Free-offer comparison
Free Text-to-Speech APIs
Characters, minutes, and credits measure different things. Check the voice you want, output rights, and billing terms before you choose a TTS API.
Guide updated Sep 19, 2026 · Offer review and source dates appear below · Methodology
Free-offer ranking
Each row describes the provider’s recorded free offer, which may cover a different product from the category shown here. The table keeps published units separate. “Not confirmed” means we lack evidence for that detail; it does not mean the provider requires a card.
Scroll horizontally to compare every column.
| Rank | Provider | Free-access score | Recorded free offer | Access pattern | Billing/card | Offer note | Full review | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Gradium | 100/100 | 45K credits/mo | Recurring allowance | No card confirmed | Official product material restricts commercial use on the free tier. | Sep 19, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 19, 2026 |
| #2 | Deepgram | 85/100 | $200 credit | One-time balance | No card confirmed | Current concurrency is up to 50 REST and 150 WebSocket STT connections. | Sep 19, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 19, 2026 |
| #3 | Speechmatics | 85/100 | $100 credit | One-time balance | No card confirmed | Without a card on file, API access pauses when the starting credit reaches zero. | Sep 19, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 19, 2026 |
| #4 | Google Cloud Text-to-Speech | 80/100 | WaveNet characters: 4,000,000 characters per month; Chirp 3 HD characters: 1,000,000 characters per month | Recurring allowance | Enable billing on a Google Cloud project. | Free character quotas depend on the voice model; Gemini TTS has no free allowance. | Sep 19, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 19, 2026 |
| #5 | Amazon Polly | 75/100 | Standard voice characters: 5,000,000 characters per month; Neural voice characters: 1,000,000 characters per month; Long-Form voice characters: 500,000 characters per month; Generative voice characters: 100,000 characters per month; first 12 months | Introductory quota | Not confirmed | Character allowances are separate by voice type and apply during the first 12 months. | Sep 19, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 19, 2026 |
| #6 | Cartesia | 75/100 | Voice-agent prepaid balance: $1 credit per month; Voice model credits: 20,000 credits per month | Recurring allowance | Not confirmed | Free output does not include commercial-use rights; voice-model credits and voice-agent dollars are separate. | Sep 19, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 19, 2026 |
| #7 | ElevenLabs | 75/100 | 10K credits/mo | Recurring allowance | Not confirmed | Startup grant is conditional and separate from the self-serve free plan. | Jul 17, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 13, 2026 |
| #8 | IBM Watson Text-to-Speech | 75/100 | 10K characters/mo | Recurring allowance | Not confirmed | Lite instances are deleted after 30 days of inactivity. | Sep 13, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 13, 2026 |
Why these providers appear in this order
We score each provider’s recorded free offer: up to 40 points for recurring or durable access, 20 for a confirmed no-card signup, 15 for a stated allowance, 15 for distinct evidence links, and 10 for documented terms. Missing details earn no points. Ties favor longer-lasting access, then more detailed records, then provider name. The score does not measure product quality or whether the free offer covers this category. Read the full method before treating it as a recommendation.
Which providers are included?
We include active directory records tagged for text-to-speech APIs. A tag describes a provider’s capability; its recorded free offer may cover only part of that provider’s catalog. Check the model or endpoint in the provider’s terms before building on the allowance.
We left out Synthesia, Vapi, and xAI because their recorded free offers do not establish general developer access to a TTS API.
See the full text-to-speech APIs category, including records excluded from this guide.