Whisper Transcribe MCP server

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.ZahiriNatZuke/whisper-transcribe-mcp -->

whisper-transcribe-mcp

MCP server for audio transcription using faster-whisper (local, free, offline) or OpenAI Whisper API (cloud, requires API key). Works with Claude Desktop and Claude Code on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Prerequisites

macOS

Option A — uv (recommended):

brew install uv
# or
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Option B — Python: Python 3.10+ is included in macOS 12.3+. You can also install it with brew install python.

Windows

Option A — uv (recommended):

winget install astral-sh.uv

Or download the installer from astral.sh/uv.

Option B — Python: Download Python 3.10+ from python.org. During installation, check "Add Python to PATH".

No need to install ffmpeg or any compiler — everything is bundled in the package.

Linux

Option A — uv (recommended):

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Option B — Python:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install python3.12 python3.12-venv

# Fedora
sudo dnf install python3.12

# Arch
sudo pacman -S python

No additional system dependencies required.

Installation

Option A — uvx (recommended, no permanent install)

uvx automatically downloads and installs the package in an isolated environment. Only requires uv to be installed.

# Local backend:
uvx "whisper-transcribe-mcp[local]"

# OpenAI backend:
uvx "whisper-transcribe-mcp[openai]"

# Both backends:
uvx "whisper-transcribe-mcp[all]"

Option B — pip

# Local backend:
pip install "whisper-transcribe-mcp[local]"

# OpenAI backend:
pip install "whisper-transcribe-mcp[openai]"

# Both backends:
pip install "whisper-transcribe-mcp[all]"

Use Cases

Case 1 — Local backend only (free, works offline)

Uses faster-whisper to transcribe locally. The model is downloaded from HuggingFace on first use (~74MB for base) and cached.

Install:

pip install "whisper-transcribe-mcp[local]"

Environment variables:

WHISPER_MODEL=base   # or tiny, small, medium, large-v3

Case 2 — OpenAI backend only (best accuracy, requires API key)

Uses OpenAI's whisper-1 model. Requires an API key and internet connection. No local model downloads.

Install:

pip install "whisper-transcribe-mcp[openai]"

Environment variables:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

Case 3 — Both backends (OpenAI if key present, local as fallback)

If OPENAIAPIKEY is set, OpenAI is used automatically. Otherwise falls back to local faster-whisper.

Install:

pip install "whisper-transcribe-mcp[all]"

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Config file location by operating system:

Add the entry inside "mcpServers":

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.