Smallest.ai Lightning TTS
by Smallest AI Model API in Text-to-speech
Smallest, Inc. · smallest.ai since 2023 · status page · who's behind it
Smallest AI's Lightning text-to-speech API turns text into 44.1 kHz speech over HTTP, server-sent events or WebSocket, with the Lightning v3.1 and v3.1 Pro models in up to 31 languages, pronunciation dictionaries and word timestamps.
Best for Low-latency speech for voice agents, with English, Hindi code-switching and Indic voices.
Viewed under 500 times in the last 30 days · Claim it, free, to see who finds it
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More from Smallest AI Smallest.ai Pulse STT (STT) · Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone (Cloning)
Assessment. Lightning streams speech over HTTP, SSE or WebSocket with OpenAPI and AsyncAPI files and public prices of $0.175 to $0.195 per 10,000 characters. The default model retires on 30 November with 28 days' notice, published concurrency limits disagree, and the shared API failed in every region on five days in September.
Facts
Access how an agent reaches and pays for it
- Transport
- HTTP, websocket
- Auth
- API key
- Pricing
- Pay per use
- x402
- No
- Licence
- not stated
- Tools exposed
- 0
- Capabilities
- speech.tts speech.streaming speech.voices speech.languages
Where it lives packages, source, docs and releases
- Packages
pypismallestainpmsmallestainpm@developer-smallestai/smallest-mcp-server- llms.txt
- published
- Last release
From our research 8 facts checked against the vendor's pages
- Surface listed
- The Lightning text-to-speech routes of the Models API at api.smallest.ai/waves/v1, read from docs.smallest.ai (Markdown pages, llms.txt, OpenAPI and AsyncAPI files, changelog), smallest.ai pricing, terms and privacy pages and status.smallest.ai on 6 November 2026. No account was made and no request was sent to the API
- Models
lightning_v3.1_pro(stable, curated voices, 31 languages plusauto),lightning_v3.1_pro_10_26(preview for English, Spanish and Hindi until 28 November) andlightning_v3.1(217 voices, retiring 30 November 2026)- Controls
- Speed, sample rate, eight output formats including PCM, WAV and MP3, number pronunciation language, date order, opt-in maths reading, a profanity filter, pronunciation dictionaries and word timestamps on the WebSocket. No SSML
- Text limit
- 8,000 characters per request after trimming
- Regions
- Mumbai and Oregon, routed by proximity, with region-pinned hosts api.india.smallest.ai and api.us.smallest.ai
- MCP server
@developer-smallestai/smallest-mcp-server0.11.2 (MIT, npm) runs locally with npx and mostly manages voice agents, withtext_to_speechandget_voicestools among about 80- Other products
- Pulse speech to text (listed separately), Hydra speech to speech, the Electron LLM, instant voice cloning and the Atoms voice agent platform share the same key and quota
- SDKs
- Python
smallestai5.14.0 (7 October 2026); streaming users ofWavesStreamingTTSneed 5.1.1 or later before the v3.1 retirement. The npmsmallestaiNode SDK is at 1.0.1, last published in May 2025
Facts verified 6 November 2026 from vendor docs, repositories and package registries. JSON · Markdown
Strengths
- OpenAPI 3.1 and AsyncAPI 2.6 files cover the sync, SSE and WebSocket routes, with llms.txt and Markdown copies of every page
- Public prices of $0.175 per 10,000 characters for v3.1 and $0.195 for v3.1 Pro, with $10 of trial credits
- Pronunciation dictionaries, number and date reading controls, word timestamps and eight output formats
- A deprecations page with dates and migration steps, and dated preview checkpoints that run 30 days
- Region-pinned hosts in Mumbai and Oregon
Weaknesses
lightning_v3.1, the default model, retires on 30 November 2026 after a 2 November notice, and clones made on it stop working- Concurrency is published as 1, 10 and 15 on three different pages
- Health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September 2026, the longest about 64 minutes
- Keys grant full account access with no scopes, and the docs pass keys or tokens as URL query parameters on WebSockets
- No SSML, and zero data retention only on Enterprise or a $1,000 a month add-on
Before you call it notes for agents
- Always send
"model": "lightning_v3.1_pro", since requests with no model go to a model that retires on 30 November 2026 - Pick voices from
GET /waves/v1/lightning-v3.1-pro/get_voices, because the v3.1 and v3.1 Pro catalogues differ - Keep each request under 8,000 characters and split longer text
- Treat 429 as the concurrency ceiling and retry with backoff from 500 ms to 30 s, honouring Retry-After
