Fish Audio Review, Pricing & Alternatives (2026)

Fish Audio began as Fish Speech, a project by former Nvidia researcher Shijia Liao, who trained a voice-generation model on one GPU and open-sourced it. The company later rebranded as Fish Audio, with Rissa Cao serving as CEO and co-founder. Its public history records the first Fish Speech release in December 2023. The company launched five models in the year before July 2026, including four speech-generation systems and one speech-to-text model. TechCrunch reported that Fish Audio raised a $52 million seed round in July 2026, led by Coreline Ventures and Capital Today. The report also cited more than eight million users across hosted and open-source models, $21 million in annual recurring revenue, and a GitHub repository exceeding 31,000 stars.

A typical Fish Audio workflow begins by selecting a voice or creating one through cloning or Voice Design, then entering a script and adding bracketed directions such as [whisper] or [laugh]. Users generate audio, review it, and download or share the result. For production integrations, developers send text to the REST TTS endpoint or use WebSocket streaming through Python or TypeScript SDKs. S2.1-Pro supports multi-speaker dialogue and 83 languages; s2.1-pro-free suits development under fair-use limits. For transcription, teams upload a recording to /v1/asr and specify the transcribe-1-pro header to receive speaker markers, turns, timestamps, and vocal-event cues. Live applications instead keep a realtime WebSocket open with transcribe-stream-1, billed by session duration.

Fish Audio’s 2025-2026 releases center on increasingly steerable speech models. S1, introduced in June 2025 as a 4-billion-parameter model with 64-plus emotional expressions, is now deprecated and scheduled for retirement on December 31, 2026. The March 2026 S2 release added multi-speaker dialogue, 80-plus languages, and bracket-based cues such as [whisper] and [laugh], using a Qwen3-4B backbone. S2.1 Pro, released in June 2026, improves quality, latency, and throughput, supports 83 languages, and is the recommended production TTS model. Its free counterpart offers the same model for development through November 30, 2026, without TTFA or DPA guarantees. Transcribe-1 Pro, released in September, adds long-recording and multi-speaker transcription, while Drama 3 arrived in October for plain-language direction.

Fish Audio separates consumer subscriptions from API billing, so practical costs depend on workflow. The Free web plan costs $0 and includes 8,000 credits monthly, up to seven minutes of generation, 500 characters per request, and three public voice slots. Plus costs $15 monthly, or $11 annually, for 250,000 credits and up to 200 minutes; Pro costs $100 monthly, or $75 annually, for 2 million credits and up to 1,620 minutes. Max costs $999 monthly, or $749 annually, for 25 million credits and up to 6,250 minutes. Credits reset each billing cycle and do not roll over. API TTS costs $15 per million UTF-8 bytes, ASR $0.36 per audio hour, and concurrency begins at five requests.

Fish Audio differs from ElevenLabs, Cartesia, and PlayHT in its combination of expressive controls, open models, and deployment options. S2.1 Pro offers 83 languages, multi-speaker dialogue, and free development access, while bracket-based direction and open-weight models provide control over delivery and deployment. The $15-per-million-UTF-8-byte API price differs from credit-based web plans, complicating budgeting across products. Starter API accounts allow five concurrent requests, and long recordings can occupy a slot for minutes. Its terms permit use of Usage Data and Content to develop or enhance models, while voice submissions and public content carry licensing and consent responsibilities. Fish Audio suits creators and engineering teams prioritizing expressive control, multilingual output, and self-hosting.