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Amazon Polly costs $4 to $100 per million characters as of March 2026, with 4 plans available. Plans: Standard Voices at $4/million characters, Neural Voices at $16/million characters, Generative Voices at $30/million characters, and Long-Form Voices at $100/million characters. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.

Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.

  • Free tier: No free tier available

Amazon Polly offers 4 pricing tiers: Standard Voices, Neural Voices, Generative Voices, Long-Form Voices. Paid plans include Standard Voices at $4/million characters, Neural Voices at $16/million characters, Generative Voices at $30/million characters. The Neural Voices plan is high-quality voice applications and conversational interfaces.

Compared to other ai voice tools software, Amazon Polly is positioned at the budget-friendly price point.

  • 4 documented hidden costs beyond list price

How much does Amazon Polly cost?

Amazon Polly pricing ranges from $4 to $100/million characters across 4 plans. Plans include Standard Voices at $4/million characters, Neural Voices at $16/million characters, Generative Voices at $30/million characters, Long-Form Voices at $100/million characters.

Amazon Polly Pricing Overview

Amazon Polly has 4 pricing plans ranging from $4 to $100/million characters. The Standard Voices plan costs $4/million characters, best for basic text-to-speech applications and simple voice announcements. The Neural Voices plan costs $16/million characters, best for high-quality voice applications and conversational interfaces. The Generative Voices plan costs $30/million characters, best for expressive speech for conversational ai and interactive applications. The Long-Form Voices plan costs $100/million characters, best for audiobooks, podcasts, and extended content narration.

There are at least 4 documented hidden costs beyond Amazon Polly's list price, including implementation, training, and add-on fees.

This pricing was last verified in March 6, 2026 from 4 independent sources.

Amazon Polly is AWS's text-to-speech service that converts text into lifelike speech using advanced deep learning technologies. With support for dozens of languages and multiple voice types including Standard, Neural, Generative, and Long-Form voices, Polly enables developers to add speech capabilities to applications ranging from simple announcements to complex voice assistants and audiobook narration.

All Amazon Polly Plans & Pricing

Plan Monthly Annual Best For
Standard Voices characters: $4 /million characters Custom Basic text-to-speech applications and simple voice announcements
Neural Voices characters: $16 /million characters Custom High-quality voice applications and conversational interfaces
Generative Voices characters: $30 /million characters Custom Expressive speech for conversational AI and interactive applications
Long-Form Voices characters: $100 /million characters Custom Audiobooks, podcasts, and extended content narration
View all features by plan

Standard Voices

  • Standard TTS voices
  • SSML support
  • Multiple languages
  • Speech marks metadata

Neural Voices

  • Neural TTS voices
  • More natural speech quality
  • SSML support
  • Advanced prosody

Generative Voices

  • Most expressive speech quality
  • Advanced intonation and emphasis
  • Premium generative AI engine
  • Natural conversational tone

Long-Form Voices

  • Extended content optimization
  • Consistent voice quality
  • Long-duration speech
  • Professional narration

Amazon Polly Year 1 Total Cost by Company Size

Real deployment costs including licenses, implementation, training, and admin — not just the sticker price.

Small Mobile App $1 Year 1 total

Mobile app with 100K characters/month using Neural voices

E-learning Platform $20 Year 1 total

Course narration with 5M characters/month using Standard voices

Enterprise IVR System $160 Year 1 total

Call center with 10M characters/month using Neural voices

Audiobook Production $200 Year 1 total

Monthly audiobook creation with 2M characters using Long-Form voices

How Amazon Polly Pricing Compares

Software Starting Price Top Price
Amazon Polly $4/million characters $100/million characters
ElevenLabs Free $330/month
Google Cloud Text-to-Speech $4/per 1M characters $30/per 1M characters
IBM Watson Text to Speech Free $5000/per 1000 characters
LOVO AI Free $75/month
Microsoft Speech Services Free $100/1M characters

4 Amazon Polly Hidden Costs Beyond the List Price

Beyond the listed price, Amazon Polly has at least 4 documented hidden costs that can significantly increase total cost of ownership.

Watch for 4 hidden costs
  • Data transfer costs: $0.09/GB for outbound data transfer
  • S3 storage costs for audio files: $0.023/GB per month
  • AWS support plans: $29-$15,000/month depending on tier
  • CloudWatch monitoring and logging fees
Tip

Ask your Amazon Polly sales rep about these costs upfront. Getting them in writing before signing can save you from surprise charges later.

Full hidden costs breakdown →

Amazon Polly Pricing FAQ

01 How much does Amazon Polly cost?

Amazon Polly pricing starts at $4 per million characters for Standard voices, $16 for Neural voices, $30 for Generative voices, and $100 for Long-Form voices. You only pay for the characters you convert to speech.

02 Does Amazon Polly have a free tier?

Yes, Amazon Polly includes a 12-month free tier with 5 million characters per month for Standard voices, 1 million for Neural voices, 100,000 for Generative voices, and 500,000 for Long-Form voices.

03 What are the hidden costs of Amazon Polly?

Additional costs include data transfer fees ($0.09/GB), S3 storage for audio files ($0.023/GB/month), optional AWS support plans starting at $29/month, and CloudWatch monitoring costs.

04 How does Amazon Polly pricing compare to competitors?

Polly's $4-16/million characters for standard/neural voices is competitive with Google Cloud TTS and Azure Cognitive Services, but significantly cheaper than premium services like ElevenLabs ($15-99/month).

05 Can I estimate my monthly Amazon Polly costs?

Use the AWS Pricing Calculator. For example: 1M neural characters monthly costs $16, plus minimal data transfer and storage fees. A typical mobile app using 100K characters would cost about $1.60/month.

06 What's the difference between Standard and Neural voices?

Neural voices ($16/million) use deep learning for more natural, human-like speech quality compared to Standard voices ($4/million). Neural voices are 4x more expensive but provide significantly better audio quality.

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