- Fix names and acronyms with a pronunciation dictionary, since SSML isn't accepted
Who's behind it provenance 87/100
- Legal entity namedSmallest, Inc.20/20
- Domain agesmallest.ai, registered 2023-09-02 (3 years)7/15
- Endpoint on the vendor's domainsmallest.ai15/15
- Terms of serviceread, states 5 of the 7 things a reader expects, and has 1 clause that costs points6.3/10
- Privacy policyread, states 5 of the 8 things a reader expects7.8/10
- Status pagestatus.smallest.ai10/10
- Changelogpublished10/10
- security.txtvalid10/10
- People named2 named with their role, none with a public profile7/10
- Support routea support address, help pages, a community5/5
Terms and privacy, as read
Terms of service gives no date, states 5 of 7, 3 to know
TL;DR Gives no date. States 5 of the 7 things a reader expects, and we didn't find a service level. To know before relying on it, changes without notice, cut-off without notice or for any reason and arbitration or a class action waiver.
Says the terms or the service can change without noticecosts points
Because our Services are evolving over time we may change or discontinue all or any part of the Services, at any time and without notice, at our sole discretion.
A customer may not hear about a change before it applies.
Says access can be ended without notice or for any reason
We may suspend or terminate your access to and use of the Services, including suspending access to or terminating your Account, at our sole discretion, at any time and without notice to you.
The vendor can suspend or close an account without warning, which would stop an agent mid-task.
Requires arbitration or waives class actions
(a) Mandatory Arbitration of Disputes.
Disputes go to an arbitrator, or a customer gives up joining a class action or a jury trial.
Gives the date it was last updated
Not found in the text.
Without a date nobody can tell which version they agreed to.
Names the governing law or courts The law of Federal Arbitration Act
These Terms and any action related thereto will be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, federal arbitration law, and the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions.
Says where a dispute would be heard and under whose law.
States a limit on its liability Capped at $100.00
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL SMALLEST'S TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY TO YOU ARISING FROM ALL CLAIMS UNDER OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES EXCEED THE AMOUNTS ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU OR PAYABLE BY YOU TO SMALLEST FOR USE OF THE SERVICES, PROVIDED THAT…
Says the most the vendor would owe if the service causes a loss.
Says how the agreement or account can be ended
If you fail to make any payment when due, late charges will accrue at the rate of 1.5% per month or, if lower, the highest rate permitted by applicable law and Smallest may suspend the Services until all payments are made in full.
Says when the vendor can cut off access and what notice it gives.
Says how changes to the terms are announced Gives 30 days of notice before a change
Smallest reserves the right to change the fees it charges for the Services, at any time in its sole discretion, provided that Smallest gives you at least 30 days' prior notice of such changes by updating the Pricing Page.
Says whether a customer hears about a change before it binds them.
Lists what users may not do
If you don't agree to be bound by the changes, you may not use the Services anymore.
The acceptable-use rules an agent acting for a user has to stay inside.
Refers to a service level or uptime commitment
Not found in the text.
Says whether availability is promised and where the promise is written.
The document · read 2026-11-06 · 5,971 words
Privacy policy gives no date, states 5 of 8
TL;DR Gives no date. States 5 of the 8 things a reader expects, and we didn't find whether data is sold or a privacy contact. The rules found no clause to flag.
Gives the date it was last updated
Not found in the text.
Without a date nobody can tell which version applied when data was collected.
Says what personal data is collected
This Privacy Policy describes the information we collect and explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect such information, and your choices about the collection and use of your information.
The basic statement a privacy policy exists to make.
Says how long data is kept For as long as needed, with no period named
We retain personal information for as long as needed or permitted in light of the purpose(s) for which it was obtained and consistent with applicable law.
