I'm working on a side project called TranscriptHub.net, which allows users to paste links to TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook short videos to receive full transcripts. Currently, I'm using kie.ai's transcription API, but it's running really slow—taking anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds per video. The process involves downloading the video on my server, uploading it to kie.ai, and then they transcribe it. I've tried the Hugging Face Inference API, which is much faster (5–10 seconds), but their free tier is limited, and a subscription at $9/month feels excessive for a beta project. I'm just using a simple web app setup, fetching videos, sending them to the API, and then returning the text without any batch processing yet. I'm really looking for advice on speeding this up and whether extracting audio first with ffmpeg would help. Are there any inexpensive alternatives for short-form video transcription? Any low-cost Whisper API recommendations for a small MVP? I'd love to get feedback from fellow developers and content creators!
5 Answers
If you're looking to optimize performance, consider posting a bounty for this task on task-bounty.com. Share your current setup and the latency goals you need. You might find someone who has tackled a similar issue and can provide insight or alternative APIs.
The whole double download/upload process is really slowing you down. I recommend looking for a provider that accepts direct video links. We’ve had great results with Scriptivox; it lets you send links from social media without downloading first, which saves a ton of time. Their free tier allows three transcriptions a day, and their paid plans have priority processing. Focus on what matters more to you—speed or cost?
I’ve been using kie.ai for its multiple APIs, which is convenient since I have other projects that depend on them. But yeah, the performance has been lacking. It’s tough because I need something quick and reliable for this MVP. I’m currently testing Groq based on recommendations, so I’ll see how that goes.
I built a similar tool for creating lyric videos from YouTube links using Demucs and Whisper locally, and with a decent GPU, it was pretty speedy even for longer tracks. If you're not paying for the service, it's likely they're running on CPUs, which are much slower. To speed up your process, you might consider a paid solution where they utilize GPUs or even self-hosting if you're up for it, but that can be a hassle for maintenance.
30 seconds is definitely too much wait time! Using ffmpeg to extract audio first is a smart move. I’ve heard good things about Groq for faster transcriptions too.
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