Deepgram Nova-3 Transcription

Transcribe audio files using Deepgram's Nova-3 model — more accurate and faster than OpenAI Whisper.

Why Deepgram over Whisper

• 5.26% word error rate (vs ~8-10% for Whisper)
• 40x faster for batch processing
• Built-in speaker diarization (who said what)
• Smart formatting (numbers, dates, punctuation)
• $200 free credits on signup at deepgram.com

Setup

Store your API key:

echo "YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY" > ~/.openclaw/secrets/deepgram-api-key.txt

Or set the environment variable:

export DEEPGRAM_API_KEY="your-key-here"

Usage

bash scripts/transcribe.sh /path/to/audio.mp3
bash scripts/transcribe.sh recording.mp3 --out transcript.txt
bash scripts/transcribe.sh recording.mp3 --json --out full.json
bash scripts/transcribe.sh recording.mp3 --language es
bash scripts/transcribe.sh recording.mp3 --model nova-2

Models

| Model | WER | Cost/min | Best for | |-------|-----|----------|----------| | nova-3 (default) | 5.26% | $0.0077 | Best accuracy | | nova-2 | ~8% | $0.0043 | Budget-friendly | | whisper-large | ~8-10% | $0.0048 | Whisper parity |

Supported Formats

mp3, wav, m4a, ogg, flac, webm, aiff

Fallback

If DEEPGRAM_API_KEY is not set, use the OpenAI Whisper skill instead (if installed).