Generate speech audio from text using multiple TTS providers — ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Google Cloud, fal.ai CSM-1B, and edge-tts (free). Smart-routes by quality, cost, and latency requirements. Use when user says "text to speech", "TTS", "generate voice", "voiceover", "narration", "read aloud", "convert text to audio", or "speech synthesis".
Generate speech audio from text using multiple TTS providers — ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Google Cloud, fal.ai CSM-1B, and edge-tts (free). Smart-routes by quality, cost, and latency requirements. Use when user says "text to speech", "TTS", "generate voice", "voiceover", "narration", "read aloud", "convert text to audio", or "speech synthesis".
Text-to-Speech
Smart-routed speech synthesis across multiple providers. See reference.md in this directory for full provider APIs, code examples, and workflows.
When to Activate
User wants to convert text to speech audio
Generating voiceover or narration for video/podcast
Batch converting documents to audio
Voice cloning or custom voice creation
Multilingual speech synthesis
Real-time or streaming TTS
Do NOT Use For
Speech-to-text / transcription (use Whisper or Deepgram)
Music or sound effects generation
Provider Routing
Need
Provider
Cost
Latency
Quality
Free / prototyping / batch
edge-tts
Free
~200ms
Good
Best quality / emotion
ElevenLabs
$$$
~75-300ms
Excellent
OpenAI ecosystem
OpenAI TTS
$$
~300ms
Very Good
Multilingual / enterprise
Google Cloud TTS
$
~100ms
Very Good
fal.ai ecosystem
fal.ai CSM-1B
$
~500ms
Good
Decision Flow
Is this a prototype or personal use?
YES → edge-tts (free, no API key)
NO →
Need best emotional expressiveness?
YES → ElevenLabs (Eleven v3)
NO →
Already using OpenAI APIs?
YES → OpenAI TTS
NO →
Need 50+ languages or enterprise SLA?
YES → Google Cloud TTS
NO → edge-tts
Cost Comparison
Provider
Free Tier
Paid Rate
Best Value For
edge-tts
Unlimited*
Free
Prototyping, personal, batch
ElevenLabs
10K chars/mo
~$0.30/1K chars
Premium content, voice cloning
OpenAI
None
$15-30/1M chars
OpenAI ecosystem users
Google Cloud
1M chars/mo (Standard)
$4-160/1M chars
Enterprise, multilingual
fal.ai CSM-1B
Credits-based
~$0.01/request
fal.ai ecosystem users
Tips
Start free: Use edge-tts for prototyping, switch to paid for production
Chunk long text: Most APIs limit 1K-5K chars per request. Split at sentence boundaries
Cache results: TTS output is deterministic — cache to avoid re-generating
Normalize audio: ffmpeg -af loudnorm for consistent volume
Match voice to content: Narration → stability 0.7+, dialogue → expressiveness 0.3-0.5
For full provider setup, code examples, voice lists, and workflows, read reference.md.
