Text-to-Speech API · decision tool
Which TTS API should I use?
ElevenLabs, Deepgram Aura, Groq Orpheus and Cartesia priced at your character volume — the 7-9x premium for voice quality made explicit, prices verified. (OpenAI TTS is excluded: its standalone price is no longer published.)
Prices verified 2026-07-17 against official pricing pages · fit weights are our estimates (see methodology) · share the URL to share your configuration
As of Jul 2026, with 200,000 characters of speech/month, a $30 budget for this slot, Deepgram Aura ranks first for these inputs at 80% fit and a StackSays-estimated $6.00/month (Groq (Orpheus): 76% fit, $4.40/month). Fit weights are our estimates; prices trace to official pages. Change any input below and the verdict recomputes.
Your situation
The verdict updates as you move these.
Narrow pick — the runner-up is close
Commodity-priced TTS from an STT house — pure usage, no subscription
vs Groq (Orpheus): fit 80% against 76%, est $6.00 against $4.40 per month
The decision, in plain words
For a solo builder at 200,000 characters of speech/month and a $30.00/mo budget for the TTS API slot, Deepgram Aura leads at 80% fit and $6.00/mo. The two rules doing the work: budget fit (~$6/mo is 20% of your $30/mo budget); batteries included (Bundles streaming synthesis, STT from the same vendor — fewer services to glue at team size 1).
Groq (Orpheus) runs close (76% fit, $4.40/mo). It takes the lead if ~$4.4/mo is 15% of your $30/mo budget matters more to you than the current weights assume.
Honest weak spot of the pick: no free tier — paying from day one.
Generated from the calculation above — every number traces to the sourced data; nothing here is written by an AI making things up.
Why Deepgram Aura scores 80%
How the $6.00/mo estimate is calculated
What could change this verdict
Cost risk
Official prices verified 2026-07-17; calculation is deterministic code over those prices.
At a glance
| Tool | Free tier | Paid entry | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | 10K credits/month (≈10K characters); NO commercial license | Starter $6/mo | 2026-07-17 |
| Deepgram Aura | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.030 per 1K characters (Aura-1 is $0.015/1K); billed against prepaid credits; $200 one-time signup credit | 2026-07-17 |
| Groq (Orpheus) | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $22 per 1M characters English ($40/1M Arabic); pure usage, no subscription | 2026-07-17 |
| Cartesia (TTS) | 20K credits/month ≈ 27 TTS minutes (vendor approximation; ≈1 credit/char, our estimate) | Pro $5/mo | 2026-07-17 |
Data sources
| Tool | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | ElevenLabs pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Deepgram Aura | Deepgram pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Groq (Orpheus) | Groq pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Cartesia (TTS) | Cartesia pricing | 2026-07-17 |
A monitor re-checks these pages for changes; when a vendor moves a price, the date updates and every verdict recomputes.