Why this topic right now

In 2023 there were two options. Take OpenAI Whisper and live with offline batch inference (3+ GB large-v3, not streaming), or wait for cloud ASR with its privacy, cost, and latency trade-offs. On-device streaming ASR as a production option was fringe.

In 2026 there are at least five viable approaches on the table, each optimized for a different use case and different constraints. This post is an ecosystem overview and decision guide, not a head-to-head benchmark with a single winner.

What is being compared, and what is not

In scope:

Streaming. The model emits partial transcripts incrementally, not waiting for end of utterance. First-partial latency measured in hundreds of milliseconds.

On-device. Inference runs locally, no network round-trip, no cloud dependency.

Production-ready. Shipping in real mobile and edge apps today, not research prototypes.

Five options that meet all of these criteria.

Out of scope:

Cloud ASR APIs (Deepgram, Whisper API, Google USM via API).…