2026 TTS Open-Source Boom: Open Models Approach Commercial Solutions
A May 2026 evaluation by Agora shows open-source models like CosyVoice 2 and Kokoro-82M achieving MOS scores close to Azure TTS in Chinese scenarios.
In May 2026, Agora published a comprehensive benchmark of mainstream open-source TTS models. CosyVoice 2 was rated best for Chinese, Kokoro-82M became the best value with 82M parameters, VibeVoice was unmatched for long-form audio, and Qwen3-TTS along with Fish Speech S2 Pro also excelled across multiple dimensions.
The evaluation showed that the gap between open-source models and commercial APIs has narrowed significantly, with some open-source models approaching Azure TTS MOS scores in Chinese scenarios. Common misconceptions were also clarified: parameter count doesn’t directly determine quality, and voice cloning only needs 3-10 seconds of reference audio.
2026 marks the year of the TTS open-source explosion, giving developers an unprecedented wealth of choices.