Audio Pricing Comparison
23 providers compared by pricing model, free tiers, hosting options, and headquarters. Last updated September 2026.
19 with free tiers ยท 2 open source ยท 9 self-hostable ยท 5 European
| Provider | Pricing Model | Starting Price | Free Tier | Hosting | Open Source | HQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay-per-use | Free ($50 in free credits) | ✓ | Cloud | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | Free tier, then $5/month | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Pay-per-use | Free to start, then $0.25/voice testing minute | ✓ | Cloud | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Pay-per-use | $0.0077/min | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | $6/mo | ✓ | Cloud | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | Free tier, then $11/month | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Pay-per-use | $0.61/hr | ✓ | Cloud | — | ๐ซ๐ท France | |
| Freemium | $3/month | ✓ | Cloud | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Pay-per-use | โฌ0.035/generated minute | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | — | ๐ฉ๐ช Germany | |
| — | — | ✓ | — | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Subscription | $5/mo | ✓ | Cloud | — | ๐ฉ๐ช Germany | |
| Freemium | Free tier, then $50/month | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | — | ✓ | — | — | — | |
| Pay-per-use | $0.05/1M tokens | ✓ | Cloud | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Pay-per-use | — | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | $2/60K characters | — | Cloud | — | — | |
| Freemium | Free | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Pay-per-use | From $0.001 per agent minute | — | Cloud | — | — | |
| — | — | — | Cloud | — | ๐ธ๐ช Sweden | |
| Freemium | $10/mo (1M chars included) | ✓ | Cloud | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | $0.24/hr | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | — | ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom | |
| Freemium | Free tier, then $8/month (Pro) | — | Cloud | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Free | Free (open source) | ✓ | Self-hosted | ✓ | — |
Ordering is alphabetical, apart from featured listings, which are paid placement and are labelled as such. Nothing here is ranked by quality. Want to be featured?
Providers with free tiers
These audio providers offer free credits, free tiers, or open-source self-hosting options to get started without upfront costs.
Speech-to-text APIs with audio intelligence, speaker diarization, and real-ti...
From: Free ($50 in free credits)
Real-time voice AI with ultra-low latency text-to-speech and voice cloning in...
From: Free tier, then $5/month
Testing and monitoring platform for AI voice and chat agents
From: Free to start, then $0.25/voice testing minute
Text-to-speech and voice cloning API, with Fish Speech weights published unde...
From: Free tier, then $11/month
Show all 19 providers with free tiers
Expressive voice APIs: real-time speech-to-speech (EVI) and instructable text...
From: $3/month
Real-time text-to-speech in 26 languages, trained and hosted in Europe
From: โฌ0.035/generated minute
Low-latency text-to-speech API that has shut down (September 2026). See alter...
Open-source framework for building real-time voice and multimodal AI agents o...
From: Free tier, then $50/month
AI audio API for generating songs, speech, and sound, with stem splitting, vo...
Voice cloning API that stopped taking new customers in August 2026 and now se...
Text-to-speech API with low-latency streaming, voice cloning, and 30+ locales
From: $10/mo (1M chars included)
Enterprise speech-to-text API supporting 55+ languages with high accuracy
From: $0.24/hr
Tokenizer-free open-source text-to-speech with voice cloning across 30 languages
From: Free (open source)
Frequently asked questions
Which audio offer a free tier?
19 of the 23 audio listed offer a free tier or free credits. Examples: AssemblyAI, Cartesia, Cekura, Deepgram, Eleven Labs. Use the "Free tier" filter above to see the full list.
Which audio are open source?
2 open-source options are listed. Examples: LiveKit Agents, VoxCPM. Most can be self-hosted alongside or instead of any managed offering.
Are there European audio?
Yes. 5 providers in this category are headquartered in Europe, including Gladia, KugelAudio, LemonFox, Samtal, Speechmatics. The European providers page has the full cross-category list with hosting regions.
Which audio can be self-hosted?
9 of the 23 listed support self-hosting, either as the primary deployment model or alongside a managed cloud offering. Examples: Cartesia, Deepgram, Fish Audio, KugelAudio, LiveKit Agents.
How to choose an inference API provider
The right provider depends on workload type, latency requirements, and budget. Most providers use pay-per-token pricing for LLMs and per-second GPU billing for custom models. Token-based pricing varies by model, so the cheapest provider for one model may not be cheapest for another.
Free tiers are useful for prototyping but often come with rate limits. For production, compare per-token costs for your specific model, cold start latency, rate limits, and whether the provider supports the models you need.
Teams with data residency requirements should check hosting options and provider headquarters. European providers like Gladia, KugelAudio, LemonFox keep data within EU jurisdiction. See the full European AI Infrastructure directory. Self-hostable options like Cartesia and Deepgram give full control over data location.
For a deeper analysis, read AI Inference API Providers Compared on the blog. Pricing changes frequently, so verify current rates on each provider's website. Submit a correction.
See how these tools fit into a full stack
Browse all Audio tools or explore the full AI Infrastructure Landscape.
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