Fish Audio
Fish Audio (AI text-to-speech and voice cloning with real emotion control, from about 15 seconds of audio and far cheaper than ElevenLabs) is an AI text-to-speech (TTS) and voice cloning platform built for expressive, emotionally controllable speech.
You can type text and generate natural narration with emotion and sound tags (angry, whispering, laughing, pauses), clone a voice from roughly 15 seconds of audio, and work across 30-plus languages, drawing on a library of more than two million community voices. Its flagship real-time model is Drama 3, with Fish Audio S2.1 Pro as the current featured voice model. The platform is operated by Hanabi AI Inc., and it is closely tied to the popular open-source speech project Fish Speech (and the newer OpenAudio releases), which is a big reason developers know and trust the name. Fish Audio raised a reported 52 million US dollar seed round, and reviewers often highlight that its API is many times cheaper than ElevenLabs for comparable quality.
This page explains what Fish Audio is, how it works, its pricing, honest pros and cons, and how it compares with ElevenLabs.
Overview
What is Fish Audio?
Fish Audio is a voice AI platform that turns text into natural, expressive speech and can clone a specific voice from a short sample. It is aimed at creators, developers, and businesses who need voiceovers, narration, dubbing, or in-app speech without hiring voice actors or paying premium per-minute rates. The headline differentiator is emotion control: rather than a flat read, you can direct tone with tags and get speech that laughs, whispers, pauses, or shifts mood, which is where its flagship Drama 3 model focuses.
Behind the product is a strong open-source heritage. Fish Audio is associated with Fish Speech, one of the better-known open-source TTS models on GitHub, and its research line now includes OpenAudio, Fish Audio S1 and S2, and Fish Diffusion. That open-source credibility, combined with a polished hosted product and a developer API with MCP support, is what has driven its fast growth. It is operated by Hanabi AI Inc., which has raised a reported 52 million US dollar seed round with a small team.
Fish Audio company information
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Product | Fish Audio (AI TTS and voice cloning) |
| Operated by | Hanabi AI Inc. |
| Flagship model | Drama 3 (real-time, emotion-controllable) |
| Open-source lineage | Fish Speech, OpenAudio, Fish Audio S1/S2, Fish Diffusion |
| Funding | Reported $52M seed round |
| Category | Voice AI / text-to-speech / voice cloning |
| Languages | 30+ (English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and more) |
| Website | fish.audio |
How Fish Audio works
You start in the browser. Paste your text, pick a voice from the library or clone your own, add emotion and sound tags where you want them, and generate audio you can download or use through the API. Voice cloning needs only a short reference sample, around 15 seconds of clean, single-speaker audio, and the docs require that you have permission to clone any voice you did not record yourself. Beyond basic narration, Fish Audio bundles speech-to-text, a voice changer, audio separation and translation, sound effects, and a Story Studio for audiobooks, plus AI image, video, and avatar generation with lip-sync. For developers, there is a pay-as-you-go API, documentation, and MCP integration so you can wire speech into your own apps and agents.
Key Fish Audio features
Fish Audio covers more than plain narration. These are the capabilities that matter most in practice.
- Expressive TTS with emotion tags: direct tone and delivery with tags like angry, whispering, laughing, and pause.
- Fast voice cloning: clone a voice from roughly 15 seconds of clean audio, with permission required.
- 30+ languages and 2M+ voices: a huge voice library and broad multilingual output for dubbing and localisation.
- Full audio toolkit: speech-to-text, voice changer, audio separation, translation, and sound effects.
- Story Studio and avatars: produce audiobooks, and generate AI image, video, and lip-synced avatars.
- Developer API with MCP: pay-as-you-go API and MCP integration to add speech to your own products.
Fish Audio pricing
Fish Audio is freemium and credit-based, and its big selling point is cost. The free tier gives a small monthly allowance (reviewers cite roughly 8,000 credits, about seven minutes of audio, with a 500-character limit per generation) for personal, non-commercial use only. The main paid plan, Plus, is around 15 US dollars a month (about 11 US dollars a month on annual billing) and reviewers report roughly 250,000 credits a month (about 200 minutes), 10 private voice slots, a professional clone, and commercial usage rights. For developers, the API is pay-as-you-go at a rate reviewers put near 15 US dollars per million characters, which is widely cited as many times cheaper than ElevenLabs for similar output, and Enterprise plans are available through sales. Numbers vary across review sites and change over time, so confirm the current tiers on fish.audio before relying on any figure.