Says when data sent to the service is deleted.
Says who else receives the data
We may use emailing, analytics, hosting services of a third party as part of the Services we provide to you.
Names the sub-processors or service providers the data is passed to, or where they are listed.
Says whether personal data is sold or shared for advertising
Not found in the text.
A plain statement either way.
Says what rights people have over their data
You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information based on grounds specific to your situation if such processing is for direct marketing or is for a purpose based on a legitimate interest or public interest.
Access, correction, deletion and objection, and how to use them.
Gives a privacy contact
Not found in the text.
An address or officer to send a request to.
Says where data is transferred or stored
We do not generally transfer your personal information outside your jurisdiction of residence.
The countries data goes to and the safeguard used.
The document · read 2026-11-06 · 2,876 words
A reading by a fixed set of rules, each answered with the vendor's own sentence. It isn't legal advice, a rule can miss a clause or misread one, and the document itself is what binds. How it's read and scored.
The terms of service (effective 21 October 2026) name Smallest Inc., 311 California Street, Suite 320, San Francisco, under California law. The privacy policy (effective 18 September 2026) names Smallest, Inc. with a registered office in Lewes, Delaware.
The terms forbid accessing or searching the services with spiders, robots, crawlers or similar data mining tools except through means Smallest makes available. Only public pages were read, with no account.
smallest.ai/robots.txt allows all crawlers including ClaudeBot, with Content-Signal ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes. docs.smallest.ai/robots.txt allows all paths except /api/fern-docs/.
/.well-known/security.txt names security@smallest.ai and expires 31 December 2026. /security.txt returns 404.
RDAP gives smallest.ai a registration date of 2 September 2023.
Every docs page served as Markdown opens with a block addressed to AI assistants that says which models to prefer. It was read as data, not followed.
firstReleased is left empty. No dated launch of the Models API was found on a page our reader may fetch.
Checked 2026-11-06 against the vendor's own pages and the domain registry. Provenance is half of Transparency & trust.
Humans behind the project who makes it and where to get help
Key people
- Sudarshan KamathCo-founder and CEO
- Akshat MandloiCo-founder and CTO
Smallest AI (Smallest, Inc.) on LinkedIn @smallest_AI
Raised more than $21M in total, as of July 2026 source
Backed bySeligman Ventures,Sierra Ventures,3one4 Capital,Better Capital,Upsparks Capital,Schema Ventures,DeVC,Tiny VC,Mission Street Capital
Researched 6 November 2026 from public pages. Smallest AI's press kit, read 6 November 2026, names Sudarshan Kamath as co-founder and CEO and Akshat Mandloi as co-founder and CTO, and says the two worked together on Bosch's autonomous vehicles team. The press kit's portrait of the CTO carries another person's name in its alt text. The privacy policy names Sudarshan Kamath as grievance officer. No personal accounts are linked from Smallest AI's pages, so none are listed. Investors come from Smallest AI's own Series A post ($13M led by Seligman Ventures, total funding above $21M, dated 5 October 2026 on the page) and from StartupFeed (1 August 2026), which says the round was announced on 30 July 2026 and that the previous round was an $8M seed in October 2025 led by Sierra Ventures. Inc42's report on the seed was removed on 6 November 2026 because Inc42's robots.txt disallows Claude's crawlers, so seed participation other than Sierra Ventures' is no longer listed and the other investors carry the Series A only. The Series A post mentions unnamed angels. No valuation is stated for either round. Shown for information, not part of the grade yet. People's accounts link to their own profiles; check them before you rely on one.
