Fish Audio

Fish Audio is a speech synthesis and voice cloning platform whose team also maintains the open-source speech model Fish Speech, which gives it a following among developers. Two things set it apart. First, cloning has a low barrier: a fairly short, clean recording is enough for a reasonably close copy of a voice. Second, it performs evenly across languages such as Chinese, English and Japanese, rather than being noticeably weaker in Chinese the way some overseas products are.

The platform has a very large community voice library where users upload and share voices, so you can simply search for a style and use it. For developers, API pricing is competitive within the category, and anyone wanting to self-host can explore the open-source model.

That community library is also its biggest liability. Many voices imitate celebrities, streamers and anime characters, with unclear origins and permissions, so using them commercially carries real legal risk. Overall audio quality and emotional range still trail the best commercial products, and quality varies widely from voice to voice.

Key features

• Text-to-speech: Enter text, pick a voice and generate speech in Chinese, English, Japanese and other languages.
• Fast voice cloning: Upload a clean reference recording to create a similar voice for later synthesis.
• Community voice library: Search and audition a huge range of user-shared voices.
• Tone control: Add emotion or tone markers in the text to adjust delivery.
• Developer API: Integrate synthesis into your own apps for bulk voiceover or voice-driven products.
• Open-source model: The team has released its speech model for self-hosting and research, but check the licence first, as it may not allow commercial use.

How to use

1. Sign up on the Fish Audio website; the free allowance is enough to try the basics.
2. Search and audition voices in the library, or upload a clean recording of your own voice to create a clone.
3. Enter your text, choose a voice and language, and generate; if it sounds off, adjust punctuation or tone markers.
4. Download the audio, or get an API key from the developer section to integrate it into your code.

Best for

• Video narration and personal content: generate voiceover in your own cloned voice instead of re-recording.
• Multilingual content: the same voice can read Chinese, English and Japanese.
• Developer prototypes: low API costs suit early testing of voice assistants, game dialogue and similar products.
• Research and self-hosting: the open-source model makes it easy to experiment locally.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

• Low barrier to cloning; a small amount of audio produces a usable voice.
• Balanced multilingual performance, with Chinese as good as English.
• Competitive API pricing, plus an open-source model for self-hosting.

Limitations

• The community library is full of imitations of celebrities and characters with unclear rights, which makes commercial use risky.
• Audio quality and emotional range still trail the top commercial products, and quality varies a lot between voices.
• Only clone your own voice or voices you are authorised to use; using someone else’s voice requires their consent.
• It is an overseas service, so access from within China depends on your network.