SV Premium

Text-to-speech

OpenAI TTS

OpenAI speech API with the steerable gpt-4o-mini-tts model plus legacy tts-1 and tts-1-hd; pay-as-you-go, no EU region on self-serve.

Developers already using the OpenAI API can add speech with gpt-4o-mini-tts, which is billed per token and works out at roughly $15 per million characters on the usual conversion, though voice speed, language and instructions shift the real cost. The legacy tts-1 and tts-1-hd are priced per character at $15 and $30 per million. There is no free tier, and European data residency is sales-gated rather than self-serve.

Headquarters
馃嚭馃嚫 United States
Parent jurisdiction
馃嚭馃嚫 United States
EU self-serve plan
No / not documented
GDPR DPA
Yes
Billing
payg
Open source
No
Website
developers.openai.com
Source last checked
2026-10-06
Pricing evidence
Modeled rates

Pricing

Published rates converted using workload assumptions. Read the notes. Converts estimated audio-minute costs to characters at 1,000 English characters per minute. Speed and language change the bill. How to read these estimates.

1M additional characters
$15
Allowances, plan limits & calculation details

Rates are shown at their recorded precision. A zero means no charge in this calculation; the vendor may charge for things we leave out. See the notes for usage assumptions and currency conversions.

Base fee / month
$0
Included characters / month (millions)
0
1M additional characters
$15

Standard model is gpt-4o-mini-tts (default snapshot gpt-4o-mini-tts-2025-12-15), billed per token: $0.60 per 1M text input tokens and $12 per 1M audio output tokens. Converted at OpenAI's commonly cited estimate of about $0.015 per minute of audio and roughly 1,000 characters of English per minute, giving ~$15 per 1M characters (text input adds only ~$0.15/M at ~4 characters per token); real cost varies with voice speed, language and instructions. Legacy per-character models: tts-1 $15/M characters, tts-1-hd $30/M. No free tier or monthly allowance. European data residency exists for API projects but is sales-gated for eligible customers, not self-serve. DPA available.

Managed alternatives

At 10M characters / month. Adjust usage and requirements.

OpenAI TTS: $1,800/yr estimated.

The price difference leaves out migration costs, operating costs and any features you鈥檇 need to replace.

Self-hosted options

Operating cost is not estimated. These options are not counted as savings against managed services.

Compare OpenAI TTS

Found a wrong rate or plan restriction? Report a correction with a current source.