Tool · Voice and speech

Amazon Polly

Amazon's cloud service that reads text aloud in dozens of voices and languages. Mainly for developers through an API, with a simple console for trying it. You pay per character, with a free allowance, and the audio is yours to keep and replay.

Go to Amazon Polly’s website

At a glance

Open or closed: Closed
Only usable through the maker's app or API
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked on the maker's own page
Licence: AWS Customer Agreement and Service Terms (The maker's own terms)
The Polly section of the Service Terms is past the part of the page we could read.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial
Can I sell what I make?: Yes
Terms assign ownership; no explicit commercial clause. FAQ: 'your Polly output belongs to you'; caching, replay, static prompts and mass notifications allowed at no extra cost.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial
Cost: Free option: 5M Standard characters a month; for the first 12 months also 1M Neural, 500K Long-Form and 100K Generative characters a month
Plans below.
How you use it: In your browser, Maker's own API
AWS console for typing text and saving audio; HTTP API and SDKs. Formats: MP3, Vorbis (ogg) and raw PCM. A custom 'Brand Voice' is built on request via an AWS account manager.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked on the maker's own page
Skill needed: Some setup
Our judgement: needs an AWS account; the console is usable without code, but the service is aimed at developers.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial
Made by: Amazon Web Services, Inc. (US)
Default AWS contracting party, 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, USA. Customers in some countries contract with a local AWS entity (e.g. AWS EMEA SARL, Luxembourg).
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial
Status: Available
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked on the maker's own page

What you can make with it

A voice or speech, read my text aloud (main use)

text to audio

source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked on the maker's own page

Plans and prices

Plan	Price	Includes
Standard voices	$4 per use	Per 1 million characters (speech or Speech Marks) Commercial use: Yes
Neural voices	$16 per use	Per 1 million characters Commercial use: Yes
Generative voices	$30 per use	Per 1 million characters (speech only) Commercial use: Yes
Long-Form voices	$100 per use	Per 1 million characters Commercial use: Yes

source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked on the maker's own page

Rough cost of 1 minute of speech: about $0.0115 / £0.0086 (estimate, worked out by Plainly, not a price the maker publishes). AWS: 1M characters is about 23 h 8 min (1,388 min), so about 720 characters a minute. $16 / 1,000,000 x 720 = $0.0115. GBP at 0.75.

Rights and safety

Trains on your work?: Trains on your work unless you opt out
FAQ: Polly may store and use text inputs to maintain and improve the service; opt out with an AWS Organizations AI services opt-out policy.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked on the maker's own page

Other options for “A voice or speech, read my text aloud”

Adobe Firefly, Akool, Arcads, Async (formerly Podcastle), Azure AI Speech, Bark, CAMB.AI, Cartesia, Chatterbox, Clipchamp, Deepgram, DeeVid AI, Descript, Dia, Dubverse, Eleven v3, ElevenLabs, F5-TTS, fal, Filmora, Fish Audio, FlexClip, Fliki, getimg.ai

About this entry

Facts last checked 12 Oct 2026 against the maker’s own pages (each fact links to its source). Entry status: draft. Plain-English summary written by Plainly.