Voice AI
Voice AI on Affordable GPUs — TTS, STT & Real-Time Speech
Deploy Whisper, Bark, XTTS, and real-time voice AI models with low-latency inference on consumer GPUs. Save 80% compared to ElevenLabs, OpenAI Whisper API, and other voice services.
TL;DR
- →Whisper Large V3 — transcribe 1 hour of audio in ~2 minutes on an RTX 4090
- →Bark & XTTS — generate natural speech with voice cloning for $0.49/hr
- →80% cheaper than ElevenLabs and OpenAI Whisper API for sustained workloads
- →Consumer GPUs are ideal — voice models are small enough to run on RTX 3090/4090
Why Self-Hosted Voice AI Beats API Services
Voice AI — speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), and real-time voice processing — is one of the fastest-growing categories of AI inference. From call center automation to podcast production to real-time translation, voice models power an enormous range of applications.
Most teams start with API services like OpenAI's Whisper API, ElevenLabs, or Google Cloud Speech. These are great for prototyping — but the costs scale brutally. ElevenLabs charges $0.30 per 1,000 characters for their best voices. OpenAI's Whisper API charges $0.006 per minute of audio. At scale, these per-unit costs far exceed the cost of running the same models on your own GPU.
The key insight: voice AI models are small. Whisper Large V3 is only 1.5GB. Bark fits in 8GB VRAM. XTTS v2 needs about 6GB. These models run beautifully on consumer GPUs — and on VectorLay, that means $0.29-0.49/hour for unlimited inference.
Voice AI Models on VectorLay
Speech-to-Text (STT)
OpenAI Whisper (Large V3)
The gold standard for open-source speech recognition. Supports 99 languages, handles accents, background noise, and technical terminology with remarkable accuracy. Whisper Large V3 uses only ~3GB VRAM — you can run it alongside other models on the same GPU.
Faster Whisper
CTranslate2-based reimplementation of Whisper that's 4× faster with the same accuracy. Uses INT8 quantization and batched inference for maximum throughput. The best choice for high-volume transcription workloads.
Whisper + Diarization
Combine Whisper with pyannote-audio or NeMo for speaker diarization. Identify who said what in multi-speaker recordings — essential for meeting transcription, call center analytics, and podcast processing.
Text-to-Speech (TTS)
Bark (Suno AI)
Transformer-based TTS that generates highly natural speech with emotion, laughter, and non-verbal sounds. Supports multiple languages and speaker styles. Can generate music and sound effects alongside speech. Needs ~8GB VRAM.
XTTS v2 (Coqui)
Zero-shot voice cloning TTS — clone any voice from a 6-second sample. Supports 17 languages, streaming output for low latency, and fine-tuning for specific voices. The best open-source alternative to ElevenLabs for voice cloning.
StyleTTS 2 & Other Models
StyleTTS 2 achieves human-level naturalness on single-speaker TTS. Piper provides ultra-fast synthesis for simpler use cases. Fish Speech and Parler-TTS offer additional approaches. VectorLay runs them all — any model, any framework.
Real-Time Voice AI
Real-Time Voice Pipelines
Combine STT + LLM + TTS for conversational voice AI. Process incoming speech with Whisper, generate a response with an LLM (Llama 3, Mistral), and synthesize the reply with XTTS or Bark — all in under 2 seconds on a single RTX 4090.
This is the same pipeline powering voice assistants, AI phone agents, and real-time translation services. Self-hosting gives you sub-second latency without the per-minute costs of API services.
Low-Latency Inference for Voice Applications
Voice AI is latency-sensitive. When a user speaks to a voice assistant, even 500ms of extra delay feels unnatural. Self-hosted inference on VectorLay eliminates the latency overhead of API services:
Voice AI Cost Comparison: Self-Hosted vs. APIs
The cost difference between self-hosted voice AI and API services is dramatic. Here are real scenarios:
Speech-to-Text (STT) Costs
| Service | Pricing Model | Cost for 1,000 hrs/mo | Cost for 10,000 hrs/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| VectorLay (Faster Whisper) | $0.49/hr GPU | ~$6* | ~$60* |
| OpenAI Whisper API | $0.006/min | $360 | $3,600 |
| Google Cloud STT | $0.016/15 sec | $3,840 | $38,400 |
| AWS Transcribe | $0.024/min | $1,440 | $14,400 |
| Deepgram | $0.0043/min | $258 | $2,580 |
* VectorLay cost assumes Faster Whisper processing at ~120× real-time on RTX 4090. 1,000 hours of audio takes ~8.3 hours of GPU time ($4.07). GPU kept warm 24/7 would cost $353/month regardless of volume. Prices as of 2025.
