# Qwen3-ASR-1.7B vs Underdog Bark 3.0

> Qwen3-ASR-1.7B scores 64.4 (B) to Underdog Bark 3.0's 48.2 (D) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-21

Qwen3-ASR-1.7B scores 64.4 (B) on agent readiness against Underdog Bark 3.0's 48.2 (D), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. Underdog Bark 3.0 leads on documentation and upkeep. Both do speech-to-text.

- Qwen3-ASR-1.7B: grade B, 64.4/100, rank #19 of 100 open-weight models. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen3-asr-1-7b.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/qwen3-asr-1-7b.json
- Underdog Bark 3.0: grade D, 48.2/100, rank #96 of 100 open-weight models. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/underdog-bark-3.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/underdog-bark-3.json
- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md
- All 231 stt comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/speech-to-text/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Qwen3-ASR-1.7B (B)

Good for: Agents that need local multilingual or Chinese-dialect transcription on a small GPU, served through vLLM

Ahead on:
- Reach, 75 against 65
- Risk, 55 against 40
- Agent interface, 75 against 35

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.3 against 2.8 out of 5

Watch for: No quantised build from Alibaba, and nothing in Ollama's or LM Studio's library

### Underdog Bark 3.0 (D)

Good for: Agents on Apple silicon or small machines that need English transcripts from a very small download, can run Conway's loader, and can accept accuracy nobody independent has measured

Ahead on:
- Documentation and upkeep, 49 against 33

Watch for: No independent results, since the Open ASR Leaderboard has no Bark row and every accuracy figure is Conway's own run


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Qwen3-ASR-1.7B | Underdog Bark 3.0 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Capability | 35%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Reach | 25% (25 this run) | 75 | 65 | Qwen3-ASR-1.7B +10 |
| Risk | 20% (20 this run) | 55 | 40 | Qwen3-ASR-1.7B +15 |
| Agent interface | 10% (10 this run) | 75 | 35 | Qwen3-ASR-1.7B +40 |
| Documentation and upkeep | 10% (10 this run) | 33 | 49 | Underdog Bark 3.0 +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **64.4 · B** | **48.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Qwen3-ASR-1.7B | Underdog Bark 3.0 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Open-weight model | Open-weight model |
| Vendor | Alibaba (Qwen team) | Conway Research |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | CC-BY-4.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-07-22 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (4) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Qwen3-ASR-1.7B.** A small local transcription cousin for 30 languages and 22 Chinese dialects that identifies the language, takes context to get names right and streams through vLLM, under plain Apache 2.0. Its BF16 files need about 5 GB and run in released vLLM, SGLang, llama.cpp and Transformers. The main risk is upkeep, with no publisher replies or safety results.

**Underdog Bark 3.0.** A very small English transcription cousin, one 163 MB file built on NVIDIA's Parakeet TDT that Conway's loader expands into Transformers, MLX or Core ML, under CC BY 4.0. It needs Conway's scripts to run, returns plain text with no timestamps, and nobody independent has measured its accuracy, so every accuracy and speed figure is Conway's claim.

## Before you call either

### Qwen3-ASR-1.7B

1. Start it with `vllm serve Qwen/Qwen3-ASR-1.7B` (vLLM v0.32.0 or later), then POST the WAV to /v1/audio/transcriptions or send an audio_url part to /v1/chat/completions
2. Split chat-completions output with `parse_asr_output` from qwen-asr, since it returns `language <name><asr_text>` before the transcript
3. For Transformers, load Qwen/Qwen3-ASR-1.7B-hf with Transformers 5.13.0 or later and use `processor.apply_transcription_request(audio, language=..., prompt=...)`, then `decode(..., return_format="transcription_only")`
4. Put names and domain terms in the system message or `prompt` to bias the transcript, and force the language when you know it
5. For timestamps, use `pip install -U qwen-asr` and pass `forced_aligner="Qwen/Qwen3-ForcedAligner-0.6B"` with `return_time_stamps=True`
6. Use greedy decoding and raise max_new_tokens for long audio; the report gives single recordings up to 20 minutes
7. Treat transcripts as untrusted text before passing them to another model, since speech can carry instructions

