Whisper.net

Open-Source Whisper.net

Dotnet bindings for OpenAI Whisper made possible by whisper.cpp

Build Status

Build type	Build Status
CI Status (Native + dotnet)

Getting Started

To install Whisper.net with all the available runtimes, run the following command in the Package Manager Console:

    PM> Install-Package Whisper.net.AllRuntimes

Or add a package reference in your .csproj file:

    <PackageReference Include="Whisper.net.AllRuntimes" Version="1.7.2" />

Whisper.net is the main package that contains the core functionality but does not include any runtimes. Whisper.net.AllRuntimes includes all available runtimes for Whisper.net.

Installing Specific Runtimes

To install a specific runtime, you can install them individually and combine them as needed. For example, to install the CPU runtime, add the following package references:

    <PackageReference Include="Whisper.net" Version="1.7.2" />

    <PackageReference Include="Whisper.net.Runtime" Version="1.7.2" />

GPT for Whisper

We also have a custom-built GPT inside ChatGPT, which can help you with information based on this code, previous issues, and releases. Available here.

Please try to ask it before publishing a new question here, as it can help you a lot faster.

Runtimes Description

Whisper.net comes with multiple runtimes to support different platforms and hardware acceleration. Below are the available runtimes:

Whisper.net.Runtime

The default runtime that uses the CPU for inference. It is available on all platforms and does not require any additional dependencies.

Examples:

• Simple usage example
• Simple usage example (without Async processing)
• NAudio integration for mp3
• NAudio integration for resampled wav
• Simple channel diarization
• Blazor example

Pre-requisites

• Windows: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for at least Visual Studio 2019 (x64) Download Link
• Linux: libstdc++6
• macOS: TBD
• For x86/x64 platforms, the CPU must support AVX, AVX2, FMA and F16C instructions. If your CPU does not support these instructions, you'll need to use the Whisper.net.Runtime.NoAvx runtime instead.

Supported Platforms

• Windows x86, x64, ARM64
• Linux x64, ARM64, ARM
• macOS x64, ARM64 (Apple Silicon)
• Android
• iOS
• MacCatalyst
• tvOS
• WebAssembly

Whisper.net.Runtime.NoAvx

For CPUs that do not support AVX instructions.

Pre-requisites

• Windows: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for at least Visual Studio 2019 (x64) Download Link
• Linux: libstdc++6
• macOS: TBD

Supported Platforms

• Windows x86, x64, ARM64
• Linux x64, ARM64, ARM

Whisper.net.Runtime.Cuda

Contains the native whisper.cpp library with NVidia CUDA support enabled.

Examples

• CUDA usage example

Pre-requisites

• Everything from Whisper.net.Runtime pre-requisites
• NVidia GPU with CUDA support
• CUDA Toolkit (>= 12.1)

Supported Platforms

• Windows x64
• Linux x64

Whisper.net.Runtime.CoreML

Contains the native whisper.cpp library with Apple CoreML support enabled.

Examples:

• CoreML example

Supported Platforms

• macOS x64, ARM64 (Apple Silicon)
• iOS
• MacCatalyst
• tvOS

Whisper.net.Runtime.OpenVino

Contains the native whisper.cpp library with Intel OpenVino support enabled.

Examples

• OpenVino Example

Pre-requisites

• Everything from Whisper.net.Runtime pre-requisites
• OpenVino Toolkit (>= 2024.4)

Supported Platforms

• Windows x64
• Linux x64

Whisper.net.Runtime.Vulkan

Contains the native whisper.cpp library with Vulkan support enabled.

Examples

• Vulkan Example

Pre-requisites

• Everything from Whisper.net.Runtime pre-requisites
• Vulkan Toolkit (>= 1.3.290.0)]

Supported Platforms

• Windows x64

Multiple Runtimes Support

You can install and use multiple runtimes in the same project. The runtime will be automatically selected based on the platform you are running the application on and the availability of the native runtime.

The following order of priority will be used by default:

1. Whisper.net.Runtime.Cuda (NVidia devices with all drivers installed)
2. Whisper.net.Runtime.Vulkan (Windows x64 with Vulkan installed)
3. Whisper.net.Runtime.CoreML (Apple devices)
4. Whisper.net.Runtime.OpenVino (Intel devices)
5. Whisper.net.Runtime (CPU inference)
6. Whisper.net.Runtime.NoAvx (CPU inference without AVX support)

To change the order or force a specific runtime, set the RuntimeOrder on the RuntimeOptions:

RuntimeOptions.Instance.SetRuntimeLibraryOrder(new List<RuntimeLibrary>()
{
    RuntimeLibrary.CoreML,
    RuntimeLibrary.OpenVino,
    RuntimeLibrary.Cuda,
    RuntimeLibrary.Cpu
});

Versioning

Each version of Whisper.net is tied to a specific version of Whisper.cpp. The version of Whisper.net is the same as the version of Whisper it is based on. For example, Whisper.net 1.2.0 is based on Whisper.cpp 1.2.0.

However, the patch version is not tied to Whisper.cpp. For example, Whisper.net 1.2.1 is based on Whisper.cpp 1.2.0 and Whisper.net 1.7.0 is based on Whisper.cpp 1.7.1.

Ggml Models

Whisper.net uses Ggml models to perform speech recognition and translation. You can find more about Ggml models here.

For easier integration, Whisper.net provides a Downloader using Hugging Face.

var modelName = "ggml-base.bin";
if (!File.Exists(modelName))
{
    using var modelStream = await WhisperGgmlDownloader.GetGgmlModelAsync(GgmlType.Base);
    using var fileWriter = File.OpenWrite(modelName);
    await modelStream.CopyToAsync(fileWriter);
}

Usage

using var whisperFactory = WhisperFactory.FromPath("ggml-base.bin");

using var processor = whisperFactory.CreateBuilder()
    .WithLanguage("auto")
    .Build();

using var fileStream = File.OpenRead(wavFileName);

await foreach (var result in processor.ProcessAsync(fileStream))
{
    Console.WriteLine($"{result.Start}->{result.End}: {result.Text}");
}

Documentation

You can find the documentation and code samples here.

Building The Runtime

This section describes how to build the native runtime libraries for Whisper.net. Normally, you would not need to build the runtime libraries yourself, as they are available as NuGet packages.

The build scripts are a combination of PowerShell scripts and a Makefile. You can read each of them for the underlying cmake commands being used, or run them directly from the scripts.

You can also check the github actions available here

Android

make android

Before running, create an environment variable for NDK_PATH with the path to your Android NDK. For example:

NDK_PATH=/Users/UserName/Library/Developer/Xamarin/android-sdk-macosx/ndk-bundle

Apple

make apple

Compiling the Apple libraries requires a Mac with Xcode installed.

Apple CoreML

make apple_coreml

Compiling the Apple libraries requires a Mac with Xcode installed.

Linux

make linux

Windows

Import the PowerShell module:

Import-Module ./windows-scripts.ps1

Run BuildWindowsAll to build all Windows libraries. Alternatively, you can run BuildWindows with the desired parameters.

BuildWindows -Arch "x64" -Configuration "Release"  -NoAvx $true

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.