W
WellSaid Labs
Studio-quality TTS, priced against fractions of a cent.
YES
why this verdict
Cancel it — switch to ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs now covers the same core job on a free tier, so the $44/mo is optional.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- Commodity text to speech at API prices. OpenAI, May 13, 2024 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers all of it editorial call
- The whole core job — the thing the subscription was actually for.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 1 of 2 listed replacements have a usable free tier: ElevenLabs.
- What the call is worth $528/yr
- $44/mo at the entry paid tier — $528 a year per seat.
Reason composed from the fields above missing: announcement linked recorded: free replacement listed recorded: two or more escape hatches
- Threatened by
- OpenAI
- Since
- May 13, 2024
- List price
- $44/mo
- Per year
- $528
The backstory
WellSaid sold carefully produced synthetic voices for corporate narration, with the pitch that quality justified the price. Frontier TTS APIs now cost a fraction of a cent per thousand characters at comparable quality, and ElevenLabs owns the prosumer end. A premium voice catalogue is not a moat once the models generalise.
Escape hatches
switching could free up $528/yr E
ElevenLabs Free tier and better voices.
elevenlabs.io open_in_new O
OpenAI TTS Cents per thousand characters.
platform.openai.com open_in_new1 of 2 replacements have a usable free tier.