Amazon Polly
Amazon Polly converts written text into synthesized speech, handling the heavy lifting for applications that need audio output. It takes plain text input and generates voice files, suitable for scenarios like reading out news articles, powering IVR systems, or creating audiobooks without hiring voice actors.
It works well for developers needing scalable text-to-speech capabilities, especially those already in the AWS ecosystem. The main catch is the pricing structure: while there is a 12-month free tier, costs kick in afterward at $4.00 per 1 million characters. This per-character model means high-volume usage can become expensive quickly if you exceed the initial free allowance.
- Free tier Yes
- Starting price from $4.00 per 1M Characters
- Regions 15 · 6 continents
- SLA uptime 99.99%
- Compliance 13 certifications
- Provider health A
Decision score
Computed from catalog breadth, pricing, provider reliability (uptime & SLA), community signal, and ecosystem (compliance & regions). Weighted equally.
Trust & reach via AWS
- C5
- CSA STAR
- FedRAMP
- GDPR
- HIPAA
- ISO 27001
- ISO 27017
- ISO 27018
- ISO 9001
- PCI DSS
- SOC 1 Type II
- SOC 2 Type II
- compute99.99%
- database99.99%
- networking99.99%
- storage99.99%
15 regions across 6 continents
- Africa
- Asia
- Europe
- North America
- Oceania
- South America
Pricing tiers 4
| Tier / Plan | Price | Unit | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| USE1-SynthesizeSpeech-Characters | $4.00 | per 1M Characters | us-east-1 |
| USE1-SynthesizeSpeechNeural-Characters | $16.00 | per 1M Characters | us-east-1 |
| USE1-SynthesizeSpeechGenerative-Characters | $30.00 | per 1M Characters | us-east-1 |
| USE1-SynthesizeSpeechLongForm-Characters | $0.0001 | Characters | us-east-1 |
Prices in USD. Micro-prices are quoted per 1M units; "< $0.000001" marks rates below our stored precision. Subject to change — check the provider's official page.
Alternatives on other providers
Equivalent services on other clouds: