To install realtimetts, you need to specify the TTS engine(s) you wish to use.

For example, to install all supported engines:

pip install realtimetts[all]

To install with the Coqui TTS engine:

pip install realtimetts[coqui]

Available engine options include:

  • all: Install all supported engines
  • system: Local system TTS via pyttsx3
  • azure: Azure Speech Services support
  • elevenlabs: ElevenLabs API integration
  • openai: OpenAI TTS services
  • gtts: Google Text-to-Speech
  • edge: Microsoft Edge TTS
  • coqui: Coqui TTS engine
  • camb: CAMB AI MARS TTS
  • minimax: MiniMax Cloud TTS
  • cartesia: Cartesia API integration
  • modelslab: ModelsLab API integration
  • orpheus: Orpheus TTS support
  • qwen: Native qwentts.cpp Qwen3 TTS integration
  • qwen-server: OpenAI-compatible native Qwen3 TTS HTTP server
  • omnivoice: Omnivoice TTS integration
  • luxtts: LuxTTS integration
  • chatterbox: Chatterbox Turbo integration
  • inflect: Inflect-Micro-v2 local TTS integration
  • inflect-pytorch: Inflect-Micro-v2 PyTorch backend only
  • inflect-onnx: Inflect-Micro-v2 ONNX backend only
  • sopro: SoproTTS integration
  • soprano: SopranoTTS integration
  • neutts: NeuTTS integration
  • zipvoice: ZipVoice dependency support
  • moss: MOSS-TTS dependency support
  • pockettts: PocketTTS integration
  • parler: Parler TTS integration
  • styletts: StyleTTS integration
  • piper: Piper executable engine support
  • typecast: Typecast API integration
  • nltk: Default NLTK plus rule-based sentence tokenizer (included by default)
  • stanza: Add the optional Stanza sentence tokenizer
  • minimal: Core package only (for custom engine development)

You can install multiple engines by separating them with commas. For example:

pip install realtimetts[azure,elevenlabs,openai]

RealtimeTTS

PyPI Downloads GitHub release

RealtimeTTS is a Python text-to-speech library for applications that need to turn strings, generators, and LLM token streams into audio with low latency. It can play speech locally, stream chunks to another process, write WAV files, and fall back across multiple engines.

The project supports a broad engine matrix: local system voices, cloud APIs, free service wrappers, local neural models, and voice-cloning stacks.

Support RealtimeTTS

If RealtimeTTS saved you time, one GitHub star is a simple way to help make it more stable.

Stars improve visibility, and visibility brings more users, more real-world testing, more bug reports, more fixes, and better releases for everyone.

Demo

https://github.com/KoljaB/RealtimeTTS/assets/7604638/87dcd9a5-3a4e-4f57-be45-837fc63237e7

Recommended Engine: QwenEngine

For supported Windows and Linux systems with an NVIDIA GPU, QwenEngine is currently the recommended and preferred RealtimeTTS engine for high-quality, low-latency conversational speech. It offers multilingual Qwen3-TTS quality, x-vector and ICL voice cloning, native 24 kHz PCM streaming, fast cancellation, and the same engine either in-process or behind the production Qwen server.

In 10 warm Linux runs on our tuned RTX 4090 setup, the timeline was: about 35 ms engine TTFT, another 35 ms until RealtimeTTS emits its first PCM chunk, and about 10 ms of silence inside that chunk. Predicted audible onset was 80.9 ms and RTF was 0.108. These are orientation figures; measure the complete path on your target system.

python -m pip install --only-binary=realtimetts-qwen-native "realtimetts[qwen]"
python -m qwentts_cpp doctor

See the QwenEngine guide for setup and details. InflectEngine is the documented lightweight alternative for one fixed English voice on CUDA or ONNX CPU.

Install

For the fastest local smoke test, install the system engine:

pip install "realtimetts[system]"

The system and other traditional engine extras use PyAudio. On Linux, install PortAudio headers before those extras:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-dev portaudio19-dev

On macOS:

brew install portaudio

The native qwen and Inflect extras use the established PyAudio/PortAudio playback path. Windows has prebuilt PyAudio wheels for Python 3.10–3.13. On Linux and macOS, install PortAudio first using the commands above. The Qwen native wheel itself does not require a local CUDA Toolkit. RealtimeTTS 0.7.4 declares validated native Qwen wheels only for x86-64 Windows and Linux; macOS and other platforms are not supported release targets.

