Gemini TTS pricing per minute
Google bills its Gemini text-to-speech models in tokens: text in and audio out. At Google's 25 audio tokens a second, a minute of speech is 1,500 audio tokens, so Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS costs $0.0182 a minute and Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS costs $0.0272 a minute at regular prices; until 31 December 2026 they cost half that, $0.0091 and $0.0136. The older models cost $0.0151 a minute (2.5 Flash TTS) and $0.0302 (3.1 Flash TTS and 2.5 Pro TTS). The text you send in is at most 2% of the price, at 900 characters a minute.
Gemini TTS price by model
| Model | Per 1M tokens text in / audio out | Per minute | Per hour | Per 1M characters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS Until 31 December 2026 gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts | $0.50 / $6 | $0.0091 | $0.547 | $10.13 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS From 1 January 2027 gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts | $1 / $12 | $0.0182 | $1.09 | $20.25 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS Until 31 December 2026 gemini-3.8-flash-tts | $0.50 / $9 | $0.0136 | $0.817 | $15.13 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS From 1 January 2027 gemini-3.8-flash-tts | $1 / $18 | $0.0272 | $1.63 | $30.25 |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts | $0.50 / $10 | $0.0151 | $0.907 | $16.79 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview | $1 / $20 | $0.0302 | $1.81 | $33.58 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro TTS gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts | $1 / $20 | $0.0302 | $1.81 | $33.58 |
Paid tier, standard (not batch) prices from Google's Gemini API pricing page. A minute is 1,500 audio tokens out plus 225 text tokens in for 900 characters of text; a million characters makes about 1,111 minutes of speech at that pace.
How we turn tokens into minutes
- Audio out: Google's pricing page says “Audio tokens correspond to 25 tokens per second of audio.” So a minute of speech is 1,500 audio tokens. Google's own figure for Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS, “Equivalent to $0.0015 per 10s audio”, works out the same.
- Text in: Google's token guide says “For Gemini models, a token is equivalent to about 4 characters.” At 900 characters of text a minute of speech, the pace we use for every vendor, that is 225 text tokens a minute. A faster or slower script changes only this small part.
- The same guide lists “Audio : 32 tokens per second”. That is audio sent to Gemini to listen to, not speech it generates, so it doesn't apply here.
- Google says “TTS models accept text-only inputs and generate audio-only outputs.” So text in and audio out are the whole bill.
Batch API: half price
| Model | Standard, per minute | Batch, per minute |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS | $0.0091 $0.0182 from 1 January 2027 | $0.0046 $0.0091 from 1 January 2027 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS | $0.0136 $0.0272 from 1 January 2027 | $0.0068 $0.0136 from 1 January 2027 |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS | $0.0151 | $0.0076 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS | $0.0302 | $0.0151 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro TTS | $0.0302 | $0.0151 |
Google lists every Gemini TTS model's Batch API price at half its standard price, text and audio alike.
What 1, 10 and 100 hours a month cost
| Model | 1 hour | 10 hours | 100 hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS | $0.907 | $9.07 | $90.67 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS | $1.09 | $10.94 | $109 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS | $1.63 | $16.34 | $163 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS | $1.81 | $18.13 | $181 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro TTS | $1.81 | $18.13 | $181 |
Regular standard prices on the paid tier. Until 31 December 2026 the 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS and 3.8 Flash TTS figures are half these.
Is Gemini TTS free?
The Gemini API's free tier lists every Gemini TTS model but 2.5 Pro Preview TTS as “Free of charge”, and Google uses free-tier content to improve its products. It sets no free character allowance: “Rate limits depend on a variety of factors (such as your usage tier) and can be viewed in Google AI Studio.” Google Cloud lists no free usage for the same models.
Gemini 2.5 Pro TTS has no free tier; 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS, 3.8 Flash TTS, 2.5 Flash TTS and 3.1 Flash TTS do.
Gemini API or Google Cloud Text-to-Speech
Google Cloud Text-to-Speech sells the same models at the same token prices, under its own names (Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS (Preview), Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS (Preview), Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS, Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS (Preview) and Gemini 2.5 Pro TTS), and lists free usage for them as “Not available”. It also lists Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview TTS at the 2.5 Flash price. Google Cloud's character-priced voices, from Standard to Chirp 3: HD, are on Google Cloud Text-to-Speech pricing.
Models being retired
| Model | Shuts down from | Google's replacement |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts | 17 November 2026 | gemini-3.8-flash-tts or gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview | 17 November 2026 | gemini-3.8-flash-tts or gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro TTS gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts | 17 November 2026 | gemini-3.8-flash-tts or gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts |
From the Gemini API's deprecations page, which says “The shutdown dates listed in the table indicate the earliest possible dates on which a model might be retired”. 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS and 3.8 Flash TTS have no shutdown date announced.
