Kyutai Pocket TTS
Small CPU-only TTS with voice cloning: ~200 ms to first audio chunk and ~6x real time on a MacBook Air M4 using 2 cores. Six languages.
Overview
Best for: On-device or cheap CPU servers needing cloning in European languages.
At a glance
200 ms to first chunk on a MacBook Air M4 CPU (2 cores), no GPU needed. Gated download.
Text plus voice prompt
PCM tensor at tts_model.sample_rate
en, fr, de, pt, it, es (model card)
Pre-made voices and cloning from a local wav
README: ~200 ms to first audio chunk; ~6x real time on M4 CPU with 2 cores.
Wherever you deploy it
Your own deployment; no vendor data processing
CPU (2 cores); no GPU needed
CC-BY-4.0 (model card)
Features
- CPU only
- audio streaming
- voice cloning
- built-in 'serve' command
Pricing
| What | Price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Weights | $0 |
Self-hosted: cost is your GPU/CPU time, not per character
Free tier: Open weights
Source: huggingface.co
Setup
- pip install pocket-tts (on Linux use the CPU PyTorch index).
- Accept the gated model on Hugging Face.
- Use the Python API or 'pocket-tts serve'.
Endpoint
LocalAuthentication
Hugging Face token
Quick start python
# pip install pocket-tts
from pocket_tts import TTSModel
import scipy.io.wavfile
tts_model = TTSModel.load_model()
voice_state = tts_model.get_state_for_audio_prompt("alba") # or a local wav to clone
audio = tts_model.generate_audio(voice_state, "Hello world, this is a test.")
scipy.io.wavfile.write("output.wav", tts_model.sample_rate, audio.numpy())Written from the current docs. Check the vendor's SDK version before you ship.
Warnings
Gated download
Access to kyutai/pocket-tts requires approval on Hugging Face.
Cloning consent
Voice cloning from any wav needs speaker consent.
Load voices once
load_model and get_state_for_audio_prompt are slow; cache them in memory.
Plus 3 warnings that apply to all open models APIs. See category warnings.
Limits
- Gated model access
Models and products
| Name | Status |
|---|---|
| kyutai/pocket-tts | Gated on Hugging Face; updated 2026-10-01 |
Docs and sources
Docs
Sources used
Code licence.