Indie Dev Launches Flat-Rate TTS API, Billed Per Concurrent Stream Instead of Characters
Lazy_Mycologist_8214 · reddit · 2026-08-13
The founder of text-to-speech (TTS) API Gandr identified a flaw in the industry-standard character-based pricing: chatty voice agents that handle more work end up costing more.
To fix this, the API uses a per concurrent stream pricing model. A stream represents one active talk channel held open around the clock, with no metering for characters, minutes, or requests. The founder shared a cost breakdown: 12 streams generating roughly 4,320 hours of speech monthly (approx. 259.2 million characters) would cost $12,960 at a traditional $50/million chars rate, but only $1,800 on their flat rate.
He notes that for low-volume use cases, traditional metered packs remain cheaper. The API supports 23 languages, watermarks all outputs, and does not use customer data for training.
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