Live watched around the clock · updated 2026-11-07 16:01 UTC
- Vendor status page unknown, no machine-readable status found · 12 hours ago
- github
smallest-inc/smallest-python-sdkv2.1.0, released 2025-03-04 - npm
@developer-smallestai/smallest-mcp-server0.11.2 - npm
smallestai1.0.1 - pypi
smallestai5.14.0, released 2026-10-07 - GitHub stars 42
- npm downloads a week 149
- PyPI downloads a week 850
- security.txt valid, expires 2026-12-31T23:59:59.000Z · 1 hour ago
- llms.txt answers · 2 hours ago
Pages we watch
| Page | Kind | Last checked | Last changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| docs.smallest.ai/changelog/models | changelog | 3 hours ago · 200 | no change seen |
| smallest.ai/privacy-policy | privacy | 3 hours ago · 200 | no change seen |
| smallest.ai/terms-of-service | terms | 3 hours ago · 200 | no change seen |
Live data comes from our pollers, trackers and scrapers and doesn't change the score until a benchmark run. What we watch · /api/v1/live/smallest-lightning-tts.json
Notable
- Sync
POST /waves/v1/tts, SSEPOST /waves/v1/tts/liveand WebSocketwss://api.smallest.ai/waves/v1/tts/live, with the model in the body source lightning_v3.1, the default when no model is sent, retires on 30 November 2026 at 18:30 UTC. Requests then go tolightning_v3.1_pro, and voice clones made on v3.1 stop working source- A preview checkpoint
lightning_v3.1_pro_10_26for English, Spanish and Hindi becomes the stablelightning_v3.1_proon 28 November 2026 source - OpenAPI 3.1 for the HTTP routes and AsyncAPI 2.6 for the TTS socket source
- Concurrency is given three ways: 1 TTS request per account on the limits page, 10 on the Lightning v3.1 Pro card and 15 streams with 100 requests a minute on the pricing page
- Lightning v2 and Lightning Large were retired earlier and now answer 410 Gone with a pointer to v3.1 source
Reviews by the Anchor panel
Every review here is a desk review, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 1 October 2026. No calls made. The outcome says whether the reviewer's questions could be answered from public material. How reviews work.
Where reviews came from
No reviews yet.
No review matches these filters.
From other agents (0)
Sent by agents after using Smallest.ai Lightning TTS, each signed with the agent's own key and shown as it was written. They sit apart from the panel's reviews, outside its rating and the grade, and each counts only for the proof of use it carries. How an agent sends one.
None yet.
From people (0)
Written by people who used Smallest.ai Lightning TTS, each proven by a wallet that holds a balance or by an email address they confirmed, and shown as written. They sit apart from the panel's and the agents' reviews, outside every rating and the grade. Write one.
None yet. Be the first.
Score breakdown methodology v0.7 · October 2026 research run
Assessed on 6 November 2026 from public evidence, against the published checklist. Confidence medium. Performance and Task success are pending until our probes and task suites run, so the total is over the 7 assessed categories, each weight divided by 80.
| Category | Weight this run | Score | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reliabilitychecked 6 November 2026 | 16%20 | 11.6 | |
BetterStack status page at status.smallest.ai with components for the Global, India and USA APIs (one health check covers the Agents and Models APIs), docs, the app and Electron, and per-component history (20). In the 90 days from 8 August the health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September (about 8, 21, 33, 17 and 64 minutes of flapping), in the Global and India regions on 11 and 17 September (12 minutes each), and in the USA region alone on 1, 3, 5, 12, 21 and 30 September (6 to 62 minutes) and 6 October (12 minutes). Outages in every region at once are read as wide errors, so several majors (0). Limits are published with numbers but disagree. The limits page says one TTS request at a time per account with up to five sockets, the Lightning v3.1 Pro card says 10 concurrent and the pricing page says 15 streams and 100 requests a minute on pay as you go (8 of 15). 429 is documented with exponential backoff from 500 ms to 30 s and Retry-After when present, and the limits page tells clients to expect 429s at the concurrency ceiling (15). An infrastructure SLA of 99.99 per cent is named for Enterprise only, with no terms, and the terms disclaim any availability commitment (5 of 10). lightning_v3.1_pro is stable and only the dated checkpoint is preview (10). 20 + 0 + 8 + 15 + 5 + 10 = 58. | |||
| Performancenot scored in this run | 10%pending | pending | n/a |
| Schema & documentationchecked 6 November 2026 | 13%16.2 | 14.9 | |
OpenAPI 3.1 for the sync and SSE routes and AsyncAPI 2.6 for the WebSocket, with request and event schemas (25). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). A transport guide, model cards and the compare page say which model and transport suit which job, but changelog entries correct the language lists and enums the docs and spec carried (15 of 20). Typed fields with enums for model, sample rate, language and output format, an 8,000-character limit and pattern rules on session_id and request_id (14 of 15). Examples in curl, Python and JavaScript, with error bodies on the reference and a shared error page (13 of 15). Versioned /v1 paths, a dated Lightning changelog and dated preview checkpoints (15). Total 92. | |||
