Last updated: 28 June 2026
OpenAI vs ElevenLabs: TTS Pricing Comparison
OpenAI is 92% cheaper starting at $0.015/1k chars. Here's the full breakdown of pricing, quality, latency, and language support.
Price Comparison
| Characters | OpenAI tts-1 | OpenAI tts-1-hd | OpenAI gpt-4o-mini-tts | ElevenLabs Starter | ElevenLabs Creator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $0.15 | $0.30 | $0.15 | $2.00 | $1.82 |
| 100,000 | $1.50 | $3.00 | $1.50 | $20.00 | $18.20 |
| 1,000,000 | $15.00 | $30.00 | $15.00 | $200.00 | $182.00 |
Feature Comparison
OpenAI
Best for: Developers already using the OpenAI ecosystem who want straightforward TTS at scale.
Strengths
- ✓ Simple API integration
- ✓ Multiple quality tiers
- ✓ Good language support
- ✓ Steerable prosody (gpt-4o-mini-tts)
ElevenLabs
Best for: Content creators, audiobook producers, and applications where voice quality is the top priority.
Strengths
- ✓ Highest quality voices
- ✓ Professional voice cloning
- ✓ Emotional expressiveness
- ✓ Voice design from text prompts
Frequently Asked Questions
Is OpenAI or ElevenLabs cheaper for text-to-speech?
OpenAI is cheaper, starting at $0.015 per 1,000 characters with OpenAI tts-1. That’s 92% less than ElevenLabs Creator at $0.182 per 1,000 characters.
How much does OpenAI TTS cost compared to ElevenLabs?
OpenAI pricing starts at $0.015 per 1k chars (OpenAI tts-1), while ElevenLabs starts at $0.182 per 1k chars (ElevenLabs Creator). For 1 million characters, that’s $15.00 vs $182.00.
Which has better voice quality, OpenAI or ElevenLabs?
Based on TTS Arena benchmarks, ElevenLabs scores higher on voice quality. OpenAI’s best model scores 4.1/5 while ElevenLabs’s best scores 4.5/5.
OpenAI vs ElevenLabs: which is faster?
ElevenLabs has lower latency. OpenAI’s fastest model has 250ms time-to-first-audio, while ElevenLabs’s fastest is 180ms.