😻 Kitten-TTS for ComfyUI

A simple ComfyUI custom node for KittenTTS - an ultra-lightweight text-to-speech model. Works on CUDA and CPU.

Demo

final_vid.mp4

Features

• 🚀 Ultra-lightweight: Models from 19MB to 80MB
• 💻 CPU & CUDA: Runs on any device, GPU optional
• 🎯 Single node: All settings in one place
• 📦 Auto-download: Models cached in ComfyUI/models/kittentts/
• ⚡ Fast inference: Real-time speech synthesis
• 🎤 8 voices: 4 male, 4 female

Installation

Prerequisites (Required)

Before installing the custom node, you must install espeak-ng and set up its environment variable:

1. Install espeak-ng: Download and install it from https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/.
2. Set Environment Variable: Add a new system environment variable named PHONEMIZER_ESPEAK_LIBRARY pointing to the espeak-ng installation path (e.g., C:\Program Files\eSpeak NG\libespeak-ng.dll on Windows).
3. Reboot: You must completely restart the ComfyUI CLI/console for the updated environment variables to be securely loaded.

Method 1: ComfyUI Manager (Recommended)

Search for "KittenTTS" in ComfyUI Manager and install.

Method 2: Manual Install

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/Saganaki22/ComfyUI-KittenTTS.git

Dependencies

The node auto-installs most dependencies on first run. The correct version of onnxruntime (CPU or GPU) is dynamically chosen based on whether your PyTorch environment supports CUDA.

If you need to install or fix it manually:

Standard Python environment:

# For CPU
pip install onnxruntime

# For CUDA GPU
pip install onnxruntime-gpu

For Windows portable ComfyUI, use the embedded Python:

# From ComfyUI_windows_portable directory

# For CPU
.\python_embeded\python.exe -m pip install onnxruntime

# For CUDA GPU
.\python_embeded\python.exe -m pip install onnxruntime-gpu

Models

Model	Params	Size	Quality	Link
kitten-tts-mini	80M	80MB	Best	🤗 Download
kitten-tts-micro	40M	41MB	Good	🤗 Download
kitten-tts-nano	15M	56MB	Lightweight	🤗 Download
kitten-tts-nano-int8	15M	19MB	Smallest	🤗 Download

⚠️ Note: Some users report issues with the int8 quantized model. We recommend the mini or micro versions for best results.

Usage

The node is simple - just one node with all settings:

Inputs

Input	Type	Default	Description
model_name	Dropdown	mini-0.8 (80M)	Model size/quality
device	Dropdown	auto	auto/cuda/cpu
text	String	-	Text to synthesize
voice	Dropdown	Jasper	Voice selection
speed	Float	1.0	Speech speed (0.5-2.0)
keep_loaded	Boolean	True	Keep model in memory
output_stereo	Boolean	False	Stereo output
clean_text	Boolean	True	Normalize text
custom_model	String	""	Custom HF model ID

Voices

Male: Jasper, Bruno, Hugo, Leo
Female: Bella, Luna, Rosie, Kiki

Example

Just add the 🐱 KittenTTS node, type your text, select a voice, and connect the audio output to your pipeline.

┌─────────────────────────┐
│  🐱 KittenTTS           │ → Connect to audio nodes
├─────────────────────────┤
│ model: mini-0.8 (80M)   │
│ device: auto            │
│ text: "Hello world!"    │
│ voice: Jasper           │
│ speed: 1.0              │
│ keep_loaded: True       │
│ output_stereo: False    │
│ clean_text: True        │
│ custom_model_path ...   │
├─────────────────────────┤
└─────────────────────────┘

Model Storage

Models are downloaded to: ComfyUI/models/kittentts/<model_name>/

You can create symlinks to this folder if you want to share models between ComfyUI installations.

Troubleshooting

"CUDA out of memory"

• Switch to a smaller model (nano or micro)
• Set keep_loaded to False
• Use CPU device

"onnxruntime not found"

Standard Python environment:

# For CPU
pip install onnxruntime

# For CUDA
pip install onnxruntime-gpu

For Windows portable ComfyUI, use the embedded Python:

# From ComfyUI_windows_portable directory

# For CPU
.\python_embeded\python.exe -m pip install onnxruntime

# For CUDA
.\python_embeded\python.exe -m pip install onnxruntime-gpu

"No module named 'kittentts'"

The bundled wheel should auto-install. If not:

Standard Python environment:

pip install https://github.com/KittenML/KittenTTS/releases/download/0.8/kittentts-0.8.0-py3-none-any.whl

For Windows portable ComfyUI:

.\python_embeded\python.exe -m pip install https://github.com/KittenML/KittenTTS/releases/download/0.8/kittentts-0.8.0-py3-none-any.whl

Links

• Original KittenTTS Repo: https://github.com/KittenML/KittenTTS
• HuggingFace Models: https://huggingface.co/KittenML
• Discord: Join KittenML Discord
• Demo Video: Watch on GitHub

Credits

• KittenTTS by KittenML
• ComfyUI node by Saganaki22

License

Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE for details.