At 10,000 hours of audio per month, VectorLay costs 60× less than OpenAI's Whisper API and 640× less than Google Cloud STT. Even at 100 hours/month, self-hosted is cheaper than every API service.
Text-to-Speech (TTS) Costs
| Service | Pricing Model | Cost for 1M chars/mo | Voice Cloning |
|---|---|---|---|
| VectorLay (XTTS v2) | $0.49/hr GPU | ~$12* | Unlimited |
| ElevenLabs | $0.30/1K chars | $300 | Plan-limited |
| OpenAI TTS | $0.015/1K chars | $15 | No |
| Google Cloud TTS | $0.016/1K chars | $16 | No |
| Amazon Polly | $0.004/1K chars | $4 | No |
* VectorLay cost assumes XTTS v2 processing on RTX 4090 at ~150 chars/sec. 1M characters takes ~1.85 hours of GPU time ($0.91). GPU kept warm for responsive service costs more but enables instant generation. Prices as of 2025.
The standout comparison is against ElevenLabs: for the same voice cloning capability (XTTS v2 produces comparable quality), VectorLay costs 25× less at 1M characters per month. And unlike ElevenLabs, you have unlimited voice clones, unlimited concurrent streams, and full control over the model and output.
Voice AI Use Cases
Call Center AI
Transcribe calls in real-time with Whisper, analyze sentiment, extract action items, and generate summaries. Process thousands of hours of recordings for compliance and training.
AI Voice Agents
Build conversational voice AI that handles phone calls, customer service, and appointments. Full STT → LLM → TTS pipeline on a single GPU for sub-2-second response times.
Podcast & Video Production
Transcribe episodes for show notes and SEO. Generate AI voiceovers, dubbing, and translations. Clone host voices for automated content. Process entire back catalogs overnight.
Accessibility & Education
Real-time captioning for live events and video content. Multi-language TTS for educational platforms. Voice interfaces for accessibility tools. High-quality audiobook generation from text.
Gaming & Interactive Media
Dynamic NPC dialogue with cloned voices. Real-time player speech recognition for voice-controlled gameplay. Procedural voiceover generation for infinite content variety.
Real-Time Translation
Speech-to-speech translation pipelines: transcribe in language A, translate with an LLM, synthesize in language B. Near-real-time with streaming models on RTX 4090.
Consumer GPUs Are Perfect for Voice AI
Unlike LLM inference (where large models can demand 80GB+) or video generation (where temporal processing needs massive VRAM), voice AI models are refreshingly efficient:
| Model | VRAM | Fits on RTX 3090? | Can Co-locate? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whisper Large V3 | ~3GB | Easily | Yes — room for TTS too |
| Faster Whisper | ~2GB | Easily | Yes — tons of headroom |
| XTTS v2 | ~6GB | Easily | Yes — alongside Whisper |
| Bark | ~8GB | Easily | Yes — with Whisper |
| Full Pipeline (STT + LLM 7B + TTS) | ~20GB | Fits | RTX 4090 recommended |
This means you can run an entire voice AI pipeline — speech recognition, language model, and speech synthesis — on a single RTX 4090 at $0.49/hour. That's less than $353/month for unlimited voice AI processing that would cost thousands on API services.
Deploy Voice AI on VectorLay
Choose Your Models
Whisper for STT, XTTS/Bark for TTS, or a full STT → LLM → TTS pipeline. All fit on a single RTX 4090.
Deploy Your Container
Use pre-built templates or bring your own Docker image. VectorLay handles GPU passthrough, networking, and persistent model storage.
Send Audio, Get Results
Your HTTPS endpoint is live. Send audio files for batch transcription, text for speech synthesis, or stream audio for real-time processing. Failover keeps your service running 24/7.
Deploy voice AI for a fraction of API costs
Run Whisper, XTTS, Bark, and full voice pipelines on affordable GPUs. No per-minute charges. No per-character fees. Just fast, reliable voice AI at GPU-hour prices.