diff --git a/src-tauri/src/transcription/mod.rs b/src-tauri/src/transcription/mod.rs
index 0389aad..a8d3552 100644
--- a/src-tauri/src/transcription/mod.rs
+++ b/src-tauri/src/transcription/mod.rs
@@ -85,6 +85,16 @@ impl WhisperTranscriber {
         params.set_suppress_blank(true);
         params.set_single_segment(single_segment);
 
+        if single_segment {
+            // whisper.cpp's encoder always runs over a full, padded 30s mel
+            // window (1500 encoder positions) unless audio_ctx is reduced —
+            // without this, every ~4s streaming window was paying the full
+            // 30s-equivalent encode cost, on one serial worker thread, which
+            // is what turned into the reported 30-65s live-transcription lag
+            // (not "CPU is just slow").
+            params.set_audio_ctx(audio_ctx_for_window(samples.len()));
+        }
+
         state
             .full(params, samples)
             .map_err(|e| TrxError::Inference(e.to_string()))?;
@@ -176,6 +186,18 @@ fn available_threads() -> std::ffi::c_int {
         .unwrap_or(4)
 }
 
+/// whisper.cpp's `audio_ctx` is in encoder-position units, where 1500
+/// positions correspond to its default 30s padded mel window — scaling it
+/// proportionally to a streaming window's real sample count means a ~4s
+/// window pays roughly 4/30 of the encoder cost instead of the full 30s
+/// equivalent every time. Floored well above zero: too small a context
+/// produces garbage decodes, per whisper.cpp's own streaming example.
+#[cfg(feature = "cpu-transcription")]
+fn audio_ctx_for_window(n_samples: usize) -> i32 {
+    let window_secs = n_samples as f32 / 16_000.0;
+    ((window_secs / 30.0) * 1500.0).ceil().clamp(64.0, 1500.0) as i32
+}
+
 /// ONNX Runtime + DirectML transcriber for the NPU tier (T3.4).
 ///
 /// ponytail: the encoder/decoder inference loop (ORT session + DirectML
@@ -262,3 +284,31 @@ where
         run_window(transcriber, buf, offset_ms, &mut on_segment);
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+#[cfg(feature = "cpu-transcription")]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn audio_ctx_scales_proportionally_to_window_length() {
+        // The actual streaming WINDOW_SECS (4.0) -> ~200 (201 after `.ceil()`
+        // absorbs f32's rounding of the non-exact 4/30 fraction), well below
+        // the 1500 full-30s-equivalent default this bug used to pay on every
+        // window.
+        assert_eq!(audio_ctx_for_window(4 * 16_000), 201);
+        assert_eq!(audio_ctx_for_window(30 * 16_000), 1500);
+        assert_eq!(audio_ctx_for_window(15 * 16_000), 750);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn audio_ctx_is_floored_for_very_short_windows() {
+        assert_eq!(audio_ctx_for_window(1600), 64); // 0.1s would compute to 5
+        assert_eq!(audio_ctx_for_window(0), 64);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn audio_ctx_is_capped_at_whispers_own_maximum() {
+        assert_eq!(audio_ctx_for_window(60 * 16_000), 1500); // 60s window
+    }
+}