Text to speech · Af-Soomaali
Pāṇini TTS reads Somali in its official Latin spelling, for money-transfer, telecom and community calls in the Horn of Africa and the diaspora.
Lacag dhan laba boqol oo doollar ayaad u dirtay Axmed Cali adigoo isticmaalaya Sonex app-ka. Lacagtii waa la gaarsiiyey, SMS xaqiijin ah ayaa kuu imaan doona; haddii aadan adigu dirin, na soo wac.
Voices
Free to play in your browser without an account, up to 220 characters at a time. To save the audio as a file, sign up free for 10,000 characters and one voice clone, no card required: the dashboard saves WAV and the API returns MP3.
Making a video? See AI voice-over for YouTube and Reels. The audio is yours to use on monetised channels.
Last verified 24 October 2026
There is no native Somali platform voice yet, so the playground uses Liz, a voice recorded in another language: the Somali text is read correctly, in that voice's accent. For a local accent, clone a native Somali speaker from a 10-second recording and use that voice for every clip.
Sign up free, then send Somali text to the API with "output_format": "mp3" and save the file, or generate clips in the dashboard and download them. Scripts longer than the playground's 220 characters work the same way.
About Somali
Somali has been officially written in a Latin alphabet since 1972, with letter values that surprise English readers: c stands for the Arabic ʿayn, x for a breathy h, q for a deep k sound, and dh for a d made with the tongue curled back. Long vowels are written double, as in maanta (today) and baabuur (vehicle). Because the spelling was designed for Somali, text written in it says exactly which sounds to make, which is what a voice needs.
Somali is spoken across the Horn of Africa and by one of the largest African diasporas, and money moves between them constantly. Mobile money is part of daily life in Somali-speaking markets, and remittances from relatives abroad support many families, so transfer confirmations, balance alerts and support calls are where Somali speech matters most. The vocabulary reflects the region's history: Arabic gave saacad (hour) and waqti (time), Italian gave isbitaal (hospital), and English adds account and data. Calls open with Iska warran? or a full Islamic greeting, and close with Mahadsanid (thank you).
Use cases
Transfer confirmations and balance alerts for senders abroad and recipients in Somalia, Somaliland and Djibouti.
Recharge, bundle and service calls for subscribers in Somali-speaking markets.
Appointment and information calls for Somali communities in the UK, North America and Scandinavia.
Commercial use
The full wording is in our terms of service.
YouTube
Yes, AI voices are allowed. What YouTube limits is mass-produced, repetitive content: videos made from a template with little original work. Its July 2025 update renamed that rule from “repetitious” to “inauthentic” content (YouTube’s monetisation policies).
Write your own script, add your own research or editing, and keep one consistent voice for the channel. Where a realistic AI voice could mislead viewers, use YouTube’s altered or synthetic content label. The monetisation decision is always YouTube’s.
Voice cloning
Clone your voice from a 10-second recording. Your clone speaks Somali, and every other language Pāṇini supports, in your own voice. The language comes from the text you type, so a clone recorded in English or Hindi can read a Somali script.
Your accent comes with it: a clone sounds like you speaking Somali, not like a different native speaker. Every free account includes one voice clone. Clone only your own voice, or a voice whose owner has agreed.
API
One request returns Somali audio as MP3. The language is detected from the text, so no language setting is needed. Pāṇini TTS starts streaming audio in under 200 ms (time to first byte).
1curl https://api.sonexlabs.com/v1/speech \2 --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' \3 --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \4 --data '{"text": "Lacag dhan laba boqol oo doollar ayaad u dirtay Axmed Cali adigoo isticmaalaya Sonex app-ka. Lacagtii waa la gaarsiiyey, SMS xaqiijin ah ayaa kuu imaan doona; haddii aadan adigu dirin, na soo wac.", "output_format": "mp3"}' \5 --output somali.mp3FAQ
Yes. The playground on this page reads up to 220 characters of Somali at a time with no account. Sign up free for 10,000 characters and one voice clone, no card; after that it costs $0.03125 per 1,000 characters.
Yes, after free sign-up. The playground on this page plays audio in your browser only, up to 220 characters at a time, so you can check the voice first. Sign up free (10,000 characters and one voice clone, no card): the dashboard saves each clip as a WAV file with Download audio, and the API returns MP3 when you set "output_format": "mp3".
Yes. Write Somali in its official Latin spelling and those letters are read as Somali sounds, not English ones.
Yes. Code-mixed text is read in one voice.
Liz reads these samples; any Sonex Labs voice can speak Somali, and you can clone a native speaker's voice from 10 seconds.
$0.03125 per 1,000 characters, the same as every language.
Yes. Audio you generate, on the free tier or with paid credits, can be used on monetised YouTube channels, Shorts, Reels and in ads, with no attribution. YouTube limits mass-produced, repetitive videos, not AI voices, so write your own script and keep your edits original. The monetisation decision is YouTube's.
The audio you generate is yours to use, including commercially, with no attribution and no royalties to Sonex Labs. You are responsible for the script itself: if you read someone else's text, you need their permission.
Yes. A Sonex voice clone is not tied to the language it was recorded in. Type a Somali script and your clone reads it in your own voice, with Somali pronunciation. Your natural accent carries over, so it sounds like you speaking Somali.
More languages
See text to speech in every language, the full list of 250+ languages, pricing, the Pāṇini TTS API, or transcribe Somali audio with Valmiki speech to text.
10,000 free text-to-speech characters and one free voice clone that speaks every language, no card required. Every language is billed at the same rate.