Install realtimetts[qwen-server] to expose the same native engine through an OpenAI-compatible HTTP API. The server provides /v1/audio/speech, dynamic voice registration, persistent voice latents, and watchdog-ready request/stall metrics on /health; it is headless and does not install PyAudio/PortAudio. The server defaults to loopback (127.0.0.1). LAN exposure requires a deliberate --allow-lan bind plus a built-in API key, or a trusted reverse proxy that terminates TLS and enforces authentication. CORS defaults to explicit localhost origins and rejects wildcard *; CORS is not an access control boundary. See the Qwen guide for deployment, protocol, licensing, and asset boundaries.

Sentence splitting defaults to stream2sentence's nltk+rule-based consensus mode. The normal install, including realtimetts[qwen], installs stream2sentence[nltk] but not Stanza or PyTorch. Add Stanza only when wanted:

pip install "realtimetts[stanza]"
# or
pip install "realtimetts[qwen,stanza]"

For cloud engines, local neural engines, CUDA, mpv, and current packaging caveats, see docs/installation.md.

First Audio

from RealtimeTTS import TextToAudioStream, SystemEngine


if __name__ == "__main__":
    stream = TextToAudioStream(SystemEngine())
    stream.feed("Hello from RealtimeTTS.")
    stream.play()

Use the if __name__ == "__main__": guard in scripts, especially on Windows and when using engines that start worker processes.

Streaming Text

feed() accepts an iterator, so text can arrive while audio is already playing:

from RealtimeTTS import TextToAudioStream, SystemEngine


def text_chunks():
    yield "This starts speaking quickly. "
    yield "More text can arrive while audio is already playing."


if __name__ == "__main__":
    stream = TextToAudioStream(SystemEngine())
    stream.feed(text_chunks())
    stream.play()

Use the same pattern with an LLM client by yielding only non-empty text chunks. See docs/llm-streaming.md.

Output

Write audio to a WAV file without local speaker playback:

from RealtimeTTS import TextToAudioStream, SystemEngine


if __name__ == "__main__":
    stream = TextToAudioStream(SystemEngine())
    stream.feed("Save this speech to a file.")
    stream.play(output_wavfile="speech.wav", muted=True)

For output devices, mpv playback, muted mode, callbacks, and chunk formats, see docs/output-and-files.md.

Features

  • Low-latency playback from strings, generators, and streamed model output.
  • Multiple engines with local, cloud, free-service, and neural model options.
  • Fallback engines for more resilient synthesis.
  • Sync and async playback with pause, resume, stop, and state inspection.
  • Text, audio, sentence, character, word-timing, and audio-chunk callbacks.
  • WAV output, muted synthesis, selected output devices, and volume control.
  • Voice switching and voice-cloning workflows where supported by the engine.

Engine Overview

Engine Type Install/status note Best first use
QwenEngine (recommended) Local native neural / HTTP server realtimetts[qwen] or realtimetts[qwen-server] with a matching native wheel High-quality multilingual realtime speech, voice cloning, and fast cancellation.
InflectEngine Local lightweight realtimetts[inflect] Fast fixed English voice through PyTorch CUDA or ONNX CPU.
SystemEngine Local realtimetts[system] First local audio smoke test.
GTTSEngine Free service realtimetts[gtts] Simple network-backed speech.
EdgeEngine Free service realtimetts[edge], needs mpv Free streamed voices.
OpenAIEngine Cloud API realtimetts[openai] OpenAI TTS voices.
AzureEngine Cloud API realtimetts[azure] Azure voices and word timings.
ElevenlabsEngine Cloud API realtimetts[elevenlabs], needs mpv High-quality API voices.
CambEngine Cloud API realtimetts[camb] CAMB MARS API voices.
MiniMaxEngine Cloud API realtimetts[minimax] MiniMax cloud voices.
CartesiaEngine Cloud API realtimetts[cartesia] Cartesia API voices.
TypecastEngine Cloud API realtimetts[typecast] Typecast API voices.
ModelsLabEngine Cloud API realtimetts[modelslab] ModelsLab API voices.
CoquiEngine Local neural realtimetts[coqui] Local XTTS voice cloning.
PiperEngine Local executable realtimetts[piper], external Piper setup Fast local executable TTS.
StyleTTSEngine Local neural realtimetts[styletts], local checkout/assets StyleTTS experiments.
ParlerEngine Local neural realtimetts[parler] GPU local model experiments.
KokoroEngine Local neural realtimetts[kokoro] Local voices and timing support.
OrpheusEngine Local/API-style realtimetts[orpheus] Orpheus model workflows.
OmniVoiceEngine Local neural realtimetts[omnivoice] Multilingual voice cloning.
PocketTTSEngine / PocketTTSGpuEngine Local lightweight realtimetts[pockettts], realtimetts[pockettts-gpu] plus GPU fork CPU-oriented voice cloning, optional CUDA fork path.
NeuTTSEngine Local neural realtimetts[neutts], optional neutts-gguf Reference-audio voice cloning.
ZipVoiceEngine Local neural realtimetts[zipvoice], external checkout ZipVoice cloning/server demos.
LuxTTSEngine Local neural realtimetts[luxtts] LuxTTS voice cloning.
ChatterboxEngine Local neural realtimetts[chatterbox] Chatterbox prompt-audio voices.
SoproTTSEngine Local neural realtimetts[sopro] Sopro reference-audio voices.
SopranoEngine Local neural realtimetts[soprano] Soprano local synthesis.
MossTTSEngine Local neural realtimetts[moss], runtime assets MOSS-TTS experiments.

