OpenAI pricing
What OpenAI charges per million characters, what that costs at real volumes, and when a cheaper or pay-once option makes sense.
Prices are list prices from the official pricing page of OpenAI, read October 8, 2026. They change; confirm before you decide. Source: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing
What OpenAI charges
| Item | Price | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| tts-1 | $15.00 | per 1M characters | |
| tts-1-hd | $30.00 | per 1M characters | |
| gpt-4o-mini-tts | $0.60 text input, $12.00 audio output | per 1M tokens | Token-billed; not directly convertible to characters |
| whisper | $0.006 | per minute | |
| gpt-4o-transcribe | $2.50 input, $10.00 output (about $0.006 per minute, estimated by the page) | per 1M tokens |
Cost at real volumes
| Model | 1M characters | 10M characters | 100M characters |
|---|---|---|---|
| tts-1 | $15 | $150 | $1,500 |
| tts-1-hd | $30 | $300 | $3,000 |
| Speakvora catalog voices | $3 | $30 | $300 |
One million characters is very roughly 15 to 20 hours of speech. Cost only: these models sound different, and we do not claim ours match theirs. Listen to the free samples and decide.
What OpenAI offers
- Text to speech (tts-1, tts-1-hd) billed per character
- A token-billed expressive model (gpt-4o-mini-tts)
- Speech to text (Whisper, gpt-4o-transcribe)
- Tight integration with OpenAI language models
What we did not find in OpenAI's official material
- Curated industry phrase packs
- Voice cloning for self-serve customers in the pricing material reviewed
- A phrase catalog with stable identifiers
How it compares with Speakvora
OpenAI speech sits inside a larger model platform. Its character-billed models cost $15 and $30 per million; for transcription Whisper lists $0.006 a minute against Speakvora's $0.0015. We do not claim equal accuracy: run both on your own audio before you decide.
Pay once instead
If most of your audio repeats (greetings, confirmations, prompts), a one-time bundle plays offline with no per-play fee. See pay-once text to speech and the speech API alternative page.
More on OpenAI: · · cheapest text to speech API · .
Questions
How much does OpenAI cost?
For text to speech, OpenAI lists between $15 and $30 per million characters depending on the model, on its pricing page read October 8, 2026. Prices change, so confirm at the source: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing.
Is there a cheaper alternative to OpenAI?
On list price per character, yes. Speakvora's catalog voices are $3 per million characters and your own voice is $6. That is a cost comparison only; the models, languages and voices differ, and we do not claim equal quality. OpenAI speech sits inside a larger model platform. Its character-billed models cost $15 and $30 per million; for transcription Whisper lists $0.006 a minute against Speakvora's $0.0015. We do not claim equal accuracy: run both on your own a
What does OpenAI do that Speakvora does not?
OpenAI offers: Text to speech (tts-1, tts-1-hd) billed per character; A token-billed expressive model (gpt-4o-mini-tts); Speech to text (Whisper, gpt-4o-transcribe). Speakvora is smaller, with fewer models and languages.
Can I pay once instead of per character?
For lines that repeat, yes. Speakvora sells ready-made voice bundles you buy once (audio from $14, or $214 to $399 with a local agent) and play offline with no per-play fee. If you generate a line once and keep the file, per-character pricing is already very cheap, and we say so on the comparison pages.