{
  "reviewed": "2026-10-08",
  "author": "Superpower Daily Editorial Desk",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "eleven",
      "name": "ElevenLabs speech product guide",
      "url": "https://elevenlabs.io/docs/eleven-creative/playground/text-to-speech",
      "detail": "Current model families, language coverage, dialogue and access."
    },
    {
      "id": "tags",
      "name": "ElevenLabs delivery tags",
      "url": "https://elevenlabs.io/docs/help-center/product/core-capabilities/text-to-speech/how-do-audio-tags-work-with-eleven-v3-and-v4",
      "detail": "Inline performance direction for the supported v3/v4 models."
    },
    {
      "id": "eleven-price",
      "name": "ElevenAPI pricing",
      "url": "https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/api",
      "detail": "Character rates, plan allowances and dated October promotions."
    },
    {
      "id": "dubbing",
      "name": "ElevenLabs dubbing guide",
      "url": "https://elevenlabs.io/docs/eleven-creative/products/dubbing",
      "detail": "Dubbing versions, voice similarity and editing restrictions."
    },
    {
      "id": "cartesia",
      "name": "Cartesia Sonic 3.6 documentation",
      "url": "https://docs.cartesia.ai/build-with-cartesia/tts-models/latest",
      "detail": "44 languages, voice selection and dated model snapshots."
    },
    {
      "id": "cartesia-controls",
      "name": "Cartesia voice controls",
      "url": "https://docs.cartesia.ai/build-with-cartesia/capability-guides/volume-speed-emotion",
      "detail": "Model-specific speed, volume and emotional controls."
    },
    {
      "id": "cartesia-price",
      "name": "Cartesia plans",
      "url": "https://www.cartesia.ai/pricing",
      "detail": "Credits, commercial access and deployment options."
    },
    {
      "id": "cartesia-demo",
      "name": "Cartesia Sonic listening examples",
      "url": "https://www.cartesia.ai/sonic",
      "detail": "Provider-selected example of laughter and conversational delivery."
    },
    {
      "id": "deepgram",
      "name": "Deepgram voices and languages",
      "url": "https://developers.deepgram.com/docs/tts-models",
      "detail": "Aura voice IDs and supported languages."
    },
    {
      "id": "deepgram-demo",
      "name": "Deepgram Aura-2 launch examples",
      "url": "https://deepgram.com/learn/introducing-aura-2-enterprise-text-to-speech",
      "detail": "Historical, vendor-selected samples; competitor model versions are not all specified."
    },
    {
      "id": "deepgram-price",
      "name": "Deepgram pricing",
      "url": "https://deepgram.com/pricing",
      "detail": "Separate speech synthesis, transcription and agent billing."
    },
    {
      "id": "openai",
      "name": "OpenAI speech guide",
      "url": "https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/text-to-speech",
      "detail": "Voice instructions, streaming, AI disclosure and custom voice eligibility."
    },
    {
      "id": "openai-api",
      "name": "OpenAI create-speech reference",
      "url": "https://developers.openai.com/api/reference/resources/audio/subresources/speech/methods/create",
      "detail": "4,096-character input, supported formats, voice and speed parameters."
    },
    {
      "id": "openai-price",
      "name": "OpenAI API pricing",
      "url": "https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing",
      "detail": "Token billing and estimated per-minute speech generation cost."
    },
    {
      "id": "gemini",
      "name": "Google Gemini speech generation",
      "url": "https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/speech-generation",
      "detail": "Style direction, current interfaces and two-speaker request limits."
    },
    {
      "id": "chirp",
      "name": "Google Chirp 3: HD documentation",
      "url": "https://docs.cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/docs/chirp3-hd",
      "detail": "Voice catalog, SSML and preview pacing, pause and pronunciation controls."
    },
    {
      "id": "google-price",
      "name": "Google Cloud speech pricing",
      "url": "https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/pricing",
      "detail": "Chirp 3 HD: $30 per million characters after the listed free usage allowance."
    },
    {
      "id": "azure",
      "name": "Microsoft Speech SSML overview",
      "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/speech-service/speech-synthesis-markup",
      "detail": "Pronunciation, styles, timing and voice-specific support."
    },
    {
      "id": "azure-how",
      "name": "Microsoft speech synthesis guide",
      "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/speech-service/how-to-speech-synthesis",
      "detail": "SDK, REST, audio output formats and implementation workflow."
    },
    {
      "id": "kokoro",
      "name": "Kokoro-82M model card",
      "url": "https://huggingface.co/hexgrad/Kokoro-82M",
      "detail": "Open weights, Apache 2.0 license, local usage and project provenance."
    },
    {
      "id": "kokoro-samples",
      "name": "Kokoro published audio samples",
      "url": "https://huggingface.co/hexgrad/Kokoro-82M/blob/main/SAMPLES.md",
      "detail": "Author-published examples with scripts; these are not our controlled comparison runs."
    },
    {
      "id": "hume",
      "name": "Hume API retirement notice",
      "url": "https://dev.hume.ai/voice/docs/text-to-speech-tts/overview",
      "detail": "TTS/EVI access ends November 13, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. EST; account data is then deleted."
    },
    {
      "id": "hume-controls",
      "name": "Hume acting instructions",
      "url": "https://dev.hume.ai/voice/docs/text-to-speech-tts/acting-instructions",
      "detail": "Octave 1 description support versus Octave 2; speed and trailing silence."
    }
  ],
  "originalAudio": "/explore/ai-out-loud/data/audio-manifest.json",
  "methodology": "/explore/ai-out-loud#methodology",
  "limitations": [
    "Provider documentation changes",
    "Model, voice, locale, region and plan can differ",
    "Official demos are selected examples, not controlled comparisons",
    "Original examples use one disclosed OpenAI model",
    "Hume excluded from new-project recommendations due to retirement notice"
  ]
}