Last updated: 28 June 2026
Google Cloud TTS Pricing
Google Cloud TTS offers two tiers: Standard (concatenative) and WaveNet (neural). Both use pay-as-you-go pricing per character with no subscription required. Supports the widest language range of any provider.
Models
2
Google Standard, Google WaveNet
From
$0.004
per 1K chars
Quality
3.6/5
Latency
180ms
time-to-first-audio
Languages
75
supported
Free Tier
AvailableAvailable Models & Pricing
Google Standard
Lowest costPay-as-you-go. Basic synthetic voices.
Quality
3.2/5
Latency
180ms
Languages
75
Google WaveNet
Pay-as-you-go. High quality neural voices.
Quality
3.6/5
Latency
220ms
Languages
75
Google Standard: 4M chars free (monthly) — Standard voices
Google WaveNet: 1M chars free (monthly) — WaveNet voices
Cost Examples
| Characters | Google Standard | Google WaveNet |
|---|---|---|
| 1K | $0.0040 | $0.016 |
| 10K | $0.040 | $0.160 |
| 100K | $0.400 | $1.60 |
| 1M | $4.00 | $16.00 |
When to Use Google Cloud
Best for
Multilingual applications that need broad language coverage at a low price point.
Key strengths
- ✓75+ languages
- ✓Free tier (4M chars/mo)
- ✓WaveNet quality
- ✓SSML support
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Google Cloud text-to-speech cost?
Google Cloud TTS has two tiers: Standard voices at $4 per million characters and WaveNet voices at $16 per million characters. Google also offers a generous free tier of 1M WaveNet characters and 4M Standard characters per month.
Is Google Cloud TTS free?
Google Cloud TTS includes a free tier every month: 1,000,000 characters free on WaveNet and Neural2 voices, and up to 4,000,000 characters free on Standard voices. Beyond the free tier, you pay $4/1M chars (Standard) or $16/1M chars (WaveNet).
What is the difference between Google Standard and WaveNet TTS?
Google Standard voices cost $4/1M chars and use basic concatenative synthesis. WaveNet voices cost $16/1M chars (4× more) but produce significantly more natural-sounding speech using deep neural networks. WaveNet scores 3.6/5 vs. 3.2/5 on quality benchmarks.
How does Google TTS compare to Amazon Polly?
Google Standard and Amazon Polly Standard are both priced at $4/1M chars, making them the cheapest TTS APIs available. Google offers more languages (75 vs. 29) and a permanent free tier, while Amazon Polly's free tier expires after 12 months.