diff --git a/whisperx/__main__.py b/whisperx/__main__.py
index dbb92fc4..cd281125 100644
--- a/whisperx/__main__.py
+++ b/whisperx/__main__.py
@@ -16,10 +16,10 @@ def cli():
     parser.add_argument("--model", default="small", help="name of the Whisper model to use")
     parser.add_argument("--model_cache_only", type=str2bool, default=False, help="If True, will not attempt to download models, instead using cached models from --model_dir")
     parser.add_argument("--model_dir", type=str, default=None, help="the path to save model files; uses ~/.cache/whisper by default")
-    parser.add_argument("--device", default="cuda" if torch.cuda.is_available() else "cpu", help="device to use for PyTorch inference")
+    parser.add_argument("--device", default="cuda" if torch.cuda.is_available() else "cpu", help="device type to use for PyTorch inference (e.g. cpu, cuda)")
     parser.add_argument("--device_index", default=0, type=int, help="device index to use for FasterWhisper inference")
     parser.add_argument("--batch_size", default=8, type=int, help="the preferred batch size for inference")
-    parser.add_argument("--compute_type", default="float16", type=str, choices=["float16", "float32", "int8"], help="compute type for computation")
+    parser.add_argument("--compute_type", default="default", type=str, choices=["default", "float16", "float32", "int8"], help="compute type for computation; 'default' uses float16 on GPU, float32 on CPU")
 
     parser.add_argument("--output_dir", "-o", type=str, default=".", help="directory to save the outputs")
     parser.add_argument("--output_format", "-f", type=str, default="all", choices=["all", "srt", "vtt", "txt", "tsv", "json", "aud"], help="format of the output file; if not specified, all available formats will be produced")
diff --git a/whisperx/asr.py b/whisperx/asr.py
index ea29e56f..a5c80711 100644
--- a/whisperx/asr.py
+++ b/whisperx/asr.py
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ def load_model(
     whisper_arch: str,
     device: str,
     device_index=0,
-    compute_type="float16",
+    compute_type="default",
     asr_options: Optional[dict] = None,
     language: Optional[str] = None,
     vad_model: Optional[Vad]= None,
@@ -331,6 +331,7 @@ def load_model(
         whisper_arch - The name of the Whisper model to load.
         device - The device to load the model on.
         compute_type - The compute type to use for the model.
+            Use "default" to automatically select based on device (float16 for GPU, float32 for CPU).
         vad_model - The vad model to manually assign.
         vad_method - The vad method to use. vad_model has a higher priority if it is not None.
         options - A dictionary of options to use for the model.
@@ -343,6 +344,10 @@ def load_model(
         A Whisper pipeline.
     """
 
+    if compute_type == "default":
+        compute_type = "float16" if device == "cuda" else "float32"
+        logger.info(f"Compute type not specified, defaulting to {compute_type} for device {device}")
+
     if whisper_arch.endswith(".en"):
         language = "en"