Voice & audio

kokoro-tts

Reads your EPUBs and PDFs aloud, chapter by chapter

Visit official page 日本語で詳しく見る

Popularity

★ 1.8k

Last update

April 2026

License / pricing

MIT

What it does

Command-line text-to-speech built on Kokoro that takes EPUB, PDF or plain text and produces audio split by chapter, with voice blending, adjustable speed and streaming playback across several languages. Converting a book you own for your own listening is private use; distributing the resulting audio is not. DRM-protected files cannot be read, and synthesised speech still trips over names and unusual readings. MIT.

Summary based on the project's own description. The Japanese page has a fuller beginner guide: setup difficulty, what to prepare, and a step-by-step start.

Screenshots & visuals

Before you start

Setup difficultySome setup needed
Command lineRequired
API keyNot required
Sends data onlineNo

Judged automatically from the project's own metadata. Always confirm on the official page.

kokoro-tts FAQ

Is kokoro-tts free?: Yes. It runs on your own machine, so there is no usage-based cost either.
Do I need to install anything or write code to use kokoro-tts?: It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.
Does kokoro-tts work on a phone?: No. It needs a computer.
Can I use kokoro-tts commercially?: The licence is MIT, which permits commercial use. Conditions such as keeping the copyright notice still apply, so read the licence text before shipping it inside something.

How it compares

The conditions that decide whether you can actually use it, side by side.

Tool	Command line	API key	Sends data out	Phone	Commercial use
kokoro-tts (this page)	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
abogen	Required	Not needed	Yes	No	Yes
Whisper	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
Real-Time-Voice-Cloning	Required	Not needed	Yes	No	Not verified

"Sends data out" means your input is uploaded to someone's server. Pick "No" when the material cannot leave your organisation.

Other voice & audio tools

abogen

Turns ePub, PDF or text into narrated audio with matching subtitles

Whisper

OpenAI's renowned speech-to-text model

Real-Time-Voice-Cloning

Clones a voice from a few seconds of audio (research implementation)

whisper.cpp

A fast, lightweight speech-to-text engine

Browse all tools Home

What it does

Summary based on the project's own description. The Japanese page has a fuller beginner guide: setup difficulty, what to prepare, and a step-by-step start.

kokoro-tts FAQ

Is kokoro-tts free?

Yes. It runs on your own machine, so there is no usage-based cost either.

Do I need to install anything or write code to use kokoro-tts?

It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.

Does kokoro-tts work on a phone?

No. It needs a computer.

Can I use kokoro-tts commercially?

The licence is MIT, which permits commercial use. Conditions such as keeping the copyright notice still apply, so read the licence text before shipping it inside something.

How it compares

The conditions that decide whether you can actually use it, side by side.

Tool	Command line	API key	Sends data out	Phone	Commercial use
kokoro-tts (this page)	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
abogen	Required	Not needed	Yes	No	Yes
Whisper	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
Real-Time-Voice-Cloning	Required	Not needed	Yes	No	Not verified

"Sends data out" means your input is uploaded to someone's server. Pick "No" when the material cannot leave your organisation.