Learning new languages could be difficult, especially when various languages need different pronunciations. Buying books can help you write, but how can you practice communicating one-on-one with another person?
With text-to-speech APIs, we can now convert the contents of an eBook, blog, or article into speech by just touching a screen or clicking a button. Companies can now automate their customer service to become more conversational.
Tutors can help their pupils learn to read more quickly and efficiently. Customers’ preferences can be recognized by e-commerce systems without them having to type. Browsers can recognize voices and conduct precise searches.
The TTS API is also used by robots to read aloud text. The text-to-speech API opens us to a world of possibilities and functions in our daily lives.
In this post, we’ll go through Text-to-Speech APIs and the finest APIs for incorporating into your software.
What is Text-to-Speech API?
Text-to-speech (TTS), often known as speech synthesis, is the process of translating written text to spoken sounds. In most circumstances, text-to-speech refers to the text on a computer or other device.
The Text-to-Speech API allows developers to create human-like speech. The API translates text to audio formats such as WAV, MP3, and Ogg Opus.
It also accepts Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) inputs to set pauses, numerals, date and time formatting, and other pronunciation commands.
It can be used to allow speech-based text output in an app or application in addition to presenting text on a screen.
Best Text-to-speech APIs
1. Murf.AI
Murf.AI’s cloud-based architecture enhances accessibility and usability. It is made for content producers that require voiceovers for their videos and other visual media.
Murf.AI advises utilizing it for lectures, podcasts, videos, advertisements, and more. The ability to preview the voiceover on your content is one of the nicest advantages since it helps you get the timing right.
Although it might seem like a trivial function, several platforms don’t offer it; they just provide an audio file.
Murf’s text-to-speech API is ideal for large-scale content generation, e-learning, or connecting with interactive voice systems. Custom voice cloning can be used in conjunction with API to provide your consumers with distinctive voice experiences.
Pricing
It is available for free use, and you can request access to its API.
2. Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API
The Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API turns text input into audio data of human-like speech in over 180 voices and variations. Developers can utilize the API to build interactions with users that are more lifelike.
This API makes use of RESTful calls, although there is also a GRPC version available. The API is a wonderful tool for performing quick online searches.
The API distinguishes itself from the competition due to its accuracy and capacity to discriminate between various learning models.
Real-time speech recognition results can be obtained while the API analyses audio input streamed from your application’s microphone or provided from a prepared audio file inline or via Cloud Storage.
Pricing
Google’s API is free to use for 60 minutes and it charges $0.024/minute.
3. Play.ht
Play.ht is a robust text-to-speech generator that uses artificial intelligence to produce audio and voices from IBM, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
It is particularly handy for transforming text into natural-sounding voices. You can download the voice-over as MP3 or WAV files, and you can select a voice type before importing or entering text.
The program then instantaneously turns the text into a genuine human voice, which can subsequently be modified with speech styles, pronunciations, and other features.
Using Play.ht’s text-to-speech API, you can access all of the greatest text-to-speech AI voices from Google, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft. Its text-to-speech API provides a unified interface for converting text to audio utilizing AI voices from various suppliers.
Pricing
You can try the platform for free and premium pricing starts from $19/month.
4. IBM Text-to-Speech API
It’s no surprise that IBM will have one of the top text-to-speech APIs in 2022. Using Watson’s machine-learning AI engine, you can synthesize speech. It works with customer service systems to increase accessibility and automation.
The IBM Watson API architecture enables it to analyze and develop response formulas, as well as comprehend complicated speech contexts.
It can detect and distinguish between different speakers, making it useful for transcribing. It is simple to set up and provides a positive user experience.
It can process structured data and return suitable results. This API can be used by developers to add speech transcription functionality to their apps.
Pricing
You can start using the API for free and it charges $0.02 per thousand characters.
5. Amazon Polly
Amazon Polly is a text-to-speech API that is available to almost all organizations and individuals. It has a modest pricing structure and is very simple to use.
As it is so extensively used, it, like other Amazon products, is useful for developers when designing voice-based apps and services. Polly supports a wide number of languages and voices, as well as real-time streaming.
Amazon Polly synthesizes natural-sounding human voices using deep learning algorithms, allowing you to convert articles to speech.
Amazon Polly provides hundreds of lifelike voices in a variety of languages, allowing you to create speech-activated applications. Speech can be added to applications that have a worldwide audience, such as RSS feeds, webpages, or videos.
