Google Cloud pricing
Google Cloud offers speech to text and text to speech as separate services in its cloud platform, and neither has a flat consumer-style plan. Prices are published per minute or per character, with different rates for each voice or recognition model.
Speech to text uses volume bands over a month: the first part of your usage is billed at the highest rate and later parts at lower rates. That makes Google more competitive at very large volumes than at small ones.
For text to speech the calculator uses the mid-tier Neural2 voices. Standard voices are cheaper and the premium voice types cost more, so pick the voice type first and then compare totals. Free monthly allowances are not subtracted.
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Every month I transcribe of audio.
AssemblyAI and Mistral Voxtral tie for cheapest, at $3.50 a month. Azure would cost 4.8 times as much.
Estimated monthly bill for 1,000 minutes, lowest first. 7 of 7 providers fit.
- 1AssemblyAIUniversal-3.5 Pro (pre-recorded), $0.21/hr$3.50 per monthLowest priceVisit AssemblyAI
Usage $3.50 Monthly total $3.50 Works out to $0.0035 per minute.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 1Mistral VoxtralVoxtral Mini Transcribe 3, $0.0035/min$3.50 per monthLowest priceVisit Voxtral
Usage $3.50 Monthly total $3.50 Works out to $0.0035 per minute.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 3ElevenLabsScribe v2 (and v2 Medical), $0.22/hr$3.67 per month+$0.17, 4.8% moreVisit ElevenLabs
Usage $3.67 Monthly total $3.67 Works out to $0.00367 per minute.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 4DeepgramNova-3 (pre-recorded), $0.0043/min$4.30 per month+$0.80, 22.9% moreVisit Deepgram
Usage $4.30 Monthly total $4.30 Works out to $0.0043 per minute.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 5OpenAIGPT Transcribe, $0.0045/min$4.50 per month+$1.00, 28.6% moreVisit OpenAI
Usage $4.50 Monthly total $4.50 Works out to $0.0045 per minute.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- 6Google CloudThis pageSpeech-to-Text V2 Standard (incl. Chirp), $0.016/min$16.00 per month+$12.50, 357.1% moreVisit Google Cloud
Usage $16.00 Monthly total $16.00 Works out to $0.016 per minute.
Tiers are graduated: each band of usage is billed at its own rate (reached: Up to 500000).
- 7AzureStandard real-time transcription, $1/hr$16.67 per month+$13.17, 376.2% moreVisit Azure
Usage $16.67 Monthly total $16.67 Works out to $0.0167 per minute.
Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- Prices updated 2026-10-30.
- Priced in the "Above 0" tier; every unit is billed at that tier's rate.
- Free-tier credits are not subtracted.
- How we calculate this
Some “Visit” links are affiliate links: the provider may pay us if you sign up. That never changes the order, which is set by price alone.
Pricing by model
Speech-to-Text V2 Standard (incl. Chirp) pricing
Speech to text. Standard recognition models on the Speech-to-Text V2 API, including Chirp, with monthly volume discounts and built-in speaker diarization.
| Monthly usage band | Price per minute |
|---|---|
| Up to 500,000 min | $0.016 |
| 500,000 to 1,000,000 min | $0.01 |
| 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 min | $0.008 |
| Above 2,000,000 min | $0.004 |
Speech-to-Text V2 'Standard' recognition (models incl. chirp, latest_long, latest_short, phone_call, video), billed per second of audio rounded up per request, expressed per minute. Monthly volume bands per account are graduated: $0.016/min up to 500,000 min, $0.01 for 500,000-1,000,000, $0.008 for 1,000,000-2,000,000, $0.004 above 2,000,000. Multi-channel audio is billed per channel (sum of all channels). Speaker diarization has no separate charge on the pricing page. Dynamic batch ($0.003/min) is listed as a separate model. V1 API (free first 60 min/month, then flat $0.016 with data logging / $0.024 without) not modelled; free monthly allowance not modelled. Page is JS-heavy but its table is present in the server-rendered HTML; read directly from it on 2026-10-23.
Source: cloud.google.com
Speech-to-Text V2 Dynamic Batch pricing
Speech to text. Discounted lower-urgency batch recognition on the V2 API for workloads that do not need immediate results.
| Monthly usage | Price per minute |
|---|---|
| Any volume | $0.003 |
Speech-to-Text V2 dynamic batch recognition, flat $0.003/min (no volume bands on the page); lower urgency processing, results are not real-time.
Source: cloud.google.com
Neural2 voices pricing
Text to speech. Mid-tier neural voices built on the same technology as Google's Custom Voice; the default voice type used for comparison.
| Monthly usage | Price per 1M characters |
|---|---|
| Any volume | $16.00 |
Default voice type for comparison: Neural2 ($16 per 1M characters), the mainstream paid mid-tier voice on the page (WaveNet is listed as legacy; Standard is the cheapest). Free allowance of 1M chars/month not modelled. The page lists no monthly volume bands for any voice type, so the tier is flat. Billed characters include spaces, newlines and SSML tags except <mark>. Gemini-TTS (token-priced) and Instant custom voice not modelled. Read from server-rendered HTML on 2026-10-23.
Source: cloud.google.com
Standard voices pricing
Text to speech. Lowest-cost synthetic voices, more robotic sounding than neural voices.
| Monthly usage | Price per 1M characters |
|---|---|
| Any volume | $4.00 |
Flat $4 per 1M characters; the pricing page lists no monthly volume bands, only a free monthly allowance (not modelled). Billed characters include spaces, newlines and SSML tags except <mark>.
Source: cloud.google.com
Chirp 3: HD voices pricing
Text to speech. LLM-powered high-definition voices with natural, emotive delivery.
| Monthly usage | Price per 1M characters |
|---|---|
| Any volume | $30.00 |
Flat $30 per 1M characters; the pricing page lists no monthly volume bands, only a free monthly allowance (not modelled). Billed characters include spaces, newlines and SSML tags except <mark>.
Source: cloud.google.com
Studio voices pricing
Text to speech. Premium voices designed for long-form content such as narration.
| Monthly usage | Price per 1M characters |
|---|---|
| Any volume | $160.00 |
Flat $160 per 1M characters; the pricing page lists no monthly volume bands, only a free monthly allowance (not modelled). Billed characters include spaces, newlines and SSML tags except <mark>.
Source: cloud.google.com
Polyglot voices (Preview) pricing
Text to speech. Preview voices that speak multiple languages with one voice identity.
| Monthly usage | Price per 1M characters |
|---|---|
| Any volume | $16.00 |
Flat $16 per 1M characters; the pricing page lists no monthly volume bands, only a free monthly allowance (not modelled). Billed characters include spaces, newlines and SSML tags except <mark>.
Source: cloud.google.com
Features
| Feature | Google Cloud |
|---|---|
| Speaker labels | Yes |
| Languages | 125 |
| Self-hosting | No |
| EU data residency | Yes |
| Realtime voice | No |
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Google Cloud speech-to-text cost per month for 1,000 minutes?
- About $16.00 a month using $0.016/min (prices updated 2026-10-30). Free-tier credits are not subtracted.
- How much does Google Cloud text-to-speech cost per month for 1,000,000 characters?
- About $16.00 a month using $16/1M chars (prices updated 2026-10-30). Free-tier credits are not subtracted.
- Where does the Google Cloud pricing on this page come from?
- From the provider’s own public pricing page, last checked on 2026-10-30. The methodology page lists every source and rule.