diff --git a/src/islands/media/VoiceToText.tsx b/src/islands/media/VoiceToText.tsx
index d77c749..0e9ab34 100644
--- a/src/islands/media/VoiceToText.tsx
+++ b/src/islands/media/VoiceToText.tsx
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ import { CopyButton } from '@/components/ui/CopyButton';
 import { downloadService } from '@/services/download';
 import { useAudioRecorder } from '@/hooks/useAudioRecorder';
 import { decodeToMono16k } from '@/tools/media/stt-audio.lib';
-import { createTranscriber, type SttModelId } from '@/tools/media/stt.engine';
+import { transcribeInWorker } from '@/tools/media/stt.client';
+import { type SttModelId } from '@/tools/media/stt.engine';
 import {
   segmentsToText,
   segmentsToSrt,
@@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ export default function VoiceToText() {
   const [language, setLanguage] = useState('');
   const [modelProgress, setModelProgress] = useState<number | null>(null);
   const [transcribing, setTranscribing] = useState(false);
+  const [elapsed, setElapsed] = useState(0);
   const [segments, setSegments] = useState<TranscriptSegment[] | null>(null);
   const [editedText, setEditedText] = useState('');
   const [tab, setTab] = useState<Tab>('text');
@@ -77,6 +79,21 @@ export default function VoiceToText() {
   // Revoke the preview URL on unmount.
   useEffect(() => () => { if (urlRef.current) URL.revokeObjectURL(urlRef.current); }, []);
 
+  // Ask the browser to keep this origin's storage persistent, so the (potentially
+  // large) cached Whisper model isn't evicted between sessions and re-downloaded.
+  useEffect(() => {
+    navigator.storage?.persist?.().catch(() => {});
+  }, []);
+
+  // Tick an elapsed counter while transcribing (the worker keeps the UI responsive).
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (!transcribing) return;
+    setElapsed(0);
+    const started = Date.now();
+    const id = setInterval(() => setElapsed(Math.floor((Date.now() - started) / 1000)), 1000);
+    return () => clearInterval(id);
+  }, [transcribing]);
+
   const setAudio = (blob: Blob) => {
     if (urlRef.current) URL.revokeObjectURL(urlRef.current);
     const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
@@ -123,10 +140,14 @@ export default function VoiceToText() {
     setModelProgress(null); // only shows once real download progress fires (first load)
     try {
       const audio = await decodeToMono16k(audioBlob);
-      const engine = await createTranscriber(model, r => setModelProgress(r));
-      setModelProgress(null); // model ready (or cached) — now inference (indeterminate)
       const isMultilingual = MODELS.find(m => m.value === model)?.multilingual;
-      const segs = await engine.transcribe(audio, { language: isMultilingual ? language || undefined : undefined });
+      const segs = await transcribeInWorker(
+        audio,
+        model,
+        isMultilingual ? language || undefined : undefined,
+        r => setModelProgress(r),
+      );
+      setModelProgress(null); // model ready (or cached) — now inference (indeterminate)
       setSegments(segs);
       setEditedText(segmentsToText(segs));
       setTab('text');
@@ -231,7 +252,12 @@ export default function VoiceToText() {
         <ProgressBar percent={modelProgress * 100} label="Downloading model (first time only)" />
       )}
       {busy && modelProgress === null && (
-        <p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">Transcribing on your device… this can take a moment.</p>
+        <p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
+          Transcribing on your device… ({formatClock(elapsed)})
+          {MODELS.find(m => m.value === model)?.value === 'onnx-community/whisper-small'
+            ? ' — the “Better” model is much slower, especially on phones; a short clip can take a few minutes.'
+            : ' this can take a moment.'}
+        </p>
       )}
 
       {error && <Alert variant="error">{error}</Alert>}
diff --git a/src/tools/media/stt.client.ts b/src/tools/media/stt.client.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..111778f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tools/media/stt.client.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+import type { SttModelId } from './stt.engine';
+import type { TranscriptSegment } from './stt.lib';
+
+// A single long-lived worker so the model cache inside it persists across runs.
+let worker: Worker | null = null;
+
+function getWorker(): Worker {
+  if (!worker) {
+    worker = new Worker(new URL('./stt.worker.ts', import.meta.url), { type: 'module' });
+  }
+  return worker;
+}
+
+interface ProgressMsg { type: 'progress'; ratio: number }
+interface ReadyMsg { type: 'ready' }
+interface ResultMsg { type: 'result'; segments: TranscriptSegment[] }
+interface ErrorMsg { type: 'error'; message: string }
+type WorkerMsg = ProgressMsg | ReadyMsg | ResultMsg | ErrorMsg;
+
+/**
+ * Transcribe on a background worker so the main thread (UI) stays responsive.
+ * `onProgress` reports model-download progress (0..1). Resolves with the segments.
+ */
+export function transcribeInWorker(
+  audio: Float32Array,
+  model: SttModelId,
+  language: string | undefined,
+  onProgress?: (ratio: number) => void,
+): Promise<TranscriptSegment[]> {
+  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+    const w = getWorker();
+    const onMessage = (e: MessageEvent<WorkerMsg>) => {
+      const m = e.data;
+      if (m.type === 'progress') onProgress?.(m.ratio);
+      else if (m.type === 'result') { cleanup(); resolve(m.segments); }
+      else if (m.type === 'error') { cleanup(); reject(new Error(m.message)); }
+    };
+    const onError = () => { cleanup(); reject(new Error('The transcription worker crashed.')); };
+    const cleanup = () => {
+      w.removeEventListener('message', onMessage as EventListener);
+      w.removeEventListener('error', onError);
+    };
+    w.addEventListener('message', onMessage as EventListener);
+    w.addEventListener('error', onError);
+    // Transfer the audio buffer to avoid a copy (we don't reuse it on this side).
+    w.postMessage({ audio, model, language }, [audio.buffer]);
+  });
+}
diff --git a/src/tools/media/stt.worker.ts b/src/tools/media/stt.worker.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..63560a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tools/media/stt.worker.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+// Runs Whisper transcription off the main thread so the UI never freezes during
+// inference (which can take a while for larger models on WASM/CPU).
+import { createTranscriber, type SttModelId } from './stt.engine';
+
+interface WorkerCtx {
+  postMessage(msg: unknown): void;
+  onmessage: ((e: MessageEvent) => void) | null;
+}
+const ctx = self as unknown as WorkerCtx;
+
+interface Req { audio: Float32Array; model: SttModelId; language?: string }
+
+ctx.onmessage = async (e: MessageEvent<Req>) => {
+  const { audio, model, language } = e.data;
+  try {
+    const engine = await createTranscriber(model, r => ctx.postMessage({ type: 'progress', ratio: r }));
+    ctx.postMessage({ type: 'ready' });
+    const segments = await engine.transcribe(audio, { language });
+    ctx.postMessage({ type: 'result', segments });
+  } catch (err) {
+    ctx.postMessage({ type: 'error', message: err instanceof Error ? err.message : 'Transcription failed' });
+  }
+};