Comparison · narration cost
What does it actually cost to voice a script?
"Cost per minute" is the wrong unit for narration. You pay by the character, not by the call. So we take each TTS-led platform's published rate and run it through three real jobs: a one-minute social clip, a ten-minute explainer, and an hour-long audiobook read.
| Platform | Narration is priced by how much text you turn into speech, not by call time. This is the cost per 1,000 characters, roughly a paragraph and a half. | 1-min social clip | 10-min explainer | 1-hour audiobook | Voices | Languages | Bring your own voice: you can upload or clone a custom voice instead of being limited to the platform's stock ones. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deepgram cheapest | $0.03 | $0.03 | $0.27 | $1.62 | 91+ | 7+ | No |
| Rime | $0.03 | $0.03 | $0.27 | $1.62 | 300+ | 7+ | No |
| Cartesia | $0.04 | $0.03 | $0.32 | $1.89 | 100+ | 40+ | Yes |
| ElevenLabs | $0.11 | $0.10 | $0.99 | $5.94 | 10,000+ | 70+ | Yes |
| Hume AI | $0.15 | $0.14 | $1.35 | $8.10 | — | 16+ | Yes |
| Murf AI | $0.16 | $0.14 | $1.44 | $8.64 | 200+ | 20+ | Yes |
- Deepgram cheapest
- Per 1k chars
- $0.03
- 1-min social clip
- $0.03
- 10-min explainer
- $0.27
- 1-hour audiobook
- $1.62
- Voices
- 91+
- Languages
- 7+
- Clone your own
- No
-
- Per 1k chars
- $0.03
- 1-min social clip
- $0.03
- 10-min explainer
- $0.27
- 1-hour audiobook
- $1.62
- Voices
- 300+
- Languages
- 7+
- Clone your own
- No
-
- Per 1k chars
- $0.04
- 1-min social clip
- $0.03
- 10-min explainer
- $0.32
- 1-hour audiobook
- $1.89
- Voices
- 100+
- Languages
- 40+
- Clone your own
- Yes
-
- Per 1k chars
- $0.11
- 1-min social clip
- $0.10
- 10-min explainer
- $0.99
- 1-hour audiobook
- $5.94
- Voices
- 10,000+
- Languages
- 70+
- Clone your own
- Yes
-
- Per 1k chars
- $0.15
- 1-min social clip
- $0.14
- 10-min explainer
- $1.35
- 1-hour audiobook
- $8.10
- Voices
- —
- Languages
- 16+
- Clone your own
- Yes
-
- Per 1k chars
- $0.16
- 1-min social clip
- $0.14
- 10-min explainer
- $1.44
- 1-hour audiobook
- $8.64
- Voices
- 200+
- Languages
- 20+
- Clone your own
- Yes
The worked example
A ten-minute explainer is roughly 1,500 spoken words, call it about 9,000 characters once you count the spaces. At the rates above that is $0.27 on Deepgram, $0.27 on Rime, $0.32 on Cartesia, $0.99 on ElevenLabs, $1.35 on Hume AI and $1.44 on Murf AI. Multiply up for a series and the gap stops being rounding error: an hour-long read is $1.62 at the cheapest end and $8.64 at the priciest.
Our take
If the spreadsheet is the only thing that matters, Cartesia wins on raw price and it is not close. Its Sonic engine is a third of the premium rate, and you pay only for what you generate. The catch is range: a hundred-odd voices against ElevenLabs' thousands. So the honest split is this. Producing volume (a course back-catalogue, a daily clip) and happy with a smaller voice set? Cartesia. Need the best read or a specific character voice, where the audience will notice? Pay for ElevenLabs. Want a browser studio your marketing team can drive without code, and the monthly bundle suits your volume? Murf. None of them is wrong; they answer different questions.
Prices captured from each platform's pricing page on the date shown on that vendor's page. We have not yet scored these voices in our own blind listening tests. When we do, the quality and range numbers stop being a preview and the recommendation may move.
Want the cost-per-call view for live phone agents instead? That is the full ranking table.