaway
On 2026-07-28 OpenAI released gpt-transcribe (file transcription, $0.0045/min) and gpt-live-transcribe (low-latency streaming, $0.017/min), both accepting context, keyword and language hints.
Status
- Claim
Confirmed
- Our reporting
- High confidence
- Importance
- 3 of 5
- Last verified
- 29 September 2026
Your AI and this story
- GPT-6 Astra89 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.528 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen119 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.758 days after its cutoff
None of these four assistants can know about it. The closest, Claude Opus 5.5, stops 28 days before it.
Key facts
- gpt-transcribe: $0.0045/min, 25% cheaper than whisper-1 / gpt-4o-transcribe ($0.006/min)
- Artificial Analysis WER 3.31% for gpt-transcribe, ~0.7 points better than gpt-4o-transcribe but behind ElevenLabs, Google and Mistral (The Decoder)
- OpenAI-reported Common Voice (22 languages) WER: 40.37% whisper-1 vs 19.27% gpt-transcribe (press)
- Deprecation announced 2026-08-26; shutdown 2027-02-26 for whisper-1, gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe, gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize
What happened
OpenAI replaced its whole speech-to-text lineup with a file model and a streaming model under the new “GPT Transcribe” name, then scheduled Whisper’s API retirement. The open-source Whisper weights remain available.
Why it matters
Speech-to-text became a price war (OpenAI $0.0045/min vs Google Gemini 3.5 Transcribe, launched a month later) in which OpenAI is no longer the accuracy leader on independent WER benchmarks.
Benchmark numbers are from secondary sources, not read on an OpenAI page.
Sources
5 sources from 3 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
5 sources: 3 primary, 1 press, 1 reaction
Primary
- OpenAI API changelogdevelopers.openai.com, docs
- OpenAI deprecationsdevelopers.openai.com, docs
- gpt-transcribe model pagedevelopers.openai.com, docs
Press
- The Decoder - GPT Transcribe improves but can’t catch ElevenLabs, Google or Mistralthe-decoder.com, press
Reactions
- Artificial Analysis - GPT Live Transcribeartificialanalysis.ai, discussion
Changes
- Filed