Async vs Speechify (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Speechify grades higher than Async: 2.8 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 9, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Speechify grades higher on features, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and the free plan.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Async
Chat-based video editor with AI voices, dubbing and music
Speechify
Text-to-speech reader for listening to documents and web pages
Which one is for you
Pick Async if
- Fits if you make videos or podcasts and want to edit by typing what you want
- Works for creators who also want AI voiceover in the same tool
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: allowances are lifetime, not monthly, at 1 hour and 10 credits
- Pricey if you want dubbing and lip sync, which start on Teams at $49.99 a creator
- Watch out: AI use burns credits fast, and premium models can use dozens per video
- Watch out: English-only subtitles on Essentials and Pro, and no desktop app
- Watch out: the trial's length isn't stated
Pick Speechify if
- Fits if you'd rather listen to articles and PDFs on your commute
- Works for students who want a chapter summarized before they listen
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you pay monthly, at $29 against $139 for a whole year
- Skip it if you want to publish voiceovers, which need Studio, a separate plan at $100 or $300 a year
- Not for you if robotic voices put you off and you won't pay: free has 10 of them at up to 1.5x
- Watch out: the 3-day Premium trial charges the yearly plan on day 3
- Tight if you want scanning or AI summaries for free, as both are Premium; Studio's free plan has no commercial rights
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAAsyncFair | 2.8GPASpeechifyGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CEssentials is $11.99 a month billed yearly, above the voices middle of $10. Credits meter all AI use, and 450 credits is about 61 videos from one premium model. | CPremium is $139 a year or $29 a month, a little dearer than NaturalReader's Plus. For voiceovers you'd want Studio instead: $100 a year with commercial rights, which the listing says buys about 24 hours of voiceover. Paying monthly costs more than twice the yearly price. |
| Free plan and trial | CThe Free plan is 1 hour of media for AI chat and 10 AI credits, both lifetime. Paid plans have a free trial of unstated length. | CThe free plan never ends, but it's 10 robotic-sounding voices at up to 1.5x. Natural voices, scanning and the AI tools are Premium, whose trial charges the yearly plan on day 3. Studio's free plan has no commercial rights, so it's no use for voiceovers. |
| Features | CChat editing, text to speech, voice cloning, generation, recording and clips. Dubbing and lip sync start at Teams, and subtitles are English only on Essentials and Pro. | B1,000+ natural voices in 60+ languages, up to 5x speed, Scan & Listen, AI summaries, chats and podcasts, voice typing and a voice assistant. As a reader it covers the whole job. Voiceovers and cloning live in Studio and the API, sold separately. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You learn the credits and which model to spend them on. | B4.66 from 526,597 App Store ratings, just short of an A. Open a PDF or a web page and press play. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb and iPhone, with Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. | AiPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows and the web, Chrome and Edge extensions, imports from Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive, and an API. |
| Best for | editing video by chatting with an AI | listening to anything you'd otherwise read |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Async and Speechify. How we grade
Price against what you get
Async starts at $11.99 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Speechify starts at $29 a month and scores 3.3.
Speechify scores higher, and starts $17.01 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI voice generators on the chart, 6 score higher than Async for less, and 1 scores higher than Speechify for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Async also covers transcription, video editing, image generation and video generation.
- Speechify also covers dictation.
At a glance
| Async | Speechify | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $11.99 per month, billed annually | $29 per month, billed monthly |
| Free plan | 1 hour of media for the AI chat and 10 AI credits, both one-time. | Listen anywhere at up to 1.5x speed with 10 robotic-sounding voices, text to speech features only. |
| Free trial | A free trial is offered on the paid plans; the page does not state its length. | 3-day free trial of Premium in the app; the yearly plan is charged on day 3 |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Async | Speechify Inc. |
| Price read from | async.com | speechify.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 9, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Async
- Everything AI is metered in credits, and a single video from a premium model can use dozens; Essentials' 450 credits is about 61 Kling 3.0 videos or 900 Nano Banana 2 images.
- The Free plan's credits and media hours are lifetime allowances, not monthly ones.
- Dubbing and lip sync start on the Teams plan, and subtitles are English only on Essentials and Pro.
