Model details
Table | |
|---|
| Base model | CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-arabic-07-2026 |
| Task | Automatic speech recognition (audio → text) |
| Architecture | Conformer encoder + Transformer decoder (attention encoder–decoder) |
| Languages | Arabic (incl. dialects), English |
| Quantization | bitsandbytes NF4 4-bit with double quantization |
| Disk size | 1.47 GB (vs. 4.13 GB fp16) |
| License | Apache 2.0 |
Evaluation
Word Error Rate of this quantized model measured against the full fp16 model on
1,009 Saudi-dialect podcast clips (Arabic text normalized):
Table with columns: Model, Size, WER vs. full fp16| Model | Size | WER vs. full fp16 |
|---|
| Full (fp16) | 4.13 GB | — (reference) |
| This model (INT4 (NF4)) | 1.47 GB | 1.89% |
The int8 build is identical to full-precision in WER; the int4 build differs by ~1.9%,
mostly minor orthographic variation (e.g. hamza placement).
Usage
import torch
from transformers import AutoProcessor, CohereAsrForConditionalGeneration
from transformers.audio_utils import load_audio
processor = AutoProcessor.from_pretrained("NAMAA-Space/cohere-transcribe-arabic-07-2026-int4")
model = CohereAsrForConditionalGeneration.from_pretrained("NAMAA-Space/cohere-transcribe-arabic-07-2026-int4", device_map="auto")
audio = load_audio("your_audio.wav", sampling_rate=16000)
inputs = processor(audio, sampling_rate=16000, language="ar", return_tensors="pt").to(model.device)
outputs = model.generate(**inputs, max_new_tokens=256)
print(processor.decode(outputs, skip_special_tokens=True))
Requirements: transformers, bitsandbytes, soundfile/librosa, and a CUDA GPU.
Quantization configuration
import torch
from transformers import BitsAndBytesConfig
quantization_config = BitsAndBytesConfig(
load_in_4bit=True,
bnb_4bit_quant_type="nf4",
bnb_4bit_compute_dtype=torch.bfloat16,
bnb_4bit_use_double_quant=True,
)
Sample transcriptions (Saudi podcasts)
Table with columns: #, Full (fp16), This model| # | Full (fp16) | This model |
|---|
| 1 | السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته. مساكم الله بالخير وحياكم الله معنا في ثالث حلقات لقا… | السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته. مساكم الله بالخير وحياكم الله معنا في ثالث حلقات لقا… |
| 2 | اهتمامات ولكن ولكن هذا لا يرقى انا عندي احصائيات قديمه وذكرت هذا في اكثر من مره في ال… | اهتمامات ولكن ولكن هذا لا يرقى انا عندي احصائيات قديمه وذكرت هذا في اكثر من مره في ال… |
| 3 | يتبع اوامر الله سبحانه وتعالى، ويصدق اخباره، ويرضى باقداره. هذا هو الذي يحسن الادب مع… | يتبع اوامر الله سبحانه وتعالى، ويصدق اخباره، ويرضى باقداره. هذا هو الذي يحسن الادب مع… |
Intended use and limitations
- Intended use: Arabic/English speech-to-text where a smaller GPU-memory footprint is
preferred over the full-precision model, at negligible (INT4 (NF4)) quality cost.
- Format: loads through
transformers + bitsandbytes and requires a CUDA GPU. It is
not directly servable with vLLM (use a GPTQ / AWQ / compressed-tensors build for vLLM).
- Inherited limitations (from the base model): optimised for a single, pre-specified language;
no timestamps or speaker diarization; may transcribe non-speech sounds, so a VAD/noise gate is
recommended for noisy input.
License and attribution
Released under Apache 2.0. This is a quantized derivative of
CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-arabic-07-2026 by Cohere and Cohere Labs; all original terms apply.