The Voice Bench

Editorial preview: vendor recordings and hands-on verdicts are pending. What counts as evidence.

What does a finished minute cost?

A cheap generation is not necessarily a cheap production. Use your own quote and audition results to compare the total cost of usable narration.

Estimate the cost of usable audio

All starting values below are fictional examples, not Fish Audio or ElevenLabs prices. Enter a current quote in US dollars. Nothing is submitted or saved.

This model assumes a constant workload, a monthly allowance and a flat overage rate. Convert bytes or credits using your own measured output first. Taxes, minimum top-ups, rollover, discounts and free regenerations are excluded.

Generated minutes / month37.50
Subscription and usage / monthUS$17.50
Editing time value / monthUS$30.00
Total / monthUS$47.50
Total / year at this workloadUS$570.00
Cost / finished minuteUS$1.58

How the estimate works

Generated minutes = finished minutes × (1 + extra retakes ÷ 100). Subscription and usage = monthly fee + any generated minutes above the allowance × the overage rate. Editing cost = finished minutes × editing minutes per finished minute ÷ 60 × hourly rate.

The yearly figure is twelve identical months, not an annual-billing quote. If you already pay for the subscription for other work, decide how much of that fee belongs to this project.

Why not prefill vendor plans?

Billing units differ. Fish Audio's API documentation uses UTF-8 bytes; ElevenCreative subscriptions use credits, while ElevenAPI quotes TTS per character. None is a universal number of finished minutes. See our TTS pricing-unit guide before converting a quote.

How should I estimate retakes?

Save every generated take during an audition. Divide total generated duration by final usable duration, subtract one and multiply by 100. The default 25% is a scenario assumption, not a measured industry average.

Can I compare two plans?

Keep the finished workload constant, note the first result, then enter the second quote. Record currency, plan, model and date. A cheaper result is not a voice-quality verdict.