Gradium review (2026): is the free plan enough?
Real-time voice AI API for speech, transcription and voice cloning
Black Friday: is there a Gradium sale?
Gradium report card
Fair · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 13, 2026
Best for voice AI through an API, from developers
Gradium sells text-to-speech, speech-to-text, voice cloning and live translation through an API and a web studio, with a free plan of 45,000 credits. That is about an hour of speech a month, commercial use starts at $12, and credits don't roll over, so heavy use gets pricey quickly.
Who Gradium is for
- Fits if you are a developer adding voice to an app through an API
- Makes sense if you need cloned or designed voices and care about data controls
Who Gradium is not for
- Tight if you stay free: about an hour of speech a month and no commercial use
- Pricey if you need pro voice clones, which start on the $312 a month M plan
- Watch out: plan credits don't roll over, only pay-as-you-go credits do
- Watch out: overage costs 5% to 20% above your plan's own rate if you turn it on, and live translation burns 30 credits a second
Why Gradium gets a 2.4
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- CValue for moneyPaid plans start at $12 a month billed yearly ($13 monthly), about the middle of what voice tools charge. M is $312 and L $1,480 a month for the larger volumes.
- CFree plan and trialFree plan of 45,000 credits a month, about 1 hour of speech, with up to 5 custom voices and no commercial use. You'll reach that in a week or two of real work.
- BFeaturesSpeech both ways, translation, 10-second clones, designed voices and data controls on paid plans. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the job, though pro clones start on the $312 plan.
- CEase of useNo store rating on record. It is an API first, so there is code to write, with a web studio for trying voices.
- BPlatforms and integrationsWeb studio and an API, deployable via Baseten and SageMaker. No desktop or phone app is listed.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Gradium's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
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<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/gradium#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/gradium.svg" alt="Gradium: 2.4 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Gradium stands among AI voice generators
Gradium's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 47 of the 72 other AI voice generators we grade, and level with 16.
It stands best on features (B, above 44 of 72) and worst on value for money (C, above 5).
Its paid plans start at $12 a month, against a middle price of $9.99 for the category: 33 of the 50 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 4 tools score higher and cost less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 73 AI voice generators we grade, cut by the letter each got. Gradium’s own letter is outlined.
- CValue for moneyAbove 5 of 72, level with 47
- CFree plan and trialAbove 22 of 72, level with 40
- BFeaturesAbove 44 of 72, level with 27
- CEase of useAbove 10 of 72, level with 52
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 39 of 72, level with 30
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 52 AI voice generators. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
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
Keep Gradium, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Gradium you would be making a voice model, which you can rent by the minute but not make. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
It costs $144 a year.
What you could not
- A voice model, which you can rent by the minute but not make.
- A voice model trained on your recordings.
- Speech turned into text you can trust.
- It plugs into other products, Baseten and Amazon SageMaker among them, and has an API.
- AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- What a company asks for before it lets staff use something: SOC 2.
- The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.
What this rests on. Gradium’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Gradium?
Gradium sells voice AI models through an API and a web studio: text-to-speech, speech-to-text, live voice translation, voice cloning and voice design from a text prompt. Plans are metered in monthly credits, with a free tier and extra credits billed as you go. It also publishes an open, on-device text-to-speech model called Phonon.
Worth knowing
- Free-plan credits cover about an hour of speech a month, and commercial use needs XS or above.
- Plan credits do not roll over; only pay-as-you-go credits carry into the next month.
- Beyond a plan's credits, overage is billed at 5% to 20% above the plan's own rate if turned on in settings.
- Extra credits cost $7 per 100k on XS, falling to $3.80 on L.
Key features
- Text-to-speech
- Costs 1 credit per character; the pricing page says about 45,000 characters is roughly an hour of audio.
- Speech-to-text
- Transcription is billed at 3 credits per second of audio, or 4 credits per second with translation.
- Live voice translation
- Speech-to-speech translation costs 30 credits per second, the most credit-hungry feature on the page.
- Voice cloning and design
- A standard clone needs a 10-second sample. Pro voice clones use 30 minutes to a few hours of audio and start on the M plan. Voices can also be designed from a text description.
- Data controls
- Paid plans add data controls such as zero data retention and a choice of EU or US data residency; the vendor lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.
- Phonon on-device model
- Gradium describes Phonon as its first open, on-device text-to-speech model.
Gradium pricing
As of Nov 13, 2026, Gradium has a free plan, and paid plans start at $12 per month, billed yearly ($13 billed monthly).
- Starts at
- $12 per month, billed yearly ($13 billed monthly)
- Free plan
- 45k credits a month with text-to-speech, speech-to-text and voice design, which is about 1 hour of speech.
- Free trial
- None listed
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 45k credits a month, about 1 hour of text-to-speech, with up to 5 custom voices. Commercial use is not included. |
| XS | $12per month for 225k credits, billed yearly ($13 billed monthly) | About 5 hours of text-to-speech a month, adds commercial use, up to 1,000 voices and data controls. |
| S | $39per month for 900k credits, billed yearly ($43 billed monthly) | About 20 hours of text-to-speech a month, with cheaper top-ups and lower overage than XS. |
| M | $312per month for 9M credits, billed yearly ($340 billed monthly) | About 200 hours of text-to-speech a month, adds pro voice cloning (5 pro clones) and higher concurrency. |
| L | $1,480per month for 45M credits, billed yearly ($1,615 billed monthly) | About 1,000 hours of text-to-speech a month, with 20 pro voice clones and the cheapest top-ups. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited credits and custom concurrency, with dedicated inference or on-premises deployment available. |
Read from gradium.ai on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Gradium before you buy.
Ways to pay less
- Annual discountOne month free on yearly billing
The pricing page says one month is free when billed yearly: for example XS is $12 a month yearly against $13 monthly.
Stated on gradium.ai - StartupsGradium for startups
Founders can apply for $2,000 or more in credits through the startup program.
Stated on gradium.ai
Works with
- Baseten
- Amazon SageMaker
Gradium alternatives
- Gradium vs ElevenLabs
Free plan · from $5/mo
- Gradium vs Cartesia
Free plan · from $5/mo
- Gradium vs Deepgram Aura
Free trial · from $4,000/yr
- Gradium vs Rime
Free plan · from $100/mo
- Gradium vs Smallest AI
Free trial
Common questions
Does Gradium have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Gradium is listed for Web.
Does Gradium have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Gradium is listed for Web.
Is Gradium open source?
Gradium is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Nov 13, 2026.
Does Gradium have an API?
Yes. Gradium offers a public API, according to its own site.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026.