Fish Audio reviews: pros and cons
The praise is consistent: reviewers rate the voice quality highly, call the emotion control genuinely useful, and repeatedly flag the price as the standout, with the API often described as many times cheaper than ElevenLabs. The 15-second cloning and the huge voice library are also popular. The honest caveats matter too. First, the free tier is personal use only, so commercial projects need a paid plan. Second, several reviews note that the terms allow Fish Audio to use content and usage data to help develop its models, which is worth weighing if you work with confidential or sensitive voice assets on self-serve plans. Third, the loudest marketing claims, such as topping every rival in blind tests, come from affiliate-style sites and are not independently verified, so treat superlatives with caution. Net: Fish Audio is a strong, affordable, expressive TTS and cloning platform, best for creators and developers who want quality at a fraction of ElevenLabs pricing, with data terms to read before uploading sensitive voices.
Fish Audio links
| Channel | Link |
|---|---|
| Website | fish.audio |
| Developer hub | fish.audio/developers |
| Documentation | docs.fish.audio |
| GitHub (Fish Speech) | github.com/fishaudio |
| X (Twitter) | x.com/FishAudio |
Fish Audio vs ElevenLabs
The comparison everyone makes is Fish Audio versus ElevenLabs, the category leader. Both do high-quality TTS and voice cloning with emotional range, and both offer a free tier and an API. The practical split is price and polish. ElevenLabs is the most established, with the broadest enterprise features, integrations, and a long track record, and it tends to cost more. Fish Audio competes hard on price, with an API reviewers put at a fraction of ElevenLabs rates, strong emotion control via Drama 3, and open-source credibility through Fish Speech. If you need the most mature enterprise ecosystem and do not mind paying for it, ElevenLabs is the safe default. If you want comparable quality at much lower cost, especially for high-volume API use, Fish Audio is the value pick. The table sums it up.
Who should use Fish Audio
Fish Audio suits YouTubers and content creators who need affordable, natural voiceovers, developers building voice features at scale who care about per-character cost, and teams doing dubbing or localisation across many languages. It is less ideal if you need a deeply established enterprise vendor with heavy compliance guarantees, or if your voice assets are so sensitive that the self-serve data terms give you pause. For most creators and builders who want expressive voice AI at a low price, it is one of the strongest options in 2026.
History
Fish Audio was founded in 2023 by Hanabi AI Inc. (Company behind Fish Audio).
Fish Audio features
Fish Audio offers the following capabilities:
- Expressive TTS with emotion tags. Direct tone and delivery with tags like angry, whispering, laughing, and pause, powered by the Drama 3 model.
- Fast voice cloning. Clone a voice from roughly 15 seconds of clean audio, with written permission required per the docs.
- 30+ languages, 2M+ voices. A huge community voice library and broad multilingual output for dubbing and localisation.
- Full audio toolkit. Speech-to-text, voice changer, audio separation, audio translation, and sound effects in one place.
- Story Studio and avatars. Produce audiobooks and generate AI image, video, and lip-synced avatars alongside speech.
- Developer API with MCP. A pay-as-you-go API with documentation and MCP integration to add speech to your apps and agents.
Use cases of Fish Audio
- Affordable voiceovers (YouTubers and creators). Generate natural narration for videos and podcasts without hiring voice actors or paying premium rates.
- Voice features at scale (Developers). Add TTS and voice cloning to apps and agents through a pay-as-you-go API priced for high volume.
- Dubbing and localisation (Media teams). Translate and voice content across 30-plus languages for international audiences.
- Audiobooks and narration (Authors and studios). Use Story Studio to turn long text into expressive, listenable audiobooks.
- Clone a signature voice (Personal brands). Clone your own voice from a short sample to scale narration while sounding like you.
Fish Audio pricing
Fish Audio uses a freemium pricing model, starting at Free; Plus from ~$11/mo. The product offers a free version.
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 /personal use only | A small monthly allowance (reviewers cite ~8,000 credits, about 7 minutes) with a 500-character limit per generation, for personal, non-commercial use. Good for testing quality and cloning.
|
| Plus | ~$15/mo (~$11 annual) /subscription | The main paid plan. Reviewers report roughly 250,000 credits a month (about 200 minutes), 10 private voice slots, a professional clone, and commercial usage rights.
|
| API (pay-as-you-go) | ~$15 / 1M characters /usage-based | Pay-as-you-go API for developers, widely cited as many times cheaper than ElevenLabs for comparable output, with MCP integration. Enterprise plans available through sales.
|
Fish Audio vs ElevenLabs
The table below contrasts Fish Audio with ElevenLabs (elevenlabs.io) on a few key dimensions.
| Dimension | Fish Audio | ElevenLabs |
|---|---|---|
| Position | Fast-rising value challenger | Established category leader |
| Price | API ~$15/1M chars (much cheaper) | Higher per-character cost |
| Emotion control | Strong, via Drama 3 | Strong, mature models |
| Voice cloning | From ~15 seconds | Instant + professional cloning |
| Open source | Yes (Fish Speech, OpenAudio) | No |
| Best for | Value and high-volume API | Mature enterprise ecosystem |
Platforms & tech
- Supported platforms: Web browser, API, MCP.
- Deployment: cloud, api.
