Fish Audio
Expressive AI TTS with emotion control and voice cloning
Fish Audio delivers top-tier expressive TTS at a much lower price than ElevenLabs. Its emotion tags and S2.1 Pro control give creators fine-grained command. The free tier is generous, but enterprise users may miss native integrations.
- Content creators needing expressive voiceovers for YouTube, ads, and explainers
- Audiobook authors requiring ACX/Audible-compliant narration with emotion control
- Game developers and animators wanting character voice cloning with fine-grained emotion
- Developers building conversational chatbots with natural-sounding voices
- Enterprises needing extensive pre-built integrations (Slack, Notion, etc.)
- Users seeking a completely offline voice generation solution
- Those requiring high-end security and compliance without contacting sales
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Skip Fish Audio if you require native integrations with popular SaaS tools or need fully offline voice generation without any internet connection.
Free tier: 10,000 chars/month; overage requires paid plan.
Fish Audio's pricing is competitive for solo creators and small teams. The Free tier lets you test with 10K chars/month. Starter at $12/mo allows commercial use. Pro at $32/mo offers unlimited generations and professional voice cloning. For comparison, ElevenLabs' comparable tiers start higher. Business at $150/mo adds team features. Enterprise is custom. This pricing fits freelancers and small agencies best.
In short
Fish Audio — Expressive AI TTS with emotion control and voice cloning. Best for Content creators needing expressive voiceovers for YouTube, ads, and explainers, Audiobook authors requiring ACX/Audible-compliant narration with emotion control, Game developers and animators wanting character voice cloning with fine-grained emotion. Free to start; paid plans from $12/mo.
What's new in Fish Audio
Checked 15 days agoAcross the latest 7 updates: 4 feature updates, 1 launch, 1 pricing change and 1 news mention.
Fish Audio S2.1 Pro: Free Text-to-Speech API for Developers
Fish Audio released S2.1 Pro, a free TTS API for developers, improving latency and voice quality.
Professional Voice Cloning: A Studio-Quality, Verified Clone of Your Voice
Fish Audio introduced professional voice cloning with verified, studio-quality voice clones.
AI Voice Design: Create a Custom Voice from a Single Text Prompt
Fish Audio launched AI Voice Design, enabling custom voice creation from a single text prompt.
We Blind-Tested Our TTS Against Every Major Competitor. Here Are the Results.
Fish Audio published blind test results comparing its TTS against major competitors, claiming superior quality.
Podcast Transcription Tool — How to Transcribe Your Podcast with Fish Audio
Fish Audio released a podcast transcription tool integrated with its speech-to-text API.
Best AI TTS for Creative Teams! Fish Audio Team Plan Explained
Fish Audio introduced a Team Plan with shared credits and collaborative workflows for creative teams.
Fish Audio S2! Fine-Grained AI Voice Control at the Word Level
Fish Audio S2 released with word-level voice control for pitch, speed, and emphasis.
Viability Score
How likely is Fish Audio to still be operational in 12 months? Based on 4 signals — momentum (how recently it shipped), wrapper dependency, revenue model, and web presence.
Last calculated: July 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Text-to-speech with emotion tags (angry, sad, excited, etc.)
- Voice cloning from 10–15 seconds of audio
- 2,000,000+ community voice library
- Ultra-low latency TTS API
- Real-time streaming voice generation
- 30+ languages supported
- Speech-to-text with multi-speaker and emotion tags
- Fish Audio S2.1 Pro: word-level voice control
- AI Voice Design: create a custom voice from text prompt
- Professional voice cloning (studio-quality verified clones)
- Multilingual voice cloning (any voice in multiple languages)
- Voice agent end-to-end solution
- Podcast transcription tool
- Team Plan with collaboration features
- Open-source S2 model on GitHub
About Fish Audio
Fish Audio is an AI voice platform that delivers expressive text-to-speech with deep emotional control, voice cloning from as little as 10-15 seconds of audio, and speech-to-text. It offers over 2 million community voices, supports 30+ languages, and includes features like emotion tags (angry, sad, excited, etc.), word-level voice control via Fish Audio S2.1 Pro, and AI Voice Design to create custom voices from a text prompt. The platform also provides professional voice cloning with studio-quality verification, a voice agent end-to-end solution, and a podcast transcription tool. Designed for creators, developers, and teams, Fish Audio offers a free tier with monthly character generation and affordable paid plans. Recent blind tests show it outperforming major competitors like ElevenLabs in expressiveness. Compared to alternatives, Fish Audio provides comparable quality at lower prices with an open-source community driving rapid innovation.