See docs/engine-selection.md before choosing an engine for an application. The engine-specific docs are being split out from the old README and source audit.

Documentation

  • Quick start: shortest working examples.
  • Installation: extras, platform setup, external tools, API keys, and known packaging mismatches.
  • Engine selection: engine matrix and selection guidance.
  • Feed and playback: feed(), play(), play_async(), pause, resume, stop, text state, and inline tags.
  • LLM streaming: provider-neutral streamed text patterns and latency tuning.
  • Output and files: WAV files, audio chunks, muted mode, output devices, mpv, buffering, and volume.
  • Engine setup pages now link one focused page for each concrete engine source.
  • FAQ: legacy troubleshooting page while topic docs are being split out.

Legacy translated docs remain under docs/<locale>/ while English is refactored as the canonical source.

Server Example

The browser and WebSocket server example lives in example_fast_api/:

python -m pip install fastapi uvicorn websockets pyaudio
python example_fast_api/async_server.py

Open http://localhost:8000 or connect to ws://localhost:8000/ws.

Related Project

RealtimeSTT is the speech-to-text counterpart for realtime voice input.

Contributing

Focused docs, tests, and engine fixes are easiest to review. During the docs refactor, keep English docs canonical and note mismatches between source, packaging, examples, and tests rather than hiding them.

License

RealtimeTTS source code is MIT licensed. Engine providers, model weights, voice data, datasets, generated audio, and third-party services can have separate terms. Read LICENSING_ADDENDUM.md and the relevant provider or model licenses before commercial use.

For the native Qwen/Inflect paths, qwentts.cpp and realtimetts-qwen-native are MIT-licensed; Qwen 0.6B Base/tokenizer and Inflect Micro-v2/ONNX are Apache-2.0. Model weights, voice latents, and reference audio are not bundled, and users are responsible for the rights to every voice or recording they provide.

Audio samples derived from the EARS dataset by Meta are licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. See the original dataset terms for details.

Author

Kolja Beigel

Project links

Key dates

PyPI data
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  • Released:
Latest release

1 maintainer

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
Avatar for KoljaBeigel from gravatar.com KoljaBeigel

Credits

Author: Kolja Beigel

License

MIT License

Requires

Python <3.15, >=3.9

Provides Extra

minimal playback all nltk stanza system azure elevenlabs openai gtts coqui edge kokoro camb minimax modelslab cartesia typecast orpheus omnivoice luxtts zipvoice chatterbox inflect inflect-pytorch inflect-onnx sopro soprano neutts neutts-gguf pockettts pocket pockettts-gpu pocket-gpu styletts style parler moss moss-tts piper qwen qwen-server jp zh ko

Tags

real-time text-to-speech TTS streaming audio voice synthesis sentence-segmentation low-latency character-streaming dynamic feedback audio-output text-input TTS-engine audio-playback stream-player sentence-fragment audio-feedback interactive python

Classifiers

Report project as malware

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