Google Cloud vs Microsoft Azure Speech pricing
STT: Google Cloud from $0.003 vs Microsoft Azure Speech from $0.003; TTS: Google Cloud from $4.00 vs Microsoft Azure Speech from $15.00.
Last updated · prices checked daily
Speech-to-text: Google Cloud vs Microsoft Azure Speech
Both list the same lowest STT price: $0.003 per minute.
| Vendor | Product / tier | $/min |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud Visit site ↗ | V2 Dynamic Batch | $0.003 |
| Microsoft Azure Speech Visit site ↗ | Standard batch transcription | $0.003 |
| Google Cloud Visit site ↗ | Speech-to-Text V2 Standard (first 500K min) | $0.016 |
| Microsoft Azure Speech Visit site ↗ | Standard real-time transcription | $0.0167 |
What it costs at volume (lowest listed rate)
| Minutes | Google Cloud | Microsoft Azure Speech |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 min | $3.00 | $3.00 |
| 10,000 min | $30.00 | $30.00 |
| 100,000 min | $300.00 | $300.00 |
Text-to-speech: Google Cloud vs Microsoft Azure Speech
Google Cloud has the lower listed TTS price: $4.00 per 1M characters (Standard voices) vs $15.00 for Microsoft Azure Speech (Neural / Neural HD Flash), about 73% less.
| Vendor | Product / tier | $/1M chars |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud Visit site ↗ | Standard voices | $4.00 |
| Microsoft Azure Speech Visit site ↗ | Neural / Neural HD Flash | $15.00 |
| Google Cloud Visit site ↗ | Neural2 voices | $16.00 |
| Google Cloud Visit site ↗ | Chirp 3: HD voices | $30.00 |
What it costs at volume (lowest listed rate)
| Characters | Google Cloud | Microsoft Azure Speech |
|---|---|---|
| 1M chars | $4.00 | $15.00 |
| 10M chars | $40.00 | $150.00 |
| 100M chars | $400.00 | $1,500.00 |
Cost-per-call calculator
Estimate what one call really costs. Prices come from today's table; LLM and telephony presets are per-minute rates published by Retell and Vapi. Everything is editable.
Cartesia's pricing page puts one minute of speech at 750–800 characters; Rime says about 1,000. The talk share is your own guess at how much of each call the agent is speaking.
FAQ
Is Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure Speech cheaper for speech-to-text?
Both list the same lowest STT price: $0.003 per minute. Prices checked Oct 28, 2026.
Is Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure Speech cheaper for text-to-speech?
Google Cloud has the lower listed TTS price: $4.00 per 1M characters (Standard voices) vs $15.00 for Microsoft Azure Speech (Neural / Neural HD Flash), about 73% less. Prices checked Oct 28, 2026.
How often are these prices updated?
Every day. A script reads each vendor's public pricing page, extracts the listed rates and keeps a dated copy, so price changes show up in the history.