Azure Neural text-to-speech model
MicrosoftReleased Sep 2018.
Azure Neural is a text-to-speech (TTS) model from Microsoft. It ranks #74 of 98 on the Artificial Analysis TTS arena with Elo 1034 (95% CI ±20, 1,156 samples). List price is about $15 per 1M characters. Released Sep 2018.
Key facts
- Provider
- Microsoft
- AA rank
- #74 / 98
- AA Elo (95% CI)
- 1034 ±20
- AA samples
- 1,156
- TTS Arena Elo (uncertainty)
- –
- TTS Arena votes
- –
- TTS Arena win rate
- –
- Price (per 1M chars)
- $15
- Released
- Sep 2018
- Open weights
- –
- License
- –
- Voices tested by AA
- 8
- Languages
- –
- Voice cloning
- –
"–" means the upstream sources do not provide this value; we do not guess.
Nearby models
By AA Elo; this model highlighted| # | Model | AA Elo | Arena Elo | Price $/1M chars | Open weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 71 |  Gemini 2.5 Pro (Dec 2025) Google | 1040 | – | $18.3 | – |
| 72 | HOctave TTS Hume AI | 1039 | 1517 | $87.5 | – |
| 73 | BBland Speech v3 Bland AI | 1035 | – | $40 | – |
| 74 | Azure Neural Microsoft | 1034 | – | $15 | – |
| 75 |  T2A-01-Turbo MiniMax | 1031 | – | $30 | – |
| 76 |  Polly Long-Form Amazon | 1031 | – | $100 | – |
| 77 | MAI-Voice-1 Microsoft | 1030 | – | – | – |
Alternatives · Cheaper with AA Elo ≥ 1004
| # | Model | AA Elo | Arena Elo | Price $/1M chars | Open weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS Google | 1252 | – | $11 | – |
| 10 | SSimba 3.2 SpeechifyAI | 1246 | – | $6.6 | – |
| 12 | IRealtime TTS-2 Flash Inworld | 1219 | – | $10.4 | – |
| 13 |  Voxtral 3 TTS Mistral | 1219 | – | $13 | – |
| 22 | SSoniox TTS Real-Time v2 Soniox | 1182 | – | $14.2 | – |
Alternatives · More from Microsoft
| # | Model | AA Elo | Arena Elo | Price $/1M chars | Open weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | Azure HD 2.5 Microsoft | 1143 | – | $22 | – |
| 77 | MAI-Voice-1 Microsoft | 1030 | – | – | – |
| 83 | VibeVoice 1.5B Microsoft | 956 | – | – | Open |
Alternatives · Top 5 open-weight by AA Elo
| # | Model | AA Elo | Arena Elo | Price $/1M chars | Open weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 |  Fish Audio Drama 3 Preview Fish Audio | 1248 | – | $15 | Open |
| 11 | BBreeze TTS 2 BreezeBlue | 1230 | – | $34 | Open |
| 19 |  Ming-3.0-tts Ant Group | 1191 | – | – | Open |
| 38 | Fish Audio S2 Pro Fish Audio | 1110 | – | $15 | Open |
| 41 |  Step Audio EditX (Mar 2026) StepFun | 1100 | – | – | Open |
FAQ
Where does Azure Neural rank among TTS models?
As of Oct 25, 2026, Azure Neural ranks #74 of 98 on the Artificial Analysis TTS leaderboard with Elo 1034 (±20).
Is Azure Neural open source?
The sources do not list Azure Neural as open-weight; it is generally used through the Microsoft API.
What is the best Chinese TTS model?
By AA Elo, the top model from a Chinese provider is Qwen-Audio-3.1-TTS-Plus by Alibaba (Elo 1307, #3 overall).
Which top-10 TTS model is cheapest?
Among the AA top 10, the lowest list price is Simba 3.2 (SpeechifyAI) at $6.6 per 1M characters, Elo 1246.
What is the best open-source TTS model?
By AA Elo, the top open-weight model is Fish Audio Drama 3 Preview by Fish Audio (Elo 1248, #9 overall); 18 open-weight models have an AA score.
Sources
"–" means the upstream sources do not provide this value; we do not guess.