Text-to-speech pricing

We serve customers in dozens of countries throughout the world. Global companies need support for sometimes as many as 40 languages and regional dialects. We devote resources to delivering the best quality voices to provide choice to our customers.

We employ top linguists to work in concert with our engineers to consistently deliver top-quality voices. Originally our company developed human-sounding voices using unit selection synthesis and we have improved on that technology by building voices with the latest in machine learning technology. TTS is not a commodity and building lifelike voices is much more difficult than the robotic voices of the past.

Sometimes voices have trouble pronouncing irregular chemical symbols, math, proper nouns or homographs. Our technology allows for customizable dictionary entries to guide the TTS. This allows customers to use rules written by us, or them, to ignore content they wish to skip, or permanently correct names or symbols with a simple interface. ReadSpeaker has specialized rules purpose-built for math reading. It is important to consider how customizable the platform you are building on is.

Some providers make it difficult or impossible to reach engineers or linguists. TTS technology has such broad appeal that businesses and organizations are using it for so many things. Sometimes some customization of words or technology is needed. Being able to work with real developers and linguists during a time crunch can be very important.

Custom voice represents an important new segment in the market. Customers will often “graduate” from off-the-shelf voices to a brand-specific persona. Developing custom voice requires an in-house team with experience. It is often easier to stay with a provider you trust to.

TTS usage rights is an important consideration when choosing a provider or development agency. This is because custom voices often require substantial investment, not just in money but in marketing collateral, development, and deployment. Institutions need to consider whether they are simply “renting” the voice they paid for from an agency or if it is something they own outright. ReadSpeaker has no technical lock-in for custom voices and while we are there for all aspects of the process including recording, tabulating, and production, the voice belongs solely to the customer and we retain no rights.

It’s important to look for a voice provider that will be your partner as your strategy and usage grow. Flexibility in product offering, as well as TTS pricing and customization, is essential to a successful voice strategy.