# Amazon Polly vs MiniMax Speech (T2A) (slim)

> Amazon Polly scores 75.4 (BB) to MiniMax Speech's 55.1 (C) for text-to-speech. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-polly-vs-minimax-speech.md (~4,950 tokens) · this version ~2,930 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-polly-vs-minimax-speech.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-polly-vs-minimax-speech
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Amazon Polly scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against MiniMax Speech (T2A)'s 55.1 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do text-to-speech.

- Amazon Polly: BB 75.4, rank #61 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-polly.min.md
- MiniMax Speech (T2A): C 55.1, rank #884 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/minimax-speech.min.md
- Amazon Polly, good for Operators already on AWS who want predictable, cheap speech for prompts, notifications and IVR, or generative voices with bidirectional streaming. Ahead on Reliability, 80 against 75; Schema & documentation, 90 against 81; Agent ergonomics, 82 against 56; Security & auth, 83 against 36; Payments & pricing, 30 against 20; Maintenance & community, 70 against 38; Transparency & trust, 80 against 65. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Free to start without a card.
- MiniMax Speech (T2A), good for Multilingual speech for narration and agents at mid-range prices, with strong Chinese voices by the vendor's account.

| Category | Amazon Polly | MiniMax Speech (T2A) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 80 | 75 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 90 | 81 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 82 | 56 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 83 | 36 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 70 | 38 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 80 | 65 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Amazon Polly | MiniMax Speech (T2A) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | MiniMax |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://polly.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, websocket |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-22 | 2026-01-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 743k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (8) | none |

