Installation

Core package

The main client library for browser text-to-speech. Both paths deliver the same package — pick the one that fits your project:

• Browser bundle (CDN) — no build step; add one script tag and use the global responsiveVoice. Best for plain HTML, prototypes, CMS sites, and legacy pages. Call init() with your API key — without it you get demo mode (browser default voice only).
• npm — for apps with a bundler (Vite, webpack, Next). Install and import.

Browser bundle (CDN)

<script src="https://cdn.responsivevoice.org/sdk/latest/responsivevoice.js"></script>
<script>
  responsiveVoice.init({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });
  responsiveVoice.speak('Hello, world!');
</script>

npm

npm install @responsivevoice/core
# or: pnpm add @responsivevoice/core
# or: yarn add @responsivevoice/core

import { getResponsiveVoice } from '@responsivevoice/core';

const rv = await getResponsiveVoice({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

API client

REST API client for direct server communication.

npm

npm install @responsivevoice/api-client

pnpm

pnpm add @responsivevoice/api-client

yarn

yarn add @responsivevoice/api-client

Types package

@responsivevoice/types (TypeScript types + Zod schemas) ships automatically as a dependency of the packages above, and api-client re-exports the common ones — so you rarely install it directly. If you want the schemas standalone: npm install @responsivevoice/types.

Requirements

Browsers

Chrome 66+, Firefox 57+, Safari 12+, Edge 17+, iOS Safari 12+, Chrome Android 66+.

The browser bundle (CDN) includes all necessary polyfills and works in these browsers without any additional setup. ESM/CJS packages are syntax-compatible but leave browser polyfilling to your bundler.

Node.js

Package	Minimum	Full functionality
@responsivevoice/types	14+	All features
@responsivevoice/text	14+	All features
@responsivevoice/api-client	16+	HTTP synthesis requires Node 18+ for native fetch and Blob. On Node 16–17, pass a fetch implementation via the fetch config option (e.g. node-fetch or undici).
@responsivevoice/core	16+	Browser-only (Web Speech API + audio playback); Node is the build environment (bundle with Vite/webpack), not a runtime target
@responsivevoice/features	14+	Browser-only (DOM APIs)

WebSocket streaming requires Node 22+ for the native WebSocket global, or pass any W3C-compatible WebSocket implementation (e.g. the ws package) via the WebSocket config option.

TypeScript

5.0+ (optional, but recommended). Full type definitions included in all packages.