Introduction

Speech AI APIs by Smallest AI — generate speech with Lightning TTS and transcribe audio with Pulse STT.

Smallest AI builds speech AI models and APIs. Generate natural speech, transcribe audio in real-time, and clone voices — all through simple API calls.

Models

Lightning (Text-to-Speech)

Generate speech with 80+ voices, 44.1 kHz audio, and ~100ms latency. English, Hindi, Spanish, Tamil.

Pulse (Speech-to-Text)

Transcribe audio in real-time or from files. 39 languages, speaker diarization, emotion detection.

Get Your API Key

1. Create an account

   Go to app.smallest.ai and sign up with email or Google.

   
2. Navigate to API Keys

   In the Smallest AI console, select API Keys from the left sidebar under Developer.

   

   Select API Keys under the Developer section in the sidebar

3. Create and copy your key

   Click the Create API Key button in the top-right corner.

   

   Click Create API Key to generate a new key

   Enter a name for the key and click Create API Key.

   

   Enter a name for identification and confirm

4. Use your key

   The newly created key appears in your API Keys dashboard. Click the copy icon to copy it.

   

   Copy the API key from the dashboard using the copy icon

   Set it in your terminal:

   export SMALLEST_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
   

Try It Now

Generate speech (Lightning TTS)

Paste this in your terminal — no install required:

curl -X POST "https://api.smallest.ai/waves/v1/lightning-v3.1/get_speech" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SMALLEST_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "Hello from Smallest AI!", "voice_id": "magnus", "sample_rate": 24000, "output_format": "wav"}' \
  --output hello.wav

Play hello.wav — you should hear the same quality as the sample above.

Transcribe audio (Pulse STT)

curl -X POST "https://api.smallest.ai/waves/v1/pulse/get_text?language=en" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SMALLEST_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://github.com/smallest-inc/cookbook/raw/main/speech-to-text/getting-started/samples/audio.wav"}'

You’ll get back:

{
  "transcription": "This is a sample audio file for testing speech to text transcription with the Pulse API."
}

Next Steps

TTS Quickstart

Full guide with Python, JavaScript, and SDK examples.

STT Quickstart

Transcribe files and stream audio in real-time.

Model Cards

Benchmarks, specs, and capabilities.

Cookbooks

Production-ready example projects.

Showcase

See what developers have built with Smallest AI.

GitHub

Open-source cookbook with 20+ examples.

Community & Support

Join Discord

Ask questions, share projects, and connect with other developers.

Email Support

Reach our team directly for technical assistance.