izwi

izwi is a speech (TTS/STT) tool - Voice AI runtime. Local first transcription, speaker diarization, TTS, and voice cloning with an OpenAI compatible API.

Overview

Izwi is a desktop app, web UI, CLI, and local inference server for voice AI. It runs on your machine and exposes both product workflows and OpenAI-compatible API routes without requiring cloud services or API keys.

• Real-time voice conversations with local ASR, chat, and TTS models. - Text-to-speech, long-form Studio projects, voice cloning, voice design, and saved voices. - Transcription, speaker diarization, forced alignment, and realtime speech-to-text. - Local chat, model download/load/unload/delete, history, exports, and settings. - OpenAI-compatible '/v1' APIs for models, chat completions, audio speech, audio transcriptions, and preview Responses support.

Inference data stays local. Optional anonymous desktop analytics are disabled unless a user explicitly opts in, and they do not send prompts, transcripts, audio payloads, local paths, or personal identifiers.

• macOS: install the '.dmg', drag 'Izwi.app' to Applications, then launch it. - Linux: install the '.deb' package with 'sudo dpkg -i izwi_*.deb'. - Windows: run the '.exe' installer.

• macOS Apple Silicon release builds use Metal. - Linux and Windows release builds are CPU-only. - CUDA is supported through the Docker CUDA profile or source builds on compatible NVIDIA hosts.

Open the app at 'http://localhost:8080'. The local API reference is available at 'http://localhost:8080/docs', and the raw OpenAPI document is available at 'http://localhost:8080/openapi.json'.

Run 'izwi list' to see the enabled catalog. Current families include:

izwi is open-source, written primarily in Rust, with 338 GitHub stars under the MIT license. It was last updated on 2026-06-08.

Key capabilities

From the project's documentation:

• Real-time voice conversations with local ASR, chat, and TTS models.
• Text-to-speech, long-form Studio projects, voice cloning, voice design, and
• Transcription, speaker diarization, forced alignment, and realtime speech-to-text.
• Local chat, model download/load/unload/delete, history, exports, and settings.
• OpenAI-compatible /v1 APIs for models, chat completions, audio speech,
• macOS: install the .dmg, drag Izwi.app to Applications, then launch

How it fits a local-AI stack

izwi 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:

• Kokoro TTS
• Miso One / MisoTTS
• Piper TTS
• Sherpa Onnx

Sources

• Source code & docs: izwi-ai/izwi
• Official website: https://www.izwiai.com

Stats from GitHub, 2026-06-08.