KittenTTS README

The project's README from github.com/KittenML/KittenTTS. As one markdown file: README.md.

Kitten TTS

Kitten TTS

Hugging Face Demo Discord Website License

New: Free Kitten TTS API available at https://platform.kittenml.com

Kitten TTS is an open-source, lightweight text-to-speech library built on ONNX. With models ranging from 15M to 80M parameters (25-80 MB on disk), it delivers high-quality voice synthesis on CPU without requiring a GPU.

Status: Developer preview -- APIs may change between releases.

Commercial support is available. For integration assistance, custom voices, or enterprise licensing, contact us.

Table of Contents

Features

Available Models

Model Parameters Size Download
kitten-tts-mini 80M 80 MB KittenML/kitten-tts-mini-0.8
kitten-tts-micro 40M 41 MB KittenML/kitten-tts-micro-0.8
kitten-tts-nano 15M 56 MB KittenML/kitten-tts-nano-0.8
kitten-tts-nano (int8) 15M 25 MB KittenML/kitten-tts-nano-0.8-int8

Note: Some users have reported issues with the kitten-tts-nano-0.8-int8 model. If you encounter problems, please open an issue.

Demo

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d80120f2-c751-407e-a166-068dd1dd9e8d

Try it online

Try Kitten TTS directly in your browser on Hugging Face Spaces.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Installation

pip install https://github.com/KittenML/KittenTTS/releases/download/0.8.1/kittentts-0.8.1-py3-none-any.whl

Basic Usage

from kittentts import KittenTTS

model = KittenTTS("KittenML/kitten-tts-mini-0.8")
audio = model.generate("This high-quality TTS model runs without a GPU.", voice="Jasper")

import soundfile as sf
sf.write("output.wav", audio, 24000)

Advanced Usage

# Adjust speech speed (default: 1.0)
audio = model.generate("Hello, world.", voice="Luna", speed=1.2)

# Save directly to a file
model.generate_to_file("Hello, world.", "output.wav", voice="Bruno", speed=0.9)

# List available voices
print(model.available_voices)
# ['Bella', 'Jasper', 'Luna', 'Bruno', 'Rosie', 'Hugo', 'Kiki', 'Leo']

Using with GPU

pip install -r requirements_gpu.txt

m = KittenTTS("KittenML/kitten-tts-mini-0.8", backend="cuda")

Check out example_cuda.py

API Reference

KittenTTS(model_name, cache_dir=None)

Load a model from Hugging Face Hub.

Parameter Type Default Description
model_name str "KittenML/kitten-tts-nano-0.8" Hugging Face repository ID
cache_dir str None Local directory for caching downloaded model files

model.generate(text, voice, speed, clean_text)

Synthesize speech from text, returning a NumPy array of audio samples at 24 kHz.

Parameter Type Default Description
text str -- Input text to synthesize
voice str "expr-voice-5-m" Voice name (see available voices)
speed float 1.0 Speech speed multiplier
clean_text bool False Preprocess text (expand numbers, currencies, etc.)

model.generate_to_file(text, output_path, voice, speed, sample_rate, clean_text)

Synthesize speech and write directly to an audio file.

Parameter Type Default Description
text str -- Input text to synthesize
output_path str -- Path to save the audio file
voice str "expr-voice-5-m" Voice name
speed float 1.0 Speech speed multiplier
sample_rate int 24000 Audio sample rate in Hz
clean_text bool True Preprocess text (expand numbers, currencies, etc.)

normalize_text(text, locale="en-US", return_spans=False)

Normalize text for TTS without generating audio.

from kittentts import normalize_text

normalized = normalize_text("Dr. Rivera paid $12.50 at 3:05 p.m.")
# "Doctor Rivera paid twelve dollars and fifty cents at three oh five p m."

result = normalize_text("Fig. 2", return_spans=True)
print(result.text)
print(result.spans)

When return_spans=True, the result includes original-to-normalized character spans for changed segments such as abbreviations, dates, times, numbers, currency, URLs, and punctuation.

model.available_voices

Returns a list of available voice names: ['Bella', 'Jasper', 'Luna', 'Bruno', 'Rosie', 'Hugo', 'Kiki', 'Leo']

System Requirements

A virtual environment (conda, venv, or similar) is recommended to avoid dependency conflicts.

Roadmap

Commercial Support

We offer commercial support for teams integrating Kitten TTS into their products. This includes integration assistance, custom voice development, and enterprise licensing.

Contact us or email [email protected] to discuss your requirements.

Community and Support

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

KittenTTS (KittenML/KittenTTS)

voice-ai
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16.2K ·GitHub
KittenTTS
What is this?Kitten TTS is an open-source, lightweight text-to-speech library built on ONNX that converts text into natural-sounding speech using tiny 15M-80M parameter models, running entirely on CPU.
Is this a standalone app or a Python library I import?It's a Python library — you install it with pip and call it from your own code via a KittenTTS class, not a standalone application.
How do I get it running?Install via pip following the Installation section, then load a model with KittenTTS(modelname) and call model.generate(text, voice, speed) or generatetofile() to produce audio.
Do I need anything besides Python to run it?Just Python 3.8 or later and pip; a virtual environment is recommended to avoid dependency conflicts, but no extra hardware is required.
Is this ready to use in production?Not fully — the project is labeled a developer preview, meaning its APIs may change between releases, and the int8 nano model specifically has reported issues some users have hit.
Which operating systems does it support?Linux, macOS, and Windows are all supported, since it's just a CPU-based Python/ONNX library.
What voices come built in?Eight built-in voices ship with the library: Bella, Jasper, Luna, Bruno, Rosie, Hugo, Kiki, and Leo.
Can I try it before installing anything?Yes, there's a live demo on Hugging Face Spaces you can test directly in your browser.
Does it support languages other than English?Not yet — multilingual TTS and a dedicated ASR model are both listed on the roadmap but haven't shipped.
How big are the model files?Models range from about 25 MB (int8 nano, 15M params) up to 80 MB (mini, 80M params), small enough for edge deployment.
What are similar projects?MOSS-TTS-Nano, supertonic, VoxCPM, MOSS-TTS, pocket-tts, neutts, sherpa-onnx, LuxTTS
Which topics is it in?tts-model, cpu-inference, voice-ai, on-device, edge-ai, speech-synthesis, onnx, lightweight, text-to-speech, audio, huggingface, apache-2.0
Creator
KittenML
Size
2 MB
Stars
16.2K
Updated
CommitOct 16Release0.8.1Feb 24
Age
1y
Commits · 90 Days