diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 52f1522..1574b42 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -99,6 +99,8 @@ VITE_REVERB_SCHEME=http
 LOCAL_WHISPER_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8090/v1
 LOCAL_WHISPER_API_KEY=not-needed
 LOCAL_WHISPER_MODEL=Systran/faster-whisper-base
+# curl streams large uploads off disk; http is for tests (Http::fake)
+LOCAL_WHISPER_TRANSPORT=curl
 TRANSCRIPTION_TIMEOUT=600
 # Must be greater than TRANSCRIPTION_TIMEOUT so long Whisper jobs are not re-queued mid-run
 DB_QUEUE_RETRY_AFTER=660
diff --git a/app/Services/LocalWhisperCurlClient.php b/app/Services/LocalWhisperCurlClient.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5abd258
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/Services/LocalWhisperCurlClient.php
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace App\Services;
+
+use Closure;
+use CURLFile;
+use RuntimeException;
+
+/**
+ * Streams large audio uploads to Whisper with curl (disk → network),
+ * and delivers response body chunks without buffering the request in PHP.
+ *
+ * Laravel Http's stream => true uses Guzzle's StreamHandler, which casts the
+ * multipart body to a string and OOMs on big recordings.
+ */
+class LocalWhisperCurlClient
+{
+    /**
+     * POST /audio/transcriptions and stream the response body.
+     *
+     * @param  Closure(string): bool  $onBodyChunk  Return false to abort the transfer.
+     * @param  Closure(string): void|null  $onContentType  Invoked when the response Content-Type header arrives.
+     * @return array{status: int, content_type: string}
+     */
+    public function streamTranscription(
+        string $url,
+        string $apiKey,
+        string $path,
+        string $filename,
+        string $mimeType,
+        string $model,
+        int $timeout,
+        Closure $onBodyChunk,
+        ?Closure $onContentType = null,
+    ): array {
+        if (! function_exists('curl_init')) {
+            throw new RuntimeException('The curl PHP extension is required for local Whisper transcription.');
+        }
+
+        $contentType = '';
+        $abort = false;
+
+        $handle = curl_init($url);
+
+        if ($handle === false) {
+            throw new RuntimeException('Unable to initialize curl for local Whisper.');
+        }
+
+        try {
+            curl_setopt_array($handle, [
+                CURLOPT_POST => true,
+                CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
+                    'Authorization: Bearer '.$apiKey,
+                    'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream',
+                ],
+                CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
+                    'file' => new CURLFile($path, $mimeType, $filename),
+                    'model' => $model,
+                    'response_format' => 'verbose_json',
+                    'stream' => 'true',
+                    'without_timestamps' => 'false',
+                    'timestamp_granularities[]' => 'word',
+                ],
+                CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => false,
+                CURLOPT_HEADER => false,
+                CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => max(1, $timeout),
+                CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => 10,
+                CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION => static function ($ch, string $header) use (&$contentType, $onContentType): int {
+                    if (stripos($header, 'Content-Type:') === 0) {
+                        $contentType = trim(substr($header, strlen('Content-Type:')));
+
+                        if ($onContentType !== null) {
+                            $onContentType($contentType);
+                        }
+                    }
+
+                    return strlen($header);
+                },
+                CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION => static function ($ch, string $chunk) use ($onBodyChunk, &$abort): int {
+                    if ($abort) {
+                        return 0;
+                    }
+
+                    if ($onBodyChunk($chunk) === false) {
+                        $abort = true;
+
+                        return 0;
+                    }
+
+                    return strlen($chunk);
+                },
+            ]);
+
+            $ok = curl_exec($handle);
+            $errno = curl_errno($handle);
+            $error = curl_error($handle);
+            $status = (int) curl_getinfo($handle, CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE);
+
+            if ($abort) {
+                return [
+                    'status' => $status > 0 ? $status : 499,
+                    'content_type' => $contentType,
+                ];
+            }
+
+            if ($ok === false && $errno !== 0) {
+                throw new RuntimeException(
+                    'Local transcription request failed: '.$error.' (curl '.$errno.')'
+                );
+            }
+
+            return [
+                'status' => $status,
+                'content_type' => $contentType,
+            ];
+        } finally {
+            curl_close($handle);
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/app/Services/TranscriptionService.php b/app/Services/TranscriptionService.php
index 2dddf38..e8cd536 100644
--- a/app/Services/TranscriptionService.php
+++ b/app/Services/TranscriptionService.php
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ namespace App\Services;
 use App\Models\Recording;
 use Closure;
 use Illuminate\Http\Client\PendingRequest;
-use Illuminate\Http\Client\Response;
 use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
 use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Log;
 use Laravel\Ai\Transcription;
@@ -13,7 +12,10 @@ use RuntimeException;
 
