The fastest text to speech API
Speakvora Phonon is 53 ms to first audio, ranked 3 of 37, at $3 per million characters.
Fastest first by median time to first audio. 37 models; the top 12 and ours are shown. Full table: speed and price.
| # | Model | Provider | First audio, ms | 95th percentile, ms | Per 1M chars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | vui | Fluxions | 39 | 68 | $9.00 |
| 2 | Polly Standard * | Amazon | 42 | 77 | $4.00 |
| 3 | Phonon * | Speakvora | 53 | 96 | $3.00 |
| 4 | Default | Gradium | 56 | 104 | not listed |
| 5 | TTS Flash 2 | Inworld AI | 56 | 111 | $15.00 |
| 6 | PhantomZ 4.0 | Deepdub | 60 | 85 | not listed |
| 7 | Qwen3 TTS Fast | Nari Labs | 65 | 97 | $10.00 |
| 8 | Kokoro * | Speakvora | 80 | 95 | $3.00 |
| 9 | Simba 3.2 | SpeechifyAI | 93 | 127 | $10.00 |
| 10 | Pocket voices * | Speakvora | 98 | 132 | $3.00 |
| 11 | Simba 3.0 | SpeechifyAI | 99 | 131 | $10.00 |
| 12 | Qwen3 TTS 1.7b | Baseten | 105 | 133 | not listed |
| 15 | Polly Neural * | Amazon | 143 | 158 | $16.00 |
* Added by us with Coval's test method. Other rows: Coval TTS leaderboard, read October 30, 2026. Speakvora streaming needs a paid account.
The fastest at a low price
Polly Standard (42 ms, $4.00), then Phonon (53 ms, $3.00), then Kokoro (80 ms, $3.00), then Pocket voices (98 ms, $3.00), then Airy TTS (218 ms, $3.67). Speakvora is $3 per million characters, the lowest list price in this table.
Compare Speakvora with each provider
- Speakvora vs Amazon Polly
- Speakvora vs ElevenLabs
- Speakvora vs Deepgram
- Speakvora vs Cartesia
- Speakvora vs Google Cloud Text-to-Speech
- Speakvora vs Inworld
- Speakvora vs Rime
- Speakvora vs Fish Audio
- Speakvora vs OpenAI
Prices side by side: the cheapest text to speech API.
Questions
What is the fastest text to speech API?
On the Coval TTS leaderboard (read October 30, 2026) the fastest listed model at the median is vui from Fluxions at 39 ms to first audio. Among the 37 models in our table, Speakvora Phonon ranks 3: 53 ms median and 96 ms at the 95th percentile, at $3 per million characters.
What is the fastest text to speech API that costs $4 or less per million characters?
In our table, the models at $4 or less per million characters are Polly Standard (42 ms, $4.00), then Phonon (53 ms, $3.00), then Kokoro (80 ms, $3.00), then Pocket voices (98 ms, $3.00), then Airy TTS (218 ms, $3.67). Speakvora Phonon is 53 ms at $3. Amazon Polly Standard is faster by 11 ms but costs $1 more per million characters.
How is first audio speed measured?
As the time from the request to the first audible sound: the arrival of the first audio chunk plus any leading silence, using Coval's published method. We tested Amazon Polly and Speakvora ourselves with that method on October 30, 2026; all other rows are Coval's, with the price column they list.
Does faster mean better?
No. Speed is one factor. We did not benchmark voice quality, accuracy or uptime, and Speakvora has no latency guarantee. Listen to the samples and test with your own text.