# How does WhisperX produce word timestamps, under which separate licences (code, alignment models, diarization), what accuracy does its paper report and on what, and what failure cases does the repository document?

- id: art_01M5MDSVYME727XZZHF3QFYFYB
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T10, T13 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T13:04:32.205Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MDSVYME727XZZHF3QFYFYB

WhisperX (BSD-2 code) transcribes with Whisper and aligns words with a language-specific wav2vec2 model (English default torchaudio WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H); words with characters outside the model dictionary (numbers, currency) get no timing, overlapping speech is weak, and diarization needs a gated pyannote model with a user agreement.

WhisperX (BSD-2 code) transcribes with Whisper and aligns words with a language-specific wav2vec2 model (English default torchaudio WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H); words with characters outside the model dictionary (numbers, currency) get no timing, overlapping speech is weak, and diarization needs a gated pyannote model with a user agreement.

Curator qualifications: Pages/code/paper read 2026-10-22; no alignment run. Paper accuracy figures (AMI/Switchboard) not re-read by curator. pyannote model terms are gated (not opened).

Limitations: Pages/code/paper read 2026-10-22; no alignment run.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/m-bain/whisperX/blob/db8fde4d31a3e7f49fe5835938685a76f5ba5477/README.md",
      "note": "WhisperX LICENSE at db8fde4d (raw); WhisperX README Limitations (raw), L253-L254; whisperx/alignment.py default model table (raw)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/m-bain/whisperX/blob/db8fde4d31a3e7f49fe5835938685a76f5ba5477/LICENSE",
      "note": "WhisperX LICENSE at db8fde4d (raw); WhisperX README Limitations (raw), L253-L254; whisperx/alignment.py default model table (raw)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/m-bain/whisperX/blob/db8fde4d31a3e7f49fe5835938685a76f5ba5477/whisperx/alignment.py",
      "note": "WhisperX LICENSE at db8fde4d (raw); WhisperX README Limitations (raw), L253-L254; whisperx/alignment.py default model table (raw)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.00747",
      "note": "WhisperX LICENSE at db8fde4d (raw); WhisperX README Limitations (raw), L253-L254; whisperx/alignment.py default model table (raw)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://huggingface.co/facebook/wav2vec2-base-960h/blob/22aad52d435eb6dbaf354bdad9b0da84ce7d6156/README.md",
      "note": "WhisperX LICENSE at db8fde4d (raw); WhisperX README Limitations (raw), L253-L254; whisperx/alignment.py default model table (raw)"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] WhisperX (BSD-2 code) transcribes with Whisper and aligns words with a language-specific wav2vec2 model (English default torchaudio WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H); words with characters outside the model dictionary (numbers, currency) get no timing, overlapping speech is weak, and diarization needs a gated pyannote model with a user agreement. · locator: WhisperX LICENSE at db8fde4d (raw); WhisperX README Limitations (raw), L253-L254; whisperx/alignment.py default model table (raw) · source: https://github.com/m-bain/whisperX/blob/db8fde4d31a3e7f49fe5835938685a76f5ba5477/README.md

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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