 class TranscriptionService
 {
-    public function __construct(private WhisperTranscriptionStream $stream) {}
+    public function __construct(
+        private WhisperTranscriptionStream $stream,
+        private LocalWhisperCurlClient $curl,
+    ) {}
 
     /**
      * Transcribe a recording with the local faster-whisper server.
@@ -56,8 +58,31 @@ class TranscriptionService
         $message = "Transcribing locally with {$model} (audio stays on this machine)…";
         $filename = $recording->original_filename ?: basename($path);
 
+        if ($this->usesHttpTransport()) {
+            return $this->transcribeViaHttp($recording, $report, $message, $model, $filename, $path, $shouldContinue);
+        }
+
+        return $this->transcribeViaCurl($recording, $report, $message, $model, $filename, $path, $shouldContinue);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Laravel Http client path (used in tests via Http::fake).
+     *
+     * Does not set Guzzle stream => true, which would string-cast the multipart upload.
+     *
+     * @param  Closure(string, int, ?string, ?array): void  $report
+     * @param  (Closure(): bool)|null  $shouldContinue
+     */
+    private function transcribeViaHttp(
+        Recording $recording,
+        Closure $report,
+        string $message,
+        string $model,
+        string $filename,
+        string $path,
+        ?Closure $shouldContinue,
+    ): string {
         $response = $this->localWhisperRequest($filename, $path)
-            ->withOptions(['stream' => true])
             ->post('audio/transcriptions', [
                 'model' => $model,
                 'response_format' => 'verbose_json',
@@ -68,7 +93,7 @@ class TranscriptionService
 
         if (! $response->successful()) {
             throw new RuntimeException(
-                'Local transcription failed (HTTP '.$response->status().'): '.$response->body()
+                'Local transcription failed (HTTP '.$response->status().'): '.$this->truncateBody($response->body())
             );
         }
 
@@ -78,54 +103,92 @@ class TranscriptionService
             Log::warning('Whisper did not stream SSE; falling back to a single JSON body', [
                 'recording_id' => $recording->id,
                 'content_type' => $contentType,
+                'transport' => 'http',
             ]);
 
-            return $this->extractTranscriptText($response, $report, $message);
+            return $this->extractTranscriptText($response->json(), $report, $message);
         }
 
-        return $this->consumeWhisperStream($response, $report, $message, $recording, $shouldContinue);
+        return $this->consumeSseBody($response->body(), $report, $message, $recording, $shouldContinue);
     }
 
     /**
+     * Curl path for production: streams the file upload and SSE response chunks.
+     *
      * @param  Closure(string, int, ?string, ?array): void  $report
      * @param  (Closure(): bool)|null  $shouldContinue
      */
-    private function consumeWhisperStream(
-        Response $response,
+    private function transcribeViaCurl(
+        Recording $recording,
         Closure $report,
         string $message,
-        Recording $recording,
+        string $model,
+        string $filename,
+        string $path,
         ?Closure $shouldContinue,
     ): string {
-        $body = $response->toPsrResponse()->getBody();
+        $config = config('ai.providers.local-whisper');
+        $baseUrl = rtrim((string) ($config['url'] ?? 'http://127.0.0.1:8090/v1'), '/');
+        $timeout = (int) config('ai.transcription_timeout', 600);
+        $apiKey = (string) ($config['key'] ?? 'not-needed');
+
         $buffer = '';
+        $rawBody = '';
         $accumulated = '';
         $lastPercent = 0;
-        $idleReads = 0;
+        $isSse = null;
 
