Full ranking · read on October 27, 2026
Best text-to-speech API in 2026: 86 TTS models ranked by speed
Every streaming text-to-speech (TTS) model that Coval, Speko, Artificial Analysis or Cekura measures, or whose vendor documents a streaming API: 96 models from 35 providers. Speed comes first because a voice agent cannot wait for a whole sentence. Voice quality, accuracy and price sit beside it, never added into a score.
Quick comparison by use case
The three fastest models in each use case, in rank order. Each name opens the model page.
| Use case | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer service70 models | Gradium TTSHeadroom | Inworld Realtime TTS-2 FlashHeadroom | SpeechifyAI Simba 3.0Fast enough |
| Voice agents13 models | Fluxions vuiHeadroom | Gradium TTSHeadroom | Inworld Realtime TTS-2 FlashHeadroom |
| Assistants69 models | Gradium TTSHeadroom | Inworld Realtime TTS-2 FlashHeadroom | SpeechifyAI Simba 3.0Fast enough |
| Entertainment69 models | Gradium TTSHeadroom | Inworld Realtime TTS-2 FlashHeadroom | SpeechifyAI Simba 3.0Fast enough |
| Knowledge sharing73 models | Gradium TTSHeadroom | Inworld Realtime TTS-2 FlashHeadroom | SpeechifyAI Simba 3.0Fast enough |
All models, by speed
Order applied: speed tier, then P95 time to first audio, with ties within 10 ms ordered by median time to first audio. Models Coval does not time follow, ordered by listener Elo; Elo scores whose 95% intervals overlap share a rank. The 10 models with neither measure close the table, in alphabetical order.
| Rank | Model | Speed tier | P95 | Speed (shorter is faster) | Median | Listener Elo | Price per 1M chars | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Headroom | 75 ms | 39.7 ms | Not rated | $9 | Voice agents | |
| 2 |  Gradium TTSGradium | Headroom | 104.3 ms | 53.7 ms | 1,174 | $36 to $57.8 | Customer service, Voice agents, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 3 |  Inworld Realtime TTS-2 FlashInworld | Headroom | 100.9 ms | 58.1 ms | 1,218 | $10.4 to $15 | Customer service, Voice agents, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 4 |  Alibaba Qwen3 TTS FastAlibaba (Qwen) | Headroom | 98.8 ms | 62.9 ms | Not rated | $10 | Voice agents | |
| 5 |  Alibaba Qwen3 TTS 1.7bAlibaba (Qwen) | Fast enough | 136.6 ms | 103.6 ms | Not rated | Not collected | Voice agents | |
| 6 |  SpeechifyAI Simba 3.0Speechify | Fast enough | 149.4 ms | 100.5 ms | 1,116 | $6.6 to $10 | Customer service, Voice agents, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 7 |  SpeechifyAI Simba 3.2Speechify | Fast enough | 161.1 ms | 104.3 ms | 1,249 | $6.6 to $10 | Customer service, Voice agents, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 8 |  Inworld Realtime TTS-2Inworld | Fast enough | 194.7 ms | 149.1 ms | 1,267 | $15 to $25 | Customer service, Voice agents, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 9 |  Palabra TTS v1Palabra | Fast enough | 214.3 ms | 105.1 ms | Not rated | $12 | Voice agents | |
| 10 |  Fish Audio Drama 3 PreviewFish Audio | Fast enough | 209.3 ms | 146 ms | 1,245 | $15 | Customer service, Voice agents, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 11 |  ElevenLabs Eleven v4 TurboElevenLabs | Fast enough | 238.6 ms | 188.9 ms | 1,333 | $40 | Customer service, Voice agents, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 12 |  ElevenLabs Flash v2.5ElevenLabs | Fast enough | 255.1 ms | 191 ms | 1,076 | $40 to $50 | Customer service, Voice agents, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 13 |  Deepgram Flux TTSDeepgram | Fast enough | 267 ms | 197.7 ms | 1,052 | $45 | Customer service, Voice agents, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 14 |  Soniox TTS RT v1Soniox | Visible delay | 319 ms | 258.3 ms | Not rated | $13 to $14.1 | Not rated | |
| 15 |  Soniox TTS Real-Time v2Soniox | Visible delay | 324.7 ms | 264.4 ms | 1,180 | $13 to $14.81 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 16 |  Murf AI Falcon 2Murf AI | Visible delay | 363.5 ms | 171.3 ms | 1,154 | $10 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 17 |  Rime Mist v3Rime | Visible delay | 359.9 ms | 275.2 ms | Not rated | $30 | Not rated | |
| 18 |  Cartesia Sonic 3.6Cartesia | Visible delay | 374.4 ms | 285.8 ms | 1,292 | $39.2 to $50 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 19 |  Cartesia Sonic 3.5Cartesia | Visible delay | 390.5 ms | 279.3 ms | 1,190 | $39.2 to $50 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 20 |  Deepdub PhantomZ 4.0Deepdub | Visible delay | 430 ms | 183.4 ms | Not rated | Not collected | Not rated | |
| 21 |  Rime CodaRime | Visible delay | 428.1 ms | 317.5 ms | 1,054 | $50 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 22 | Out of Set Airy TTSOut of Set | Visible delay | 453.9 ms | 212.3 ms | Not rated | $3.67 | Not rated | |
| 23 |  SpaceXAI Grok TTSxAI | Visible delay | 473.9 ms | 329.8 ms | 1,155 | $15 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 24 |  Deepgram Aura 2Deepgram | Visible delay | 525.4 ms | 263 ms | Not rated | $30 | Not rated | |
| 25 |  Fish Audio S2.1 ProFish Audio | Visible delay | 533 ms | 328.1 ms | 1,184 | $15 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 26 | Guava Daytona TTSGuava | Visible delay | 584.8 ms | 450 ms | Not rated | Not collected | Not rated | |
| 27 |  Smallest.ai Lightning V3.1 Pro (Jul 2026)Smallest.ai | Visible delay | 703.3 ms | 360.5 ms | 1,169 | $19.5 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 28 |  Alibaba Qwen3 TTS Flash RealtimeAlibaba (Qwen) | Visible delay | 785.8 ms | 726.8 ms | Not rated | $13 | Not rated | |
| 29 |  Google Chirp 3: HDGoogle | Visible delay | 917.2 ms | 534.1 ms | 1,061 | $30 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing | |
