ESPnet
by ESPnet community
End-to-end speech toolkit: ASR, TTS, ST, speaker, separation.
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TL;DR
Best for reproducing SOTA results on academic benchmarks; recipe-driven workflows. Pricing: free.
Category
Open source
License
Apache-2.0
Stars
★ 9.9k
Last push
2026-08-05
Pricing
free
Platforms
Linux, macOS
What it is
One of the longest-running end-to-end speech toolkits. Ships pre-trained Conformer, Branchformer, E-Branchformer, and Squeezeformer. Apache-2.0.
Best for: Reproducing SOTA results on academic benchmarks; recipe-driven workflows.
Watch out for: Steep learning curve; shell-script recipes alongside Python.
Watch out for: Steep learning curve; shell-script recipes alongside Python.
Install / use
pip install espnet
Features
| Speaker diarization | Yes |
| Word-level timestamps | Yes |
| Streaming / real-time | No |
| Languages supported | 50 |
| HIPAA eligible | No |
Links
ESPnet vs Whipscribe
| Feature | ESPnet | Whipscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Open source | Transcription APIs |
| Pricing | free | $4–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · $2 single unlock · 60 min free on signup |
| Speaker diarization | Yes | Yes |
| Word timestamps | Yes | Yes |
| Streaming | No | No |
| Languages | 50 | 99 |
| Platforms | Linux, macOS | Web, API, MCP |
Alternatives to ESPnet
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