Pricing
You can start using the API for free and you only pay what you use, which starts from $4.00 per million characters.
6. Azure Text-to-speech
Microsoft Azure’s text-to-speech platform is similar to IBM in that it is best suited for large enterprises with a significant budget.
Allow for natural-sounding text-to-speech conversion that replicates the intonation and emotion of human voices. Azure features 400 natural voices in 140 languages and more detailed voice output options than other platforms.
You can simply customize speech output for your scenarios by modifying pace, pitch, pronunciation, pauses, and other parameters.
Text to Speech can also be operated anywhere—in the cloud, on-premises, or in containers at the edge.
Pricing
You can start using it for free and you only pay what you use, which starts from $1 per audio hour.
7. Voicepods
Voicepod is an outstanding web-based application for transforming text into speech. It has 24 voices and nine foreign languages, as well as an expressive editor that allows audio output to be customized.
The multispeaker function lets you use different speakers for different paragraphs on the same pod. You can convert any photos or files you like.
Converted audio files in MP3 format can be shared on social networks or embedded on websites. They provide support for 16 International Voices, including Dutch, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Turkish, Spanish (Latin American and European), and Hindi (Written as English, or Hindi).
Control the speech output to the tee. With the easy-to-use Editor, you can fine-tune your audio for any situation. Developers can simply integrate the voices created by Voicepods into their products using the API.
Pricing
You can start using it for free and premium pricing starts from $9/month.
8. ReadSpeaker
If you want to develop your own artificial intelligence voice in 2022, ReadSpeaker is one of the best text-to-speech APIs. Both conventional voices and machine learning-based neural voices are available on the platform.
The ability to create a speaking style that is exclusive to your firm sets it apart from the competition. An online text-to-speech API called ReadSpeaker speechCloud enables desktop, web, mobile, and other Internet-connected applications to speak.
The ReadSpeaker speechCloud API is a simple, high-capacity, easy-to-integrate API that gives you access to high-quality voices that can read the text on your apps and devices in a variety of languages.
As there are more devices linked to the Internet, there is a greater need for audio interaction.
Pricing
You can try it for free and please contact the vendor for its pricing.
9. Listnr
Listnr, another AI text-to-speech generator, can convert text to speech in a variety of forms, including genre, accent, and pause selection. Additionally, it gives you the option to create your own audio player embed, which you can use to add an audio version to your blog.
The fact that Listnr is extremely individualized to each listener and their tastes is one of its best features. It is an excellent tool for podcasts since it enables content monetization via advertising.
On popular streaming services like Spotify and Apple, the text-to-speech generator can be utilized to disseminate and convert music with commercial broadcasting rights.
You can diversify your content with its support for over 600 voices in 75+ languages, including English (US, UK, and Indian), German, and Spanish in both male and female versions.
Pricing
You can try the platform for free and premium pricing starts from $4/month.
10. Speechmatics
The Speechmatics text-to-speech API is used for text transcription and is cloud-based. It can process files offline and supports a wide variety of formats.
Multiple languages are also supported, including Australian English. Its advantages include simplicity of use and the ability to utilize a single API for both private usage activities and cloud-based transcription services.
It works well with loud audio. Speechmatics has unmatched precision in covering the majority of the native languages of the world’s people. quickly transcribe a lot of audio or video files that have already been captured.
Speechmatics can be readily configured to handle hundreds of hours of recordings. They provide reliable, low-latency transcription of real-time audio streams from conferences, phone conversations, and broadcast events.
With context-driven accuracy increases over time, you’ll receive the first transcriptions in milliseconds.
Pricing
You can start using the API for free and it charges $1.25 per hour for standard batch transcription.
Conclusion
Finally, a text-to-speech (TTS) API is a set of instructions in a specific programming language that takes the written text and converts it to a human-like voice.
TTS APIs are used by developers to create website plugins and mobile applications that aid in the conversion of text to speech. People that have difficulty reading utilize the API to assist them to grasp the material.
APIs are used by people with vision impairments to read the text and comprehend numbers. The APIs are used by the customer service department to automate conversational replies to FAQs.
Website owners use the API to reach out to a large number of individuals with varying requirements and problems. The API is used by businesses, organizations, and judicial institutions to simplify the documenting of unaltered data.
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