Why the edge:
- Security & auth, Amazon Polly +47: Amazon Polly 83 (Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of least-privilege and injection lines. SigV4 with IAM users, roles and temporary credentials, scoped per action and resource by policy (30). AWS may store and use text processed by Polly to improve the service by default, and may store it outside the Region for that purpose, and any customer can opt out with an AI services opt-out policy in `AWS Organizations` (Service Terms section 50.3, Last Updated 30 October 2026, re-read on 1 November) (10 of 20). Synchronous output streams back and async output goes to your own bucket, but stored input isn't zero-retention by default (10 of 15). CloudTrail logs API calls per caller (15). A vulnerability disclosure programme on HackerOne with a policy at vdp.aws.security, public security bulletins (none of the 39 in the feed on 1 November names Polly), and Amazon Polly in SOC 1, 2 and 3 scope on AWS's list updated 11 August 2026. The security.txt on aws.amazon.com is valid to 2027-10-16 and points to the VDP. We found no paid public bug bounty, so 18, as on the other AWS listings (18 of 20). 30 + 10 + 10 + 15 + 18 = 83.); MiniMax Speech (T2A) 36 (Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. Plain API keys with no scopes found, and leaked keys may be disabled (20 of 30). The terms (effective 30 March 2026), as read for minimax-voice-cloning on 4 November, let MiniMax use input and generated content to operate, maintain, develop and improve its services, with no opt-out found, and the privacy policy rules out only training to profile or target consumers (5 of 20). The speech docs call every interface stateless, and no retention period for submitted text or generated audio was found (5 of 15). Responses carry `usage_characters` and a trace ID, with no audit log (6 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0 of 20). Total 36.)
- Maintenance & community, Amazon Polly +32: Amazon Polly 70 (Read as a model, from the Polly service model and the document history. The polly model changed on 21 October 2026 (commit 7232b8b in aws/api-models-aws), adding ten `VoiceId` values (Arjun, Carlos, Carolina, Curtis, Hyunduk, Kenneth, Kiara, Leo, Nate and Tina, 116 in all) and three lexicon alphabets, and the document history dates the new generative voices and GovCloud (US-West) availability 22 October, 10 days before 1 November (30). Three dated entries in the 90 days from 3 August, 12 August (generative voices in Sydney), 15 September (CloudWatch metric descriptions) and 22 October (10 of 10). No deprecation policy or dated notices for voices or engines found. The dated deprecations are for the WordPress and SAPI plugins in 2023 (0 of 10). Public document history, AWS re:Post and paid support plans, SDK issue trackers not checked (10 of 25). Official SDKs current in Python, JavaScript, Java, Go and others (15). SDK package health not checked (5 of 10). 30 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 15 + 5 = 70.); MiniMax Speech (T2A) 38 (Read as a model, as minimax-voice-cloning is. The newest dated change touching speech is the MCP servers' August update, `minimax-mcp-js` 0.0.18 on 21 August 2026, 77 days before 6 November, and Speech 2.8 dates from 23 January 2026 (20 of 30). No dated API entries in the last 90 days (0). Support by email and Discord, not tested (6 of 15). No official SDK for speech; the MCP servers expose `text_to_audio` and `list_voices` (8 of 15). The Python MCP server has tests and moved to version 2 of the MCP SDK in August, with no CI workflow (4 of 10). Total 38.)
- Agent ergonomics, Amazon Polly +26: Amazon Polly 82 (API reading of the checklist. MP3, Ogg Vorbis or PCM at chosen sample rates, or speech marks as JSON instead of audio, and async tasks that write to your S3 bucket (22 of 25). `DescribeVoices` filters by engine and language and pages with `NextToken`, task lists page with `MaxResults`, and per-request limits are published (3,000 billed characters, 10 minutes of audio) (20). Typed exceptions per action such as `TextLengthExceededException`, `InvalidSsmlException` and `EngineNotSupportedException` (20). Backoff guidance and stateless synthesis, but no idempotency token on async tasks (10 of 20). Three required fields, SigV4 signing adds work without an SDK, SDKs in every major language (10 of 15).); MiniMax Speech (T2A) 56 (API reading of the checklist. Audio comes back hex-encoded inside JSON by default, with subtitles opt-in and format, bitrate and sample rate settable (15 of 25). Voices are listed by type through `POST /v1/get_voice`, which has no pagination and returns 300+ system voices for `all` (10 of 20). Errors come as numeric codes in `base_resp` with a short remedy for each, inside responses documented only as 200 (13 of 20). No idempotency key, and the MCP tools carry no read-only or destructive annotations (10 of 20). Two required fields. No official SDK for speech, with MCP servers in Python and JavaScript (8 of 15). Total 56.)
- Transparency & trust, Amazon Polly +15: Amazon Polly 80 (Closed service under the AWS Service Terms, last updated 30 October 2026, with section 50.3 on Polly unchanged (15). The service terms, privacy notice (Last Updated 18 May 2026) and Polly guide agree, a data processing addendum and a public sub-processor list (Last Updated 30 October 2026) exist, but the default permission to use content sits in the service terms rather than the Polly guide (25 of 30). Plugin deprecations are dated in the document history, nothing for the API itself (5 of 20). Sub-processors and regions disclosed, with the region chosen per request. Section 50.3 of the service terms discloses that text kept for service improvement may be stored outside that Region unless the organisation opts out (20).); MiniMax Speech (T2A) 65 (Closed API with clear terms under Singapore law naming Nanonoble Pte. Ltd., and MIT MCP servers (15 of 30). Terms and privacy policy agree that inputs may be used to improve services and that data sits in a United States data centre, with no retention period, as on minimax-voice-cloning (8 of 30). The API release notes carry a dated legacy notice of 20 June 2025 for the old text-to-voice API with service continuing, and older speech models stay accepted, with no written policy or notice period (15 of 20). Data location stated as the United States and an EU representative named, third parties only by category (10 of 20). Total 48.)
- Payments & pricing, Amazon Polly +10: Amazon Polly 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-1M-character prices for each engine published without a login, re-read on 1 November (20). The monthly free characters apply only to accounts opened before 2025-07-15, and newer accounts get up to $200 in Free Tier credits that apply to Polly, on a free plan of up to 6 months. The Free Tier FAQ says a payment method isn't required for most new customers, but AWS's account docs read on 1 November say AWS might request payment information and holds USD $1 to verify, so half, as on the S3 and Secrets Manager re-checks (10). A person signs up in a browser. IAM can mint keys by API, but only after a human has an account (0). 0 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 30.); MiniMax Speech (T2A) 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-character prices for every speech model published without a login (20). No free allowance for synthesis is published (0). A person signs up in a browser and funds a balance (0). Total 20.)
- Schema & documentation, Amazon Polly +9: Amazon Polly 90 (The service model is public in the AWS SDKs (botocore and the JavaScript v3 clients), a machine-readable contract in the role OpenAPI plays (25). llms.txt for the developer guide (10). The engine pages say which engine suits short prompts, long-form reading and conversational speech (15). Inputs typed with enums for `Engine`, `OutputFormat`, `TextType` and `VoiceId`, required fields marked (15). Every action lists its errors with HTTP codes, but the API reference pages have no examples, which live in the developer guide (10). API version 2016-06-10 and a dated document history (15).); MiniMax Speech (T2A) 81 (OpenAPI 3.1 for the sync and async routes and AsyncAPI files for the WebSocket and bidirectional sockets (25). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). The text field says when to stream and how to mark pauses, and guides separate sync, WebSocket and async use (15 of 20). Enums for model and audio settings, with `model` and `text` required (13 of 15). Examples throughout and the shared table of error codes, but the OpenAPI file documents only a 200 response (10 of 15). Versioned `/v1` paths. The API release notes stop at 28 October 2025, and the last T2A entry is 23 September 2025 (8 of 15). Total 81.)

| Task | Amazon Polly | MiniMax Speech (T2A) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Narrate a 9,000-character script | $0.04 to $0.90 | $0.54 to $0.90 |