Tool · Voice and speech

OpenAI Speech API

OpenAI's pay-as-you-go developer service for turning text into speech with a set of ready-made voices, and for turning recordings into text. You call it from code; there is no app. You own what it makes, but must tell listeners the voice is AI.

Go to OpenAI Speech API’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: OpenAI Services Agreement (The maker's own terms)
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked on the maker's own page
Can I sell what I make?: Yes
Terms assign ownership of output to the customer; no explicit commercial clause. The TTS guide says usage policies require telling end users the voice is AI-generated.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial
Cost: No free plan.
Plans below.
How you use it: Maker's own API
13 built-in voices listed (marin and cedar recommended); voices optimised for English but many languages supported.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked on the maker's own page
Skill needed: Technical
Used by writing code against the API.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial
Made by: OpenAI (US)
Services agreement gives OpenAI OpCo, LLC at a San Francisco address (customers in the EEA/Switzerland contract with OpenAI Ireland Ltd).
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial
Status: Available
The gpt-4o-mini-tts model page shows a 'Deprecated' label next to some snapshots and the model name, with no replacement or date given. The service itself continues.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial

What you can make with it

A voice or speech, read my text aloud (main use)
A voice or speech, text from a recording
A voice or speech, my audio in another language

text to audioaudio to textaudio to audio

Text to speech per the TTS guide; transcription and live speech translation (gpt-realtime-translate) per the pricing page.

source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial

Plans and prices

Plan	Price	Includes
gpt-4o-mini-tts: text input	$0.60 per 1000000 tokens
gpt-4o-mini-tts: audio output	$12 per 1000000 tokens
gpt-transcribe	$0.0045 per minutes of audio	Listed as an estimated cost per minute
gpt-4o-mini-transcribe	$0.003 per minutes of audio	Estimated cost per minute; token prices $1.25 in / $5.00 out per 1M
gpt-4o-transcribe	$0.006 per minutes of audio	Estimated cost per minute; token prices $2.50 in / $10.00 out per 1M
gpt-live-transcribe	$0.017 per minutes of audio
gpt-realtime-translate	$0.034 per minutes of audio

Some plans are not listed here; see the source for the full list.

Transcription prices from the pricing page; gpt-4o-mini-tts prices from its model page (developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-4o-mini-tts). '$' shown; USD assumed.

source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial

Rights and safety

Trains on your work?: Doesn't train on your work
Section 4.2: customer content (input and output) is not used to improve the services unless the customer explicitly agrees.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked on the maker's own page
Real faces and voices: Copies a real voice (custom voice), checks the person's consent
Custom voices are created from the speaker's consent recording plus a matching sample; eligibility details are in a separate guide not read.
source · checked 12 Oct 2026 · checked, but the page was unclear or partial

Models it uses (not yet listed on Plainly)

gpt-4o-mini-tts, tts-1, tts-1-hd, gpt-transcribe, gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe, gpt-live-transcribe

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

Adobe Firefly, Akool, Amazon Polly, 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

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.