Orkas Speech API
Hosted text-to-speech API with 12 Chinese and English voices, billed from the same credits as Orkas's other AI APIs.
- Pricing at a glance
- 500 free credits; plans from $5.99/month
- Starting price
- From $5.99/mo
- Setup
- Developer build
- Pricing model
- Usage Based
- Try it
- Self-serve trial
Sign in to the desktop app for 500 credits, about an hour of generated speech.
Ask which company you contract with and whether your text is kept by the upstream provider.
At a glance
Product
- DetailLanguages
Chinese and English
- SupportedFree to start
Free credits
500 one-time credits on first desktop sign-in
- SupportedDeveloper API
Yes
Trust
- Not publishedSOC 2
Not published
- Not publishedGDPR
Not published
Morak scorecard
How we score →- Ease of setupDeveloper build
Expect developers to build call logic, integrations and deployment.
- Pricing transparencyStarting price
From $5.99/mo is published; higher tiers or usage may be quoted.
- Try before you buySelf-serve trial
Sign up and test it yourself before paying.
- Compliance readinessNot published
No SOC 2, GDPR or HIPAA commitments are published.
- Integration coverage1 of 3 covered
Connects to automation or API. Not listed: your devices and workspace tools.
Typical score among developer APIs
Generate Chinese or English speech files from an API
What you get
One endpoint turns text into MP3, WAV, Opus or Ogg with a choice of 12 voices, paid from Orkas credits.
What to account for
It has 12 voices in two languages and no streaming or cloning, and it names neither its operating company nor its voice provider.
Best for
- Chinese narration and app audio
- Developers already using Orkas credits
- Simple text-to-audio file generation
Not a fit for
- Real-time voice agents that need streaming audio
- A wide choice of voices or languages
- Custom or cloned voices
What the platform provides
- Speech API
- Text in, audio file out: MP3, WAV, Opus or Ogg at 0.5x to 2x speed, up to 16,384 bytes of text per request.
- Voices
- 12 documented voices, mostly Chinese, with three English voices and one bilingual voice. No streaming or voice cloning.
Connections & compatibility
AI models & voice
- OpenAI-compatible endpoint
Automation & APIs
- REST API
Data access & permissions
What an agent built on Orkas Speech API can touch once deployed. These are the first questions a security review will ask.
- Reads customer dataYes
- Writes to your systemsNo
- Sends messagesNo
- Triggers workflowsNo
- Records callsNo
- Needs API keysYes
- Human approval stepNo
Its terms are governed by Chinese law and refer to an Orkas operating entity in mainland China without naming it; the only contact is support@orkas.ai. The privacy policy says text sent to the speech API goes through Orkas servers to unnamed upstream speech providers, and that request logs are kept for a limited period without a fixed deletion time for speech content. The terms prohibit using the service to impersonate people or defraud. No security certification is published.
Pricing & terms
Speech costs 0.125 credits per second of generated audio (450 credits an hour), rounded up to at least one second; listing voices is free. New desktop users get 500 one-time credits. Monthly plans are Lite at $5.99 (1,000 credits), Pro $16.99 (5,000) and Max $29.99 (10,000), and 1,000 non-expiring credits cost $3.99. Orkas says credit costs follow upstream provider prices and may change.
Before committing
Generate the same script with several voices in each language and check names, numbers and pacing.
- Which legal entity signs our contract, and where is speech text processed?
- Which provider generates the voices, and is our text kept or used for training?
- Will more voices or languages, streaming output or custom voices be added?
- How often do credit rates change, and how are we told?
How it compares
Side by side with two alternatives buyers weigh against it, on the same facts and scorecard.
| Detail | Orkas Speech API This productHosted text-to-speech API with 12 Chinese and English voices, billed from the same credits as Orkas's other AI APIs. | A different approach Conversational text-to-speech models for voice agents, available as an API, in your VPC or on-premises. Why compare: Compare Rime for a dedicated text-to-speech API built for real-time voice agents. | Similar product Low-latency text-to-speech, speech-to-text and speech translation APIs from the Kyutai research team. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $5.99/mo | From $0.03/1K chars | From $13/mo |
| Free to start | Free credits | Free credits | Free plan |
| Morak scorecard How we score | |||
| Ease of setup | 2 of 5, Developer build | 2 of 5, Developer build | 2 of 5, Developer build |
| Pricing transparency | 4 of 5, Starting price | 4 of 5, Starting price | 5 of 5, Plans published |
| Try before you buy | 4 of 5, Self-serve trial | 4 of 5, Self-serve trial | 5 of 5, Free plan |
| Compliance readiness | Not scored, Not published | 4 of 5, Good | Not scored, Not published |
| Integration coverage | 2 of 5, 1 of 3 covered | 2 of 5, 1 of 3 covered | 2 of 5, 1 of 3 covered |