# AI text to speech with natural, realistic voices

> AI Text to Speech is an online AI text to speech tool. Paste up to 4,000 characters, choose one of 365 voices from MiniMax Speech 02 HD, OpenAI TTS-1 HD or Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS, set the speed, and download MP3 or WAV in seconds. It costs 1 credit per character, $0.06 to $0.10 per 1,000 characters, with 5,000 free characters when you sign up. Failed clips are refunded automatically.

Paste a script, choose one of hundreds of voices and a speed, and download speech that sounds like a person reading it. Pay per character, no subscription needed.

## At a glance

- **Voices:** 365: 326 MiniMax voices in 24 languages, 9 OpenAI and 30 Gemini
- **Price:** 1 credit per character, $0.06 to $0.10 per 1,000 characters
- **To try it:** 5,000 free characters when you sign up
- **Text length:** Up to 4,000 characters per clip, about 4 minutes of English
- **Speed:** 0.75× to 1.5× on MiniMax and OpenAI voices
- **Download:** MP3 from MiniMax and OpenAI, WAV from Gemini
- **Usage:** Commercial use allowed under our terms; never imitate a real person

- 365 voices, 24 languages
- Price shown before you generate
- MP3 and WAV downloads

[Read my text aloud](https://aitexttospeechfree.app/create)

## Why people use AI Text to Speech

Three of today's strongest speech models behind one simple box, priced by the character.

- **Voices that sound human**: Neural voices read with natural rhythm, stress and breathing, so a script sounds performed rather than recited.
- **365 voices to choose from**: Narrators, presenters, hosts and characters: 326 MiniMax voices in 24 languages, plus OpenAI's and Gemini's own voice sets.
- **Your pace**: Slow down for lessons or speed up for social clips: 0.75× to 1.5× on MiniMax and OpenAI voices.
- **Ready to publish**: Download MP3 or WAV for videos, podcasts, e-learning, presentations and phone systems.
- **Fair, visible pricing**: 1 credit per character, shown before you generate. $0.06 to $0.10 per 1,000 characters, and credits never expire while your account is open.
- **Refunds on failure**: If a model fails to return audio, the credits for that clip go back to your balance automatically.

## How to turn text into speech

1. **Paste your text**: Type or paste up to 4,000 characters. The counter shows the length and the price as you type.
2. **Pick a model, voice and speed**: Keep MiniMax for the widest choice, switch to OpenAI or Gemini for their voices, then choose a voice and a speed.
3. **Listen and download**: The clip plays in the page within seconds. Download it, or adjust the text and generate again.

## What is AI text to speech?

AI text to speech (AI TTS) turns written text into spoken audio with a neural voice model trained on recordings of human speech. Unlike the robotic screen readers of the past, a modern model predicts how a sentence should sound as a whole: where the stress falls, where a speaker would breathe, how a question rises at the end.

The result is realistic text to speech that works for narration, voiceovers and learning content. It is still synthetic speech: models can stumble over rare names, abbreviations and numbers, so listen to every clip before you publish it.


## Which model should you pick?

MiniMax Speech 02 HD is the default: its 326 voices cover 24 languages and a wide range of characters, from calm narrators to news anchors. OpenAI TTS-1 HD offers 9 clean, consistent voices tuned for English. Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS has 30 voices and follows a short style direction written before the text, such as "Say warmly:".

The quickest way to choose is to generate the same two sentences with two or three voices and compare them. Short tests cost very little because you pay per character.


## How to write text that sounds good aloud

Speech models read exactly what is on the page, so a few habits make a clip sound better:

- Write short sentences, one idea each
- Use commas and full stops where a speaker would pause
- Write numbers and dates the way they should be said
- Spell out unusual abbreviations, or write names as they sound
- Split long scripts into clips by section, then join them in your editor

## What you can make

- [Voiceovers](https://aitexttospeechfree.app/ai-voiceover): Narration for YouTube, TikTok, ads and product demos.
- [Read articles aloud](https://aitexttospeechfree.app/tts-reader): Turn articles, notes and documents into audio to listen to anywhere.
- [Audiobooks and stories](https://aitexttospeechfree.app/ai-narrator): An AI narrator for chapters, bedtime stories and fiction.
- [Character voices](https://aitexttospeechfree.app/ai-voice-generator): Robots, villains, heroes and hosts from the voice generator.
- [Spanish and more](https://aitexttospeechfree.app/spanish-text-to-speech): Native voices in 24 languages, from Spanish to Hindi.
- [Script examples](https://aitexttospeechfree.app/prompts): Ready-to-read scripts for intros, ads, lessons and phone menus.

## The three models side by side

| | MiniMax Speech 02 HD | OpenAI TTS-1 HD | Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Voices | 326, recorded in 24 languages | 9, tuned for English | 30, multilingual |
| Best for | Character, narration, non-English | Clean, consistent English | Steering tone with a direction |
| Speed | 0.75× to 1.5× | 0.75× to 1.5× | Natural pace only |
| Download | MP3 | MP3 | WAV |
| Price | 1 credit per character | 1 credit per character | 1 credit per character, 500 minimum |

## Text to speech pricing, per character

- Starter: $9.99 / month, 150,000 credits
- Creator: $24.99 / month, 400,000 credits
- Studio: $59.99 / month, 990,000 credits
- Small: $4.99, 50,000 credits
- Medium: $14.99, 200,000 credits
- Large: $39.99, 600,000 credits

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there free AI text to speech here?

New accounts get 5,000 free characters when you sign up, about 5 minutes of English speech, with every voice and both download formats. After that you buy credits: packs from $4.99 or plans from $9.99 a month. There is no ongoing free plan and no daily allowance.

### How much does AI text to speech cost?

1 credit per character, which is $0.06 to $0.10 per 1,000 characters depending on your plan or pack, or roughly the same per minute of English speech. The price appears before you generate, and failed clips are refunded automatically.

### Which AI TTS models do you use?

Three. MiniMax Speech 02 HD (326 voices recorded in 24 languages, the default), OpenAI TTS-1 HD (9 voices tuned for English) and Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS (30 voices that follow style directions). All three cost 1 credit per character; a Gemini clip costs at least 500 credits because Google charges per request.

### How realistic is the speech?

On short and medium passages the best voices are hard to tell from a recording. Long scripts can still show small slips: an odd stress, a misread name or a number read the wrong way. Listen before publishing, and fix slips by rewriting the word as it sounds.

### Can I use the audio commercially?

Yes, for videos, podcasts, ads, courses and apps, within our terms and the usage policies of the model you used. Two rules matter most: do not present a synthetic voice as a real person's, and if you publish audio made with OpenAI voices, OpenAI asks you to tell listeners the voice is AI-generated. We cannot promise a voice is exclusive to you; other customers use the same voices.

### Which languages can it read?

MiniMax has voices recorded in 24 languages, including English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Hindi and Arabic. OpenAI and Gemini voices read many languages too; OpenAI's sound most natural in English.

### Do you keep my text and audio?

Your text goes through our model gateway to the provider of the voice you chose, only to produce your audio. Your clips stay in your history so you can play and download them again; the privacy policy explains retention and deletion. We do not sell your data or use it to train models.

## Hear your first script in seconds

Create an account to get 5,000 free characters when you sign up and try every voice.

_Last updated 2026-10-06_