Behind the Verdict
Fish Audio has carved a strong niche in the AI voice space by focusing on expressiveness and emotional control at an accessible price point. The S2.1 Pro model offers word-level voice control that lets creators adjust intonation, emphasis, and speaking style with precision—something that's rare even among premium TTS tools. Voice cloning is impressively efficient: a 10-15 second clip yields a convincing replica, and the professional clone option adds studio-quality verification for commercial use. The 2-million-strong community voice library is a boon for finding unique voices, though quality varies. We'd reach for Fish Audio when we need character voices for games or animations, audiobook narration that meets ACX standards, or multilingual content without the hassle of hiring vocal talent. The free tier is generous enough for hobbyists to experiment. However, Fish Audio falls short for organizations that rely on integrations with Slack, Notion, or other productivity tools—those are absent. Offline use isn't supported, and high-security compliance requirements require a sales call. Compared to ElevenLabs, Fish Audio offers comparable audio quality and more emotion tags at a lower cost, but ElevenLabs has a more polished API documentation and broader third-party integrations. In practice, Fish Audio's open-source community means rapid iteration, but also occasional instability. Best for creators and developers who prioritize emotional range and cost savings; skip if you need turnkey enterprise integrations.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Fish Audio actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You write a script for a 10-minute video, use emotion tags to add excitement and emphasis, and generate the voiceover in minutes. You then upload the audio to your editing software.
Outcome: You produce a professional-sounding voiceover with emotional nuance in under 30 minutes, saving hours of recording time.
You clone your own voice from a 15-second sample, then generate chapters in multiple languages using Fish Audio's multilingual voice cloning.
Outcome: You publish ACX-compliant audiobooks in English, Spanish, and French without re-recording, cutting production time by 80%.
You use AI Voice Design to create a custom character voice from a text prompt (e.g., 'gruff old wizard'), then use S2 word-level control to fine-tune emotion in specific lines.
Outcome: You generate hundreds of unique NPC voice lines with consistent character voices and emotional variation, all via API.
Use Cases
- Create expressive video voiceovers with emotion tags matching scene mood.
- Clone your voice from a 15-second sample to narrate audiobooks in multiple languages.
- Design custom character voices for games with word-level emotional control.
- Transcribe multilingual podcasts and re-synthesize with different voices.
- Build conversational chatbots with tone injection for natural interactions.
- Separate vocals from instrumental tracks using SAM Audio.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-07-05
Limitations
- Free tier capped at 10,000 characters/month.
- Voice cloning quality varies with noisy or very short samples.
- Emotion control may not perfectly match all contexts.
- API rate limits are gated by plan; lower tiers have restricted concurrent requests.
as of 2026-06-26
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Fish Audio tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free
$0/mo
Ideal for
Content creators exploring AI voice for personal projects with low monthly volume (under 10K chars).
What this tier adds
Starting tier with free access to 2M+ voices and basic TTS, limited to 10,000 characters/month.
Starter
$12/mo
Ideal for
Solo creators or freelancers needing commercial usage for client projects with moderate monthly generation needs.
What this tier adds
Adds commercial usage and email priority support; more monthly generations than Free.
Pro
$32/mo
Ideal for
Power users and professionals requiring unlimited generations, professional voice cloning, and API access.
What this tier adds
Unlimited generations (fair use), professional studio-quality voice cloning, AI Voice Design, multilingual cloning, and API access.
Business
$150/mo
Ideal for
Teams and small agencies needing collaboration features, custom voice libraries, and dedicated support.
What this tier adds
All Pro features plus team collaboration, custom voice library, dedicated support, and higher API rate limits.
Enterprise
Custom
Ideal for
Large organizations requiring custom deployment, SLA guarantees, on-premise options, and dedicated account management.
What this tier adds
Custom deployment, SLA guarantees, on-premise availability, dedicated account manager, and custom voice models.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Fish Audio's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Fish Audio's pricing is competitive for solo creators and small teams. The Free tier lets you test with 10K chars/month. Starter at $12/mo allows commercial use. Pro at $32/mo offers unlimited generations and professional voice cloning. For comparison, ElevenLabs' comparable tiers start higher. Business at $150/mo adds team features. Enterprise is custom. This pricing fits freelancers and small agencies best.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Fish Audio — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
For individuals: create an account, choose a voice from the library, enter text, and generate audio in under 5 minutes. Voice cloning: upload a 15-second clip and get a cloned voice in about 1 minute. For developers: API integration typically takes a few hours, depending on your stack. Team onboarding: invite members and share voice libraries within minutes.
Switching to or from Fish Audio
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From ElevenLabs: export your voice samples (they can be reused) and upload to Fish Audio's voice cloning interface.
- ↗To ElevenLabs: download your cloned voice model from Fish Audio (if allowed) and upload to ElevenLabs' voice lab.
Resources & Guides
- Resourcefish.audio
Fish Audio Blog - AI Voice & Text-to-Speech Insights
Explore the latest insights on AI voice generation, text-to-speech, voice cloning, and audio innovation from the Fish Audio team.
- Resourcefish.audio
Fish Audio S2! Fine-Grained AI Voice Control at the Word Level
Fish Audio S2 brings open-domain inline tags, word-level AI voice control, and 80-language support to expressive TTS. See how it works with real examples.
Official links
Tools that pair well with Fish Audio
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Fish Audio, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
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