Quick answers
How much does Gemini TTS cost per minute?
$0.0151 to $0.0302 a minute of speech at regular prices, depending on the model: 2.5 Flash TTS $0.0151, 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS $0.0182, 3.8 Flash TTS $0.0272, 3.1 Flash TTS $0.0302, 2.5 Pro TTS $0.0302. Until 31 December 2026, 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS costs $0.0091 and 3.8 Flash TTS costs $0.0136. Google bills tokens; this is 1,500 audio tokens a minute, Google's 25 a second, plus 225 text tokens for 900 characters of text.
How much does Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS cost?
$1 per million text tokens in and $12 per million audio tokens out from 1 January 2027: about $0.0182 a minute of speech, $1.09 an hour. Until 31 December 2026 it costs $0.50 and $6, about $0.0091 a minute. The Batch API halves the price.
How much does Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS cost?
$1 per million text tokens in and $18 per million audio tokens out from 1 January 2027: about $0.0272 a minute of speech, $1.63 an hour. Until 31 December 2026 it costs $0.50 and $9, about $0.0136 a minute. The Batch API halves the price.
How much does Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS cost?
$0.50 per million text tokens in and $10 per million audio tokens out: about $0.0151 a minute of speech, $0.907 an hour. The Batch API halves the price. On the Gemini API it is a preview model (gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts) that Google lists for shutdown from 17 November 2026.
How much does Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS cost?
$1 per million text tokens in and $20 per million audio tokens out: about $0.0302 a minute of speech, $1.81 an hour. The Batch API halves the price. On the Gemini API it is a preview model (gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview) that Google lists for shutdown from 17 November 2026.
How much does Gemini 2.5 Pro TTS cost?
$1 per million text tokens in and $20 per million audio tokens out: about $0.0302 a minute of speech, $1.81 an hour. The Batch API halves the price. On the Gemini API it is a preview model (gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts) that Google lists for shutdown from 17 November 2026.
Is Gemini TTS free?
On the Gemini API, with limits. The Gemini API's free tier lists every Gemini TTS model but 2.5 Pro Preview TTS as “Free of charge”, and Google uses free-tier content to improve its products. It sets no free character allowance: “Rate limits depend on a variety of factors (such as your usage tier) and can be viewed in Google AI Studio.” Google Cloud lists no free usage for the same models.
How many tokens is a minute of Gemini TTS audio?
1,500 audio tokens: Google says “Audio tokens correspond to 25 tokens per second of audio.” The text that makes a minute of speech is about 225 text tokens more, at 900 characters and Google's 4 characters a token.
Is Gemini TTS cheaper than ElevenLabs, OpenAI or Google Cloud Text-to-Speech?
At 10 hours of speech a month, Gemini's cheapest model at regular prices, 2.5 Flash TTS, costs $9.07. ElevenLabs' cheapest API option, Flash / Turbo, costs $21.20, OpenAI's cheapest API option, tts-1, costs $8.10 and Google Cloud's cheapest API option, Standard voices, costs nothing, inside its free monthly characters. 12 of the 24 other API options we price cost less than Gemini's cheapest, free allowances counted.
