{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "fish-audio-tts", "name": "Fish Audio TTS API", "vendor": "Fish Audio", "vendorUrl": "https://fish.audio", "kind": "model", "category": "text-to-speech", "summary": "Fish Audio's API turns text into speech with the `s2.1-pro` model in 83 languages, over a REST endpoint, a timestamped stream and a WebSocket that accepts text as it is produced.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fish-audio-tts", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fish-audio-tts.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fish-audio-tts.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fish-audio-tts.json", "repo": "https://github.com/fishaudio/fish-audio-python", "license": "Apache-2.0 (Python SDK), MIT (JavaScript SDK)", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.fish.audio", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "fish-audio-sdk" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "fish-audio" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "`Authorization: Bearer` API key created in the web app after a browser signup with email verification. A key takes a name and an optional expiry. The `model` request header selects the model. The hosted MCP server at `https://api.fish.audio/mcp` signs in by OAuth and is bound to one team (https://docs.fish.audio/developer-guide/getting-started/api-key, https://docs.fish.audio/overview/mcp).", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "$15 per million UTF-8 bytes of input text on `s2.1-pro`, `s2-pro` and `s1`, prepaid with no subscription or monthly minimum. `s2.1-pro-free` costs $0 under fair-use limits, and the changelog says it is free through 30 November 2026. An agent can start on the free model once a person has signed up. Whether a card is needed is not stated. Concurrency rises with total prepaid amount. MCP usage draws on web app plan credits, not API credits (https://docs.fish.audio/developer-guide/models-pricing/pricing-and-rate-limits).", "priceSummary": "Pay per use", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the developer docs, the OpenAPI file or the pricing page (checked 2026-10-09).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": 5213, "pypiWeekly": 34220, "asOf": "2026-10-09" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.fish.audio/features/text-to-speech", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.fish.audio/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://docs.fish.audio/api-reference/openapi.json", "capabilities": [ "speech.tts", "speech.streaming", "speech.voices", "speech.languages", "voice.clone" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "usage-priced", "prepaid", "free-tier", "closed-source", "python", "typescript", "openapi", "llms-txt", "mcp", "streaming", "status-page", "open-weights" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-23", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 60.7, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 453, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 842, "categoryRank": 8, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 67, "maintenance": 69, "payments": 30, "reliability": 75, "schema": 84, "security": 35, "transparency": 60 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-09" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "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.", "bestFor": "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.", "strengths": [ "Public OpenAPI 3.1 file, llms.txt, Markdown pages and two installable agent skills for the SDKs and the raw API", "WebSocket input takes text as it is produced, with `flush` and `stop` events and a variant that returns word timestamps", "`s2.1-pro-free` runs the production model at $0 under fair-use limits, through 30 November 2026", "OpenAI-compatible and ElevenLabs-compatible endpoints refuse unsupported options with a 4xx and send `Retry-After` on a 429", "S1 retirement was announced on 8 October 2026 for 31 December 2026, with a migration guide" ], "weaknesses": [ "The terms allow Usage Data and Content to train models, with no opt-out found", "An unrecognised `model` header falls back to paid `s2.1-pro` without an error", "The Text-to-Speech API status component shows downtime on 11 days in 90, the longest 58 minutes on 6 August 2026, mostly on the free model", "The published SDKs date from March 2026. `fish-audio` 0.1.0 on npm defaults to the deprecated `s1`", "No security.txt, certification, DPA text or sub-processor list found in the pages read" ], "agentNotes": [ "Send the `model` header on every request and check its spelling. A missing or unknown value is served and billed as `s2.1-pro`.", "Budget by UTF-8 bytes, not characters. Chinese, Japanese and Korean text costs about three bytes a character.", "Retry 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff. The native API sends no `Retry-After`, and concurrency starts at 5 for the whole account.", "Use `[bracket]` cues on the S2 family. `(parenthesis)` tags from `s1` are read aloud as text.", "Pass the model explicitly in the JavaScript SDK, because npm release 0.1.0 defaults to `s1`." ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 60.7 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 67, "maintenance": 69, "payments": 30, "reliability": 75, "schema": 84, "security": 35, "transparency": 44 }, "provenanceScore": 75 }, "connect": { "install": "pip install fish-audio-sdk", "http": "curl --request POST https://api.fish.audio/v1/tts \\\n --header \"Authorization: Bearer $FISH_API_KEY\" \\\n --header \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n --header \"model: s2.1-pro-free\" \\\n --data '{ \"text\": \"Hello from Fish Audio!\", \"format\": \"mp3\" }' \\\n --output hello.mp3", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http fish-audio https://api.fish.audio/mcp", "config": { "mcpServers": { "fish-audio": { "url": "https://api.fish.audio/mcp" } } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/speech.tts", "tool": "https://letme.dev/fish-audio-tts" }, "sameCompany": [ "fish-audio-voice-cloning" ], "area": "voice", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Text to speech, s2.1-pro", "unit": "1m-chars", "usd": 15, "note": "per million UTF-8 bytes of input text, not characters" }, { "item": "Text to speech, s2.1-pro-free", "unit": "1m-chars", "usd": 0, "note": "fair-use limits, free through 30 November 2026 per the changelog" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Hanabi AI Inc.", "domain": "fish.audio", "domainRegistered": "2023-12-11", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://fish.audio/terms/", "privacy": "https://fish.audio/privacy/", "statusPage": "https://status.fish.audio", "changelog": "https://docs.fish.audio/developer-guide/getting-started/changelog", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-09", "notes": [ "The Terms of Use (effective 18 August 2024) name Hanabi AI Inc., a Delaware corporation at 1111B S Governors Ave STE 48109, Dover, DE 19904, as the provider of the Services, and cover API keys.", "The Privacy Policy is dated 28 August 2024.", "https://fish.audio/.well-known/security.txt returned 404 on 2026-10-09.", "RDAP for fish.audio gives a registration date of 2023-12-11.", "The terms forbid crawling or scraping any page of the Services by manual or automated means. robots.txt on fish.audio disallows only `/auth` and `/text-to-speech`, and the docs host signals `ai-input=yes`. We read the terms, the privacy policy and the docs host, and no other fish.audio page." ], "score": 75 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fish-audio-tts.json", "live": { "slug": "fish-audio-tts", "probe": { "target": "https://api.fish.audio", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-09T12:32:37.942934406Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 170, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 158, "p95ms24h": 210, "samples24h": 52, "samples30d": 52, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 52, "ok": 52 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.fish.audio", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T07:57:55.361055093Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T12:32:37.942934406Z" } }, "answer": "Fish Audio TTS API scores 60.7 (C) on agent readiness against PlayHT Text-to-Speech API's 3.9 (F), and leads in every scored category.", "b": { "slug": "playht-tts", "name": "PlayHT Text-to-Speech API", "vendor": "PlayHT", "vendorUrl": "https://play.ht", "kind": "model", "category": "text-to-speech", "summary": "Discontinued text-to-speech API from PlayHT, formerly supporting streaming audio and batch generation.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playht-tts", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playht-tts.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playht-tts.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/playht-tts.json", "repo": "https://github.com/playht/pyht", "license": "Apache-2.0 (Python SDK)", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.play.ht/api/v2", "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "playht" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "pyht" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "Two headers, `X-USER-ID` and `AUTHORIZATION` with the secret key, both from the dashboard. The endpoints no longer answer.", "pricing": "paid", "pricingNotes": "Sold as monthly API plans named Hacker or Pro, Startup, Growth and Enterprise, with rate limits set by plan. The plan prices couldn't be recovered from a primary source, since the API pricing tab wasn't archived and play.ht is gone. The last archived pricing page shows Studio plans only (https://web.archive.org/web/20250625003728/https://play.ht/pricing/).", "priceSummary": "Paid", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "Service shut down. No x402 or machine payment was ever documented (checked 2026-09-30).