India’s AI Voice space features standout players like Smallest.ai and Sarvam.ai. Smallest.ai focuses on delivering lightweight, scalable Text-to-Speech (TTS) models for business applications, while Sarvam.ai emphasizes democratizing AI for Indic languages with inclusive TTS, ASR, and Translation solutions. This article compares their TTS capabilities across fidelity, features, scalability, customization, and pricing to highlight their unique value.

Smallest.ai vs Sarvam.ai, a quick overview

Comparing Text to Speech

Smallest.ai's TTS platform uses the advanced Lightning model to deliver sub-100ms latency and hyper-realistic voice cloning. Sarvam.ai's Bulbul focuses on multilingual TTS, supporting 10 Indic languages and English to meet the diverse linguistic needs of India.

The below text is a Sentences with Numbers which tests the pronunciation of numbers and their natural integration into sentences.

The company reported a 15.4% increase in revenue over the last quarter.

let's see how both of the TTS perform.

Lightning by smallest.ai

Bulbul by Sarvam

Supported languages

Smallest.ai currently supports 50+ languages, whereas Sarvam supports 10 Indic Languages.

Size of voice library

Smallest.ai also supports 100+ voices with rich languages and dialects and Sarvamsupports 10+ voices mostly for Indic languages and dialects.

Latency

Smallest.ai offers cutting-edge TTS and instant voice cloning capabilities with an impressive response time of under 100ms, all while preserving fidelity, tone, and volume. In comparison, Sarvam's TTS demonstrates a higher latency of 600 ms.

API Support

Both Smallest and Sarvam offer APIs for seamless access to their TTS services.

Smallest.ai

import requests

url = "https://waves-api.smallest.ai/api/v1/lightning/get_speech"

payload = {
    "voice_id": "emily",
    "text": "I am feeling so tired, मुझे थोड़ी देर आराम करना चाहिए।",
    "sample_rate": 24000,
    "add_wav_header": True
}

headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {SMALLEST_API_KEY}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.request("POST", url, json=payload, headers=headers)

if response.status_code == 200:
    with open("smallest.wav", "wb") as audio_file:
        audio_file.write(response.content)

Smallest.ai also provides SDK which can be used for faster generation and provides more customizable options. Learn more here.

from smallest import Smallest

client = Smallest(api_key="SMALLEST_API_KEY")
client.synthesize(
  text="I am feeling so tired, मुझे थोड़ी देर आराम करना चाहिए।", 
  voice="mithali", 
  save_as="smallestai.wav"
)

Sarvam.ai

Sarvam does not provide any SDK.

import requests

url = "https://api.sarvam.ai/text-to-speech"

payload = {
    "inputs": "The sun set behind the mountains, painting the sky in hues of orange and pink.",
    "target_language_code": "en-IN",
    "speaker": "meera",
    "pitch": 0,
    "pace": 1.65,
    "loudness": 1.5,
    "speech_sample_rate": 8000,
    "enable_preprocessing": False,
    "model": "bulbul:v1"
}

headers = {
    "API-Subscription-Key": "SARVAM_API_KEY",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.request("POST", url, json=payload, headers=headers)

if response.status_code == 200:
    with open("sarvam.wav", "wb") as audio_file:
        audio_file.write(response.content)

Pricing

Smallest.ai provides TTS and Instant Voice Cloning Studio, enabling users to generate speech and create multiple voice clones with ease. Its basic plan starts at just $5 per month, offering 3 hours of audio generation, support for up to 8 voice clones, and TTS costs as low as $0.028 per minute. The plan also includes full API access across multiple languages. On the other hand, Sarvam.ai does not offer a Creator Studio but provides API-based access for its services. Pricing is set per service, with TTS available at ₹15 per 10,000 characters and STT (Speech-to-Text) priced at ₹30 per hour, making it a straightforward choice for specific use cases.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Smallest.ai stands out in Text-to-Speech and voice cloning, offering exceptional speed, quality, and customization, making it the perfect choice for businesses in need of reliable, scalable solutions. While Sarvam.ai excels in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and translation services for Indic languages and dialects, its TTS performance falls short. If your use case requires robust translation and ASR services focused on Indic languages, Sarvam.ai could be a solid option. However, for advanced TTS capabilities, Smallest.ai is the clear leader.