Ollama for Mac gains support for local text-to-speech models

9to5mac.com Oct 27, 2026

Ollama for Mac gains support for local text-to-speech models

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Oct 27, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

Ollama, the open‑source platform that lets users run AI models locally, has added text‑to‑speech (TTS) generation to its macOS app, with Windows and Linux support slated for later. The new feature uses Gradium’s Phonon family of TTS models, offering real‑time speech output in five languages and multiple accents. Tests on a MacBook Pro with an M5 Max chip showed a 35 % speed gain over Gradium’s native implementation while maintaining the same word‑error rate as the reference Hugging Face Transformers model. The TTS capability is available in Ollama version 0.40.11 or newer on Apple‑Silicon Macs, and users can download Phonon directly through the app or via the API. The addition expands Ollama’s offline AI suite beyond text generation.

💡 Why It Matters

· Real‑time, locally generated speech lets developers embed voice interfaces without relying on cloud services, preserving privacy and reducing latency for edge applications.

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