<p>Various textile-based metallic and non-metallic thermocouples are developed, and their thermoelectric properties are analyzed. Polypyrrole (PPy)-coated cotton fabric is developed as a <i>p</i>-type material, which is coupled with various metal wires to develop a metallic textile thermocouples for waste heat scavenging from the human body. Similarly, textile-based non-metallic thermocouples are developed using PPy-coated cotton fabric as <i>p</i>-type material, and graphite, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), and silver-coated textiles as <i>n</i>-type material. Three different solvents, namely polyvinylpyrrolidone K-30, dimethylformamide, and dimethyl sulfoxide, are explored for the preparation of a dispersion solution of MWCNT and graphite and textile coatings. PPy-coated cotton fabric is found to be a better thermoelectric material than MWCNT- and graphite-coated cotton fabrics, owing to its better electrical conductivity and inferior thermal conductivity. Among the metallic textile thermocouples, the highest Seebeck coefficient, power factor, and figure of merit are obtained as 50.611&#xa0;µV/K, 158.09 × 10⁻³&#xa0;µW&#xa0;m⁻¹&#xa0;K⁻², and 13.867 × 10⁻⁴ respectively, for Constantan-based thermocouples, whereas among non-metallic textile thermocouples, the MWCNT-based thermocouple shows the highest Seebeck coefficient (18.1451&#xa0;µV/K), power factor (20.93 × 10⁻³&#xa0;µW&#xa0;m⁻¹K⁻²), and figure of merit (1.076 × 10⁻⁴). Scanning electron microscopy images of PPy-, graphite-, and MWCNT-coated textiles show uniform deposition of these conductive materials on the fiber surface.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>