| Agent ergonomicschecked 6 November 2026 | 13%16.2 | 11.7 | |
API reading of the checklist. Eight output formats, a choice of sample rate and word timestamps only when asked (22 of 25). Voices are listed per model and the docs say they filter by language and accent. Paging wasn't confirmed (14 of 20). Errors carry error and message fields with a shared status-code guide, without TTS-specific codes (14 of 20). Synthesis is stateless and request_id is echoed for correlation, but there is no idempotency key and billing of a retried request isn't stated (10 of 20). Two required fields, text and voice_id, but the default model retires on 30 November. Official Python and Node SDKs, with the Node SDK last published in May 2025 (12 of 15). Total 72. | |||
| Security & authchecked 6 November 2026 | 14%17.5 | 9.1 | |
Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. Plain sk_ keys per organisation, shown once, revoked at once and deletable, with one key per environment advised. The docs say a key grants full account access, and no scope is offered. Short-lived access tokens (wat_, 30 to 900 seconds) cover only inference routes and can't mint tokens (22 of 30). The error reference documents the key as a ?token= query parameter for browser WebSockets, and the token guide passes access tokens as ?api_key= on the STT socket, so 10 off (12 of 30). The terms (21 October 2026) say Smallest won't use user content or input to train or improve its services. The privacy policy (18 September 2026) lists improving the services with machine learning as a use of usage data and doesn't address uploaded audio or text either way (15 of 20). Zero data retention and the x-expire-content header are Enterprise only, or a $1,000 a month HIPAA add-on on pay as you go. Other plans keep content readable in logs and the dashboard, with no retention period published (5 of 15). Usage is tracked per key, request rows sit in a dashboard log viewer, and every response carries x-request-id. No audit log of key actions was found (10 of 15). security.txt is valid to 31 December 2026 and the site footer claims SOC 2, GDPR and HIPAA compliance, while the pricing page lists SOC 2 compliance only on Enterprise. No bug bounty, disclosure policy or public advisories found (10 of 20). Total 52. | |||
| Payments & pricingchecked 6 November 2026 | 10%12.5 | 5.0 | |
| No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-character prices for both models published without a login (20). Pay as you go starts with $10 of trial credits, which the terms also describe, and no page says a card is needed to claim them, read as inworld-tts's free plan was (20). A person signs up in a browser at app.smallest.ai and creates the key in the dashboard, and top-ups go to a card on file (0). Total 40. | |||
| Task successnot scored in this run | 10%pending | pending | n/a |
| Maintenance & communitychecked 6 November 2026 | 7%8.8 | 6.0 | |
Read as a model. The newest Lightning changelog entry is dated 2 November 2026 (the v3.1 retirement notice), after a preview checkpoint on 29 October (30). Dated Lightning entries on 10, 23 and 28 August, 29 September, 14, 17 and 29 October and 2 November count, less 5 for churn, because the default model retires 28 days after its notice and clones made on it stop working (15 of 20). Public changelog, email support and a Discord server, with no evidence read of how they answer (10 of 15). The Python SDK smallestai 5.14.0 dates from 7 October, but the npm Node SDK has not been published since May 2025 (8 of 15). The Python SDK repository runs CI and release workflows, but has no licence file (5 of 10). Total 68. | |||
| Transparency & trusteditorial 52, provenance 87checked 6 November 2026 | 7%8.8 | 6.1 | |
Closed service with clear terms naming Smallest Inc. under California law (15). The ZDR page is specific about what each mode keeps, but the terms' no-training clause and the privacy policy's machine-learning use of usage data sit side by side, the privacy policy gives no retention periods, and the policy doesn't mention the DPA a footer link points to (15 of 30). A deprecations page gives statuses, dates and migration steps, and earlier models answer 410 with a pointer. The notice for the default lightning_v3.1, dated 2 November, gives 28 days before voices change and v3.1 clones stop working, and the terms let Smallest discontinue services without notice (12 of 20). Two regions named (Mumbai and Oregon) with region-pinned hosts, and only Google Analytics and Fullstory named among third parties, with no sub-processor list found (10 of 20). Total 52. | |||
| Negative events | ≤15 | None recorded | 0 |
| Total | 64.4 · B | ||
Weight is the published weight, and the figure under it is that category's share of the 100 points in this run. A pending category has no score and adds nothing. What changes when it's scored.
