# ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP vs Fish Audio TTS API

> ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP scores 75.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Fish Audio TTS API's 60.7 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech tts. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP scores 75.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Fish Audio TTS API's 60.7 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech tts.

- ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP: grade BB, 75.2/100, rank #52 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-tts.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-tts.json
- Fish Audio TTS API: grade C, 60.7/100, rank #453 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fish-audio-tts.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fish-audio-tts.json

## Which one, for what

### ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP (BB)

Good for: Best when an agent needs many languages, many voices or the most expressive models from one vendor, and the operator can accept training by default or pay for Enterprise.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 75
- Schema & documentation, 94 against 84
- Agent ergonomics, 92 against 67
- Security & auth, 65 against 35
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 69
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 60

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Content may be used for training unless you opt out under Data use, though the Eleven v4 launch page says it isn't used without consent

### Fish Audio TTS API (C)

Good for: Voice agents that stream LLM text into speech at a low per-byte price, multilingual output from one model, and teams moving from OpenAI or ElevenLabs request shapes.

Watch for: The terms allow Usage Data and Content to train models, with no opt-out found


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP | Fish Audio TTS API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 75 | ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 94 | 84 | ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 67 | ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP +25 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 35 | ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP +30 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 69 | ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 60 | ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **75.2 · BB** | **60.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP | Fish Audio TTS API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | Fish Audio |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1` | `https://api.fish.audio` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | Apache-2.0 (Python SDK), MIT (JavaScript SDK) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.elevenlabs/mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-09-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 | 2024-08-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-20 | 2024-08-28 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk | 5.2k npm/wk, 34k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP.** Keys can be limited to chosen endpoints and given a credit quota, and service accounts hold keys that don't belong to a person. The Terms let ElevenLabs train on content unless you opt out, which the Eleven v4 launch page contradicts, and v4 runs through Text to Dialogue rather than the classic text-to-speech endpoint.

**Fish Audio TTS API.** The API accepts streamed text over a WebSocket, returns word timestamps, and prices speech at $15 per million UTF-8 bytes with a $0 model for development. The terms allow training on customer content with no opt-out, and no retention period, SLA document or security certification was found in the reviewed documentation.

## Before you call either

### ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP

1. Call Eleven v4 through `POST /v1/text-to-dialogue` and set `model_id` to `eleven_v4`, because that endpoint defaults to `eleven_v3`.
2. Retrain an older Instant or Professional Voice Clone on v4 before using it there, since earlier clones aren't tuned for the new model.
3. Spell out numbers yourself on `eleven_flash_v2_5`, which doesn't normalise them by default, and turning that on is Enterprise only.
4. On 429 read `code`, back off on `rate_limit_exceeded` and wait for running requests on `concurrent_limit_exceeded`.
5. Give the agent a key scoped to Text to Speech with a credit quota.

### Fish Audio TTS API

1. Send the `model` header on every request and check its spelling. A missing or unknown value is served and billed as `s2.1-pro`.
2. Budget by UTF-8 bytes, not characters. Chinese, Japanese and Korean text costs about three bytes a character.
3. Retry 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff. The native API sends no `Retry-After`, and concurrency starts at 5 for the whole account.
4. Use `[bracket]` cues on the S2 family. `(parenthesis)` tags from `s1` are read aloud as text.
5. Pass the model explicitly in the JavaScript SDK, because npm release 0.1.0 defaults to `s1`.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP or Fish Audio TTS API?

ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP scores 75.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Fish Audio TTS API's 60.7 (C), and leads in every scored category.

### Do ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP and Fish Audio TTS API need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP and Fish Audio TTS API without installing anything?

Yes. ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1 and Fish Audio TTS API at https://api.fish.audio.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "elevenlabs-tts", "b": "fish-audio-tts"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare elevenlabs-tts fish-audio-tts`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-tts.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fish-audio-tts.json

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