Bark
Suno’s generative audio model: speech, music snippets and sound effects.
- Stars
- 39.3K
- Forks
- 4.7K
- Open issues
- 269
- Last commit
- 2024-08-19
Live from the GitHub API · updated 2026-10-15
What is Bark?
Bark is a transformer-based text-to-audio model that can produce multilingual speech, nonverbal sounds like laughing and sighing, and simple music. It is MIT licensed, though no longer actively developed.
Key features
- Multilingual speech with nonverbal cues
- Simple music and sound effects
- Speaker presets
System requirements
- Platforms
- Windows · macOS · Linux
- GPU
- NVIDIA recommended
- VRAM
- ~12 GB full; ~8 GB with small models
How to install Bark
Summarized from the project’s README. Projects change quickly — check the GitHub page for the latest instructions.
pip
- 1Install from GitHub.
pip install git+https://github.com/suno-ai/bark.git - 2Generate audio in Python.
from bark import SAMPLE_RATE, generate_audio, preload_models from scipy.io.wavfile import write as write_wav preload_models() audio = generate_audio("Hello, my name is Suno. [laughs] And I like pizza.") write_wav("bark.wav", SAMPLE_RATE, audio)
Strengths
- Expressive, fun outputs
- MIT license
Limitations
- Unpredictable results
- No longer maintained
Bark alternatives compared
| Software | Stars | License | Platforms | VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bark Suno’s generative audio model: speech, music snippets and sound effects. | 39.3K | MIT | ~12 GB full; ~8 GB with small models | |
| ChatTTS Conversational TTS for dialogue, with laughter and pauses. | 39.9K | AGPL-3.0 | 4 GB+ | |
| Kokoro A tiny 82M-parameter TTS model with surprisingly natural voices. | 9.3K | Apache-2.0 | — | |
| AudioCraft (MusicGen) Meta’s library for MusicGen music generation and AudioGen sound effects. | 23.7K | MIT | 16 GB for the large model; smaller models need less | |
| Whisper OpenAI’s open-source speech recognition and translation model. | 110.5K | MIT | ~1 GB (tiny) to ~10 GB (large) | |
| whisper.cpp Whisper in plain C/C++ — fast on CPUs, Apple Silicon and mobile. | 54.4K | MIT | — |
FAQ
Is Bark free?
Yes — Bark is open-source software released under the MIT license. Check the license (and any model weight licenses) before commercial use.
Does Bark run on Windows, Mac and Linux?
Bark supports: Windows, macOS, Linux.
What hardware do I need for Bark?
NVIDIA recommended. VRAM: ~12 GB full; ~8 GB with small models
How do I install Bark?
1. Install from GitHub. 2. Generate audio in Python.
What are the best Bark alternatives?
Popular alternatives include ChatTTS, Kokoro, AudioCraft (MusicGen), Whisper. See the comparison table on this page.