diff --git a/scraibe/cli.py b/scraibe/cli.py
index df73d1b..e4eeaad 100644
--- a/scraibe/cli.py
+++ b/scraibe/cli.py
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ import json
 from argparse import ArgumentParser, ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter
 from whisper.tokenizer import LANGUAGES, TO_LANGUAGE_CODE
 from torch.cuda import is_available
-from torch import set_num_threads
 from .autotranscript import Scraibe
+from .misc import set_threads
 
 def cli():
     """
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ def cli():
                         default="cuda" if is_available() else "cpu",
                         help="Device to use for PyTorch inference.")
 
-    parser.add_argument("--num-threads", type=int, default=0,
+    parser.add_argument("--num-threads", type=int, default=None,
                         help="Number of threads used by torch for CPU inference; '\
                             'overrides MKL_NUM_THREADS/OMP_NUM_THREADS.")
 
@@ -94,8 +94,7 @@ def cli():
 
     task = arg_dict.pop("task")
 
-    if args.num_threads > 0:
-        set_num_threads(arg_dict.pop("num_threads"))
+    set_threads(arg_dict.pop("num_threads"))
 
     class_kwargs = {'whisper_model': arg_dict.pop("whisper_model_name"),
                     'whisper_type':arg_dict.pop("whisper_type"),
diff --git a/scraibe/misc.py b/scraibe/misc.py
index 4f5ab1a..f5d2bfe 100644
--- a/scraibe/misc.py
+++ b/scraibe/misc.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import yaml
 from argparse import Action
 from ast import literal_eval
 from torch.cuda import is_available
+from torch import get_num_threads, set_num_threads
 
 CACHE_DIR = os.getenv(
     "AUTOT_CACHE",
@@ -21,6 +22,8 @@ PYANNOTE_DEFAULT_CONFIG = os.path.join(PYANNOTE_DEFAULT_PATH, "config.yaml") \
 
 SCRAIBE_TORCH_DEVICE =  os.getenv("SCRAIBE_TORCH_DEVICE", "cuda" if is_available() else "cpu")
 
+SCRAIBE_NUM_THREADS = os.getenv("SCRAIBE_NUM_THREADS", min(8, get_num_threads()))
+
 def config_diarization_yaml(file_path: str, path_to_segmentation: str = None) -> None:
     """Configure diarization pipeline from a YAML file.
 
@@ -49,6 +52,27 @@ def config_diarization_yaml(file_path: str, path_to_segmentation: str = None) ->
         yaml.dump(yml, stream)
 
 
+def set_threads(parse_threads=None,
+                yaml_threads=None):
+    global SCRAIBE_NUM_THREADS
+    if parse_threads is not None:
+        if not isinstance(parse_threads, int):
+            # probably covered with int type of parser arg
+            raise ValueError(f"Type of --num-threads must be int, but the type is {type(parse_threads)}")
+        elif parse_threads < 1:
+            raise ValueError(f"Number of threads must be a positive integer, {parse_threads} was given")
+        else:
+            set_num_threads(parse_threads)
+            SCRAIBE_NUM_THREADS = parse_threads
+    elif yaml_threads is not None:
+        if not isinstance(yaml_threads, int):
+            raise ValueError(f"Type of num_threads must be int, but the type is {type(yaml_threads)}")
+        elif yaml_threads < 1:
+            raise ValueError(f"Number of threads must be a positive integer, {yaml_threads} was given")
+        else:
+            set_num_threads(yaml_threads)
+            SCRAIBE_NUM_THREADS = yaml_threads
+
 class ParseKwargs(Action):
     """
     Custom argparse action to parse keyword arguments.
diff --git a/scraibe/transcriber.py b/scraibe/transcriber.py
index 040b79d..bc341dc 100644
--- a/scraibe/transcriber.py
+++ b/scraibe/transcriber.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ from inspect import signature
 from abc import abstractmethod
 import warnings
 
-from .misc import WHISPER_DEFAULT_PATH, SCRAIBE_TORCH_DEVICE
+from .misc import WHISPER_DEFAULT_PATH, SCRAIBE_TORCH_DEVICE, SCRAIBE_NUM_THREADS
 whisper = TypeVar('whisper')
 
 
@@ -348,7 +348,8 @@ class FasterWhisperTranscriber(Transcriber):
                           f'device {device}! Changing compute type to int8.')
             compute_type = 'int8'
         _model = FasterWhisperModel(model, download_root=download_root,
-                                    device=device, compute_type=compute_type)
+                                    device=device, compute_type=compute_type, 
+                                    cpu_threads=SCRAIBE_NUM_THREADS)
 
         return cls(_model, model_name=model)