Kokoro Delivers Local, CPU-Based High-Quality Text-to-Speech

Introduction to Kokoro

Kokoro is a new text-to-speech (TTS) model that offers high-quality speech generation locally on machines. Its architecture allows it to run entirely on the CPU, making it a viable option for environments where privacy and local processing are preferred.

Performance and Features

Despite its relatively small size of 82 million parameters, Kokoro achieves realistic speech output in several languages including English, Mandarin, and Hindi. It features around 50 distinct voices optimized mainly for English, showcasing its versatility in TTS applications.

Setup and Deployment

The simplest way to set up Kokoro is through the Kokoro-FastAPI container image, which is approximately 5 GB in size and includes pre-downloaded voice models. Users can launch the container via Docker or Podman using specific command lines.

API and Usability

Kokoro provides a web UI for easy interaction at localhost:8880/web. It also integrates with the OpenAI speech API, simplifying the adaptation of existing applications. Sample code in JavaScript and Python facilitates quick testing and integration.

Voice Customization

Users can customize the voice output by setting the TTS_VOICE environment variable, which allows selecting different available voices during speech generation. A complete list of voices is accessible on the official Kokoro project page.