| 30 |  Deepgram Aura 2 EnDeepgram | Visible delay | 985.7 ms | 527.2 ms | Not rated | Not collected | Not rated | |
| 31 |  Fish Audio S2.1 Pro FreeFish Audio | Visible delay | 1,137.9 ms | 793.8 ms | Not rated | Not collected | Not rated | |
| 32 (tie) |  ElevenLabs Eleven v4ElevenLabs | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,333 | $80 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 32 (tie) |  Alibaba Qwen-Audio-3.1-TTS-PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,306 | $19.3 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 33 |  Google Gemini 3.8 Flash TTSGoogle | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,280 | $15 to $16.5 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 34 (tie) |  Alibaba Qwen-Audio-3.0-TTS-PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,269 | $19.3 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 34 (tie) |  Google Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTSGoogle | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,256 | $10 to $11 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 37 (tie) |  BreezeBlue Breeze TTS 2BreezeBlue | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,227 | $34 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 37 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,221 | $13 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 37 (tie) |  ElevenLabs Eleven v3 ConversationalElevenLabs | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,213 | $50 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 37 (tie) |  Google Gemini 3.1 Flash TTSGoogle | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,212 | $18.3 to $33.3 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 37 (tie) |  StepFun StepAudio 2.5 TTS (Aug 2026)StepFun | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,212 | $85 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 42 (tie) |  ElevenLabs Eleven v3ElevenLabs | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,184 | $100 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 42 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,174 | $100 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 44 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,153 | $60 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 44 (tie) |  Gradium TTS (Aug 2026)Gradium | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,151 | $47.2 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 44 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,142 | $22 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 44 (tie) |  async Flash v1.5Async | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,137 | $10.1 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 44 (tie) |  StepFun Step TTS 2 (Mar 2026)StepFun | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,135 | $40 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 45 |  async Pro v1.0Async | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,127 | $20.2 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 46 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,126 | $100 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 46 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,120 | $60 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 49 (tie) |  Fish Audio S2 ProFish Audio | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,108 | $15 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 49 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,108 | $100 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 49 (tie) |  OpenAI TTS-1 HDOpenAI | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,106 | $30 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 52 (tie) |  ElevenLabs Multilingual v2ElevenLabs | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,093 | $100 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 52 (tie) |  ElevenLabs Turbo v2.5ElevenLabs | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,093 | $50 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 52 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,089 | $60 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 52 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,088 | $16 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 52 (tie) |  OpenAI TTS-1OpenAI | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,088 | $15 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 52 (tie) |  Google Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite TTSGoogle | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,087 | $9.2 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 54 |  Fish Audio OpenAudio S1Fish Audio | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,084 | $15 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 55 |  OpenAI GPT-Realtime-2OpenAI | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,073 | $191.6 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 57 (tie) |  Google Gemini 2.5 Flash TTS (Dec 2025)Google | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,067 | $9.2 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 57 (tie) |  Maya 2 FlashMaya Research | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,065 | Not collected | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 61 |  Amazon Polly GenerativeAmazon | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,063 | $30 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 62 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,056 | $87.5 to $100 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 62 (tie) |  Cartesia Sonic 3Cartesia | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,054 | $49 to $50 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 62 (tie) |  Fish Audio OpenAudio S1 MiniFish Audio | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,043 | $15 | Knowledge sharing |
