---
title: Speech
description: Turn text into spoken audio with text-to-speech models.
---

Speech models read text aloud. Ollama streams the audio as it is generated, so playback can start before the whole text has been spoken.

## Setup

Start [Ollama](/quickstart) v0.40.9 or later, then download [Phonon](https://ollama.com/library/phonon):

```shell setup.sh
ollama pull phonon
```

Phonon uses Gradium's 31M English checkpoint and comes with Gradium's English voices, such as `Zoey`, `Easton`, and `Freya`. Without a voice, it speaks with the checkpoint's own voice, `default`. `ollama show phonon` lists every voice. Voice names work in any case and with or without accents.

## Speak from the terminal

`ollama run` plays the audio through your computer's speakers:

```shell examples.sh
# Speak some text
ollama run phonon "Hello from Ollama."

# Choose a voice
ollama run phonon --voice Zoey "Hi, this is Zoey."

# Speak text from another program
echo "Text from another program works too." | ollama run phonon

# Speak a chat model's answer
ollama run gemma4 --hidethinking "Tell me a fun fact about owls in two sentences." | ollama run phonon
```

Piped text is spoken as it arrives, so a chat model's answer starts playing after its first sentence or two.

Run `ollama run phonon` without any text to type lines at a `>>>` prompt. Each line is spoken when you press Enter. Press Ctrl+C to stop speaking, and type `/bye` or press Ctrl+D to exit.

Audio plays with your system's built-in player: `afplay` on macOS, the first of `paplay`, `pw-play`, `aplay`, or `ffplay` that is installed on Linux, and PowerShell on Windows.

### Save audio to a file

When the output is redirected, `ollama run` writes a WAV file instead of playing it. This also works on servers without speakers:

```shell
ollama run phonon "Save this to a file." > speech.wav
```

To hear a remote server, run `ollama` on your own computer and point it at the server. The audio plays where the command runs:

```shell
OLLAMA_HOST=my-server:11434 ollama run phonon "Hello from the server."
```

## Generate speech with the API

Use the OpenAI-compatible `/v1/audio/speech` endpoint:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="cURL">
    ```shell
    curl http://localhost:11434/v1/audio/speech \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{
        "model": "phonon",
        "input": "Hello from Ollama.",
        "voice": "default"
      }' --output speech.wav
    ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="Python">
    ```python
    from openai import OpenAI

    client = OpenAI(base_url="http://localhost:11434/v1", api_key="ollama")

    with client.audio.speech.with_streaming_response.create(
        model="phonon",
        voice="default",
        input="Hello from Ollama.",
        response_format="wav",
    ) as response:
        response.stream_to_file("speech.wav")
    ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="JavaScript">
    ```javascript
    import fs from 'node:fs'
    import OpenAI from 'openai'

    const openai = new OpenAI({ baseURL: 'http://localhost:11434/v1', apiKey: 'ollama' })

    const response = await openai.audio.speech.create({
      model: 'phonon',
      voice: 'default',
      input: 'Hello from Ollama.',
      response_format: 'wav',
    })
    fs.writeFileSync('speech.wav', Buffer.from(await response.arrayBuffer()))
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

The response streams while audio is generated, so you can start playing it right away:

```shell
curl -sN http://localhost:11434/v1/audio/speech \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "phonon", "input": "Playback starts while the rest is still being generated."}' \
  | ffplay -nodisp -autoexit -loglevel error -
```

### Audio formats

| `response_format` | Output |
| --- | --- |
| `wav` (default) | A WAV file: 16-bit, mono, 24 kHz. The header is written before the length is known, so its size fields hold the maximum value. |
| `pcm` | Raw 16-bit little-endian samples, mono, 24 kHz, with no header. |

### Limits

- `input` can be up to 4,096 characters per request. `ollama run` splits longer text at paragraph and sentence breaks for you.
- Prices, numbers, symbols, email addresses, and URLs are spelled out before speaking, so `$4.59` is read as "4 dollars and 59 cents". Times and numeric dates are read as written, so write dates out (`October 23`, not `10/23`) for a natural reading. Emoji, bullet characters, and markdown markers such as `*` and `#` are skipped.
- Options the model doesn't support, such as other formats, speeds, or `instructions`, return a `400` error instead of being ignored. An unknown voice returns a `400` error that lists the available voices.
- Speech models only generate speech: chat, completion, and embedding requests to them return a `400` error.

`ollama show phonon` and `/api/show` list the model's capabilities as `speech`, and its voices (`voices` in `/api/show`). See [OpenAI compatibility](/api/openai-compatibility) for every supported field.