Gemini against every text-to-speech API at 100 hours a month
| # | Option | Per month | Per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Google Cloud Standard voices Google lists these under legacy models. | $5.60 | $0.001 |
| 2 | Google Cloud WaveNet voices Listed at the same price and billing code as Standard. | $5.60 | $0.001 |
| 3 | Amazon Polly Standard First 12 months only: 5 million characters a month free, not counted here. | $21.60 | $0.004 |
| 4 | Murf API, Falcon | $54 | $0.009 |
| 5 | Google Cloud Neural2 voices | $70.40 | $0.012 |
| 6 | OpenAI tts-1 | $81 | $0.013 |
| 7 | Azure AI Speech Neural East US price; varies by region. Separate free tier (F0): 0.5 million characters a month, a different resource tier from pay as you go, so not counted here. | $81 | $0.013 |
| 8 | Deepgram Aura-1 | $81 | $0.013 |
| 9 | Fish Audio API, S2.1-Pro Billed per UTF-8 byte of text: one a character in plain English, more for accented and non-Latin letters. S2-Pro and S1 cost the same. | $81 | $0.013 |
| 10 | Amazon Polly Neural First 12 months only: 1 million characters a month free, not counted here. | $86.40 | $0.014 |
| 11 | Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS A preview model on the Gemini API, due to shut down from 17 November 2026. | $90.67 | $0.015 |
| 12 | Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS About $0.009 a minute until 31 December 2026, an introductory price. | $109 | $0.018 |
| 13 | Azure AI Speech Neural HD East US price; varies by region. | $119 | $0.02 |
| 14 | Google Cloud Chirp 3: HD voices | $132 | $0.022 |
| 15 | Murf API, Gen2 | $162 | $0.027 |
| 16 | OpenAI tts-1-hd | $162 | $0.027 |
| 17 | Amazon Polly Generative First 12 months only: 100,000 characters a month free, not counted here. | $162 | $0.027 |
| 18 | Deepgram Aura-2 | $162 | $0.027 |
| 19 | Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS About $0.014 a minute until 31 December 2026, an introductory price. | $163 | $0.027 |
| 20 | Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS A preview model on the Gemini API, due to shut down from 17 November 2026. | $181 | $0.03 |
| 21 | Gemini 2.5 Pro TTS A preview model on the Gemini API, due to shut down from 17 November 2026. No free tier. | $181 | $0.03 |
| 22 | ElevenLabs API, Flash / Turbo | $216 | $0.036 |
| 23 | Cartesia Startup | $236 | $0.039 |
| 24 | Resemble AI Flex pay-as-you-go $0.00067 per second of audio, so text length doesn't matter. | $241 | $0.04 |
| 25 | Cartesia Scale | $299 | $0.05 |
| 26 | Cartesia Pro | $350 | $0.058 |
| 27 | ElevenLabs API, v2 Multilingual | $431 | $0.072 |
| 28 | Amazon Polly Long-Form First 12 months only: 500,000 characters a month free, not counted here. | $540 | $0.09 |
| 29 | Google Cloud Studio voices | $704 | $0.117 |
Regular prices; the ranking counts each vendor's free monthly characters where they don't expire.
Head to head: Gemini TTS vs ElevenLabs, Gemini TTS vs OpenAI TTS, Gemini TTS vs Google Cloud TTS. Compare every text-to-speech API, or price your own minutes with the text-to-speech cost calculator.
Transcribing audio with Gemini instead? See Gemini transcription pricing per hour and per minute.
Sources
Read on 7 October 2026:
- ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
- ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/tokens
- ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits
- ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/speech-generation
- ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations
- cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/pricing
Show the quoted text
Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS gemini-3.8-flash-tts Try it in Google AI Studio Our 3.8 Flash Text-to-Speech audio model engineered for studio-grade voice fidelity, expressive acting, and long-form stability. Standard Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Free of charge $0.50 (text) through December 31, 2026. $1.00 (text) starting January 1, 2027. Output price Free of charge $9.00 (audio) through December 31, 2026. $18.00 (audio) starting January 1, 2027. Equivalent to $0.00225 per 10s audio * through December 31, 2026. Equivalent to $0.0045 per 10s audio * starting January 1, 2027.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Batch Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Not available $0.25 (text) through December 31, 2026. $0.50 (text) starting January 1, 2027. Output price Not available $4.50 (audio) through December 31, 2026. $9.00 (audio) starting January 1, 2027. Equivalent to $0.001125 per 10s audio * through December 31, 2026. Equivalent to $0.00225 per 10s audio * starting January 1, 2027.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts Try it in Google AI Studio Our 3.8 Flash-Lite Text-to-Speech audio model optimized for high-throughput, low-latency, and cost-efficient conversational speech. Standard Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Free of charge $0.50 (text) through December 31, 2026. $1.00 (text) starting January 1, 2027. Output price Free of charge $6.00 (audio) through December 31, 2026. $12.00 (audio) starting January 1, 2027. Equivalent to $0.0015 per 10s audio * through December 31, 2026. Equivalent to $0.003 per 10s audio * starting January 1, 2027.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Batch Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Not available $0.25 (text) through December 31, 2026. $0.50 (text) starting January 1, 2027. Output price Not available $3.00 (audio) through December 31, 2026. $6.00 (audio) starting January 1, 2027. Equivalent to $0.00075 per 10s audio * through December 31, 2026. Equivalent to $0.0015 per 10s audio * starting January 1, 2027.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS Preview gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview Try it in Google AI Studio Our 3.1 Flash Text-to-Speech audio model optimized for price-performant, low-latency, controllable speech generation. Standard Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Free of charge $1.00 (text) Output price Free of charge $20.00 (audio) Used to improve our products Yes No Batch Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Not available $0.50 (text) Output price Not available $10.00 (audio) Used to improve our products Yes No * Audio tokens correspond to 25 tokens per second of audio.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview TTS gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts Try it in Google AI Studio Our 2.5 Flash text-to-speech audio model optimized for price-performant, low-latency, controllable speech generation. Standard Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Free of charge $0.50 (text) Output price Free of charge $10.00 (audio) Used to improve our products Yes No Batch Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Not available $0.25 (text) Output price Not available $5.00 (audio) Used to improve our products Yes No
