Whisper Small vs Whisper Medium
Side-by-side comparison of hardware requirements, quantization options, and specifications to help you choose the right model for your device.
Specifications Comparison
| Spec | Whisper Small | Whisper Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 0.24B | 0.77B |
| Architecture | whisper | whisper |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Context Length | N/A | N/A |
| Category | Speech Recognition | Speech Recognition |
| Author | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| HF Downloads | 1.9M | 529.2K |
| VRAM Range | 0.95 - 0.95 GB | 1.93 - 1.93 GB |
| Quantizations | 1 options | 1 options |
| Best Quality Score | 85% | 92% |
Quantization Options
Whisper Small
Q8_0
0.5 GB0.95 GB VRAM85% quality
Whisper Medium
Q8_0
1.4 GB1.93 GB VRAM92% quality
Which Should You Choose?
Whisper Small is more memory-efficient, starting at just 0.95GB VRAM compared to 1.93GB for Whisper Medium. Whisper Medium is significantly larger at 0.77B parameters, which generally means better output quality but requires more hardware.