| 63 (tie) |  async Flash v1.0Async | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,049 | $10.1 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 63 (tie) |  Maya Research Maya1Maya Research | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,048 | Not collected | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 63 (tie) |  Maya 2 GlobalMaya Research | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,047 | Not collected | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 63 (tie) |  Boson AI Higgs Audio V3 TTSBoson AI | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,045 | $15 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 64 (tie) |  Google Gemini 2.5 Pro (Dec 2025)Google | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,040 | $18.3 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 64 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,032 | $15 | Knowledge sharing |
| 66 (tie) | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,036 | $87.5 to $100 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 66 (tie) |  Bland Speech v3Bland AI | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,033 | $40 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 68 |  Amazon Polly Long-FormAmazon | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,029 | $100 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 71 |  Smallest.ai Lightning v3.1Smallest.ai | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 1,020 | $17.5 to $25 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 79 (tie) |  Neuphonic TTSNeuphonic | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 940 | $20.8 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 79 (tie) |  Alibaba Qwen3 TTS FlashAlibaba (Qwen) | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 939 | $10 to $11 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 79 (tie) |  Alibaba Qwen3 TTSAlibaba (Qwen) | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 929 | $13.8 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 79 (tie) |  KugelAudio Kugel 3KugelAudio | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 924 | Not collected | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 79 (tie) |  Coqui XTTS v2Coqui | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 913 | $40.4 | Knowledge sharing |
| 81 |  Rime Mist V2Rime | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 902 | $31.1 | Customer service, Knowledge sharing |
| 83 |  Amazon Polly NeuralAmazon | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 894 | $16 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| 86 |  Amazon Polly StandardAmazon | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | 829 | $4 | Customer service, Assistants, Entertainment, Knowledge sharing |
| Unranked |  ElevenLabs Flash v2ElevenLabs | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | $50 | Not rated |
| Unranked |  ElevenLabs Turbo v2ElevenLabs | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | $50 | Not rated |
| Unranked |  Maya 2 NativeMaya Research | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | $4 | Not rated |
| Unranked | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | Not collected | Not rated |
| Unranked | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | Not collected | Not rated |
| Unranked | | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | $13 | Not rated |
| Unranked |  Nari Qwen3-TTSAlibaba (Qwen) | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | $5 | Not rated |
| Unranked |  OpenAI GPT-4o mini TTSOpenAI | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | $20 | Not rated |
| Unranked | Paxa TTS Flash v1Paxa | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | $10 | Not rated |
| Unranked |  Rime arcanav3Rime | No tier | Not timed | Not timed | Not timed | Not rated | $40 | Not rated |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best text-to-speech API in 2026?
- It depends on the use case, so this site ranks 86 models by speed first. On the general ranking, the models with the shortest wait for the first sound are Fluxions vui, Gradium TTS and Inworld Realtime TTS-2 Flash, in that order. Pick the use case that matches your product and read its table.
- How is the TTS ranking ordered?
- Models are grouped into speed tiers from the 95th percentile (P95) time to first audio that Coval measures over 30 days: Headroom under 120 ms, Fast enough up to 293 ms, Visible delay above. Inside a tier the lower P95 comes first. Two P95 values within 10 ms are a tie, ordered by median time to first audio. Models Coval does not time come after the tiers, ordered by listener Elo from Artificial Analysis.
- Why is there no overall score?
- The four benchmarks test different models under different conditions. Adding or averaging their numbers would hide that, so speed, voice quality, accuracy and price are shown side by side and never combined.
- Why do some models have no rank?
- 10 models are neither timed by Coval nor rated by Artificial Analysis, so there is nothing to order them by. They are listed after the ranked models in alphabetical order, with the missing measures marked.
- Which benchmarks does this ranking use?
- Coval, Speko, Artificial Analysis and Cekura, all read on October 27, 2026. Nothing on this site comes from our own tests, and no value is estimated: a measure no source publishes is shown as not collected.