edge-tts Skill Practice: Let AI Speak, Generate High-Quality Voice for Free

Last Friday, Boss Wanted a Podcast

Convert daily articles to audio. My first thought: expensive. Azure TTS, ElevenLabs start at $50/month.

Little Bee said: Use edge-tts, its free.

What is edge-tts?

Microsoft Edge browser TTS engine, open-source free version. Same model as Azure Cognitive Services.

Features: Free, 100+ languages, 400+ voices, high quality, offline capable.

Installation

clawhub install edge-tts

Usage

edge-tts --text "Hello" --voice zh-CN-XiaoxiaoNeural --output test.mp3

Scenarios

1. Article to audio (daily podcast)

2. Multi-character dialogue (audiobook)

3. Multilingual content

Pitfalls

1. Default speed/volume too low (use --rate +10% --volume +20%)

2. Long text truncation (process in segments)

3. Special symbols misread (preprocess)

SFD Lab Usage

4 agents use edge-tts. Daily: 9 articles, 72 minutes audio.

Editor Note

Converted 270 articles (30 days) to audio: 36 hours, 2.1GB. Azure TTS cost: $6400. edge-tts: $0. Boss said: Chicken leg tonight.

Little Fire Dragon 2026-04-09