--- title: "Pocket TTS | Micdrop" description: "Local text to speech with Kyutai Pocket TTS, cloning a voice on the CPU." url: "https://micdrop.dev/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/pocket-tts" --- * [Getting Started](/docs/getting-started) * [Client (Browser)](/docs/client) * [Installation](/docs/client/installation) * [React Hooks](/docs/client/react-hooks) * [Start/Stop Call](/docs/client/start-stop-call) * [Pause/Resume Call](/docs/client/pause-resume-call) * [Mute/Unmute Call](/docs/client/mute-unmute-call) * [Call State](/docs/client/call-state) * [Display Conversation Messages](/docs/client/display-conversation-messages) * [Handling Tool Calls](/docs/client/handling-tool-calls) * [Device Management](/docs/client/devices-management) * [Voice Activity Detection (VAD)](/docs/client/vad) * [Error Handling](/docs/client/error-handling) * Utility Classes * [Mic](/docs/client/utility-classes/mic) * [MicdropClient](/docs/client/utility-classes/micdrop-client) * [MicRecorder](/docs/client/utility-classes/mic-recorder) * [Speaker](/docs/client/utility-classes/speaker) * [Server (Node.js)](/docs/server) * [Installation](/docs/server/installation) * [With Fastify](/docs/server/with-fastify) * [With NestJS](/docs/server/with-nestjs) * [Auth and Parameters](/docs/server/auth-and-parameters) * [First Message](/docs/server/first-message) * [Save Messages](/docs/server/save-messages) * [Resume a Conversation](/docs/server/resume-conversation) * [Recording Audio](/docs/server/recording-audio) * [Error Handling](/docs/server/error-handling) * [Tools](/docs/server/tools) * [Extract Value from Answer](/docs/server/extract) * [Auto End Call](/docs/server/auto-end-call) * [Semantic Turn Detection](/docs/server/semantic-turn-detection) * [Noise Filtering](/docs/server/noise-filtering) * [Micdrop Protocol](/docs/server/protocol) * [AI Integrations](/docs/ai-integration) * Provided Integrations * [AI SDK](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/ai-sdk) * [Cartesia](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/cartesia) * [ElevenLabs](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/elevenlabs) * [Gladia](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/gladia) * [Gradium](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/gradium) * [Kokoro](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/kokoro) * [Mistral](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/mistral) * [OpenAI](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/openai) * [Piper](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/piper) * [Pocket TTS](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/pocket-tts) * [Whisper](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/whisper) * Custom Integrations * [Agent (LLM)](/docs/ai-integration/custom-integrations/custom-agent) * [Speech-to-Text (STT)](/docs/ai-integration/custom-integrations/custom-stt) * [Text-to-Speech (TTS)](/docs/ai-integration/custom-integrations/custom-tts) * Fallback Strategies * [FallbackAgent](/docs/ai-integration/fallback-strategies/agent-fallback) * [FallbackSTT](/docs/ai-integration/fallback-strategies/stt-fallback) * [FallbackTTS](/docs/ai-integration/fallback-strategies/tts-fallback) * [Local Models](/docs/ai-integration/local-models) * [IA Vocale Souveraine 🇫🇷🇪🇺](/docs/ai-integration/sovereign-voice-ai) [Micdrop](/) › [Documentation](/docs/getting-started) # Pocket TTS Local text to speech for [@micdrop/server](/docs/server), running [Pocket TTS](https://github.com/kyutai-labs/pocket-tts) in your Node process through the [sherpa-onnx](https://k2-fsa.github.io/sherpa/onnx/tts/pocket.html) addon and ONNX Runtime. Pocket TTS is a 100 million parameter model from Kyutai, designed for the CPU, that takes its voice from a few seconds of reference audio instead of from a catalog. It generates about five times faster than real time and emits its audio while it is still writing the rest, which is what makes it the local voice with the shortest delay before the first word. ## Installation Install the package: Terminal window ``` npm install @micdrop/pocket-tts ``` Download the weights, converted to ONNX by the sherpa-onnx project: Terminal window ``` curl -LO https://github.com/k2-fsa/sherpa-onnx/releases/download/tts-models/sherpa-onnx-pocket-tts-int8-2026-01-26.tar.bz2tar xf sherpa-onnx-pocket-tts-int8-2026-01-26.tar.bz2rm sherpa-onnx-pocket-tts-int8-2026-01-26.tar.bz2 ``` The archive weighs 98 MB and takes 190 MB on disk. A full precision archive, `sherpa-onnx-pocket-tts-2026-01-26.tar.bz2`, sits