AI API Models Prices
Last updated: September, 2026
1. Where will the voice be used?
2. Where will it run?
3. What matters more?
How to choose a text-to-speech model
1. Listen before you decide
Voice quality is personal. Generate the same sentence with two or three models and simply listen — it tells you more than any spec sheet.
2. Speed matters for conversations
For voice assistants and phone agents, pick a model that streams so the reply starts playing almost instantly. For audiobooks or videos, quality matters more than speed.
3. Count the characters
Pricing is per character of text. Long scripts get expensive quickly, so check the price before you generate hours of audio.
Frequently asked questions
How is text-to-speech billed?
Per character of text you send.
Which model sounds most natural?
It depends on the voice and language — try the top picks with your own script.
Can I use it for real-time conversations?
Yes, pick a model with the 'Streams live' chip.
What does the rating for text-to-speech models mean?
Each model is rated from 1.0 to 5.0 specifically for text-to-speech. Green is 4.0 and above, yellow 3.0–3.9, red below 3.0. The same model can score differently in another category.
How is the rating calculated?
It comes from public data, not paid reviews: 50% production adoption (public leaderboard standing, routing popularity and download volume), 30% the benchmark that matters for this category, and 20% tooling and value for money (tool calling, structured outputs, context size and price against the category median).
What does the ✓ next to a rating mean?
It means an independent lab — LMArena or Artificial Analysis — has tested the model. Ratings without it are estimated from published specs such as context size, tooling support and price.
How are brand-new frontier models rated?
When a new model has strong independent benchmark results but no public usage data yet, adoption is left out instead of counted as low, and the rating uses 60% benchmark and 40% tooling and value.
How often are ratings updated?
Every week. If a source can't be reached, the previous week's figure is kept.