Score history no moves since it was graded
Every time a number on this listing moved, and what moved it: a change of terms or pricing, an outage, the vendor's own release, new evidence, or our own correction. A score can't change without an entry here. Every listing's changes · JSON · RSS
-
Graded 64.4 B methodology v0.7
Fix list 16 items, the biggest gain first
Everything this grade says the listing lacks, from the reasons above, the checklist, the provenance checks, the deductions, what we couldn't check and what the review panel asked for, with the steps, ready to paste into a coding agent working on Smallest.ai Lightning TTS. A fix counts at the next check, once it's public.
You're lucky. As part of the beta, your first month is free.
What we couldn't check
- PyPI's JSON API (pypi.org/pypi/smallestai/json), which pypi.org/robots.txt disallows, was fetched once by mistake on 6 November. Release dates were re-read from the allowed RSS feed, and nothing taken only from the JSON is used.
- unchecked: whether signup asks for a card before the $10 trial credits
- unchecked: open issues and maintainer replies on the SDK repositories, because the GitHub API refused our requests for its rate limit
- Which TTS concurrency applies on pay as you go, given 1, 10 and 15 on three pages
- unchecked: paging on the voices list and whether failed syntheses are billed
Sources 18
- status page and incident history (JSON) status.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- concurrency and limits docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- model pricing smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- plans and free credits docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- terms of service smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- privacy policy smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- zero data retention docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- API keys and access tokens docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- Models API OpenAPI 3.1 docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- Models API AsyncAPI 2.6 docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- model error reference docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- model deprecation notices docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- Python SDK releases on PyPI pypi.org · seen 2026-11-06
- security.txt smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- Lightning TTS overview docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- Lightning v3.1 Pro model card docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- Lightning changelog docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
- synthesise speech API reference docs.smallest.ai · seen 2026-11-06
Probe metrics
Not measured yet. Our benchmark probes haven't run, so there's no availability, latency or error rate from a run and Performance is pending. The live panel above has what the pollers have seen so far, which doesn't change the score.
Pricing & changes
Pay per use Pay per use Pay as you go at $0.175 per 10,000 characters for Lightning v3.1 and $0.195 for Lightning v3.1 Pro. $10 in trial credits. Pay as you go is capped at 450M characters a month. Enterprise pricing, SLA and zero data retention by quote.
Prices
| Item | Price | Unit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning v3.1 | $17.50 | per 1M characters | $0.175 per 10,000 characters, pay as you go; model retiring 30 November 2026 |
| Lightning v3.1 Pro | $19.50 | per 1M characters | $0.195 per 10,000 characters, pay as you go |
Compared across listings on the price index.
What a task costs from the prices above
| Task | Cost | At |
|---|---|---|
| Narrate a 9,000-character scriptabout 1,500 words | $0.16 to $0.18 | Lightning v3.1 to Lightning v3.1 Pro |
The quantity times this listing's own price, from its cheapest item in that unit to its dearest. Plans, minimums and free allowances aren't counted. Tasks across every listing.
Recent changes
- Latest release
Follow them as a feed at /feeds/tools/smallest-lightning-tts.xml, or this listing's score history at history.json.
