Explore KittenTTS with Gradio: Easy Text-to-Speech

Author:

Akash Gupta | Sr. VoIP Engineer | MLOps

Text-to-speech (TTS) technology is evolving at lightning speed, and KittenTTS stands out as a Ultra-lightweight (25MB!), fast, high-quality, and easy-to-run TTS model. But while researchers and developers love playing with models in notebooks or scripts, most people want to hear the results—quickly, and with minimal setup.

That’s why I built a Gradio web app for KittenTTS, making it dead simple to try out the model in your browser and integrate it into your projects via an API.

🔗 KittenTTS with Gradio Web App – GitHub

🔗 KittenTTS – GitHub

Sample audio generated by KittenTTS

What is KittenTTS?

KittenTTS is an open-source realistic text-to-speech model with just 15 million parameters, designed for lightweight deployment and high-quality voice synthesis.

Key features:

Ultra-lightweight: Model size less than 25MB
CPU-optimized: Runs without GPU on any device
High-quality voices: Several premium voice options available
Fast inference: Optimized for real-time speech synthesis

What’s New in My Fork

My fork of the main KittenTTS repository focuses on improving accessibility and usability for both casual users and developers. PR already submitted to KittenTTS repo.
Here’s what I added:

Gradio Web Interface

Intuitive text input and audio playback directly in the browser
Adjustable settings (speaker ID, language, etc.)
Clean UI for quick testing and demos
Runs locally or can be deployed via services like Hugging Face Spaces

API Usage

For developers, I included examples of how to interact with the model programmatically. Whether you want to call the TTS engine from a Python script or use it as part of a web backend, you’ll find ready-to-run snippets.

Easy Local Testing

One-command setup to start the Gradio server
No need to dive into configs or audio backends
Perfect for showcasing or experimenting with different voices and languages

Use Cases

Voice app prototyping – Plug into chatbots or virtual assistants
Accessibility tools – Instantly give your UI a voice
Creative media – Generate custom narrations or audio clips
Research demos – Share your TTS experiments with colleagues or the public

How to Get Started

Clone and setup:

git clone https://github.com/akashjss/KittenTTS.git 
cd KittenTTS 
python -m venv venv 
source venv/bin/activate 
# On Windows: 
venv\Scripts\activate

Install dependencies:

pip install -e . 
pip install gradio 
# To use the TTS via Gradio API
pip install gradio_client

Launch the webapp:

python gradio_app.py

The app will auto launch in your browser.

Final Thoughts

This Gradio app will lower the barrier to entry for using advanced TTS models like KittenTTS. Whether you’re a developer looking to integrate speech into your application or just curious about neural voice synthesis, this tool lets you explore it with zero fuss.

If you find it useful or want to contribute, feel free to ⭐ the repo or submit a pull request!

🔗 GitHub – KittenTTS with Gradio Web App

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Akash Gupta
Senior VoIP Engineer and AI Enthusiast

AI and VoIP Blog

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