-        try {
-            while (! $body->eof()) {
+        $result = $this->curl->streamTranscription(
+            $baseUrl.'/audio/transcriptions',
+            $apiKey,
+            $path,
+            $filename,
+            $recording->audioMimeType(),
+            $model,
+            $timeout,
+            function (string $chunk) use (
+                &$buffer,
+                &$rawBody,
+                &$accumulated,
+                &$lastPercent,
+                &$isSse,
+                $report,
+                $message,
+                $recording,
+                $shouldContinue,
+            ): bool {
                 if ($shouldContinue !== null && ! $shouldContinue()) {
-                    $body->close();
-
-                    break;
+                    return false;
                 }
 
-                $chunk = $body->read(8192);
+                if ($isSse === null) {
+                    $rawBody .= $chunk;
 
-                if ($chunk === '') {
-                    $idleReads++;
+                    return true;
+                }
 
-                    if ($idleReads >= 40) {
-                        break;
+                if ($isSse === false) {
+                    $rawBody .= $chunk;
+
+                    return true;
+                }
+
+                if ($rawBody !== '') {
+                    $buffer .= $rawBody;
+                    $rawBody = '';
+
+                    foreach ($this->stream->extractPayloads($buffer) as $payload) {
+                        [$accumulated, $lastPercent] = $this->ingestEvent(
+                            $payload,
+                            $accumulated,
+                            $lastPercent,
+                            $recording,
+                            $report,
+                            $message,
+                        );
                     }
-
-                    usleep(50_000);
-
-                    continue;
                 }
 
-                $idleReads = 0;
                 $buffer .= $chunk;
 
                 foreach ($this->stream->extractPayloads($buffer) as $payload) {
@@ -138,20 +201,113 @@ class TranscriptionService
                         $message,
                     );
                 }
-            }
 
-            foreach ($this->stream->flushBuffer($buffer) as $payload) {
-                [$accumulated, $lastPercent] = $this->ingestEvent(
-                    $payload,
-                    $accumulated,
-                    $lastPercent,
-                    $recording,
-                    $report,
-                    $message,
-                );
-            }
-        } finally {
-            $response->close();
+                return true;
+            },
+            function (string $contentType) use (&$isSse): void {
+                $isSse = str_contains(strtolower($contentType), 'text/event-stream');
+            },
+        );
+
+        if ($result['status'] >= 400 || $result['status'] === 0) {
+            throw new RuntimeException(
+                'Local transcription failed (HTTP '.$result['status'].'): '.$this->truncateBody($rawBody)
+            );
+        }
+
+        $contentType = strtolower($result['content_type']);
+        $isSse ??= str_contains($contentType, 'text/event-stream');
+
+        if (! $isSse) {
+            Log::warning('Whisper did not stream SSE; falling back to a single JSON body', [
+                'recording_id' => $recording->id,
+                'content_type' => $contentType,
+                'transport' => 'curl',
+            ]);
+
+            $json = json_decode($rawBody, true);
+
+            return $this->extractTranscriptText(is_array($json) ? $json : null, $report, $message);
+        }
+
+        if ($rawBody !== '') {
+            $buffer .= $rawBody;
+            $rawBody = '';
+        }
+
+        foreach ($this->stream->extractPayloads($buffer) as $payload) {
+            [$accumulated, $lastPercent] = $this->ingestEvent(
+                $payload,
+                $accumulated,
+                $lastPercent,
+                $recording,
+                $report,
+                $message,
+            );
+        }
+
+        foreach ($this->stream->flushBuffer($buffer) as $payload) {
+            [$accumulated, $lastPercent] = $this->ingestEvent(
+                $payload,
+                $accumulated,
+                $lastPercent,
+                $recording,
+                $report,
+                $message,
+            );
+        }
+
+        if ($accumulated === '') {
+            throw new RuntimeException('Local transcription returned an empty transcript.');
+        }
+
+        return $accumulated;
+    }
+
+    private function usesHttpTransport(): bool
+    {
+        return config('ai.local_whisper_transport', 'curl') === 'http';
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @param  Closure(string, int, ?string, ?array): void  $report
+     * @param  (Closure(): bool)|null  $shouldContinue
+     */
+    private function consumeSseBody(
+        string $body,
+        Closure $report,
+        string $message,
+        Recording $recording,
+        ?Closure $shouldContinue,
+    ): string {
+        if ($shouldContinue !== null && ! $shouldContinue()) {
+            throw new RuntimeException('Local transcription returned an empty transcript.');
+        }
+
+        $buffer = $body;
+        $accumulated = '';
+        $lastPercent = 0;
+
+        foreach ($this->stream->extractPayloads($buffer) as $payload) {
+            [$accumulated, $lastPercent] = $this->ingestEvent(
+                $payload,
+                $accumulated,
+                $lastPercent,
+                $recording,
+                $report,
+                $message,
+            );
+        }
+
+        foreach ($this->stream->flushBuffer($buffer) as $payload) {
+            [$accumulated, $lastPercent] = $this->ingestEvent(
+                $payload,
+                $accumulated,
+                $lastPercent,
+                $recording,
+                $report,
+                $message,
+            );
         }
 
