The Cost of Transcription
Services like Rev or Otter.ai get expensive quickly if you edit podcasts or transcribe interviews. OpenAI released Whisper for free, but it's command-line only and heavily relies on GPUs.
The Whisper.cpp Jugad
The secret is using Whisper.cpp. A brilliant developer ported the model to pure C/C++, meaning it runs incredibly fast on regular CPUs (even old laptops or MacBooks) without needing a dedicated graphics card.
Graphical Interfaces (GUIs)
If you don't like the terminal, download 'Whisper-WebUI' or 'MacWhisper'. They bundle the fast CPU version into a nice app where you simply drag and drop your MP3 files to get SRT subtitle files in minutes.
