2026 TTS Pricing Comparison: 11 Providers Compared (Free & Paid)
- tts
- pricing
- comparison
- guide
- elevenlabs
- azure
- aws
Choosing a TTS provider often comes down to cost. But comparing pricing across providers is confusing — some charge per character, others per second, some have tiers with confusing caps, and free options give wildly different limits.
This guide breaks down 11 TTS providers in a single comparison so you can quickly find what fits your budget.
Quick Comparison
| Provider | Free Tier | Cost per 1M chars | Voice Cloning | Offline? | Commercial? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OfflineTTS | Unlimited ✅ | $0 (self-hosted) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ (Apache 2.0) |
| ElevenLabs | 10K chars/mo | $5–$22/mo (tiered) | ✅ (paid) | ❌ | ✅ (paid) |
| Google Cloud TTS | 1M chars/mo | $4–$16 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Azure Speech | 500K chars/mo | $4–$16 | ✅ (custom) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Amazon Polly | 1M chars/mo (1yr) | $4 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| PlayHT | 12.5K chars/mo | $39/mo (tiered) | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ (paid) |
| Murf AI | 10 min voiceover | $29/mo (tiered) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ (paid) |
| WellSaid | No free tier | $49/mo (tiered) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ (paid) |
| Speechify | ~500 chars/day | $9.99/mo (tiered) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ (paid) |
| NaturalReader | 20 min/day | $9.99/mo (tiered) | ❌ | Windows/Mac | ✅ (paid) |
| Self-hosted (Kokoro) | Unlimited ✅ | $0 (your hardware) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ (Apache 2.0) |
Provider-by-Provider Breakdown
OfflineTTS — Free, Browser-Based
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Cost | $0 |
| Characters | Unlimited |
| Voices | 54 (+ Supertonic, Piper, Kitten) |
| Languages | 9 |
| Offline | ✅ After initial model download |
| API | ❌ (browser only) |
| License | Apache 2.0 (Kokoro model) |
OfflineTTS runs Kokoro TTS entirely in your browser. No servers, no API keys, no accounts. Best for individuals and creators who want unlimited, private TTS without managing infrastructure.
Best for: Content creators, language learners, privacy-conscious users.
ElevenLabs — Premium Cloud TTS
| Plan | Price | Characters | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 10K/mo | Limited voices, attribution required |
| Starter | $5/mo | 30K/mo | Commercial license, instant voice cloning |
| Creator | $22/mo | 100K/mo | Higher quality, professional voice cloning |
| Pro | $99/mo | 500K/mo | Priority rendering, fine-tuning |
| Scale | $330/mo | 2M/mo | API access, team features |
Per-character math: At the Starter tier, $5 for 30K chars ≈ $166 per million characters. At Scale, $330 for 2M chars ≈ $165 per million. Pricing is regressive — larger volume doesn’t significantly reduce per-character cost.
11 Labs pricing per million characters:
| Plan | Per 1M chars |
|---|---|
| Starter | ~$166 |
| Creator | ~$220 |
| Pro | ~$198 |
| Scale | ~$165 |
Best for: Professional content requiring highest quality, voice cloning from samples, API integration.
Google Cloud TTS — Standard WaveNet & Neural2
| Model | Price per 1M chars |
|---|---|
| Standard | $4 |
| WaveNet | $16 |
| Studio (Preview) | $16 |
| Neural2 | $16 |
| Journey (Preview) | $16 |
- Free tier: 1M characters/month for Standard and WaveNet (combined)
- 300+ voices across 50+ languages
- SSML support — full control over pronunciation, prosody, and pauses
- API only — no built-in UI tool
- Voice cloning not available as a standalone feature
Best for: Developers already on GCP, applications needing SSML and multi-language support.
Azure Speech (Microsoft) — Neural TTS
| Model | Price per 1M chars |
|---|---|
| Neural | $4 |
| Neural (HD) | $16 |
| Custom Neural Voice | $16 + training costs |
- Free tier: 500K chars/month (first 12 months)
- 400+ voices across 140+ languages
- Custom Voice — train a custom neural voice from your audio samples
- SSML support — excellent
- Real-time and batch synthesis supported
- Pronunciation assessment — unique feature for language learning
Best for: Enterprise applications, custom voice branding, language learning platforms.
