cactus social preview
tts-stt5,321Other

cactus

Low-latency AI engine for mobile devices & wearables

Updated Jun 8, 2026
Website GitHub Docs
Platforms
macos
Pricing
free-open-source
Status
active
License
Other

What it does

Core capabilities at a glance

  • Android
  • ARM
  • Edge
  • Edge AI
  • Framework
  • IOS
  • Llamacpp
  • LLM Inference

Deep dive

The full breakdown - performance, comparisons, and setup

cactus

cactus is a speech (TTS/STT) tool - Low-latency AI engine for mobile devices & wearables.

Overview

[![Docs][docs-shield]][docs-url] [![Website][website-shield]][website-url] [![GitHub][github-shield]][github-url] [![HuggingFace][hf-shield]][hf-url] [![Reddit][reddit-shield]][reddit-url] [![Blog][blog-shield]][blog-url]

  • Fast & accurate: fastest inference on ARM CPU, Cactus quants at 4-bit matches f16 - Low RAM: zero-copy memory mapping ensures 10x lower RAM use than other engines - Multimodal: one engine for speech, vision, and language models - Cloud fallback: automatically route requests to cloud models if needed - Model-Agnostic: Custom PyTorch models can be exported to the Cactus runtime.
  1. Cactus Compute, Inc. (YC S25) 2. UCLA's BruinAI 3. Char (YC S25) 4. Yale's AI Society 5. National University of Singapore's AI Society 6. UC Irvine's AI@UCI 7. Imperial College's AI Society 8. University of Pennsylvania's AI@Penn 9. University of Michigan Ann-Arbor MSAIL 10. University of Colorado Boulder's AI Club

N/B: Scroll all the way up and click the shields link for resources!

[docs-shield]: https://img.shields.io/badge/Docs-555?style=for-the-badge&logo=readthedocs&logoColor=white [docs-url]: https://cactus-compute.github.io/cactus/

[website-shield]: https://img.shields.io/badge/Website-555?style=for-the-badge&logo=safari&logoColor=white [website-url]: https://cactuscompute.com/

[github-shield]: https://img.shields.io/badge/GitHub-555?style=for-the-badge&logo=github&logoColor=white [github-url]: https://github.com/cactus-compute/cactus

[hf-shield]: https://img.shields.io/badge/HuggingFace-555?style=for-the-badge&logo=huggingface&logoColor=white [hf-url]: https://huggingface.co/Cactus-Compute

[reddit-shield]: https://img.shields.io/badge/Reddit-555?style=for-the-badge&logo=reddit&logoColor=white [reddit-url]: https://www.reddit.com/r/cactuscompute/

[blog-shield]: https://img.shields.io/badge/Blog-555?style=for-the-badge&logo=hashnode&logoColor=white [blog-url]: https://cactuscompute.com/blog

cactus is open-source, written primarily in C++, with 5,321 GitHub stars under the Other license. The latest release is v1.14 (2026-04-18).

Key capabilities

From the project's documentation:

  • Fast & accurate: fastest inference on ARM CPU, Cactus quants at 4-bit matches f16
  • Low RAM: zero-copy memory mapping ensures 10x lower RAM use than other engines
  • Multimodal: one engine for speech, vision, and language models
  • Cloud fallback: automatically route requests to cloud models if needed
  • Model-Agnostic: Custom PyTorch models can be exported to the Cactus runtime.
  • Step 1: brew install cactus-compute/cactus/cactus

Install

A quick way to get started (always check the official docs for the latest):

brew install cactus-compute/cactus/cactus

How it fits a local-AI stack

cactus runs on your own hardware, so pair it with a model and a GPU sized to your needs. Use the VRAM calculator to pick a model that fits your card, and see what you can run for hardware guidance. Related speech (TTS/STT) tools in the directory:

Sources

Stats from GitHub, 2026-06-08.

Frequently asked

Quick answers to common questions

What is cactus?

cactus is a tts-stt tool for local AI workloads. Low-latency AI engine for mobile devices & wearables

Is cactus free and open source?

Yes, cactus has 5,321 GitHub stars and is licensed under Other. You can self-host it for free on macos.

What platforms does cactus support?

cactus runs on macos.

What hardware do I need for cactus?

The hardware requirements depend on which models you run. Check our hardware directory for compatible GPUs and systems. cactus has 5,321 GitHub stars and an active community.

Does cactus support GPU acceleration?

cactus supports GPU acceleration via CUDA, Metal, or Vulkan depending on your platform. For the best performance, pair it with an NVIDIA RTX 4090 or 5090.

What are the best alternatives to cactus?

Popular alternatives include other tts-stt tools in our directory. Browse our full collection at /tool for comparisons, community reviews, and benchmark data to find the right fit for your workflow.

How much does cactus cost?

cactus is free-open-source. It is completely free and open source to self-host.

Pairs well with

Complementary tools, models, and hardware

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