--- title: AssemblyAI Ships AssemblyAI-TTS-1: A $15 per 1M... description: AssemblyAI has launched AssemblyAI-TTS-1, its first text-to-speech API, built for voice agents on live phone calls. It costs $15 per 1M characters with... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/assemblyai-ships-assemblyai-tts-1-a-15-per-1m-character-text-to-speech-api-for-voice-agents-xgneswhv0 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: AssemblyAI Ships AssemblyAI-TTS-1: A $15 per 1M Character Text-to-Speech API for Voice Agents | daily.dev og:description: AssemblyAI has launched AssemblyAI-TTS-1, its first text-to-speech API, built for voice agents on live phone calls. It costs $15 per 1M characters with... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/assemblyai-ships-assemblyai-tts-1-a-15-per-1m-character-text-to-speech-api-for-voice-agents-xgneswhv0 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/xGnesWHV0.png og:image:alt: AssemblyAI Ships AssemblyAI-TTS-1: A $15 per 1M Character Text-to-Speech API for Voice Agents og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # AssemblyAI Ships AssemblyAI-TTS-1: A $15 per 1M Character Text-to-Speech API for Voice Agents **[Machine Learning News](https://daily.dev/sources/mlnews)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary AssemblyAI has launched AssemblyAI-TTS-1, its first text-to-speech API, built for voice agents on live phone calls. It costs $15 per 1M characters with unlimited concurrency and no contract. AssemblyAI reports 93.7% entity accuracy and a 47 ms median time to first byte, roughly matching ElevenLabs v4 at a fifth of the price. Independent testing from Cekura found 159 ms streaming latency and 81.5% reading accuracy, ranking 8th of 19 models. The launch includes 4,000+ voices, instant voice cloning, and support for six languages, but lacks SSML, speed control, pronunciation dictionaries, and emotion tags at launch. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much does AssemblyAI's TTS-1 text-to-speech API cost per character? AssemblyAI-TTS-1 costs $15 per 1 million input characters, including spaces and punctuation, with no annual contract, no concurrency tier fees, and no per-voice or minimum fees. Every feature, including voice cloning, word timestamps, and EU processing, is billed at that same flat rate, with unlimited concurrency on pay-as-you-go. _Comparing voice API pricing before committing to a vendor? track releases like this on daily.dev._ ### How does AssemblyAI TTS-1 latency compare to ElevenLabs and other TTS models on independent benchmarks? On Cekura's independent benchmark of 27 models, AssemblyAI-TTS-1 posted a median streaming latency of 159 ms, ranking 8th of 19 timed models, with 81.5% reading accuracy and 4.50 naturalness. Inworld TTS-2 Flash scored 45 ms latency and 93.2% accuracy at the same $15 price point, while AssemblyAI's own self-reported test claimed just 47 ms time to first byte. _Choosing a voice agent provider on latency numbers, daily.dev helps you see vendor claims against independent benchmarks._ ### What features are missing from AssemblyAI's TTS-1 at launch? AssemblyAI-TTS-1 launched without SSML support, speed control, pronunciation dictionaries, or emotion tags. It does support instant voice cloning from a short audio sample (24 seconds in the launch demo), 4,000+ voices, word timestamps, and six languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese. _Evaluating voice agent APIs for missing features, daily.dev keeps builders current on TTS tooling gaps._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Building a Speech-to-Text App in .NET With AssemblyAI](https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-speech-to-text-app-in-net-with-assemblyai-g8c7t33vt) · Milan Jovanović · 23 upvotes · 3 comments - [The Real Cost of Voice AI: Why Per-Minute Pricing Tells Only Half the Story](https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-cost-of-voice-ai-why-per-minute-pricing-tells-only-half-the-story-mctiwlxqq) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI Voice Agents in Production \(2026 Developer Guide\)](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-voice-agents-in-production-2026-developer-guide--xxj1vmli1) · Alex CloudStar · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Async Developer Platform](https://daily.dev/posts/async-developer-platform-9exhte4x1) · Programming Digest · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#text-to-speech](https://daily.dev/tags/text-to-speech), [#voice-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/voice-ai), [#elevenlabs](https://daily.dev/tags/elevenlabs) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/assemblyai-ships-assemblyai-tts-1-a-15-per-1m-character-text-to-speech-api-for-voice-agents-xgneswhv0) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"AssemblyAI Ships AssemblyAI-TTS-1: A $15 per 1M Character Text-to-Speech API for Voice Agents","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/assemblyai-ships-assemblyai-tts-1-a-15-per-1m-character-text-to-speech-api-for-voice-agents-xgneswhv0","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/assemblyai-ships-assemblyai-tts-1-a-15-per-1m-character-text-to-speech-api-for-voice-agents-xgneswhv0"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T08:29:45.981Z","dateModified":"2026-10-29T08:30:31.274Z","description":"AssemblyAI has launched AssemblyAI-TTS-1, its first text-to-speech API, built for voice agents on live phone calls. 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