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 218, "npmWeekly": 14219, "pypiWeekly": 6561, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.play.ht/reference/api-getting-started", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.play.ht/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "speech.tts", "speech.streaming", "speech.voices", "speech.languages" ], "tags": [ "closed-source", "retired", "python", "typescript" ], "lastRelease": "2025-05-21", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 3.9, "grade": "F", "agentReady": false, "rank": 0, "ranked": false, "notRankedWhy": "Shut down 2025-12-31, so out of the ranking", "rankOf": 842, "categoryRank": 11, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 0, "maintenance": 0, "payments": 0, "reliability": 0, "schema": 31, "security": 0, "transparency": 33 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "high", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": -4, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-10-01. docs.play.ht still documents `POST /api/v2/tts/stream`, the WebSocket API and batch jobs with no shutdown notice, and play.ht serves an old marketing page, while api.play.ht doesn't resolve and the platform closed on 2025-12-31. An endpoint removed while still advertised. https://docs.play.ht/reference/api-getting-started and https://inworld.ai/resources/migrate-from-playht" ], "verdict": "The old API reference is still readable at docs.play.ht for anyone porting code. api.play.ht doesn't resolve, so every call fails.", "strengths": [ "The old API reference is still readable at docs.play.ht for anyone porting code", "SDKs remain on GitHub under Apache-2.0" ], "weaknesses": [ "api.play.ht doesn't resolve, so every call fails", "docs.play.ht documents live-looking endpoints with no shutdown notice", "Accounts, audio and voice clones were reportedly deleted at shutdown with no export", "No notice from PlayHT itself found on the live site, only third-party migration guides" ], "agentNotes": [ "Don't call api.play.ht, it doesn't resolve.", "Ignore docs.play.ht code samples, they describe a closed service.", "Map PlayDialog or Play 3.0 Mini work to another TTS listing before writing code." ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 1, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "high", "grade": "F", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 3.9 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 0, "maintenance": 0, "payments": 0, "reliability": 0, "schema": 31, "security": 0, "transparency": 5 }, "provenanceScore": 60 }, "connect": { "http": "# Retired. api.play.ht no longer resolves.\ncurl -X POST https://api.play.ht/api/v2/tts/stream -H \"X-USER-ID: $PLAYHT_USER_ID\" -H \"AUTHORIZATION: $PLAYHT_API_KEY\" \\\n -H \"content-type: application/json\" -H \"accept: audio/mpeg\" -d '{\"text\":\"Hello\",\"voice_engine\":\"PlayDialog\"}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/speech.tts", "tool": "https://letme.dev/playht-tts" }, "sameCompany": [ "playht-voice-cloning" ], "area": "voice", "retired": "2025-12-31", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "PlayHT, Inc.", "domain": "play.ht", "domainRegistered": "2016-11-29", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://web.archive.org/web/20250222123504/https://play.ht/terms/", "privacy": "https://web.archive.org/web/20250202131353/https://play.ht/privacy/", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "unknown", "checked": "2026-10-01", "notes": [ "On 2026-10-01 api.play.ht didn't resolve, while play.ht and docs.play.ht still served old marketing and API reference pages with no shutdown notice", "Terms and privacy links point to Internet Archive copies from February 2025" ], "score": 60 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playht-tts.json" }, "facts": [ { "a": "Model API", "b": "Model API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Fish Audio", "b": "PlayHT", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://api.fish.audio", "b": "https://api.play.ht/api/v2", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Pay per use", "b": "Paid", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "Apache-2.0 (Python SDK), MIT (JavaScript SDK)", "b": "Apache-2.0 (Python SDK)", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-09-23", "b": "2025-05-21", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "2024-08-18", "b": "2023-06-01", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2024-08-28", "b": "2021-06-19", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "5.2k npm/wk, 34k PyPI/wk", "b": "218 stars, 14k npm/wk, 6.6k PyPI/wk", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "none", "b": "1/5 (2)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Fish Audio TTS API scores 60.7 (C) on agent readiness against PlayHT Text-to-Speech API's 3.9 (F), and leads in every scored category.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Fish Audio TTS API or PlayHT Text-to-Speech API?" }, { "answer": "Fish Audio TTS API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. PlayHT Text-to-Speech API needs an API key.", "question": "Do Fish Audio TTS API and PlayHT Text-to-Speech API need an API key?