TTS Cost Calculator
Paste your text and instantly compare what every major text-to-speech API would cost to synthesize it — from the cheapest ($4/1M characters) to the premium options. Prices verified October 2026 from each provider's own pricing page.
Cost is calculated per character. A ~1,000-word blog post is roughly 6,000 characters.
Cost to synthesize your text
Per-character API pricing across 9 providers, cheapest first.
| Provider | Model | $/1M chars | Cost for your text |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $4.00 | — | |
Google Cloud TTS | Standard | $4.00 | — |
Google Cloud TTS | WaveNet | $4.00 | — |
| tts-1 | $15.00 | — | |
Azure AI Speech | Neural (S1) | $15.00 | — |
Deepgram Aura | Aura-1 | $15.00 | — |
Inworld | TTS-2 Flash | $15.00 | — |
Fish Audio | s2.1-pro | $15.00 | — |
| Neural | $16.00 | — | |
Google Cloud TTS | Neural2 | $16.00 | — |
Azure AI Speech | Neural HD | $22.00 | — |
Inworld | TTS-2 | $25.00 | — |
| tts-1-hd | $30.00 | — | |
| Generative | $30.00 | — | |
Google Cloud TTS | Chirp 3: HD | $30.00 | — |
Deepgram Aura | Aura-2 | $30.00 | — |
| v4 Turbo (API) | $40.00 | — | |
| v3 Conversational (API) | $40.00 | — | |
| Flash / Turbo (API) | $40.00 | — | |
Cartesia | Sonic (Pro credits) | $50.00 | — |
| v4 (API) | $80.00 | — | |
| v3 (API) | $80.00 | — | |
| Multilingual v2 (API) | $80.00 | — | |
| Long-form | $100.00 | — | |
Google Cloud TTS | Studio | $160.00 | — |
| Multilingual v2 (subscription credits) | $165.00 | — |
Billed differently
These providers bill by audio token or monthly subscription, so a flat per-character figure isn't directly comparable.
Token-metered, not per-character — roughly $0.015 per minute of audio. Steerable voice instructions.
Token-metered, not per-character. Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS runs $0.50 in / $9.00 out through Dec 31 2026, doubling to $1.00 / $18.00 on Jan 1 2027.
Consumer reader subscription, not a per-character API — excluded from the per-character comparison. Annual billing saves ~60%.
Sources — prices verified October 2026
- OpenAI: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing (verified 2026-10-07)
- Amazon Polly: https://aws.amazon.com/polly/pricing/ (verified 2026-10-07)
- Azure AI Speech: https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices (verified 2026-10-07)
- Google Cloud TTS: https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/pricing (verified 2026-10-07)
- Gemini TTS: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing (verified 2026-10-07)
- ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/api (verified 2026-10-07)
- Deepgram Aura: https://deepgram.com/pricing (verified 2026-10-07)
- Cartesia: https://cartesia.ai/pricing (verified 2026-10-07)
- Inworld: https://inworld.ai/pricing (verified 2026-10-07)
- Fish Audio: https://docs.fish.audio/developer-platform/models-pricing/pricing-and-rate-limits (verified 2026-10-07)
- Speechify: https://speechify.com/pricing/ (verified 2026-10-07)
Figures are list prices for US regions and change often. ElevenLabs and Cartesia sell monthly credits (≈1 credit per character) — the $/1M figure is the effective rate on their entry paid plans. Google Cloud's page is JavaScript-rendered; its figures were corroborated across multiple current sources. Always confirm on the provider's page before committing.