Gemini TTS promo prices double on 2027-01-01: budget now

Digital Applied reports that Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS is $0.50 input and $9.00 output and Flash-Lite TTS is $0.50 input and $6.00 output, held through 2026-12-31 and doubling on 2027-01-01. If that is right, a narration plan that costs $0.81 per hour of Flash output now costs about $1.62 per hour from 2027. The Gemini API changelog confirms GA on 2026-09-22; it is the tracker, not the changelog, that gives the prices and the doubling.

Treat the price table as reported and confirm it on Google's pricing page before you sign off a budget.

What does the doubling do to a plan?

The table assumes 25 audio tokens per second, or 90,000 tokens per hour, and uses output rates only; input text tokens add a small amount.

Should I lock in work before the end of the year?

If your script is final and you will use the audio in 2027, generating before 2027-01-01 saves the difference, but only if you will actually use every file. Do not generate speculative audio just to use a promotion. Also check licence terms for stored audio.

How do I keep the option to switch?

Put the provider behind one function and store the text, voice and output file per job. Sume's TTS Router lists Sonic models, and TTS 1.0 resolves a voice by avatar_id, avatar_handle or voice.id; neither is a Gemini wrapper, so treat them as a different provider to test.