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Fish Audio TTS API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.fish.audio and PlayHT Text-to-Speech API at https://api.play.ht/api/v2.", "question": "Can an agent call Fish Audio TTS API and PlayHT Text-to-Speech API without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 75 against 0", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 84 against 31", "Agent ergonomics, 67 against 0", "Security \u0026 auth, 35 against 0", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 30 against 0", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 69 against 0", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 60 against 33" ], "also": [ "Still running. PlayHT Text-to-Speech API has shut down", "No incidents deducted, where PlayHT Text-to-Speech API loses 4 points for them" ], "goodFor": "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.", "slug": "fish-audio-tts", "watchFor": "The terms allow Usage Data and Content to train models, with no opt-out found" }, { "aheadOn": null, "also": null, "goodFor": "Nothing new. It shut down on 2025-12-31.", "slug": "playht-tts", "watchFor": "api.play.ht doesn't resolve, so every call fails" } ], "job": { "capability": "speech.tts", "name": "Speech tts" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-polly-vs-fish-audio-tts.json", "title": "Amazon Polly vs Fish Audio TTS API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-polly-vs-fish-audio-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-polly-vs-playht-tts.json", "title": "Amazon Polly vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-polly-vs-playht-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-text-to-speech-vs-fish-audio-tts.json", "title": "Azure AI Speech text-to-speech vs Fish Audio TTS API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-text-to-speech-vs-fish-audio-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-text-to-speech-vs-playht-tts.json", "title": "Azure AI Speech text-to-speech vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-text-to-speech-vs-playht-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.json", "title": "Cartesia Sonic TTS API + MCP vs Fish Audio TTS API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-tts-vs-playht-tts.json", "title": "Cartesia Sonic TTS API + MCP vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-tts-vs-playht-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.json", "title": "Deepgram Text-to-Speech (Aura-2, Flux TTS) vs Fish Audio TTS API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-tts-vs-playht-tts.json", "title": "Deepgram Text-to-Speech (Aura-2, Flux TTS) vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-tts-vs-playht-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.json", "title": "ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP vs Fish Audio TTS API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-playht-tts.json", "title": "ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-playht-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-murf-tts.json", "title": "Fish Audio TTS API vs Murf TTS API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-murf-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-resemble-ai-tts.json", "title": "Fish Audio TTS API vs Resemble AI Text-to-Speech API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-resemble-ai-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-rime-tts.json", "title": "Fish Audio TTS API vs Rime TTS API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-rime-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-soniox-tts.json", "title": "Fish Audio TTS API vs Soniox Text-to-Speech", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-soniox-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/murf-tts-vs-playht-tts.json", "title": "Murf TTS API + MCP vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/murf-tts-vs-playht-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playht-tts-vs-resemble-ai-tts.json", "title": "PlayHT Text-to-Speech API vs Resemble AI Text-to-Speech API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playht-tts-vs-resemble-ai-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playht-tts-vs-rime-tts.json", "title": "PlayHT Text-to-Speech API vs Rime TTS API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playht-tts-vs-rime-tts" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playht-tts-vs-soniox-tts.json", "title": "PlayHT Text-to-Speech API vs Soniox Text-to-Speech", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playht-tts-vs-soniox-tts" } ], "scores": [ { "by": 75, "edge": "fish-audio-tts", "fish-audio-tts": 75, "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "playht-tts": 0, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 53, "edge": "fish-audio-tts", "fish-audio-tts": 84, "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "playht-tts": 31, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 67, "edge": "fish-audio-tts", "fish-audio-tts": 67, "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "playht-tts": 0, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 35, "edge": "fish-audio-tts", "fish-audio-tts": 35, "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "playht-tts": 0, "weight": 14 }, { "by": 30, "edge": "fish-audio-tts", "fish-audio-tts": 30, "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "playht-tts": 0, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 69, "edge": "fish-audio-tts", "fish-audio-tts": 69, "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "playht-tts": 0, "weight": 7 }, { "by": 27, "edge": "fish-audio-tts", "fish-audio-tts": 60, "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "playht-tts": 33, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "PlayHT Text-to-Speech API shut down on 2025-12-31. Fish Audio TTS API scores 60.7 (C) on agent readiness against PlayHT Text-to-Speech API's 3.9 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech tts.", "verdicts": { "fish-audio-tts": "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.", "playht-tts": "The old API reference is still readable at docs.play.ht for anyone porting code. api.play.ht doesn't resolve, so every call fails." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-playht-tts", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-playht-tts.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-playht-tts.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-playht-tts.min.md" }, "markdown": "PlayHT Text-to-Speech API shut down on 2025-12-31. Fish Audio TTS API scores 60.7 (C) on agent readiness against PlayHT Text-to-Speech API's 3.9 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech tts.\n\n- 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\n- PlayHT Text-to-Speech API: grade F, 3.9/100, rank retired, not ranked. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playht-tts.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/playht-tts.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Fish Audio TTS API (C)\n\nGood 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.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 75 against 0\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 84 against 31\n- Agent ergonomics, 67 against 0\n- Security \u0026 auth, 35 against 0\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 30 against 0\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 69 against 0\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 60 against 33\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Still running. PlayHT Text-to-Speech API has shut down\n- No incidents deducted, where PlayHT Text-to-Speech API loses 4 points for them\n\nWatch for: The terms allow Usage Data and Content to train models, with no opt-out found\n\n### PlayHT Text-to-Speech API (F)\n\nGood for: Nothing new. It shut down on 2025-12-31.\n\nWatch for: api.play.ht doesn't resolve, so every call fails\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Fish Audio TTS API | PlayHT Text-to-Speech API | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 0 | Fish Audio TTS API +75 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 31 | Fish Audio TTS API +53 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 0 | Fish Audio TTS API +67 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 35 | 0 | Fish Audio TTS API +35 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 0 | Fish Audio TTS API +30 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 0 | Fish Audio TTS API +69 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 33 | Fish Audio TTS API +27 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |\n| **Total** | | **60.7 · C** | **3.9 · F** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Fish Audio TTS API | PlayHT Text-to-Speech API |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Model API | Model API |\n| Vendor | Fish Audio | PlayHT |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.fish.audio` | `https://api.play.ht/api/v2` |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Paid |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | Apache-2.0 (Python SDK), MIT (JavaScript SDK) | Apache-2.0 (Python SDK) |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2025-05-21 |\n| Terms last updated | 2024-08-18 | 2023-06-01 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-08-28 | 2021-06-19 |\n| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |\n| Popularity | 5.2k npm/wk, 34k PyPI/wk | 218 stars, 14k npm/wk, 6.6k PyPI/wk |\n| Agent reviews | none | 1/5 (2) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**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.\n\n**PlayHT Text-to-Speech API.** The old API reference is still readable at docs.play.ht for anyone porting code. api.play.ht doesn't resolve, so every call fails.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Fish Audio TTS API\n\n1. Send the `model` header on every request and check its spelling. A missing or unknown value is served and billed as `s2.1-pro`.\n2. Budget by UTF-8 bytes, not characters. Chinese, Japanese and Korean text costs about three bytes a character.