Model reference · open weights

xcodec2

Available as managed deployment Licence fee Embeddings bezzam · community Embeddings 1 variants 537 dl/mo

xcodec2 is an open-weight embedding model from bezzam. AxForge deploys and operates it for you on dedicated EU-owned hardware — with the licence handled where one is required.

Available as managed deployment — configured and operated for you on dedicated EU hardware, quoted per deployment.

What it is

Released bybezzam
TypeEmbedding models
TaskEmbeddings
Parameters (lead)629M
Context4k tokens
Runs withtransformers
Released2026-06-23
Popularity537 downloads / month
LicenceCommercial licence needed

About

What xcodec2 is

The X-Codec2 model was proposed in Llasa: Scaling Train-Time and Inference-Time Compute for Llama-based Speech Synthesis.

X-Codec2 is a neural audio codec designed to improve speech synthesis and general audio generation for large language model (LLM) pipelines. It extends the original X-Codec by refining how semantic and acoustic information is integrated and tokenized, enabling efficient and high-fidelity audio representation.

About its architecture:

Read the full model card
  • Unified Semantic-Acoustic Tokenization: X-Codec2 fuses outputs from a semantic encoder (e.g., Wav2Vec2-BERT) and an acoustic encoder into a single embedding, capturing both high-level meaning (e.g., text content, emotion) and low-level audio details (e.g., timbre).
  • Single-Stage Feature Scalar Quantization (FSQ): Unlike the multi-layer residual VQ in most approaches (e.g., DAC, EnCodec, X-Codec, Mimi), X-Codec2 uses a single-layer of Feature Scalar Quantization (FSQ) for stability and compatibility with causal, autoregressive LLMs.
  • Transformer-Friendly Design: The 1D token structure of X-Codec2 naturally aligns with the autoregressive modeling in LLMs like LLaMA, improving training efficiency and downstream compatibility.

This model was contributed by Eric Bezzam and Steven Zheng. The original modeling code can be found here, while their training code is here.

Setup

X-Codec2 is supported natively in 🤗 Transformers. Until it is part of an official Transformers release, install from source:

pip install git+https://github.com/huggingface/transformers

Usage example

Here is a quick example of how to encode and decode an audio using this model:

from datasets import Audio, load_dataset
from transformers import AutoFeatureExtractor, AutoModel

model_id = "HKUSTAudio/xcodec2-hf"
model = AutoModel.from_pretrained(model_id, device_map="auto")
feature_extractor = AutoFeatureExtractor.from_pretrained(model_id)

dataset = load_dataset("hf-internal-testing/librispeech_asr_dummy", "clean", split="validation")
dataset = dataset.cast_column("audio", Audio(sampling_rate=feature_extractor.sampling_rate))
audio = dataset[0]["audio"]["array"]
inputs = feature_extractor(audio=audio, sampling_rate=feature_extractor.sampling_rate, return_tensors="pt").to(
    model.device, model.dtype
)
print("Input waveform shape:", inputs["input_values"].shape)
# Input waveform shape: torch.Size([1, 1, 93760])

# encoder and decoder
audio_codes = model.encode(**inputs).audio_codes
print("Audio codes shape:", audio_codes.shape)
# Audio codes shape: torch.Size([1, 1, 293])
audio_values = model.decode(audio_codes).audio_values
print("Audio values shape:", audio_values.shape)
# Audio values shape: torch.Size([1, 1, 93760])

# Equivalently, you can do encoding and decoding in one step
model_output = model(**inputs)
audio_codes = model_output.audio_codes
audio_values = model_output.audio_values

Batch processing

Unlike the original release, this implementation also supports batched inputs.

from datasets import Audio, load_dataset
from transformers import AutoFeatureExtractor, AutoModel

batch_size = 2
model_id = "HKUSTAudio/xcodec2-hf"
model = AutoModel.from_pretrained(model_id, device_map="auto")
feature_extractor = AutoFeatureExtractor.from_pretrained(model_id)

dataset = load_dataset("hf-internal-testing/librispeech_asr_dummy", "clean", split="validation")
dataset = dataset.cast_column("audio", Audio(sampling_rate=feature_extractor.sampling_rate))
audios = [dataset[i]["audio"]["array"] for i in range(batch_size)]
inputs = feature_extractor(audio=audios, sampling_rate=feature_extractor.sampling_rate, return_tensors="pt").to(
    model.device, model.dtype
)
print("Input waveform shape:", inputs["input_values"].shape)
# Input waveform shape: torch.Size([2, 1, 93760])

# encoder and decoder
encoder_output = model.encode(**inputs)
audio_codes = encoder_output.audio_codes
print("Audio codes shape:", audio_codes.shape)
# Audio codes shape: torch.Size([2, 1, 293])
audio_values = model.decode(audio_codes).audio_values
print("Audio values shape:", audio_values.shape)
# Audio values shape: torch.Size([2, 1, 93760])

# Equivalently, you can do encoding and decoding in one step
model_output = model(**inputs)
audio_codes = model_output.audio_codes
audio_values = model_output.audio_values

Speed-up with torch.compile

You can speed up inference with torch.compile. The first few calls will be slower due to compilation overhead, but subsequent calls will be faster.

On an A100, we observed a speed-up of ~1.35 for a batch size of 4 (script).

import torch
from datasets import Audio, load_dataset
from transformers import AutoFeatureExtractor, AutoModel

batch_size = 4
model_id = "HKUSTAudio/xcodec2-hf"
model = AutoModel.from_pretrained(model_id, device_map="auto")
feature_extractor = AutoFeatureExtractor.from_pretrained(model_id)

dataset = load_dataset("hf-internal-testing/librispeech_asr_dummy", "clean", split="validation")
dataset = dataset.cast_column("audio", Audio(sampling_rate=feature_extractor.sampling_rate))
audios = [dataset[i]["audio"]["array"] for i in range(batch_size)]
inputs = feature_extractor(
    audio=audios, sampling_rate=feature_extractor.sampling_rate, padding=True, return_tensors="pt"
).to(model.device, model.dtype)

compiled_model = torch.compile(model, fullgraph=True)

# Warmup (includes compilation on first call)
for _ in range(10):
    with torch.inference_mode():
        _ = compiled_model(**inputs)

with torch.inference_mode():
    output = c

From the published model card. Full card on the HuggingFace links in the sidebar.

Using it via the API

Call it like any OpenAI endpoint

Once AxForge deploys bezzam-xcodec2 for you, it answers on the OpenAI-compatible API — the same base URL and keys as every other model. (bezzam-xcodec2 below is illustrative; you get the exact model name on deployment.)

$ curl -sS https://api.axforge.ai/v1/embeddings \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AXFORGE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"bezzam-xcodec2","input":"text to embed"}'

Create an account — your API key is available in the console. 3M free tokens every 30 days with every new account.

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