Sume TTS at $0.0475 per 1,000 characters: a weekly audio edition costs
Sume text-to-speech costs $0.0475 per 1,000 characters, which the catalog shows as 5 cents. A 4,000-character weekly issue costs $0.19, or $9.88 a year.
How much does Sume text-to-speech cost per issue?
Sume TTS costs $0.0475 per 1,000 characters. A 4,000-character newsletter issue costs $0.19, and 52 weekly issues come to $9.88 for the year. Spaces and punctuation count as characters, and one request takes at most 20,000 characters.
The catalog row for TTS shows an estimate of 5 cents, a minimum of 1 cent and a maximum of 95 cents.
Why does the catalog say 5 cents when the rate is 4.75?
Catalog bands are whole cents, so $0.0475 for 1,000 characters rounds up to 5 cents. The maximum of 95 cents is 20,000 characters at the same rate. The rounding is for the display and for balance compatibility, and your cost scales with characters, not with the rounded figure.
What does a year of audio editions cost?
Computed from the rate.
| Characters per issue | Per issue | 52 issues |
|---|---|---|
| 2,000 | $0.095 | $4.94 |
| 4,000 | $0.19 | $9.88 |
| 8,000 | $0.38 | $19.76 |
| 20,000 (request maximum) | $0.95 | $49.40 |
What is not in that number?
Hosting, an RSS feed and any editing are not part of the TTS price, and Sume does not publish podcasts for you. If your episode needs music, Music 1.0 is a fixed $0.125 per generation. Joining narration and music is a Timeline job at $0.10 per output minute, rounded up.
How do I keep the character count honest?
Count the text you actually send, including spaces and punctuation, and split anything past 20,000 characters into several requests. If you tip over a 1,000 boundary the price moves in proportion, so a 4,100-character issue costs a little more than $0.19. Keep a margin of a few cents for revisions, since each regeneration bills again.
What does a worked example look like?
A newsletter writer sends 52 issues a year at 4,000 characters each, and records an intro and outro of 300 characters per issue. Each issue sends 4,300 characters: $0.20425 at the exact rate. Over 52 issues that is $10.62.
If they also add a fixed-price music bed from Music 1.0 at $0.125 for each issue, the yearly total rises by $6.50 to about $17.12, before any Timeline join at $0.10 per output minute.
Keep an eye on the 20,000-character limit if you read a long issue in one request. Split at paragraph breaks so each piece stays under it.
Sources
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