next to it and is read the same way: the weights are looked up by name in the folder, quantized first when both are there. The addon ships prebuilt binaries for macOS, Linux and Windows on both Intel and ARM, so installing it is an `npm install` rather than a compilation. ## Usage ``` import { PocketTTS } from '@micdrop/pocket-tts'import { MicdropServer } from '@micdrop/server' const tts = new PocketTTS({ modelDir: './sherpa-onnx-pocket-tts-int8-2026-01-26', voice: 'bria',}) // Use with MicdropServernew MicdropServer(socket, { tts, // ... other options}) ``` ## Options Option Type Default Description `modelDir` `string` Required Folder the archive was extracted into `voice` `string` `'bria'` Bundled voice name, or path to a wav to clone `speed` `number` `1` Speech rate, above 1 to speak faster `numSteps` `number` `2` Sampling steps per frame `referenceLength` `number` `12` Seconds of the reference the voice is built from `seed` `number` Optional Sampling seed, to make a sentence reproducible `numThreads` `number` `2` Threads given to ONNX Runtime `provider` `string` `'cpu'` Execution provider passed to ONNX Runtime `warmup` `boolean` `true` Speaks one word at startup ## Voices The voice comes from a recording rather than from a catalog: a few seconds of someone speaking is enough for the model to answer in that voice, with no transcript of the sample and no training step. The archive ships three of them in its `test_wavs` folder, reachable by name through `BUNDLED_VOICES`, and any wav file works in their place. ``` import { BUNDLED_VOICES, PocketTTS } from '@micdrop/pocket-tts' const tts = new PocketTTS({ modelDir: './sherpa-onnx-pocket-tts-int8-2026-01-26', voice: './voices/my-voice.wav',}) ``` `bria` is a woman reading calmly for forty seconds, `loona` is a one second clip, which is about the shortest a reference can be, and `frenchAccent` is a French speaker: the words come from the text and stay English, the timbre and the accent come from the recording. Only the first `referenceLength` seconds are read, so a long recording costs nothing extra. The quality of the sample is reproduced along with the voice, which makes a clean recording worth more than a long one. Clone a voice only with the consent of the person it belongs to. The [Kyutai license](https://github.com/kyutai-labs/pocket-tts#prohibited-use) makes it a condition of use, and impersonation is what voice cloning gets misused for. ## Languages Pocket TTS speaks English here. Kyutai also publishes French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese checkpoints, and none of them is converted to ONNX yet, so the English model is the one the addon loads. Handing it French produces fluent nonsense rather than an accent, since it reads every word with English phonemes. Use [Piper](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/piper) for the other languages. ## Latency Measured on an Apple M2, on CPU, with the model already loaded: Step Time Loading the model ~470 ms First audio of a sentence 250 to 430 ms Generating four seconds of speech ~850 ms The answer is cut into sentences, and each sentence is handed over in chunks as the model writes it, so the user hears its opening words while the model is still generating its end. An interruption stops the generation between two chunks rather than at the end of the sentence, which is what keeps a barge-in immediate. ## Memory The model takes about 350 MB once loaded and around 600 MB while generating, which is more than [Kokoro](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/kokoro) at 80 MB and small next to the language model it runs beside. One instance is loaded per configuration and shared by every call, so a second conversation costs nothing more. ## Documentation Read the [guide on running Micdrop with local models](/docs/ai-integration/local-models) to see how this fits with a local LLM and a local transcription. ## License Pocket TTS is released under the MIT license, and the sherpa-onnx addon under Apache 2.0. The reference recordings shipped with the archive carry their own licenses, listed on the [Kyutai voice repository](https://huggingface.co/kyutai/tts-voices). [Previous← Piper](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/piper)[NextWhisper →](/docs/ai-integration/provided-integrations/whisper) On this page * [Installation](#installation) * [Usage](#usage) * [Options](#options) * [Voices](#voices) * [Languages](#languages) * [Latency](#latency) * [Memory](#memory) * [Documentation](#documentation) * [License](#license)