{"slug": "kittentts", "name": "KittenTTS", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI models and assistants", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.712, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-01-23", "latest": "2026-03-19", "why": "I'd also recommend checking out KittenTTS[2], I use it and it's great for the size/performance.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I'd also recommend checking out KittenTTS[2], I use it and it's great for the size/performance.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/kittenml/kittentts", "official_url": "https://github.com/kittenml/kittentts", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["KittenTTS", "Kitten TTS"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 759075137, "item_id": 47442196, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47442196", "by": "kevin42", "date": "2026-03-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm impressed with the quality given the size.", "excerpt": "What I love about OpenClaw is that I was able to send it a message on Discord with just this github URL and it started sending me voice messages using it within a few minutes. It also gave me a bunch of different benchmarks and sample audio. I'm impressed with the quality given the size. I don't love the voices, but it's not bad. Running on an intel 9700 CPU, it's about 1.5x realtime using the 80M model. It wasn't an", "context": "", "use_case": "text-to-speech", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Three new Kitten TTS models \u2013 smallest less than 25MB"}, {"id": 748953232, "item_id": 46809577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46809577", "by": "freakynit", "date": "2026-01-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A 25MB TTS model", "excerpt": "A 25MB TTS model: https://github.com/kittenml/kittentts", "context": "", "use_case": "local text-to-speech", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the current best local/open speech-to-speech setup?"}, {"id": 747857152, "item_id": 46741072, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46741072", "by": "soulofmischief", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'd also recommend checking out KittenTTS[2], I use it and it's great for the size/performance.", "excerpt": "I have a great local assistant that works end-to-end with voice. It's built on local, web-first technologies, it fits small LLMs in memory and manages inference and TTS/STT without stuttering. I've been shaping it up over a couple years and constantly switching out new models. If you want something simple that runs in browser, look at vosk-browser[0] and vits-web[1]. I'd also recommend checking out KittenTTS[2], I us", "context": "builds a local voice assistant", "use_case": "local text-to-speech", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the current best local/open speech-to-speech setup?"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "soulofmischief", "context": "builds a local voice assistant", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46741072", "date": "2026-01-23"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["local text-to-speech", "text-to-speech", "text to speech"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46731068", "title": "Ask HN: What's the current best local/open speech-to-speech setup?", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47441546", "title": "Show HN: Three new Kitten TTS models \u2013 smallest less than 25MB", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 2, "compare": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 759075137, "item_id": 47442196, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47442196", "by": "kevin42", "date": "2026-03-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm impressed with the quality given the size.", "excerpt": "What I love about OpenClaw is that I was able to send it a message on Discord with just this github URL and it started sending me voice messages using it within a few minutes. It also gave me a bunch of different benchmarks and sample audio. I'm impressed with the quality given the size. I don't love the voices, but it's not bad. Running on an intel 9700 CPU, it's about 1.5x realtime using the 80M model. It wasn't an", "context": "", "use_case": "text-to-speech", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Three new Kitten TTS models \u2013 smallest less than 25MB"}, {"id": 749279296, "item_id": 46829956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46829956", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-01-30", "stance": "compare", "quote": "there\u2019s really no advantage over pocket TTS. There are some tradeoffs like Kitten doesn\u2019t have streaming audio.", "excerpt": "So I benchmarked it and there\u2019s really no advantage over pocket TTS. There are some tradeoffs like Kitten doesn\u2019t have streaming audio.", "context": "benchmarked it", "use_case": "text to speech", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the current best local/open speech-to-speech setup?"}, {"id": 748953232, "item_id": 46809577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46809577", "by": "freakynit", "date": "2026-01-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A 25MB TTS model", "excerpt": "A 25MB TTS model: https://github.com/kittenml/kittentts", "context": "", "use_case": "local text-to-speech", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the current best local/open speech-to-speech setup?"}, {"id": 747857152, "item_id": 46741072, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46741072", "by": "soulofmischief", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'd also recommend checking out KittenTTS[2], I use it and it's great for the size/performance.", "excerpt": "I have a great local assistant that works end-to-end with voice. It's built on local, web-first technologies, it fits small LLMs in memory and manages inference and TTS/STT without stuttering. I've been shaping it up over a couple years and constantly switching out new models. If you want something simple that runs in browser, look at vosk-browser[0] and vits-web[1]. I'd also recommend checking out KittenTTS[2], I us", "context": "builds a local voice assistant", "use_case": "local text-to-speech", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the current best local/open speech-to-speech setup?"}]}