Tortoise TTS

by neonbjb

Open-source TTS model with strong prosody — slow on CPU.

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TL;DR

Best for researchers and tinkerers experimenting with open-source TTS prosody. Pricing: free.

Category
Open source
License
—
Stars
—
Last push
—
Pricing
free
Platforms
macOS, Windows, Linux

What it is

Tortoise TTS is an open-source neural TTS model known for strong prosody, voice cloning, and multi-speaker output. Apache-2.0 licensed but inference is slow on CPU.

Best for: Researchers and tinkerers experimenting with open-source TTS prosody.
Watch out for: Slow inference; effectively English-only; GPU strongly recommended.

Install / use

pip install tortoise-tts

Features

Speaker diarizationNo
Word-level timestampsNo
Streaming / real-timeNo
Languages supported1
HIPAA eligibleNo

Tortoise TTS vs Whipscribe

FeatureTortoise TTSWhipscribe
CategoryOpen sourceTranscription APIs
Pricingfree$4–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · $2 single unlock · 60 min free on signup
Speaker diarizationNoYes
Word timestampsNoYes
StreamingNoNo
Languages199
PlatformsmacOS, Windows, LinuxWeb, API, MCP

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