Speakvora vs Amazon Polly
Amazon Polly is the closest to Speakvora in how it bills: plain characters, no subscription. The differences are what you get for those characters and how much AWS setup you accept.
Short answer. If your volume fits Polly's free tier or you already live in AWS, Polly is a sound choice. If you want a simple API key, a ready-made phrase library and the lowest per-character rate, Speakvora is worth a test.
The price, read carefully
Polly's list prices are Standard $4, Neural $16, Generative $30 and Long-Form $100 per million characters. Speakvora's catalog voices are $0.70, about 82% below Standard, 96% below Neural and 98% below Generative. Standard is an older quality tier than Neural, so the closest quality comparison is Neural ($16).
Polly's free tier is a real counterweight: 5 million Standard characters per month (no time limit stated), 1 million Neural for 12 months, 100,000 Generative for 12 months, and 500,000 Long-Form for 12 months. If you stay inside 5 million Standard characters a month, Polly costs nothing. Speakvora's free allowance is 100,000 characters once per account.
Polly's page states you may cache and replay generated speech at no additional cost. That narrows the gap for repetitive lines: if you synthesise once and store the audio, the real cost on either service is tiny. Speakvora bills library hits by length on each API request, so for heavy replay store the audio yourself or use a downloaded pack.
Amazon Polly official pricing (as read)
Source: https://aws.amazon.com/polly/pricing/ · checked 2026-10-08. Prices change; confirm on the source.
| Product / model | Price | Native unit | Notes and restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $4.00 | per 1M characters | Free tier 5M characters a month (no time limit stated) |
| Neural | $16.00 | per 1M characters | Free tier 1M characters a month for 12 months |
| Generative | $30.00 | per 1M characters | Free tier 100K characters a month for 12 months |
| Long-Form | $100.00 | per 1M characters | Free tier 500K characters a month for 12 months |
| Caching and replay | No additional cost | - | Stated on the pricing page: you can cache and replay generated speech |
Speakvora list prices (early access)
| Product | List price | Native unit | Free allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catalog voices (Kokoro) | $0.70 | per 1M characters | 100,000 characters |
| Your own voice | $6 | per 1M characters | same pool |
| Speech to text | $0.0015 | per minute, billed per second | 60 minutes |
| Voice agents (beta) | $10 | per 1,000 turns | 200 turns |
| Industry packs | Coming | one time, per pack | priced when published |
Where Amazon Polly is stronger
- A free tier with no time limit on Standard voices
- Several quality tiers (Standard, Neural, Generative, Long-Form)
- Tight AWS integration: IAM, S3, Lambda
- A stated right to cache and replay output
Where Speakvora is stronger
- A simple API key instead of AWS credentials and request signing
- A checked, ready-generated phrase library, with industry packs (47 live across 23 industries today, more being built for every industry)
- Your own voice at $6 per million characters
- A $0.70 per million catalog rate
Three situations, three different answers
A prototype that speaks 2 million characters a month
Polly Standard is free inside the 5M tier; Speakvora would be $1.40 at list price. If Standard quality is acceptable, Polly wins this one.
A production app on AWS that speaks 10 million Neural-quality characters a month
$160 on Polly Neural at list price against $7.00 on Speakvora. Listen to both first: the voices are different models.
A pharmacy phone menu that repeats 60 fixed lines
On either service you can store the audio. Speakvora adds a checked English phrase library, so you do not write and check every line yourself; industry packs are coming and we will not call a pack ready until it is.
What we did not find at Amazon Polly
- Curated industry phrase packs
- Voice cloning from your own recording in the pricing material reviewed
- A speech-to-text price on this page (Amazon Transcribe is a separate service, not reviewed here)
"Not found" means we did not see it in the official material reviewed. It is not a claim that the provider lacks it.
What we are not claiming
We have not benchmarked audio quality, accuracy or uptime against Amazon Polly. Speakvora has no SLA and is in early access with billing is live. Our own timings are on the speed page, with the method.
Questions people ask
Is Polly cheaper than Speakvora?
Only inside Polly's free tier (5M Standard characters a month). Beyond it, Speakvora's $0.70 per million is below Polly's $4 Standard and $16 Neural list prices.
Can I cache Speakvora audio like Polly?
Library clip URLs are stable public files. Check the licence before storing generated audio long term: for packs, the licence lets you play files inside your own apps and forbids reselling them.
Does Speakvora need AWS?
No. You call it with an API key over HTTPS from any stack.
What does Polly do that Speakvora does not?
More languages and voices, SSML control, and a service-level relationship through AWS. Speakvora has no SLA.
Switching? See the Amazon Polly alternative guide with the code change. Prices side by side: text to speech · speech to text.