         if ($accumulated === '') {
@@ -227,12 +383,11 @@ class TranscriptionService
     }
 
     /**
+     * @param  array<string, mixed>|null  $json
      * @param  Closure(string, int, ?string, ?array): void  $report
      */
-    private function extractTranscriptText(Response $response, ?Closure $report = null, string $message = ''): string
+    private function extractTranscriptText(?array $json, ?Closure $report = null, string $message = ''): string
     {
-        $json = $response->json();
-
         if (! is_array($json)) {
             throw new RuntimeException('Local transcription returned an empty transcript.');
         }
@@ -251,4 +406,15 @@ class TranscriptionService
 
         return $text;
     }
+
+    private function truncateBody(string $body): string
+    {
+        $body = trim($body);
+
+        if (strlen($body) <= 2000) {
+            return $body;
+        }
+
+        return substr($body, 0, 2000).'…';
+    }
 }
diff --git a/config/ai.php b/config/ai.php
index e2c9557..40ec538 100644
--- a/config/ai.php
+++ b/config/ai.php
@@ -29,6 +29,12 @@ return [
     'transcription_timeout' => (int) env('TRANSCRIPTION_TIMEOUT', 600),
     'local_whisper_model' => env('LOCAL_WHISPER_MODEL', 'Systran/faster-whisper-base'),
 