- The prices read are for yearly billing; the monthly-billing prices were not shown in the page text.
Speechify
- The free plan is limited to 10 robotic-sounding voices at up to 1.5x speed; natural voices, scanning and the AI features need Premium.
- Voiceovers for publishing need Speechify Studio, a separate plan: free with 600 credits and no commercial rights, or $100 or $300 a year with commercial rights.
- Studio credits are spent per second: 1 for voiceover, 3 for dubbing and 30 for avatars, so $100 a year buys about 24 hours of voiceover.
- Cloned voices need the voice owner to pass Speechify's verification or a written business agreement; users must be 18, and politicians' and deceased people's voices are barred.
Key features
Async
- Chat-based video editing
- You tell the editor what to cut, pace or polish and it makes the edit, including removing filler and pauses, syncing cuts to music, and adding captions.
- Text to speech and voice cloning
- Voices can be generated in chat or through the standalone text-to-speech and voice cloning tools. Paid plans include monthly text-to-speech hours.
- Dubbing and lip sync
- AI dubbing and lip sync, with multilingual voices, are listed from the Teams plan.
- Video, image, music and sound effects generation
- Credits are spent on third-party models such as Kling, Veo, Seedance, Nano Banana and GPT Image; the pricing page lists credit costs per video or image.
- Recording, audio cleanup and hosting
- The former Podcastle studio records remote guests, removes noise with Magic Dust, edits audio by transcript and publishes to Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
- Clips and subtitles
- Finds strong moments to turn into short clips for social platforms and adds subtitles, English only on lower plans.
Speechify
- Listen to any text
- Have PDFs, documents, emails and web pages read aloud in natural voices, at speeds up to 5x on Premium.
- Scan & Listen
- Photograph a printed page or book and listen to it. Scanning is a Premium feature.
- AI summaries, chats and podcasts
- Premium can summarize what you are reading, answer questions about it and turn it into a podcast-style episode.
- Voice typing and voice assistant
- Dictate text in other apps with voice typing, and talk to the Voice AI Assistant about a website, book or anything else.
- Apps and cloud imports
- Apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows, extensions for Chrome and Edge, and imports from Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive.
- Studio and API
- Speechify Studio, sold separately, makes voiceovers and dubbed videos with commercial rights. The API lets developers add Speechify voices and voice cloning to their apps.
Plans
Async
Free$0
1 hour of media uploaded to AI chat (lifetime) and 10 AI credits (lifetime).
Essentials$11.99
per month, billed annually
450 credits a month, 4 hours of recording, 2 hours of text to speech, 20 GB of storage and English-only AI subtitles.
Pro$23.99
per month, billed annually
1,200 credits a month, 20 hours of recording, 10 hours of text to speech, 120 GB of storage and AI video enhancement.
Teams$49.99
per creator / month, billed annually
3,000 credits a month, 40 hours of text to speech, 1 TB of storage, dubbing and lip sync, brand kit and basic user management.
BusinessCustom
Custom credits, hours and storage, advanced user management, priority support and security and compliance. Sold through sales.
Speechify
Free$0
Listening at up to 1.5x speed with 10 robotic-sounding voices, and text to speech features only.
Premium$29
per month, billed monthly
1,000+ natural voices in 60+ languages, 5x speed, Scan & Listen, AI summaries and chats, AI podcasts, voice typing and cloud drive imports. $139 a year billed yearly.
Ways to pay less
Async
- Annual discount
Save 40% with yearly plans
The pricing page shows a Yearly toggle labelled 40% off, and shows savings of $96 on Essentials, $192 on Pro and $420 on Teams per year.
Speechify
- Annual discount
Premium for $139 a year
Yearly billing costs $139 against $29 a month on monthly billing; the pricing page says this saves 60%.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Async or Speechify?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Async is cheaper to start with: $11.99 a month, against $29 a month for Speechify. Async starts at $11.99 per month, billed annually, and Speechify starts at $29 per month, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Async or Speechify?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Async and Speechify have a free plan.
Which platforms do Async and Speechify run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Speechify lists macOS, Windows and Android apps and a browser extension. Both list a web app and an iOS app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.