Amazon Polly — AWS TTS
| Model | Price per 1M chars |
|---|---|
| Standard | $4 |
| Neural | $4 |
| Generative | $4 |
- Free tier: 1M chars/month for Neural (first 12 months)
- 100+ voices across 30+ languages
- SSML support
- Speech Marks — word-level timing metadata
- No voice cloning
- Standard SSML — less expressive controls than Azure/Google
Best for: AWS-native applications, cost-sensitive production workloads, simple narration.
PlayHT — Premium Cloud TTS
| Plan | Price | Characters | Voices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 12.5K/mo | Limited |
| Creator | $39/mo | 240K/mo | 500+ voices |
| Unlimited | $99/mo | Unlimited | 500+ voices |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | All features |
Best for: Content creators wanting many voice options with voice cloning.
Self-Hosted TTS — Your Hardware, Zero Recurring Cost
| Engine | Quality | Hardware | Setup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kokoro 82M | ★★★★☆ | Any CPU | pip install kokoro |
| Piper | ★★★☆☆ | Any CPU | pip install piper-tts |
| F5-TTS | ★★★★☆ | GPU 6GB+ VRAM | pip install f5-tts |
| CosyVoice 3 | ★★★★★ | GPU 8GB+ VRAM | Git + pip |
| Zonos2 | ★★★★★ | GPU 16GB+ VRAM | Git + pip |
Once the hardware is purchased, the marginal cost per character is effectively zero. A $500 laptop running Kokoro generates unlimited speech. A home server with an RTX 3060 runs F5-TTS or CosyVoice for voice cloning.
At production scale, deploying on a cloud GPU (around $0.50–$1.00/hr for an A10G or similar) can still cost less than API per-character pricing. See our self-hosted TTS guide for detailed setup.
Best for: High-volume or privacy-sensitive applications, anyone wanting zero recurring costs.
Cost Scenarios Compared
Scenario A: Individual Creator — 500K chars/month
| Provider | Monthly Cost | Limit? |
|---|---|---|
| OfflineTTS | $0 | None |
| Self-hosted | $0 (existing hardware) | None |
| ElevenLabs | $22/mo (Creator) | 100K (need Pro) |
| Google Cloud | $8 (WaveNet) | None |
| Azure | $8 (Neural HD) | None |
| Amazon Polly | $2 | None |
| PlayHT | $39/mo (Creator) | 240K |
| Murf AI | $29/mo (Basic) | None (but time-limited) |
Scenario B: Business — 10M chars/month
| Provider | Monthly Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | $0 + hardware ($500–$2000 one-time) | Best ROI after ~1 month |
| Google Cloud | $40 (Standard) / $160 (WaveNet) | No limits |
| Azure | $40 (Neural) / $160 (Neural HD) | No limits |
| Amazon Polly | $40 | No limits |
| ElevenLabs | $330/mo (Scale) | 2M, need multiple plans |
| PlayHT | $99/mo (Unlimited) | Claims unlimited |
Scenario C: Startup — 100M chars/month
| Provider | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | $720 (GPU cloud, 8hr/day × 30 days) | $8,640 |
| Google WaveNet | $1,600 | $19,200 |
| Azure Neural HD | $1,600 | $19,200 |
| Amazon Polly Neural | $400 | $4,800 |
| ElevenLabs | Not practical at this volume | — |
For high-volume production, Amazon Polly Neural ($4/1M) is the cheapest cloud option. Self-hosting on a dedicated GPU is even cheaper beyond 50M chars/month and gives you privacy and unlimited usage.
Final Recommendations
For individuals: OfflineTTS or self-hosted Kokoro gives you unlimited, free TTS with no compromises.
For small businesses: Amazon Polly ($4/1M) or Google Cloud Standard ($4/1M) are the cheapest cloud options. Consider self-hosting if you have technical resources.
For high-volume production: Self-hosted TTS is dramatically cheaper at scale. A Kokoro server running on a $500 mini PC pays for itself in the first month compared to ElevenLabs Pro.
For voice cloning: ElevenLabs or PlayHT are the easiest cloud options. Self-host F5-TTS or CosyVoice if you need privacy and have a GPU.
For SSML-heavy projects: Google Cloud and Azure have the best SSML support with fine-grained prosody control.
Related articles
Try OfflineTTS
Four local TTS engines, Whisper transcription, and private browser audio tools.
Open TTS Tool