Fact · Transcription
The Whisper README says the package also requires the ffmpeg command-line tool to be installed on your system.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“to be installed on your system, which is available from most package managers”
openai/whisper: README (raw text), OpenAI, GitHub (openai/whisper), 2026, Setup section of the README.
Open the original- What it measures
- The README gives install commands for ffmpeg on Ubuntu, Arch Linux, macOS, Windows and other systems alongside the pip install command for Whisper.
- What it does not show
- The README names ffmpeg as a requirement of the Python package. It does not say which audio formats ffmpeg must decode or how a given tool calls it.