Microsoft Azure Text to Speech review

Azure Text to Speech is Microsoft's speech service, priced per character with a free tier of 0.5 million Neural characters each month. It offers several standard voice families, including Neural, Neural HD, Neural HD Flash and MAI-Voice, with both real-time and batch synthesis, so long scripts can run as background jobs. For brands, Custom Voice trains a professional voice model, and Personal Voice is offered as a limited access feature for pre-approved use cases only. The speech service also covers video translation with standard or personal voices. Like Google and Amazon, Azure is built for developers: you need an Azure subscription and code or a partner tool, and there is no creator studio with projects and downloads. Its pricing page loaded without dollar amounts from our location, so we mark the USD price as pending and score value conservatively.

Who it is for

Developers in the Microsoft ecosystem who need custom brand voices.

Price

See vendor pricing (USD check pending); free tier includes 0.5 million Neural characters a month.

US price check pending. See the vendor pricing page.

Key features

• Neural, Neural HD and MAI-Voice standard voices
• Custom Voice for professional brand voices
• Personal Voice for approved use cases
• Real-time and batch synthesis
• Video translation with standard or personal voices

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: 0.5 million Neural characters free every month
• Strength: Batch synthesis suits long scripts
• Strength: Custom professional voices for brands
• Weakness: Prices did not load from our location
• Weakness: Personal Voice is limited access for pre-approved use cases
• Weakness: Developer setup with an Azure subscription

Key facts

• Free tier: 0.5 million Neural characters a month
• Voice types: Neural, Neural HD, Neural HD Flash, MAI-Voice
• Custom voice: Professional Voice and Personal Voice
• Synthesis: Real-time and batch
• Billing: Per character

Where it ranks

Microsoft Azure Text to Speech is No. 10 in our Best AI Voice Generators verdict.