Last updated: 28 June 2026
Amazon Polly vs Deepgram: TTS Pricing Comparison
Amazon Polly is 87% cheaper starting at $0.004/1k chars. Here's the full breakdown of pricing, quality, latency, and language support.
Price Comparison
| Characters | Amazon Polly Standard | Amazon Polly Generative | Deepgram Aura |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $0.04 | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| 100,000 | $0.40 | $3.00 | $3.00 |
| 1,000,000 | $4.00 | $30.00 | $30.00 |
Feature Comparison
Amazon Polly
Best for: High-volume, cost-sensitive applications already running on AWS.
Strengths
- ✓ Cheapest pay-as-you-go option
- ✓ AWS ecosystem integration
- ✓ Free tier (5M chars/mo for 12 months)
- ✓ SSML support
Deepgram
Best for: Real-time conversational AI, voice bots, and applications where latency matters most.
Strengths
- ✓ Ultra-low latency (90ms)
- ✓ Streaming-optimized
- ✓ Simple pay-as-you-go
- ✓ $200 free credits
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Amazon Polly or Deepgram cheaper for text-to-speech?
Amazon Polly is cheaper, starting at $0.004 per 1,000 characters with Amazon Polly Standard. That’s 87% less than Deepgram Aura at $0.030 per 1,000 characters.
How much does Amazon Polly TTS cost compared to Deepgram?
Amazon Polly pricing starts at $0.004 per 1k chars (Amazon Polly Standard), while Deepgram starts at $0.030 per 1k chars (Deepgram Aura). For 1 million characters, that’s $4.00 vs $30.00.
Which has better voice quality, Amazon Polly or Deepgram?
Based on TTS Arena benchmarks, Amazon Polly scores higher on voice quality. Amazon Polly’s best model scores 4.1/5 while Deepgram’s best scores 3.7/5.
Amazon Polly vs Deepgram: which is faster?
Deepgram has lower latency. Amazon Polly’s fastest model has 200ms time-to-first-audio, while Deepgram’s fastest is 120ms.