Amazon Polly API Hidden Costs 2026
What they don't show you on the pricing page
Amazon Polly API costs $4 to $100 per 1 million characters as of June 2026, with 6 plans available. Plans: Standard voices at $4/1 million characters, Neural voices at $16/1 million characters, Long-Form voices at $100/1 million characters, Generative voices at $30/1 million characters, Standard voices (AWS GovCloud US) at $4.8/1 million characters, and Neural TTS voices (AWS GovCloud US) at $19.2/1 million characters. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: No free tier available
Amazon Polly API offers 6 pricing tiers: Standard voices, Neural voices, Long-Form voices, Generative voices, Standard voices (AWS GovCloud US), Neural TTS voices (AWS GovCloud US). Paid plans include Standard voices at $4/1 million characters, Neural voices at $16/1 million characters, Long-Form voices at $100/1 million characters.
Amazon Polly API true cost runs 70% above the listed $4-$100/1 million characters price as of June 2026. For a 25-person team, expect ~$9,792 in year-one costs vs the $5,760 base license. Verified from 1 sources by CostBench.
Example: True Cost for 25 Users
| License (25 × $19.2 × 12) | $5,760/yr |
| Implementation (one-time) | +$15,000–$50,000 |
| Premium Support (20%) | +$1,152/yr |
| Training (25 × $500) | +$12,500 |
| Admin (part-time) | +$15,000–$25,000/yr |
| Estimated Year 1 Total | ~$9,792 |