MiniMax Speech TTS API vs ElevenLabs (2026): $0.054 vs $0.10 per 1K Characters

The headline number: ElevenLabs charges $0.10 per 1,000 characters on its Multilingual v2/v3 models (and $0.05 on Flash/Turbo v2.5). NovAI runs MiniMax Speech 2.8 HD at about $0.054 per 1,000 characters — roughly 46% less than ElevenLabs Multilingual — and MiniMax Speech Turbo at about $0.031, below ElevenLabs Flash. Same OpenAI-compatible /v1/audio/speech shape, one API key, zero platform fee.

MiniMax Speech TTS pricing on NovAI

Model	Per 1K characters	Best for
minimax-speech-2.8-hd	$0.054	Studio-grade voices, emotion control
minimax-speech-2.6-hd	$0.054	High-definition multilingual
minimax-speech-02-hd	$0.054	Rich expressive timbres
minimax-speech-2.8-turbo	$0.031	Low-latency realtime apps
minimax-speech-2.6-turbo	$0.031	Cost-optimized TTS at scale
minimax-speech-02-turbo	$0.031	Economical bulk narration

NovAI vs ElevenLabs, side by side

	NovAI (MiniMax Speech)	ElevenLabs
Flagship / multilingual TTS	$0.054 / 1K chars (2.8 HD)	$0.10 / 1K chars (Multilingual v2/v3)
Fast / low-latency tier	$0.031 / 1K chars (Turbo)	$0.05 / 1K chars (Flash/Turbo v2.5)
Billing	Pay-as-you-go, prepaid balance	Subscription tiers + credit packs
API shape	OpenAI-compatible /v1/audio/speech	Proprietary REST + SDKs

Sources: ElevenLabs publishes $0.10/1K characters for Multilingual and $0.05/1K for Flash v2.5 on its API pricing page; NovAI’s figures are the live per-1K-character references for MiniMax Speech (token-billed at $1.54/1M upstream, reconciled to real usage).

What $0.054 vs $0.10 looks like at scale

1 million characters (a ~10-hour audiobook): about $54 on MiniMax Speech HD vs about $100 on ElevenLabs Multilingual.
10 million characters / month (a busy narration product): about $540 vs about $1,000 — roughly $460/mo back.
Realtime voice agent on Turbo: about $0.031/1K, cheaper than ElevenLabs Flash while staying under one key with your chat models.

One-line integration (OpenAI-compatible)

curl https://aiapi-pro.com/v1/audio/speech \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NOVAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"minimax-speech-2.8-hd",
       "input":"Hello! Welcome to NovAI - one API key for every Chinese frontier model.",
       "voice":"English_male-qn-qingse",
       "response_format":"url"}'
# -> { "data": [ { "url": "https://.../speech.mp3" } ] }

Set response_format=url to get a hosted audio URL, or request mp3 / wav / opus bytes directly. Emotion, speed and multilingual voices are supported on the HD line.

When to pick which

Choose MiniMax Speech on NovAI when you want the lowest per-character cost, pay-as-you-go billing, and one key that also covers your chat, image, video and 3D models.
Choose ElevenLabs when you specifically need its proprietary voice-cloning catalogue or an existing ElevenLabs workflow you cannot move.

Try every model in this article with one API key

NovAI gives you OpenAI-compatible access to 85 Chinese frontier models — video, image, 3D, audio and chat — on a prepaid balance with no subscription and zero platform fee. $2 free credit on signup, no card required.

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MiniMax Speech TTS vs ElevenLabs: 46% Cheaper per Character