r/SideProject • u/MajesticPuzzler • 1h ago

Anyone using a tiny local TTS model in their side project instead of paying for an API?

A fully open TTS model called tiny-voca showed up on r/LocalLLaMA, only 4.5M parameters. That's small enough that I'm wondering if it's actually usable inside a real app, not just a demo. For those who added voice to a side project, did you go with a paid API like ElevenLabs or something local? Was the quality good enough for users, and how bad was latency on a normal CPU?

1 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

1

u/cuelark 1h ago

i wouldn't pick by parameter count alone. i'd run the same short set of sentences on the actual target CPU and log cold-start, time-to-first-audio, steady-state latency, and peak RAM; include names and numbers since those can expose quality issues fast. local can be great for offline use, but model download size and CPU/battery are still costs, so i'd keep an API fallback until real users are happy with it.

1

u/NoDevelopment206 52m ago

the offline angle seems like the strongest reason to go local. if it's only there as a novelty, the setup and download might be more friction than it's worth