Voice & audio

Piper

Fast, light text-to-speech that runs offline

Visit official page 日本語で詳しく見る

Popularity

★ 5.3k

Last update

August 2026

License / pricing

GPL-3.0

What it does

Natural-sounding voices on modest hardware, even a Raspberry Pi. Great for read-aloud and home projects.

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 difficultyEasy to start
Command lineRequired
API keyNot required
Sends data onlineNo

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

Piper FAQ

Is Piper 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 Piper?: It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.
Does Piper work on a phone?: No. It needs a computer.
Can I use Piper commercially?: The licence is GPL-3.0. Using it commercially is fine, but if you distribute something built on it you may be required to release that under the same licence. Keep it internal, or check before distributing.

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
Piper (this page)	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
whisper.cpp	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
supertonic-3	Required	Not needed	Yes	No	With conditions
voicebox	Not needed	Not needed	No	No	Yes

"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

whisper.cpp

A fast, lightweight speech-to-text engine

supertonic-3

[Being discontinued] Fast on-device text to speech

voicebox

A free all-in-one local voice studio: text to speech, cloning and dictation

Kokoro-TTS

Natural-sounding text to speech you can also use commercially

Browse all tools Home

Piper FAQ

Is Piper 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 Piper?

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

Does Piper work on a phone?

No. It needs a computer.

Can I use Piper commercially?

The licence is GPL-3.0. Using it commercially is fine, but if you distribute something built on it you may be required to release that under the same licence. Keep it internal, or check before distributing.

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
Piper (this page)	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
whisper.cpp	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
supertonic-3	Required	Not needed	Yes	No	With conditions
voicebox	Not needed	Not needed	No	No	Yes

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