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview TTS gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts Try it in Google AI Studio Our 2.5 Pro text-to-speech audio model optimized for powerful, low-latency speech generation for more natural outputs and easier to steer prompts. Standard Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Not available $1.00 (text) Output price Not available $20.00 (audio) Used to improve our products Yes No Batch Free Tier Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD Input price Not available $0.50 (text) Output price Not available $10.00 (audio) Used to improve our products Yes No
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
* Audio tokens correspond to 25 tokens per second of audio.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
For Gemini models, a token is equivalent to about 4 characters. 100 tokens is equal to about 60-80 English words.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/tokens
All input to the Gemini API is tokenized, including images, video, and audio. Key points about tokenization: Images : Images ≤384 pixels in both dimensions count as 258 tokens. Larger images are tiled into 768x768 pixel tiles, each counting as 258 tokens. Video : 263 tokens per second (applies to static processing). For agentic processing, token usage varies. See Video token usage by processing mode . Audio : 32 tokens per second
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/tokens
Rate limits depend on a variety of factors (such as your usage tier) and can be viewed in Google AI Studio. As your tier and account status change over time, your rate limits will automatically update.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits
Limitations TTS models accept text-only inputs and generate audio-only outputs.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/speech-generation
Use Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS ( gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts ) as your fast, cost-efficient workhorse replacement for gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview . It is optimized for high-volume bulk production, conversational voice agent cascades, read-aloud features, reliable voice replication, and everyday single-speaker speech across major languages.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/speech-generation
Gemini 3 models Model Release date Shutdown date Recommended replacement gemini-3.8-flash-tts September 22, 2026 No shutdown date announced gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts September 22, 2026 No shutdown date announced
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations
Preview models gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview February 26, 2026 November 17, 2026 gemini-3.8-flash-tts or gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations
Preview models gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts May 20, 2025 November 17, 2026 gemini-3.8-flash-tts or gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts May 20, 2025 November 17, 2026 gemini-3.8-flash-tts or gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations
Note: The shutdown dates listed in the table indicate the earliest possible dates on which a model might be retired . We will communicate the exact shutdown date to users with advance notice to ensure a smooth transition to a replacement model.
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations
Gemini-TTS The latest evolution of our Text-to-Speech technology giving granular control over generated audio using text-based prompts. Model Free usage limit Price after free usage limit is reached Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS (Preview)** through December 31, 2026 Not available Input tokens: $0.50 per 1 million text tokens* (sku: 4CB8-5200-1246). Output tokens: $9.00 per 1 million audio tokens* (sku: 5FD7-DAE7-9FBA) Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS (Preview) starting January 1, 2027 Not available Input tokens: $1.00 per 1 million text tokens* (sku: 4CB8-5200-1246). Output tokens: $18.00 per 1 million audio tokens* (sku: 5FD7-DAE7-9FBA) Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS (Preview)** through December 31, 2026 Not available Input tokens: $0.50 per 1 million text tokens* (sku: 6D6B-51EE-87C4). Output tokens: $6.00 per 1 million audio tokens* (sku: 676E-5101-0A30) Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS (Preview) starting January 1, 2027 Not available Input tokens: $1.00 per 1 million text tokens* (sku: 6D6B-51EE-87C4). Output tokens: $12.00 per 1 million audio tokens* (sku: 676E-5101-0A30) Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview TTS Not available Input tokens: $0.50 per 1 million text tokens* (sku: 242A-EA16-C1EC) Output tokens: $10.00 per 1 million audio tokens* (sku: 9228-79EF-B162) Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS (Preview) Not available Input tokens: $1.00 per 1 million text tokens* (sku: EB3F-1051-05D7) Output tokens: $20.00 per 1 million audio tokens* (sku: 7976-330B-8F17) Gemini 2.5 Pro TTS Not available Input tokens: $1.00 per 1 million text tokens* (sku: 8FF1-7E5B-5BB7) Output tokens: $20.00 per 1 million audio tokens* (sku: DCF3-CB17-8262) * Audio tokens correspond to 25 tokens per second of audio
cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/pricing
Prices on this page were checked against the official pricing pages on .