Models

Model ID format

Every model in VoiceGateway is identified by a string in provider/model format.

deepgram/nova-3
openai/gpt-4.1-mini
cartesia/sonic-3

Language and voice suffixes

STT model IDs can include a language suffix separated by a colon:

deepgram/nova-3:en
deepgram/nova-3:es

TTS model IDs can include a voice suffix:

cartesia/sonic-3:narrator-male
openai/tts-1:nova

LLM model IDs preserve trailing colons verbatim, so Ollama tags survive:

ollama/qwen2.5:3b
ollama/llama3.2:3b

This asymmetry mirrors livekit.agents.inference: STT and TTS strip the last colon segment, LLM does not.

Using model IDs in code

from voicegateway import inference

# Pass model ID strings directly to inference factories.
stt = inference.STT("deepgram/nova-3:en")          # :en parsed as language
llm = inference.LLM("openai/gpt-4.1-mini")
tts = inference.TTS("cartesia/sonic-3:narrator-male")  # :voice-id parsed as voice
llm_local = inference.LLM("ollama/qwen2.5:3b")     # :3b kept as part of model name

Registering custom models

You can register model aliases in voicegw.yaml under the models section. The aliases surface in the dashboard and CLI for display purposes; the voicegateway.inference module parses provider/model strings directly from the factory call, so an alias does not change runtime behaviour. Aliases are organised by modality (stt, llm, tts).

Via YAML

models:
  stt:
    fast-stt:
      provider: deepgram
      model: nova-3
    accurate-stt:
      provider: assemblyai
      model: best
  llm:
    reasoning:
      provider: anthropic
      model: claude-sonnet-4-5
    fast-chat:
      provider: groq
      model: llama-3.1-8b-instant
  tts:
    narrator:
      provider: cartesia
      model: sonic-3
      default_voice: narrator-male
    cheap-tts:
      provider: piper
      model: en_US-lessac-medium

Each model entry supports:

• provider (string, required) -- the provider identifier
• model (string) -- the model name at the provider
• default_voice (string, optional) -- default voice for TTS models

Via the dashboard

Models can also be registered through the web dashboard at the daemon URL (default http://localhost:8080). Models added through the dashboard are persisted in the SQLite database and merged with the YAML config at startup.

Via MCP

If you have the MCP server running (voicegw mcp), you can register models through MCP tool calls from your IDE. See the MCP documentation for details.

Model examples

STT models

LLM models

TTS models

See: Providers, Stacks, voicegw.yaml Reference