MiniMax Speech 2.6

Deploy MiniMax Speech 2.6 — ultra-low latency voice agent TTS — on Clore.ai GPU servers

Released: March 4, 2026 — MiniMax just dropped Speech 2.6 with ultra-low latency, enhanced format handling, and human-like voice for real-time Voice Agent scenarios.

MiniMax Speech 2.6 is a state-of-the-art text-to-speech model designed for real-time voice agent applications. It features ultra-low end-to-end latency, improved audio format handling (MP3, PCM, WAV, FLAC), and a significantly more natural voice compared to Speech 2.x. Best used via API, but can be integrated into self-hosted pipelines via the MiniMax API.

Key Features

Feature	Details
Latency	Ultra-low (< 300ms TTFB)
Voice Quality	Human-like, natural prosody
Languages	20+ languages including English, Chinese, Russian
Output Formats	MP3, PCM, WAV, FLAC
Use Case	Voice agents, real-time TTS, streaming
API	OpenAI-compatible REST API

Why MiniMax Speech 2.6?

• Sub-300ms latency — suitable for real-time conversation agents

• Streaming support — token-by-token audio streaming for lowest perceived latency

• Voice cloning — clone from short audio samples

• Production-ready — powers MiniMax's own commercial voice products

---

Setup: Self-Hosted API Proxy on Clore.ai

MiniMax Speech 2.6 is currently API-based. You can run a lightweight FastAPI proxy on a small Clore.ai server (even CPU-only) to integrate it into your pipeline:

version: "3.8"
services:
  minimax-proxy:
    image: python:3.11-slim
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      - MINIMAX_API_KEY=${MINIMAX_API_KEY}
      - MINIMAX_GROUP_ID=${MINIMAX_GROUP_ID}
    volumes:
      - ./app:/app
    command: >
      sh -c "pip install fastapi uvicorn httpx python-dotenv &&
             uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080"

Minimal FastAPI Proxy (app/main.py)

import os, httpx
from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi.responses import StreamingResponse
from pydantic import BaseModel

app = FastAPI()

MINIMAX_API_KEY = os.environ["MINIMAX_API_KEY"]
MINIMAX_GROUP_ID = os.environ["MINIMAX_GROUP_ID"]
BASE_URL = "https://api.minimax.io/v1"

class TTSRequest(BaseModel):
    text: str
    voice_id: str = "Calm_Woman"
    speed: float = 1.0
    output_format: str = "mp3"

@app.post("/tts")
async def text_to_speech(req: TTSRequest):
    """Proxy to MiniMax Speech 2.6"""
    async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=30) as client:
        response = await client.post(
            f"{BASE_URL}/t2a_v2?GroupId={MINIMAX_GROUP_ID}",
            headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {MINIMAX_API_KEY}"},
            json={
                "model": "speech-02-hd",
                "text": req.text,
                "stream": False,
                "voice_setting": {
                    "voice_id": req.voice_id,
                    "speed": req.speed,
                    "vol": 1.0,
                    "pitch": 0
                },
                "audio_setting": {
                    "sample_rate": 32000,
                    "bitrate": 128000,
                    "format": req.output_format
                }
            }
        )
    data = response.json()
    audio_b64 = data["data"]["audio"]
    import base64
    audio_bytes = base64.b64decode(audio_b64)
    return StreamingResponse(
        iter([audio_bytes]),
        media_type=f"audio/{req.output_format}"
    )

@app.get("/health")
async def health():
    return {"status": "ok", "model": "minimax-speech-2.6"}

Usage

# Test TTS endpoint
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/tts \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "Hello! This is MiniMax Speech 2.6 running on Clore.", "voice_id": "Calm_Woman"}' \
  --output output.mp3

# Play the result
ffplay output.mp3

---

Direct API Usage (No Server Needed)

If you just need TTS in your scripts:

import requests, base64, os

API_KEY = os.environ["MINIMAX_API_KEY"]
GROUP_ID = os.environ["MINIMAX_GROUP_ID"]

def synthesize(text: str, voice_id: str = "Calm_Woman") -> bytes:
    resp = requests.post(
        f"https://api.minimax.io/v1/t2a_v2?GroupId={GROUP_ID}",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
        json={
            "model": "speech-02-hd",
            "text": text,
            "stream": False,
            "voice_setting": {"voice_id": voice_id, "speed": 1.0, "vol": 1.0, "pitch": 0},
            "audio_setting": {"sample_rate": 32000, "bitrate": 128000, "format": "mp3"}
        }
    )
    return base64.b64decode(resp.json()["data"]["audio"])

audio = synthesize("Running AI workloads on Clore.ai is incredibly affordable.")
with open("output.mp3", "wb") as f:
    f.write(audio)

---

Available Voice IDs

Voice ID	Character	Best For
Calm_Woman	Calm female	Assistants, narration
Energetic_Man	Energetic male	Marketing, news
Gentle_Man	Gentle male	Audiobooks, tutorials
Cute_Girl	Young female	Entertainment
Deep_Voice_Man	Deep male	Documentaries

---

GPU Requirements on Clore.ai

MiniMax Speech 2.6 is an API-based model — you don't need a GPU to use it. A small CPU-only Clore.ai server ($0.10–0.30/day) is sufficient to run the proxy. Combine with other GPU workloads on the same server for maximum efficiency.

Server Type	Use Case	Clore.ai Cost
CPU only (2 vCPU)	Proxy + API gateway	~$0.10–0.20/day
RTX 3060	Proxy + local GPU tasks	~$0.37/day
RTX 4090	Proxy + heavy GPU work	~$2.10/day

---

Clore.ai Port Forwarding

Port	Service
8080	FastAPI TTS proxy

---

Alternatives on Clore.ai

If you need fully local TTS without API calls:

Model	VRAM	Quality	Speed	Guide
Kokoro TTS	4GB	⭐⭐⭐⭐	Fast	Kokoro TTS
F5-TTS	8GB	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Medium	F5-TTS
Chatterbox	6GB	⭐⭐⭐⭐	Fast	Chatterbox
Qwen3-TTS	8GB	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Medium	Qwen3-TTS
Kani-TTS-2	3GB	⭐⭐⭐	Very fast	Kani-TTS

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Links

• MiniMax API Docs: platform.minimax.io/docs

• Speech 2.6 Blog Post: minimax.io/news/minimax-speech-26

• Clore.ai Marketplace: clore.ai/marketplace