diff --git a/whisper/__init__.py b/whisper/__init__.py
index e210718..3ebb451 100644
--- a/whisper/__init__.py
+++ b/whisper/__init__.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ from typing import List, Optional, Union
 
 import torch
 from tqdm import tqdm
+import subprocess
 
 from .audio import load_audio, log_mel_spectrogram, pad_or_trim
 from .decoding import DecodingOptions, DecodingResult, decode, detect_language
@@ -51,7 +52,9 @@ _ALIGNMENT_HEADS = {
 }
 
 
-def _download(url: str, root: str, in_memory: bool) -> Union[bytes, str]:
+
+
+def _download(url: str, root: str, in_memory: bool, use_aria2: bool = True) -> Union[bytes, str]:
     os.makedirs(root, exist_ok=True)
 
     expected_sha256 = url.split("/")[-2]
@@ -61,39 +64,39 @@ def _download(url: str, root: str, in_memory: bool) -> Union[bytes, str]:
         raise RuntimeError(f"{download_target} exists and is not a regular file")
 
     if os.path.isfile(download_target):
-        with open(download_target, "rb") as f:
-            model_bytes = f.read()
+        model_bytes = open(download_target, "rb").read()
         if hashlib.sha256(model_bytes).hexdigest() == expected_sha256:
             return model_bytes if in_memory else download_target
         else:
-            warnings.warn(
-                f"{download_target} exists, but the SHA256 checksum does not match; re-downloading the file"
-            )
+            warnings.warn(f"{download_target} exists, but the SHA256 checksum does not match; re-downloading the file")
 
-    with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as source, open(download_target, "wb") as output:
-        with tqdm(
-            total=int(source.info().get("Content-Length")),
-            ncols=80,
-            unit="iB",
-            unit_scale=True,
-            unit_divisor=1024,
-        ) as loop:
-            while True:
-                buffer = source.read(8192)
-                if not buffer:
-                    break
-
-                output.write(buffer)
-                loop.update(len(buffer))
+    if use_aria2 and _is_aria2_installed():
+        # Use aria2 for downloading with resume capability
+        subprocess.run(["aria2c", "-c", "-d", root, "-o", os.path.basename(url), url])
+    else:
+        with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as source, open(download_target, "wb") as output:
+            with tqdm(total=int(source.info().get("Content-Length")), ncols=80, unit='iB', unit_scale=True, unit_divisor=1024) as loop:
+                while True:
+                    buffer = source.read(8192)
+                    if not buffer:
+                        break
+                    output.write(buffer)
+                    loop.update(len(buffer))
 
     model_bytes = open(download_target, "rb").read()
     if hashlib.sha256(model_bytes).hexdigest() != expected_sha256:
-        raise RuntimeError(
-            "Model has been downloaded but the SHA256 checksum does not not match. Please retry loading the model."
-        )
+        raise RuntimeError("Model has been downloaded but the SHA256 checksum does not not match. Please retry loading the model.")
 
     return model_bytes if in_memory else download_target
 
+def _is_aria2_installed() -> bool:
+    try:
+        subprocess.run(["aria2c", "--version"], capture_output=True, check=True)
+        return True
+    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
+        return False
+
+
 
 def available_models() -> List[str]:
     """Returns the names of available models"""