OpenClaw Voice

Open-source browser-based voice interface for AI assistants.

Talk to your AI like you talk to Alexa — but self-hosted, private, and free from subscription fees.

Why?

Voice AI platforms like ElevenLabs Agents ($0.08-0.12/min) and Retell.ai ($0.13-0.31/min) are expensive. OpenClaw Voice runs entirely on your own hardware for ~$0.003/min at scale.

Features

• 🎙️ Browser voice widget — Push-to-talk or hands-free continuous mode
• 🚗 Continuous mode — Like Grok voice. Auto-listens after each response. Perfect for Tesla browser!
• 🔊 Self-hosted STT — Whisper Large V3 Turbo (runs on Mac/Linux/GPU)
• 🗣️ Self-hosted TTS — Chatterbox (MIT license, ElevenLabs quality)
• 🔌 Pluggable backend — Connect to any AI (OpenAI, Claude, Clawdbot, etc.)
• 🌐 WebRTC audio — Low latency (<500ms end-to-end achievable)
• 🏠 Fully self-hosted — Your data stays on your servers

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• Node.js 18+ (for client dev)
• CUDA GPU recommended (CPU works but slower)

Installation

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/Purple-Horizons/openclaw-voice.git
cd openclaw-voice

# Install Python dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Download models (first run only)
python scripts/download_models.py

# Start the voice server
python -m src.server.main

# Open http://localhost:8765 in your browser

Docker (Recommended)

docker compose up

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     WebRTC      ┌─────────────────┐
│    Browser      │ ◄─────────────► │  Voice Gateway  │
│  (Voice Widget) │   Audio/Text    │    (Python)     │
└─────────────────┘                 └────────┬────────┘
                                             │
                    ┌────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┐
                    │                        │                        │
              ┌─────▼─────┐          ┌───────▼───────┐        ┌──────▼──────┐
              │  Whisper  │          │   Your AI     │        │ Chatterbox  │
              │   (STT)   │          │   Backend     │        │    (TTS)    │
              └───────────┘          └───────────────┘        └─────────────┘

Configuration

# config.yaml
stt:
  model: "whisper-large-v3-turbo"
  device: "cuda"  # or "cpu", "mps" (Mac)

tts:
  model: "chatterbox"
  voice: "default"  # or path to voice sample for cloning

backend:
  type: "openai"  # or "clawdbot", "custom"
  url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
  model: "gpt-4o"

server:
  host: "0.0.0.0"
  port: 8765
  ssl: false  # Set true + provide certs for production

Supported Models

Speech-to-Text (STT)

Model	Speed	Quality	VRAM
Whisper Large V3 Turbo	216x realtime	Best	~6GB
Distil-Whisper	6x faster	Good	~3GB
Whisper.cpp (CPU)	Slower	Best	N/A

Text-to-Speech (TTS)

Model	Speed	Quality	Voice Cloning
Chatterbox	~1s	Excellent	5-second samples
Kokoro-82M	<0.3s	Very Good	No
XTTS-v2	~1s	Excellent	6-second samples

Browser Widget

Embed the voice widget in any webpage:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/@openclaw/voice-widget"></script>
<openclaw-voice server="wss://your-server:8765"></openclaw-voice>

Or use React:

import { VoiceWidget } from '@openclaw/voice-widget-react';

<VoiceWidget serverUrl="wss://your-server:8765" />

API

WebSocket Protocol

Connect to ws://localhost:8765/ws and send/receive JSON messages:

// Start listening
{ "type": "start_listening" }

// Audio data (base64 PCM)
{ "type": "audio", "data": "base64..." }

// Stop listening
{ "type": "stop_listening" }

// Receive transcription
{ "type": "transcript", "text": "Hello world", "final": true }

// Receive AI response audio
{ "type": "audio_response", "data": "base64...", "text": "Hi there!" }

Roadmap

• Basic WebSocket voice gateway
• Whisper STT integration
• Chatterbox TTS integration
• WebRTC for lower latency
• Voice Activity Detection (VAD)
• Streaming responses
• Voice cloning UI
• Browser widget npm package
• React/Vue components
• Docker GPU support
• Kubernetes Helm chart

Cost Comparison

Platform	Cost/Minute
ElevenLabs Conversational AI	$0.08-0.12
Retell.ai	$0.13-0.31
Vapi.ai	$0.05-0.15
OpenClaw Voice (self-hosted)	~$0.003

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT License — see LICENSE.

Credits

• Whisper — OpenAI
• Chatterbox — Resemble AI
• Silero VAD — Silero
• Built for Clawdbot

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Made with 🦀 by Purple Horizons