Overview

Fish Audio serves both individual creators making voiceovers or narration and teams building conversational audio products. Its TTS supports emotion and expression controls, real-time generation and eight languages with native accents. The service also offers speech-to-text, voice cloning and voice agents, with REST and WebSocket APIs plus Python and TypeScript SDKs.

The platform hosts more than 2,000,000 voices and supports WAV, PCM, MP3 and Opus output. That range makes it useful for projects from character voices to chatbots, though the value of a large library depends on finding voices that suit a particular production.

Key features

Voice generation: Adjust emotion, expression, speed, volume and model parameters. Real-time generation and eight automatically supported languages with native accents give creators room to shape delivery without limiting the product to one format.
Voice library and cloning: The library includes more than two million voices, and voice cloning is available. Plus provides one professional voice slot; Pro offers five, and Max offers 15.
API and integrations: Generate speech, clone voices and transcribe audio through REST or WebSocket streaming, or use the official Python and TypeScript SDKs. Enterprise connections include Vapi, Twilio, Retell and workflow automation tools.
Deployment and data: Enterprise customers can choose VPC, on-premises, air-gapped or sovereign cloud deployments. Data stays in the United States by default; self-hosted deployments run inside the customer's infrastructure.
Security and support: Fish Audio's SOC 2 Type II audit is underway. Enterprise contracts can enable Zero Data Retention; HIPAA-aligned configurations and BAAs are available for qualifying healthcare workloads. Enterprise support includes 24/7 production support, a technical account manager and a stated 99% uptime SLA.

Pricing

The free tier costs 0.00 USD per free and includes 8,000 credits monthly, up to 7 minutes of generation, a 500-character cap per generation, three public voice slots and standard generation speed. It is limited to personal, non-commercial use, so it is best for trying the service or personal projects—not commercial publishing.

Plus costs 11.00 USD per month, billed $132 billed annually. It raises the monthly allowance to 250,000 credits and up to 200 minutes, allows 15,000 characters per generation, and includes unlimited public and 10 private voice slots plus one professional voice slot. It suits individual creators who need commercial work and more capacity than the free tier, but the monthly generation ceiling remains modest for frequent production.

Pro costs 75.00 USD per month, billed $900 billed annually. It includes 2,000,000 monthly credits, up to 1,620 minutes, three team seats, a 30,000-character generation cap, unlimited voice slots and five professional voice slots. This is the more practical tier for a small team or a creator with substantial output; it also includes a seven-day money-back guarantee.

Max costs 749.00 USD per month, billed $8988 billed annually. Its 25,000,000 monthly credits and up to 6,250 minutes, 10 team seats and 15 professional voice slots target high-volume teams. Enterprise has custom pricing, with volume pricing, pay-as-you-go organization controls, Zero Data Retention, on-premise deployment and SOC2 Compliance.

Across paid plans, unused monthly minutes do not roll over, so buyers should match the tier to usage they can consume within each billing cycle.

Platforms

Fish Audio is available on the web and supports API, Linux, macOS, Windows and self-hosted deployment. The API's REST and streaming options suit software integrations; self-hosting and enterprise deployment choices are relevant to organizations that need to run audio workloads in their own infrastructure.

Who it's for

Fish Audio is a strong fit for video creators, audiobook narrators and character-voice producers who want expressive TTS and voice cloning, as well as developers building conversational chatbots or other audio applications. Its free plan can help with personal experimentation, while commercial use requires a paid option. Organizations with stricter infrastructure or data requirements can consider enterprise deployment and controls.

It is a weaker fit for anyone expecting free commercial output, carrying unused monthly minutes forward, or needing a small, simple plan for occasional commercial use: the free tier is non-commercial, minutes expire monthly, and Plus still caps generation at 200 minutes.

Pros and cons

Pro: TTS controls cover emotion, expression, speed and volume, giving creators more say over delivery than a basic text-to-speech workflow.
Pro: Speech generation, cloning and transcription share an API with REST, WebSocket streaming and official SDKs, which helps developers build around multiple audio tasks.
Pro: Self-hosted and enterprise deployment choices address infrastructure needs that a web-only tool would not.
Con: The free tier permits only personal, non-commercial use, so commercial creators must budget for a paid plan.
Con: Monthly minutes expire instead of rolling over, making low or uneven usage harder to justify against a fixed monthly allowance.
Con: Team seats are included only with Pro and Max among the priced plans, leaving Plus oriented toward individual use.

Alternatives

For a free option with API, desktop, web and self-hosted platform support, consider GPT-SoVITS. Voicebox is another freemium choice, with Android and iOS support alongside API, desktop and self-hosted platforms. VoiceStudio is free and spans API, desktop, web and self-hosted use.

CosyVoice is a free, Apache-2.0-licensed option for users who want downloadable source code and models to self-manage, with API and Linux support. Kits AI is a freemium alternative with web, Windows and API support; its Free plan includes 15 conversion minutes, voice designer/blender and generative vocals, but no voice slots or download minutes.

CereProc is a paid alternative with broad platform support and a CereVoice Cloud 1 Million Credit plan at 12.99 GBP per month. Chatterbox TTS is a free option for Linux and macOS. Resemble AI is a paid alternative with API, self-hosted and web support.

Browse the Voice Cloning Software, AI Voice Cloning Software, AI Voice Generators and Text-to-Speech Software directories to compare more options.

Verdict

Choose Fish Audio if you need expressive speech generation alongside cloning, transcription or API-based audio features, especially when self-hosting or enterprise deployment matters. Its breadth is the main reason to choose it; the commercial restriction on the free tier and non-rollover minutes are the clearest reasons to look elsewhere or size a paid plan carefully.

	Fish Audio	Hear2Read
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	$11/mo	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, Web, Windows	Android, Windows
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Paid from	15 /mo	—
Commercial use	Yes	—
Voice cloning	Yes	—
API access	Yes	—
Platforms	—	windows, android

Fish Audio vs Hear2Read

Fish Audio

Hear2Read