Cheapest AI text-to-speech compared
The four text-to-speech tiers on DubVoice.ai compared by price per 1,000 characters — from 100 credits on Edge TTS to 1,000 on the premium tiers.
Short answer
Edge TTS at 100 credits per 1,000 characters is the cheapest, and for internal videos, tutorials and drafts it is genuinely good enough. Kokoro at 300 credits is the sweet spot for English narration on a budget. Anything a customer will hear should be ElevenLabs or Minimax — the expressiveness gap is audible, and at 1,000 credits per 1,000 characters it is still under a cent for a typical script.
There is a 10x spread between the cheapest and the most expensive voice on DubVoice.ai, and the right answer depends entirely on whether the listener is a customer or a colleague.
All four tiers share one credit balance, one interface and one output format, so switching between them is a dropdown rather than a migration.
Side by side
| Edge TTS | Kokoro TTS | ElevenLabs TTS | Minimax TTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per 1,000 characters | 100 credits✓ | 300 credits | 1,000 credits | 1,000 credits |
| Per 10,000 characters | 1,000 credits✓ | 3,000 credits | 10,000 credits | 10,000 credits |
| Voice count | 394 | 55 | 15,112✓ | 441+ |
| Voice cloning | No | No | Yes✓ | Yes |
| Expressiveness | Basic | Good | Excellent✓ | Excellent |
| Best for | Drafts, internal video | Budget English narration | Anything customer-facing | Asian languages |
A green cell is the better value in that row. Every price is what DubVoice.ai charges — one credit balance covers all of these models.
Which one should you use?
Drafts, internal content, or long-form where cost scales with length.
English narration where you want better than Edge without paying premium rates.
Ads, audiobooks, dubbing — anything a customer hears.
Chinese and other Asian languages, or explicit pitch and volume control.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest AI text-to-speech?
On DubVoice.ai, Edge TTS at 10 characters per credit — 100 credits per 1,000 characters, a tenth of the premium tiers. Kokoro is next at 300 credits per 1,000 characters.
Is there a free text-to-speech tier?
There is no subscription and no monthly fee. You buy credits once, starting at $4.99 for 250,000, and they never expire. On Edge TTS that buys 2.5 million characters of speech.
Can I mix cheap and premium voices in one project?
Yes. All four tiers share the same credit balance and the same interface, so drafting a script on Edge TTS and re-rendering the final on ElevenLabs costs almost nothing extra.
About DubVoice.ai
DubVoice.ai is an all-in-one AI creation platform for voice, video, images, music, dubbing and translation.