Local models (mostly just Piper)

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Just like llm supports local models, so can ospeak. While OpenAI does seem to offer cheap TTS of rather high quality, it is still an online API, subject to account login, some costs, rate limits, etc.

Piper is currently the most promising local TTS model, offering acceptable quality and fast multilingual TTS in a small self-contained C++ implementation with official Python bindings. Most modern devices, including low-power platforms like phones or even Raspberry Pi 3B, are capable of running it at reasonable speed.