Text to speech API pricing
Every month I turn characters of text into speech.
Mistral Voxtral is the cheapest, at $13.00 a month. ElevenLabs would cost 6.2 times as much.
Estimated monthly bill for 1,000,000 characters, lowest first. 6 of 7 providers fit.
- 1Mistral VoxtralVoxtral TTS 3, $13/1M chars$13.00 per monthLowest priceVisit Voxtral
Usage $13.00 Monthly total $13.00 Works out to $0.013 per 1,000 characters.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 2AzureNeural voices (standard), $15/1M chars$15.00 per month+$2.00, 15.4% moreVisit Azure
Usage $15.00 Monthly total $15.00 Works out to $0.015 per 1,000 characters.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 2OpenAITTS-1, $15/1M chars$15.00 per month+$2.00, 15.4% moreVisit OpenAI
Usage $15.00 Monthly total $15.00 Works out to $0.015 per 1,000 characters.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 4Google CloudNeural2 voices, $16/1M chars$16.00 per month+$3.00, 23.1% moreVisit Google Cloud
Usage $16.00 Monthly total $16.00 Works out to $0.016 per 1,000 characters.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 5DeepgramAura-2, $0.03/1K chars$30.00 per month+$17.00, 130.8% moreVisit Deepgram
Usage $30.00 Monthly total $30.00 Works out to $0.03 per 1,000 characters.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 6ElevenLabsEleven v4, $80/1M chars$80.00 per month+$67.00, 515.4% moreVisit ElevenLabs
Usage $80.00 Monthly total $80.00 Works out to $0.08 per 1,000 characters.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
Not available for this setup
- AssemblyAIDoes not offer this service.
- Prices updated 2026-10-23.
- Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- Free-tier credits are not subtracted.
- How we calculate this
Some “Visit” links are affiliate links: the provider may pay us if you sign up. That never changes the order, which is set by price alone.
Text to speech API pricing
Text to speech APIs charge per character, usually quoted per thousand or per million. Some sell monthly plans with a character allowance and bill overage beyond it. The calculator above works out the cheapest way to cover your volume at each provider.
Premium and neural voices cost more than standard voices, so the voice tier shown next to each provider matters when you compare totals.
Frequently asked questions
- Which text-to-speech API is cheapest at 1,000,000 characters a month?
- Mistral Voxtral is the cheapest of the 6 providers we compare for this use, at $13.00 a month (prices updated 2026-10-23). The order changes with volume, so enter your own number in the calculator.
- How is the monthly cost calculated?
- We apply each provider’s published pricing (tiers, plans or per-token rates) to your volume. Free-tier credits and taxes are not included. The methodology page lists every source and rule.
- Are these prices up to date?
- Prices were last checked on 2026-10-23 and are reviewed every month. Every change is listed on the price changes page.