Awards & recognition
- One of the fastest-growing AI tools of 2026 — Fish Audio was among the fastest-growing AI tools by traffic in 2026, backed by a reported $52 million seed round and the credibility of the widely used open-source Fish Speech model.
See also
- ElevenLabs — The market leader in AI voice, with the broadest enterprise features and integrations, at a higher price.
- PlayHT — A well-known TTS and voice cloning platform popular for conversational voice and API use.
- Murf AI — A studio-style TTS tool aimed at marketing and e-learning voiceovers with a simple editor.
References
- "Fish Audio official website". fish.audio.
- "Fish Audio developer docs". docs.fish.audio.
- "Fish Speech open-source project". GitHub.
- "Fish Audio review and pricing". TextToLab.
External links
Frequently asked questions
- What is Fish Audio?
- Fish Audio is an AI text-to-speech and voice cloning platform built for expressive, emotionally controllable speech. You can generate natural narration with emotion and sound tags, clone a voice from about 15 seconds of audio, and work across 30-plus languages using a library of over two million voices. Its flagship model is Drama 3, and it is operated by Hanabi AI Inc. It is closely tied to the open-source Fish Speech project, which is why many developers know the name.
- How much does Fish Audio cost?
- Fish Audio is freemium and credit-based. The free tier gives a small monthly allowance (reviewers cite about 8,000 credits, roughly 7 minutes) for personal, non-commercial use. The main paid plan, Plus, is around 15 US dollars a month, or about 11 US dollars a month billed annually, with roughly 250,000 credits a month and commercial rights. The developer API is pay-as-you-go at a rate reviewers put near 15 US dollars per million characters, with Enterprise plans via sales. Figures vary across sources, so confirm current pricing on fish.audio.
- Is Fish Audio cheaper than ElevenLabs?
- Yes, in most reviews Fish Audio is significantly cheaper, especially for API use. Reviewers commonly cite its API at around 15 US dollars per million characters and describe it as many times cheaper than ElevenLabs for comparable output, which is its main selling point for high-volume projects. ElevenLabs remains the more established enterprise option with more integrations, so the trade-off is value and cost (Fish Audio) versus a larger, more mature ecosystem (ElevenLabs).
- How good is Fish Audio voice cloning?
- Fish Audio can clone a voice from roughly 15 seconds of clean, single-speaker audio, and reviewers rate the resulting quality highly, particularly the emotional range from the Drama 3 model. The documentation requires that you have permission to clone any voice you did not record yourself. For most creators the clones are natural and usable, though as with any cloning tool the result depends on the quality of your reference sample.
- Is Fish Audio free, and can I use it commercially?
- Fish Audio has a free tier, but it is for personal, non-commercial use only, with a small monthly credit allowance and a per-generation character limit. To use the audio commercially, for monetised YouTube, podcasts, client work, or in a business product, you need a paid plan such as Plus or the pay-as-you-go API. Always check the current licensing terms on fish.audio, since the line between personal and commercial use is defined by your plan.
- What is Fish Speech and how does it relate to Fish Audio?
- Fish Speech is the open-source text-to-speech model associated with Fish Audio and is one of the better-known open-source TTS projects on GitHub. The research line also includes OpenAudio and models like Fish Audio S1 and S2. Fish Audio the platform is the hosted, commercial product built on this heritage, offering a polished interface, a huge voice library, and an API, while Fish Speech is the open model developers can run themselves.
- Is Fish Audio safe for sensitive or confidential voices?
- Use judgement. Several reviews note that Fish Audio's terms allow it to use content and usage data to help develop its models, which is common for self-serve AI tools but matters if your voice assets are confidential. If you work with sensitive material, read the current data and privacy terms, consider an enterprise agreement with stronger guarantees, and make sure you have permission for any voice you clone. For everyday creator use, it operates like other mainstream voice tools.
- Does Fish Audio have an API?
- Yes. Fish Audio offers a pay-as-you-go developer API with documentation at docs.fish.audio and MCP integration, so you can add text-to-speech and voice cloning to your own apps and AI agents. Reviewers highlight the API pricing as a major advantage over competitors for high-volume use. There is a developer hub at fish.audio/developers, and Enterprise plans are available for larger needs.
- Who owns Fish Audio?
- Fish Audio is operated by Hanabi AI Inc. Public sources mention a reported 52 million US dollar seed round and a small team of around 22 people, but do not prominently name the founders. The company is best known for combining the open-source Fish Speech project with a commercial hosted platform and API, which has driven its rapid growth in 2026.
- What are the best Fish Audio alternatives?
- The main alternative is ElevenLabs, the market leader with the broadest enterprise features at a higher price. Other options include PlayHT, popular for conversational voice and API use, and Murf AI, a studio-style tool for marketing and e-learning voiceovers. The right choice depends on your priority: Fish Audio for value and high-volume API, ElevenLabs for a mature ecosystem, and PlayHT or Murf for specific editor or conversational needs.