Google TTS Neural2 vs Google TTS Standard
Which one, when — curated verdict, not a benchmark table
google-tts-standard is 4x cheaper at $4 per million characters against $16 and carries the widest locale span in the line; neural2 is the higher-quality rendering on a much shorter list of 17 locales. Neither streams, both take 5000 bytes per request and both support SSML with numeric voice parameters — and standard counts a multi-byte character once, which matters for CJK copy. Pick standard for reach and cost, neural2 where its locale is covered and quality matters.
Pricing
| Google TTS Neural2 | Google TTS Standard | Δ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per 1M characters | $16 | $4 | 4× |
Rates from the live catalog at build time; each model page carries the current card.
Where they sit — price per 1M characters across all 7 text-to-speech models on this billing unit (log scale)
Capabilities
| Google TTS Neural2 | Google TTS Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| Streaming | no | no |
| SSML | supported | supported |
| Billing unit | character | character |
Specs
| Google TTS Neural2 | Google TTS Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| Input modalities | text | text |
| Output modalities | audio | audio |
| Request limit | 5000 bytes | 5000 bytes |
| Voices | Voice ids follow the locale-plus-letter pattern (en-US-Neural2-F, ja-JP-Neural2-B). Google's comparison table lists Neural2 as general purpose, generally available, controllable via SSML and not streaming-capable, and the docs state the voices are based on the same technology used to create a Custom Voice, letting anyone use Custom Voice technology without training their own. | Voice ids follow a locale-plus-letter pattern (en-US-Standard-A, cmn-CN-Standard-A). Google's comparison table lists Standard as cost efficient, generally available, controllable via SSML and not streaming-capable the docs attribute the voices to parametric text-to-speech passed through vocoders. |
| Languages | A much shorter locale list than Standard. Neural2 voice ids are published for da-DK, de-DE, en-AU, en-GB, en-IN, en-US, es-ES, es-US, fr-CA, fr-FR, hi-IN, it-IT, ja-JP, ko-KR, pt-BR, th-TH and vi-VN. Google notes Neural2 voices are available on global and single-region endpoints. | The widest locale span of any Cloud TTS voice type. Standard voice ids are published for af-ZA, ar-XA, bg-BG, bn-IN, ca-ES, cmn-CN, cmn-TW, cs-CZ, da-DK, de-DE, el-GR, en-AU, en-GB, en-IN, en-US, es-ES, es-US, et-EE, eu-ES, fi-FI, fil-PH, fr-CA, fr-FR, gl-ES, gu-IN, he-IL, hi-IN, hu-HU, id-ID, is-IS, it-IT, ja-JP, kn-IN, ko-KR, lt-LT, lv-LV, ml-IN, mr-IN, ms-MY, nb-NO, nl-BE, nl-NL, pa-IN, pl-PL, pt-BR, pt-PT, ro-RO, ru-RU, sk-SK, sr-RS, sv-SE, ta-IN, te-IN, th-TH, tr-TR, uk-UA, ur-IN, vi-VN and yue-HK. |
| Voice control |
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| Limits | Content limit of 5,000 total bytes per synthesize request. Output LINEAR16 (with a WAV header), MP3 at 32 kbps, OGG_OPUS, or G.711 MULAW and ALAW optional sampleRateHertz resamples and fails the request if the rate is unsupported for the encoding. Not offered over streaming synthesis. Billed per character including spaces and newlines, with all SSML tags except <mark> counted the multi-byte-counts-once note applies to Standard and WaveNet only. | Content limit of 5,000 total bytes per synthesize request (a single character is multiple bytes in some locales). Output LINEAR16 (returned with a WAV header), MP3 at 32 kbps, OGG_OPUS, or G.711 MULAW and ALAW optional sampleRateHertz resamples and fails the request if the rate is unsupported for the encoding. Not offered over streaming synthesis Long Audio Synthesis (Preview) covers up to 1 million bytes of input asynchronously. Billed per character including spaces and newlines, and all SSML tags except <mark> count for Standard and WaveNet a multi-byte character is charged once. |
Specs are transcribed from each vendor’s documentation; a row a vendor does not publish is left out rather than inferred. Full sources: Google TTS Neural2 · Google TTS Standard
Switch between them with one line
Both ids are in every tab below — the highlighted pair of lines is the only edit. Same endpoint, same key, same request shape.
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://synthorai.io/v1",
api_key="sk-syn-...",
)
resp = client.audio.transcriptions.create(
model="google-tts-neural2",
# model="google-tts-standard", # uncomment this line, comment the one above
file=open("meeting.mp3", "rb"),
language="en",
)
print(resp.text)import OpenAI from "openai";
import fs from "node:fs";
const client = new OpenAI({
baseURL: "https://synthorai.io/v1",
apiKey: "sk-syn-...",
});
const resp = await client.audio.transcriptions.create({
model: "google-tts-neural2",
// model: "google-tts-standard", // uncomment this line, comment the one above
file: fs.createReadStream("meeting.mp3"),
});
console.log(resp.text);curl https://synthorai.io/v1/audio/transcriptions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer sk-syn-..." \
-F model="google-tts-neural2" \
# -F model="google-tts-standard" \ # uncomment this line, comment the one above
-F file=@meeting.mp3package main
import (
"context"
"fmt"
"os"
"github.com/openai/openai-go/v3"
"github.com/openai/openai-go/v3/option"
)
func main() {
client := openai.NewClient(
option.WithBaseURL("https://synthorai.io/v1"),
option.WithAPIKey("sk-syn-..."),
)
f, _ := os.Open("meeting.mp3")
resp, _ := client.Audio.Transcriptions.New(context.TODO(), openai.AudioTranscriptionNewParams{
Model: "google-tts-neural2",
// Model: "google-tts-standard", // uncomment this line, comment the one above
File: f,
})
fmt.Println(resp.Text)
}import com.openai.client.OpenAIClient;
import com.openai.client.okhttp.OpenAIOkHttpClient;
import com.openai.models.audio.transcriptions.*;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
OpenAIClient client = OpenAIOkHttpClient.builder()
.baseUrl("https://synthorai.io/v1")
.apiKey("sk-syn-...")
.build();
Transcription resp = client.audio().transcriptions().create(
TranscriptionCreateParams.builder()
.model("google-tts-neural2")
// .model("google-tts-standard") // uncomment this line, comment the one above
.file(Paths.get("meeting.mp3"))
.build()).asTranscription();
System.out.println(resp.text());FAQ
Which is cheaper, Google TTS Neural2 or Google TTS Standard?
Google TTS Standard is cheaper on per 1m characters ($4 vs $16, 4.0× apart). Other rows may point the other way — the table above carries the full card, and real cost depends on your mix.
Can I A/B test Google TTS Neural2 against Google TTS Standard without two integrations?
Yes. Both are served through the same OpenAI-compatible endpoint with one API key — switching is a one-line model-string change, so you can route a fraction of traffic to each and compare bills directly.
How is text-to-speech billed?
Per character of input text, with a per-request character ceiling shown in the spec table. Long scripts must be chunked across requests on either model.