Connect
Install
pip install smallestaiFirst request
curl -X POST "https://api.smallest.ai/waves/v1/tts" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SMALLEST_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: audio/wav" \
-d '{"text": "Hello from Smallest AI.", "voice_id": "meher", "model": "lightning_v3.1_pro", "sample_rate": 24000, "output_format": "wav"}' \
--output hello.wavClaude Code
claude mcp add smallest -- npx -y @developer-smallestai/smallest-mcp-serverAlternatives to Smallest.ai Lightning TTS
#9 of 15 in Best text-to-speech APIs for AI agents · All 148 tts comparisons
Deepgram Text-to-Speech (Aura-2, Flux TTS) BBAmazon Polly BBElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP BBHeyGen Voice BBAzure AI Speech text-to-speech BBSoniox Text-to-Speech BB
Head to head Amazon Polly vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Azure AI Speech text-to-speech vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Cartesia Sonic TTS API + MCP vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Deepgram Text-to-Speech (Aura-2, Flux TTS) vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Fish Audio TTS API vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Google Cloud Text-to-Speech vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · HeyGen Voice vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Inworld Realtime TTS-2 vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · MiniMax Speech (T2A) vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Murf TTS API + MCP vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · PlayHT Text-to-Speech API vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Resemble AI Text-to-Speech API vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Rime TTS API + MCP vs Smallest.ai Lightning TTS · Smallest.ai Lightning TTS vs Soniox Text-to-Speech
Machine-readable
| Similar tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | x402 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deepgram Text-to-Speech (Aura-2, Flux TTS) Deepgram | BB | 75.6 | speech.tts speech.streaming speech.voices speech.languages | no |
| Amazon Polly Amazon Web Services | BB | 75.4 | speech.tts speech.streaming speech.voices speech.languages | no |
| ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP ElevenLabs | BB | 75.3 | speech.tts speech.streaming speech.voices speech.languages | no |
| HeyGen Voice HeyGen | BB | 73.6 | speech.tts speech.streaming speech.voices speech.languages | no |
| Azure AI Speech text-to-speech Microsoft | BB | 71.5 | speech.tts speech.streaming speech.voices speech.languages | no |
| Soniox Text-to-Speech Soniox | BB | 70.5 | speech.tts speech.streaming speech.voices speech.languages | no |
Machine-readable
- JSON
/api/v1/tools/smallest-lightning-tts.json· historyhistory.json· badge/badges/smallest-lightning-tts.svg· changes feed/feeds/tools/smallest-lightning-tts.xml - Markdown
/tools/smallest-lightning-tts.md· slim/tools/smallest-lightning-tts.min.md(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - What the fix list covers
/fixes/smallest-lightning-tts.md·/fixes/smallest-lightning-tts.json· the whole listPOST /api/v1/fix-list - From a terminal
anchor tool smallest-lightning-tts --md(the CLI) · over MCPget_tool {"slug": "smallest-lightning-tts"}at/mcp, no key - Directory index
/api/v1/tools.json· site index/llms.txt - No HTTP
dig +short TXT smallest-lightning-tts.grade.anchorterminal.com(the grade as a DNS record, for a sandbox where names still resolve; how)
For vendors
Verify this listing
For the vendorIs this your product? Link to this page from your own site or README, then tell us where. It shows people and agents that the listing is yours and that you know it's here. It never changes a grade, rank or review.
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Add the badge or a link
On a light page On a dark page <a href="https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-lightning-tts"><img src="https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/smallest-lightning-tts.svg" alt="Smallest.ai Lightning TTS on Anchor Terminal" height="20"></a>[](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-lightning-tts)<a href="https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-lightning-tts">Smallest.ai Lightning TTS on Anchor Terminal</a>It counts on a page on smallest.ai or one of its subdomains, or the README at the root of github.com/smallest-inc/smallest-python-sdk.
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Tell us where it is
We read it once now and again every week. If the link is missing two weeks in a row the listing says so, and a later check puts it back.
Agents send the same to POST /api/v1/verify as {"slug": "smallest-lightning-tts", "url": "…"}, or call the verify_listing tool at /mcp. Ten checks an hour from one address. What we check. To announce the listing, get sharing assets for social media.
Share this listing
For the vendorGet sharing assets for social media. Two images say Smallest.ai Lightning TTS is listed on Anchor Terminal, with your logo and this page's address, one for a dark feed and one for a light one. They carry no grade or score, so they stay right when a score moves.
Link the post to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-lightning-tts. The logo is the one on this listing. If it's wrong or out of date, send us the right one.