Transcribe speech 100x faster and 100x cheaper with open models

What this post added

This post details the implementation of a high-throughput, low-cost batch transcription service on Modal using open-source ASR models (NVIDIA's Parakeet and Canary). It describes architectural choices for distributing transcription requests across Modal GPUs, including batching strategies and end-to-end performance measurement (throughput, cold starts, data transfer) to compare against proprietary APIs. The work demonstrates achieving over 100x faster or cheaper transcription by leveraging Modal's autoscaling GPU infrastructure and open models.