+    /*
+    | "curl" streams large uploads off disk (default). "http" uses Laravel's
+    | HTTP client and is intended for Http::fake() in tests.
+    */
+    'local_whisper_transport' => env('LOCAL_WHISPER_TRANSPORT', 'curl'),
+
     /*
     |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
     | Caching
diff --git a/phpunit.xml b/phpunit.xml
index 628b887..c95f3bf 100644
--- a/phpunit.xml
+++ b/phpunit.xml
@@ -36,5 +36,6 @@
         <env name="REVERB_PUBLIC_HOST" value="reverb.testing.example" force="true"/>
         <env name="REVERB_PUBLIC_PORT" value="443" force="true"/>
         <env name="REVERB_PUBLIC_SCHEME" value="https" force="true"/>
+        <env name="LOCAL_WHISPER_TRANSPORT" value="http"/>
     </php>
 </phpunit>
diff --git a/tests/Feature/LocalWhisperCurlTransportTest.php b/tests/Feature/LocalWhisperCurlTransportTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bc727e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Feature/LocalWhisperCurlTransportTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Tests\Feature;
+
+use App\Models\Recording;
+use App\Models\User;
+use App\Services\TranscriptionService;
+use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;
+use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Process;
+use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
+use Tests\TestCase;
+
+class LocalWhisperCurlTransportTest extends TestCase
+{
+    use RefreshDatabase;
+
+    public function test_curl_transport_streams_sse_from_real_http_endpoint(): void
+    {
+        if (! function_exists('curl_init')) {
+            $this->markTestSkipped('curl extension required');
+        }
+
+        Storage::fake('local');
+        Storage::disk('local')->put('recordings/large.mp3', str_repeat('A', 2_000_000));
+
+        $stub = base_path('tests/fixtures/whisper-sse-stub.php');
+        $host = '127.0.0.1';
+        $port = $this->reservePort($host);
+        $docRoot = base_path('tests/fixtures');
+
+        $server = Process::timeout(30)
+            ->path($docRoot)
+            ->start([
+                PHP_BINARY,
+                '-S',
+                "{$host}:{$port}",
+                'whisper-sse-stub.php',
+            ]);
+
+        try {
+            $this->waitForServer($host, $port);
+
+            config([
+                'ai.local_whisper_transport' => 'curl',
+                'ai.providers.local-whisper.url' => "http://{$host}:{$port}/v1",
+                'ai.providers.local-whisper.key' => 'test-key',
+            ]);
+
+            $user = User::factory()->create();
+            $recording = Recording::query()->create([
+                'user_id' => $user->id,
+                'title' => 'Curl transport',
+                'original_filename' => 'large.mp3',
+                'file_path' => 'recordings/large.mp3',
+                'file_size_bytes' => 2_000_000,
+                'duration_seconds' => 40,
+                'transcription_status' => 'processing',
+                'transcription_driver' => 'local',
+            ]);
+
+            $partials = [];
+
+            $text = app(TranscriptionService::class)->transcribe(
+                $recording,
+                function (string $message, int $percent, ?string $partial = null) use (&$partials): void {
+                    if ($partial !== null) {
+                        $partials[] = $partial;
+                    }
+                },
+            );
+
+            $this->assertSame('Hello from whisper.', $text);
+            $this->assertContains('Hello ', $partials);
+            $this->assertContains('Hello from whisper.', $partials);
+        } finally {
+            $server->signal(SIGTERM);
+            $server->wait();
+        }
+    }
+
+    private function reservePort(string $host): int
+    {
+        $socket = stream_socket_server("tcp://{$host}:0");
+
+        if ($socket === false) {
+            $this->fail('Unable to reserve a local TCP port for the Whisper stub.');
+        }
+
+        $name = stream_socket_get_name($socket, false);
+        fclose($socket);
+
+        if (! is_string($name) || ! str_contains($name, ':')) {
+            $this->fail('Unable to determine reserved port.');
+        }
+
+        return (int) substr($name, strrpos($name, ':') + 1);
+    }
+
+    private function waitForServer(string $host, int $port): void
+    {
+        $deadline = microtime(true) + 5;
+
+        while (microtime(true) < $deadline) {
+            $errno = 0;
+            $errstr = '';
+            $fp = @fsockopen($host, $port, $errno, $errstr, 0.2);
+
+            if (is_resource($fp)) {
+                fclose($fp);
+
+                return;
+            }
+
+            usleep(50_000);
+        }
+
+        $this->fail("Whisper stub server did not start on {$host}:{$port}");
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/whisper-sse-stub.php b/tests/fixtures/whisper-sse-stub.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39ed6f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/whisper-sse-stub.php
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+<?php
+
+/**
+ * Tiny Whisper-compatible stub for curl transport tests.
+ * Speaks OpenAI-style /v1/audio/transcriptions SSE.
+ */
+$uri = parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ?? '/', PHP_URL_PATH) ?: '/';
+
+if ($uri !== '/v1/audio/transcriptions' && $uri !== '/audio/transcriptions') {
+    http_response_code(404);
+    header('Content-Type: application/json');
+    echo '{"error":"not found"}';
+
+    return;
+}
+
+// Drain the multipart body without keeping it in a string longer than needed.
+$stdin = fopen('php://input', 'rb');
+if (is_resource($stdin)) {
+    while (! feof($stdin)) {
+        fread($stdin, 8192);
+    }
+    fclose($stdin);
+}
+
+header('Content-Type: text/event-stream');
+header('Cache-Control: no-cache');
+
+echo "data: {\"type\":\"transcript.text.delta\",\"delta\":\"Hello \",\"end\":10}\n\n";
+echo "data: {\"type\":\"transcript.text.delta\",\"delta\":\"from whisper.\",\"end\":30}\n\n";
+echo "data: {\"type\":\"transcript.text.done\",\"text\":\"Hello from whisper.\",\"end\":40}\n\n";
+flush();