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Quickstart: your first speech file

From a new workspace to a downloaded audio file in six steps, one sentence each, with the page to read when a step needs more.

Ten minutes after signing up you can have a sentence spoken by an Arabic voice and saved as a file on your computer. This page is the shortest route: six steps, one sentence each, and a link to the page that explains the step when you want more. Nothing here needs code, a payment method or anything beyond the trial credits every new workspace starts with.

What you need

  • An account and its workspace; see Sign up and create your workspace.
  • Credits on the workspace balance. A new workspace's trial has them; the sidebar shows the plan's credits used out of its total.
  • A sentence to speak. Any text up to 5,000 characters; a short one is cheapest for a first try.

Steps

Step 1: Open Text to Speech

Sign in and choose Text to Speech under Playground in the sidebar — or use the Text to Speech tab of the studio on Home for a one-off sentence; see Generate speech.

Step 2: Type a sentence

Click into the writing area and type or paste your text, watching the counter under it stay under 5000; see Generate speech.

Step 3: Pick a voice

Keep the voice shown under Selected voice, or press Change voice, filter by Dialect, play a preview, choose one and press Select; see Choosing a voice.

Step 4: Generate

Press Generate at the bottom of the settings panel, wait while it reads Generating..., and listen when the player appears and starts playing; see Generate speech.

Step 5: Download the file

Press Download in the player and a .wav file named speech- and the generation's identifier lands in your browser's downloads folder; see Formats, quality and download.

Step 6: Find it again later

Open the History tab of the settings panel, or Assets in the sidebar, to play or download the same generation again for free; see Text to Speech history.

Get it right

A generation is charged on the whole text as soon as you press the button, so hear the voice on one sentence before you paste the whole script.

Recommended

  • One sentence, listen, change the voice or the dialect if it is wrong, then the full text once.

Less effective

  • The full 5,000 characters first, and a second full generation when the dialect turns out wrong.

Worked example

Sara signs in, chooses Text to Speech under Playground, and pastes:

أهلاً بكم في إيكونوڤا

She presses Change voice, sets Dialect to Egyptian, plays two previews, picks one and presses Select. She presses Regenerate audio; a few seconds later the player appears and the sentence plays. She presses Download and speech- followed by an identifier and .wav appears in her downloads folder. The button now shows what that generation cost next to Credits, and the plan card in the sidebar has moved by the same amount.

What happens next

  • The generation is in the History tab and on Assets for every member of the workspace, and replaying or downloading it again is free.
  • The credits were taken from the workspace balance before the audio was made, and would have been returned had the generation failed. See Text to Speech limits and credits.
  • Back on Home, Recents now lists the sentence with its voice and dialect. Selecting that row opens it in the Text to Speech page and plays it for free; use Open Assets to do the same from Assets. See A tour of the Home page.

Limits

Limit Value Applies to
Text length 1 to 5,000 characters, counted with spaces Each generation
Voices One voice per generation Each generation
Output One WAV file per generation Each generation

Every limit on the page, with the message each one shows, is on Text to Speech limits and credits.

Troubleshooting

The Generate button is greyed out

The writing area holds only whitespace, the voice list is still loading, or a generation is already running. Type some text, or wait a moment.

Error: Insufficient subscription balance

The workspace balance cannot cover the charge; nothing was charged or generated. Add credits under Subscription & billing, or shorten the text. See Credits, top-ups and rollover.

The audio plays but Download gives me a file I cannot open

The file is WAV. A tool that refuses it usually expects MP3; convert the WAV with a tool of your choice. See Formats, quality and download.

FAQ

What will my first generation cost?

The charge counts the characters of your text without spaces, at the rate on Credits, with no rounding up. The figure on the button before your first generation is not a quote for your text; the figure after it is what it cost.

Can I get MP3?

Every portal generation is WAV. Download it and convert it. See Formats, quality and download.

The text is Arabic without diacritics. Should I add them?

With a Fusha voice selected, switch Tashkeel on before you generate; it is free, and the marks fix how each word is pronounced. See Add diacritics.

Can I do the same from code?

Yes. The same generation is one API call; see Text to Speech quickstart.