Text-to-speech API pricing compared (per 100,000 characters)
Voice APIs price in characters, tokens or minutes of audio. This page converts the character-priced services to a cost for 100,000 characters (about 111 minutes of narration on our assumption) and lists Google's per-minute prices separately. Price your own script with the AI voiceover cost calculator; for transcription see speech-to-text API pricing compared. Topic hub: AI voice, speech and music.
Prices last verified against official provider pages on . How we verify prices. Written by the Chelure Enterprises Editorial Team.
Priced per character, cheapest first
| Provider | Model | Listed price | Cost for 100,000 characters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral | Voxtral TTS 3 | $13.00 per 1M characters | $1.30 |
| OpenAI | OpenAI tts-1 | $15.00 per 1M characters | $1.50 |
| xAI | xAI Text to Speech | $15.00 per 1M characters | $1.50 |
| OpenAI | OpenAI tts-1-hd | $30.00 per 1M characters | $3.00 |
| ElevenLabs | ElevenLabs v4 Turbo | $40.00 per 1M characters | $4.00 |
| ElevenLabs | ElevenLabs Flash / Turbo | $40.00 per 1M characters | $4.00 |
| ElevenLabs | ElevenLabs v4 | $80.00 per 1M characters | $8.00 |
| ElevenLabs | ElevenLabs v3 | $80.00 per 1M characters | $8.00 |
| ElevenLabs | ElevenLabs v2 Multilingual | $80.00 per 1M characters | $8.00 |
The last column is our arithmetic. ElevenLabs details and plan allowances are on ElevenLabs pricing.
Priced per minute of audio (Google)
Google bills Gemini TTS on audio tokens at 25 tokens per second of audio and publishes per-minute figures. To compare with characters we assume about 900 characters per minute of speech (150 words per minute at about 6 characters per word), so 100,000 characters is about 111 minutes. That assumption is ours, not Google's.
| Model | Price | Approx. cost for 100,000 characters |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS | $0.009 per minute of audio (from 2027-01-01: $0.018) | $1.00 -> $2.00 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS | $0.0135 per minute of audio (from 2027-01-01: $0.027) | $1.50 -> $3.00 |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview TTS | $0.015 per minute of audio | $1.67 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS Preview | $0.03 per minute of audio | $3.33 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview TTS | $0.03 per minute of audio | $3.33 |
Google's pricing page also lists batch and flex tiers at half the standard price. OpenAI's gpt-4o-mini-tts is billed in tokens ($0.60 per million text input tokens, $12.00 per million audio output tokens) and is not in the table above.
How to choose
- Volume work (narration, audiobooks): character price dominates; the cheapest services are an order of magnitude below the premium voices.
- Quality and voice features: price tells you nothing about naturalness; listen to samples in your language.
- Watch scheduled changes: Gemini 3.8 TTS prices double on January 1, 2027.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest text-to-speech API?
Among the character-priced services we have verified, Mistral's Voxtral TTS 3 is the lowest at $13 per million characters, with OpenAI tts-1 and xAI at $15. Google's Gemini TTS is priced per minute of audio and can be cheaper still, but is not directly comparable without a speaking rate.
How do I compare per-character and per-minute prices?
You need a speaking rate. As our own assumption, narration at about 150 words per minute and 6 characters per word is roughly 900 characters a minute, so 100,000 characters is about 111 minutes. Change this for your own content.
Is OpenAI's gpt-4o-mini-tts priced per character?
No. OpenAI lists gpt-4o-mini-tts at $0.60 per million text input tokens and $12.00 per million audio output tokens, so it is not in the per-character table.
Are any Gemini TTS prices changing?
Yes. Google's pricing page says Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Flash-Lite TTS prices double on January 1, 2027.
Why are ElevenLabs prices higher?
ElevenLabs lists $40 to $80 per million characters across its models, several times the cheapest services. Voice quality, cloning and features differ, so judge by listening, not price alone.
Sources
- OpenAI API pricing
- Google Gemini API pricing
- ElevenLabs API pricing
- Mistral pricing
- xAI models and pricing
Primary sources opened on November 13, 2026. Prices come from our verified price table (see the methodology).