Kokoro (American English)AI text to speech
A small open-weight voice model: natural speech for little. On Leap, it sits beside 174 other models in one studio.
- Text to speech
- No subscription
- Every top model, one account
- Pay per run, priced before it starts
Listen / A 3 a.m. radio sign-off
Read the transcript
It's three in the morning, in a city that pretends it sleeps. If you're still driving, crack a window. If you're still awake, text her back. This is Night Shift, and this next one goes out to the bakers.
Listen / Thriller narration: the stuck elevator
Read the transcript
The elevator stopped between the ninth and tenth floors. Marcus counted. At forty seconds, the lights went out, and somewhere above him, someone began, very slowly, to whistle.
Listen / A recipe, step by step
Read the transcript
Step one: rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Step two: ignore every uncle who tells you to skip step one.
Listen / A two-minute breathing break
Read the transcript
Breathe in for four. Hold it. Now out, slowly, for six. Notice your jaw. Unclench it. You've been holding that since Tuesday.
AI text to speech
Kokoro (American English) at a glance
Kokoro (American English) is a text-to-speech model from hexgrad. It makes speech from your text.
- Made by
- hexgrad
- Makes
- Speech
- Starts from
- Your text
- Voices
- 20 to choose from
- Text
- Up to 1,000 characters
- Price per run
- $0.027
- Updated
- October 3, 2026
- 01Write the words, pick a voice
- 02See the exact price, then press go
- 03Keep it in your library, or take it further
Pick the right one
Kokoro (American English) and its siblings
| Model | Best for | Price per run |
|---|---|---|
| Kokoro (American English) (this page) | A small open-weight voice model: natural speech for little. | $0.027 |
| Kokoro (British English) | Kokoro's British English voices. | $0.027 |
Start with an idea
Three ways to try Kokoro (American English)
Side by side
More voice and sound models on Leap
- ElevenLabs' newest and most expressive speech model, in over 70 languages.Eleven v4ElevenLabs
- OpenAI's higher-quality text to speech, in nine voices.TTS-1 HDOpenAI
- Microsoft's most natural voices, for narration, across 23 languages.MAI-Voice-2.1Microsoft
- Open-weight speech with emotion tags such as <laugh> and <sigh>.OrpheusCanopy Labs
Questions
Kokoro (American English), answered
- What is Kokoro (American English)?
- Kokoro (American English) is a text-to-speech model from hexgrad. A small open-weight voice model: natural speech for little. On Leap it runs in one studio beside every other top model, with one account.
- Which voices can I use?
- 20 voices, among them Af heart, Af alloy, Af aoede, Af bella and Af jessica. You can hear each one in the studio before you run it.
- How much text can it read in one run?
- Up to 1,000 characters. You pay for the characters you send, with the price shown before you press go.
- How is it different from Kokoro (British English)?
- Kokoro (American English): A small open-weight voice model: natural speech for little. Kokoro (British English): Kokoro's British English voices. They all run in the same studio, so you can try one prompt on each.
- How much does a run cost?
- A run costs $0.027. You see the exact price before you press go, and a run that fails costs nothing.
- Is Kokoro (American English) free to try?
- No. There is no free credit: you add credit from $5, and your first top-up has no card fee. The cheapest run is $0.027 (a run), so $5 covers 185 of those. You pay per run, in dollars, with no subscription.
- Can I use what I make commercially?
- Yes. You own what you make on Leap, so you can use it commercially, and we never train AI on it. The people and brands shown in a result can still have rights in it; the Terms say more.
- Is there an API?
- Yes. Leap's REST API runs it as hexgrad/kokoro-american-english, at the same price per run as the studio, and agents can call it through Leap's MCP server. The request is at the bottom of this page.
- Do I need a hexgrad account?
- No. Leap sends your request to hexgrad's model and gives you what it makes. One Leap account runs Kokoro (American English) and every other model, in the studio, through the API and from your agents.
Your idea, Kokoro (American English).
Every run shows its price before it starts, and one that fails costs nothing.
Make it with Kokoro (American English)For developers
Run Kokoro (American English) from code
- Model ID
- hexgrad/kokoro-american-english
- Makes
- Voice and sound
- Pricing
- Per run, quoted first: POST /v1/quotes
Inputs
What the model takes. Leave out anything with a default.
The request
The same envelope for every model; only the model and its input change. With prefer: wait=60 the answer holds the result when the run finishes within a minute; a longer one is read again by its ID. Agents can call it through the MCP server at app.tryleap.ai/api/mcp.
curl https://api.tryleap.ai/v1/generations \ -H "x-api-key: $LEAP_API_KEY" \ -H "content-type: application/json" \ -H "prefer: wait=60" \ -d '{ "model": "hexgrad/kokoro-american-english", "input": { "text": "It'\''s three in the morning, in a city that pretends it sleeps. If you'\''re still driving, crack a window. If you'\''re still awake, text her back. This is Night Shift, and this next one goes out to the bakers." } }' # Video often outlasts the wait and answers "queued" or "running".# Put its "id" in GENERATION_ID and read it again until it is done:# curl https://api.tryleap.ai/v1/generations/$GENERATION_ID -H "x-api-key: $LEAP_API_KEY"