Chatterbox TTS logo

Chatterbox TTS

Paid

Open source TTS with emotion control and zero-shot cloning.

4.7
Inputs: text, audioOutputs: audio
Type
Saas
Company
Resemble AI

About Chatterbox TTS

Chatterbox by Resemble AI is an open-source text-to-speech model family that delivers high-quality, fast voice synthesis with unique capabilities like emotion exaggeration control, zero-shot voice cloning from just 5 seconds of reference audio, and multilingual support for 23+ languages. It includes a Turbo variant for blazing-fast inference with paralinguistic tagging for non-speech sounds. Built under the permissive MIT license, it is designed for developers, creators, and enterprises who demand production quality, real-time latency (~200ms), and the freedom of on-premise deployment. In blind evaluations, 63.75% of participants preferred Chatterbox over ElevenLabs. The model also features built-in PerTh watermarking for content provenance.

Key Features

Unique emotion exaggeration control with a single parameter from monotone to dramatic
Real-time voice synthesis with alignment-informed generation (~200ms latency)
Zero-shot voice cloning from 5 seconds of reference audio, no training required
Built-in PerTh watermarking for content provenance
Developer-first: pip install, comprehensive docs, MIT license, available on GitHub and Hugging Face
Multilingual support for 23+ languages with full controllability
Blazing-fast Turbo variant with paralinguistic tagging for non-speech sounds
Text-based controllability, including capitalization shifts emphasis
On-premise deployment option
Free forever as open source model

Pros & Cons

Pros
  • Open source under MIT license, no vendor lock-in
  • Outperforms ElevenLabs in blind evaluations (63.75% preference)
  • Unique emotion control not found in other open source TTS models
  • Zero-shot voice cloning from minimal audio (5 seconds)
  • Real-time latency (~200ms) suitable for interactive applications
  • Supports 23+ languages with consistent quality
  • Built-in watermarking for content authenticity
  • Free to use and self-host
Cons
  • Requires technical expertise to set up and deploy compared to turnkey API services
  • Emotion control may need tuning for desired expressiveness
  • Community support primarily via GitHub, less structured than commercial alternatives

Best For

Voice cloning for creative projects and content localizationText-to-speech for voice assistants, agents, and interactive mediaMultilingual content generation for global audiencesRapid prototyping and integration in developer workflowsEnterprise-grade TTS with on-premise deployment for data security

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FAQ

What is Chatterbox TTS?
Chatterbox is an open-source family of AI voice models by Resemble AI that provides high-quality text-to-speech with features like emotion control, zero-shot voice cloning, multilingual support, and real-time inference. It is MIT licensed and available on GitHub and Hugging Face.
How does zero-shot voice cloning work?
Zero-shot cloning generates a voice directly from a short reference audio clip (just 5 seconds) without any fine-tuning, prompt engineering, or post-processing. The model captures the timbre and speech characteristics from the reference.
How many languages does Chatterbox support?
Chatterbox supports 23+ languages, all with the same quality and controllability as English.
How does Chatterbox compare to ElevenLabs?
In a blind evaluation conducted via Podonos, 63.75% of evaluators preferred Chatterbox over ElevenLabs for natural, high-quality speech generation using identical text and 7–20 second zero-shot reference clips.