Deepgram Aura-2 TTS price: $0.030 per 1,000 characters, and a script

Deepgram's pay-as-you-go page lists Aura-2 text-to-speech at $0.030 per 1,000 characters and Aura-1 at $0.0150. A 5,000-character script is $0.1500 on Aura-2 and $0.0750 on Aura-1. Sume TTS 1.0 is $0.0475 per 1,000 characters, or $0.2375 for the same script.

Deepgram's figures are from its pricing page, read 2026-10-01; Sume's from the rate card. The math is price per 1,000 times five.

How do the three rates line up?

One unit, one script length.

Is the per-script price the whole story?

No. Deepgram's per-request character limit is separate from price (see the 2,000-character limit), so a long script is several Aura calls but one Sume call. Price per character stays the same either way; the difference is how many requests you stitch together.

How does Sume count what I pay for?

Sume counts the transcript's characters, with spaces and punctuation, to a maximum of 20,000 per request. TTS 1.0 is an async job with a status URL or a signed webhook, per the API reference.

What should I check before switching on price?

Whether the voice and language you need exist on the cheaper engine. Price tables do not say which voices sound right for your content. Synthesize the same page on each and listen; at these rates a test costs well under a cent.