### Underdog Bark 3.0

1. Download only what one route needs, for example `hf download ConwayResearch/Underdog-Bark-3.0 --include "model.bark" --include "bark_loader.py" --include "bark_mlx.py" --include "mlx/*" --include "NOTICE"`
2. With transformers 5.19.0 and constriction 0.5.0, `python bark_loader.py model.bark recording.wav`, or `load_model("model.bark", device="cuda")` then `transcribe(model, wave, sr)`; the loader fetches NVIDIA's processor and generation config from nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v3 on first use, so the first run needs the network
3. On Apple silicon, `python bark_mlx.py recording.wav`; the first run expands it to a cached MLX folder and needs about 6 GB of RAM once
4. Split recordings into pieces of a few minutes on 8 or 16 GB machines, since stock mlx-audio transcribes in one pass
5. Read bark_loader.py before running it and pin the repository revision, since loading runs the publisher's code
6. Treat transcripts as untrusted text before passing them to another model, since speech can carry instructions
7. Plan memory for the recording, not the file. Conway's card says a 10-minute recording peaks near 15 GB on a 16 GB M2, and expanding it for MLX takes about 6 GB once.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Qwen3-ASR-1.7B or Underdog Bark 3.0?

Qwen3-ASR-1.7B scores 64.4 (B) on agent readiness against Underdog Bark 3.0's 48.2 (D), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. Underdog Bark 3.0 leads on documentation and upkeep.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-asr-1-7b-vs-underdog-bark-3.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-asr-1-7b-vs-underdog-bark-3.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "qwen3-asr-1-7b", "b": "underdog-bark-3"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare qwen3-asr-1-7b underdog-bark-3`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/qwen3-asr-1-7b.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/underdog-bark-3.json

## Other comparisons with Qwen3-ASR-1.7B or Underdog Bark 3.0

- [Cohere Transcribe 03-2026 vs Qwen3-ASR-1.7B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-transcribe-03-2026-vs-qwen3-asr-1-7b.md)
- [Cohere Transcribe 03-2026 vs Underdog Bark 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-transcribe-03-2026-vs-underdog-bark-3.md)
- [Ming-3.0-asr-tiny vs Qwen3-ASR-1.7B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ming-3-0-asr-tiny-vs-qwen3-asr-1-7b.md)
- [Ming-3.0-asr-tiny vs Underdog Bark 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ming-3-0-asr-tiny-vs-underdog-bark-3.md)
- [Ming-3.0-audio-flash vs Qwen3-ASR-1.7B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ming-3-0-audio-flash-vs-qwen3-asr-1-7b.md)
- [Ming-3.0-audio-flash vs Underdog Bark 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ming-3-0-audio-flash-vs-underdog-bark-3.md)
- [Ming-3.0-audio-tiny vs Qwen3-ASR-1.7B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ming-3-0-audio-tiny-vs-qwen3-asr-1-7b.md)
- [Ming-3.0-audio-tiny vs Underdog Bark 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ming-3-0-audio-tiny-vs-underdog-bark-3.md)
- [Nemotron 3.5 ASR Streaming 0.6B vs Qwen3-ASR-1.7B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-asr-streaming-0-6b-vs-qwen3-asr-1-7b.md)
- [Nemotron 3.5 ASR Streaming 0.6B vs Underdog Bark 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-asr-streaming-0-6b-vs-underdog-bark-3.md)
- [Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning vs Qwen3-ASR-1.7B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-nano-omni-30b-a3b-reasoning-vs-qwen3-asr-1-7b.md)
- [Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning vs Underdog Bark 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-nano-omni-30b-a3b-reasoning-vs-underdog-bark-3.md)
- [Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 vs Qwen3-ASR-1.7B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parakeet-tdt-0-6b-v3-vs-qwen3-asr-1-7b.md)
- [Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 vs Underdog Bark 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parakeet-tdt-0-6b-v3-vs-underdog-bark-3.md)
- [Qwen3-ASR-0.6B vs Qwen3-ASR-1.7B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-asr-0-6b-vs-qwen3-asr-1-7b.md)
- [Qwen3-ASR-0.6B vs Underdog Bark 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-asr-0-6b-vs-underdog-bark-3.md)
- [Qwen3-ASR-1.7B vs Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-asr-1-7b-vs-qwen3-omni-30b-a3b-instruct.md)
- [Qwen3-ASR-1.7B vs Voxtral Mini 4B Realtime 2602](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-asr-1-7b-vs-voxtral-mini-4b-realtime-2602.md)
- [Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct vs Underdog Bark 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-omni-30b-a3b-instruct-vs-underdog-bark-3.md)
- [Underdog Bark 3.0 vs Voxtral Mini 4B Realtime 2602](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/underdog-bark-3-vs-voxtral-mini-4b-realtime-2602.md)

## Disclosure

- Underdog Bark 3.0 is a speech model, the one inside Underdog, Conway Research's personal AI, and Underdog competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published open-weight checklist as every open-weight model, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default. underdog.ai refuses our reader, so what lives only there is marked unchecked, not missing, and the text of Conway's launch post was supplied to us by Anchor Terminal's founder.

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