Transcribe Pashto audio with WhisperAI
WhisperAI transcribes Pashto (پښتو) audio for the around 60 million speakers who use the language across Afghanistan, Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and the Pashtun diaspora. Built on OpenAI Whisper and tuned for the realities of Pashto speech, the service produces publication-grade transcripts in Pashto script (a Perso-Arabic variant), written right-to-left.
Who actually needs Pashto transcription
Pashto demand comes from Afghan and Pakistani media, NGO documentation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Pashto-language broadcasting.
Dialects and varieties handled
- Northern Pashto (Yusufzai)
- Southern Pashto (Kandahari)
- Central Pashto
Pashto's distinct retroflex consonants and dialect divergence
Pashto has retroflex consonants (ړ, ګ, ښ, ږ) that no neighbouring language has, and significant divergence between Northern (used in Peshawar) and Southern (used in Kandahar) varieties. Whisper handles Pashto with its full alphabet and right-to-left rendering.
Northern Pashto (Yusufzai), Southern Pashto (Kandahari) and Central Pashto are supported with native script.
How Pashto speakers actually use WhisperAI
- Afghan and Pakistani mediaPashto broadcasters transcribe interviews for publication.
- Afghanistan NGO documentationInternational and Afghan NGOs transcribe Pashto field interviews for reporting.
- Pashto-language broadcastingBBC Pashto, VOA Pashto and DW Pashto transcribe interviews for editorial use.
- Pashto cultural and academic workResearchers document Pashto oral histories and folklore.
What Pashto transcripts include
Native Pashto script (a Perso-Arabic variant), written right-to-left
Output in Pashto script (a Perso-Arabic variant), written right-to-left with all diacritics, tone marks, special characters and script-specific conventions preserved — never transliteration.
Speaker labels
Diarisation that separates and labels speakers in Pashto interviews, panels and multi-party meetings.
Timestamps and SRT
Word-level timestamps and SRT subtitle export for Pashto video captioning, with proper line-breaking for the script.
Editor and exports
In-browser editor with PDF, DOCX, TXT and SRT exports. Edit the transcript without leaving the browser, then download the format your downstream workflow expects.
How to transcribe Pashto audio
Upload your Pashto recording
Drop in MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4 or similar — files up to 5GB. Long-form Pashto interviews, lectures and meetings work without splitting.
Whisper transcribes the audio
The model recognises Pashto speech across the dialects above and outputs Pashto script (a Perso-Arabic variant), written right-to-left. Code-switched English and other languages in the same recording are handled inline.
Edit, label and export
Open the transcript in the editor, fix any names or terms, label speakers, and export to PDF, DOCX, TXT or SRT. Optional AI summary surfaces the key points and decisions.
Transcribe in 100+ languages
WhisperAI supports Pashto alongside over 100 other languages with the same accuracy and editor experience.
Other widely-used pages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Hindi, Italian, and 80+ more languages including Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Malay, Filipino and beyond.
See every supported language, with transcription, realtime and translation coverage.
Transcription guides and best practices
Start transcribing Pashto today
Sign up free, drop in your first Pashto file, and have a usable transcript in minutes.