\n3. Retry 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff. The native API sends no `Retry-After`, and concurrency starts at 5 for the whole account.\n4. Use `[bracket]` cues on the S2 family. `(parenthesis)` tags from `s1` are read aloud as text.\n5. Pass the model explicitly in the JavaScript SDK, because npm release 0.1.0 defaults to `s1`.\n\n### PlayHT Text-to-Speech API\n\n1. Don't call api.play.ht, it doesn't resolve.\n2. Ignore docs.play.ht code samples, they describe a closed service.\n3. Map PlayDialog or Play 3.0 Mini work to another TTS listing before writing code.\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Fish Audio TTS API or PlayHT Text-to-Speech API?\n\nFish Audio TTS API scores 60.7 (C) on agent readiness against PlayHT Text-to-Speech API's 3.9 (F), and leads in every scored category.\n\n### Do Fish Audio TTS API and PlayHT Text-to-Speech API need an API key?\n\nFish Audio TTS API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. PlayHT Text-to-Speech API needs an API key.\n\n### Can an agent call Fish Audio TTS API and PlayHT Text-to-Speech API without installing anything?\n\nYes. Fish Audio TTS API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.fish.audio and PlayHT Text-to-Speech API at https://api.play.ht/api/v2.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-playht-tts.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-playht-tts.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"fish-audio-tts\", \"b\": \"playht-tts\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare fish-audio-tts playht-tts`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fish-audio-tts.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/playht-tts.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Fish Audio TTS API or PlayHT Text-to-Speech API\n\n- [Amazon Polly vs Fish Audio TTS API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-polly-vs-fish-audio-tts.md)\n- [Amazon Polly vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-polly-vs-playht-tts.md)\n- [Azure AI Speech text-to-speech vs Fish Audio TTS API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-text-to-speech-vs-fish-audio-tts.md)\n- [Azure AI Speech text-to-speech vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-text-to-speech-vs-playht-tts.md)\n- [Cartesia Sonic TTS API + MCP vs Fish Audio TTS API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.md)\n- [Cartesia Sonic TTS API + MCP vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-tts-vs-playht-tts.md)\n- [Deepgram Text-to-Speech (Aura-2, Flux TTS) vs Fish Audio TTS API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.md)\n- [Deepgram Text-to-Speech (Aura-2, Flux TTS) vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-tts-vs-playht-tts.md)\n- [ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP vs Fish Audio TTS API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-fish-audio-tts.md)\n- [ElevenLabs Text to Speech API + MCP vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-tts-vs-playht-tts.md)\n- [Fish Audio TTS API vs Murf TTS API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-murf-tts.md)\n- [Fish Audio TTS API vs Resemble AI Text-to-Speech API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-resemble-ai-tts.md)\n- [Fish Audio TTS API vs Rime TTS API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-rime-tts.md)\n- [Fish Audio TTS API vs Soniox Text-to-Speech](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-soniox-tts.md)\n- [Murf TTS API + MCP vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/murf-tts-vs-playht-tts.md)\n- [PlayHT Text-to-Speech API vs Resemble AI Text-to-Speech API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playht-tts-vs-resemble-ai-tts.md)\n- [PlayHT Text-to-Speech API vs Rime TTS API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playht-tts-vs-rime-tts.md)\n- [PlayHT Text-to-Speech API vs Soniox Text-to-Speech](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playht-tts-vs-soniox-tts.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-09", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Fish Audio TTS API vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API", "url": "" } ], "description": "PlayHT Text-to-Speech API shut down on 2025-12-31. Fish Audio TTS API scores 60.7 (C) on agent readiness against PlayHT Text-to-Speech API's 3.9 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech tts. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Fish Audio TTS API C 60.7", "PlayHT Text-to-Speech API F 3.9", "scores" ], "h1": "Fish Audio TTS API vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-fish-audio-tts-vs-playht-tts.png", "path": "/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-playht-tts", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Fish Audio TTS API vs PlayHT Text-to-Speech API for AI agents", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-09", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fish-audio-tts-vs-playht-tts" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2300, "slim": 730 }, "version": 1 }