TTS Commercial Use Licensing Matrix 2026

FreeTTS allows commercial use on all tiers. Generate audio on the free plan, put it in your YouTube video, run ads. Generate on a Pro plan, sell the audiobook. No attribution required in either case.

Google treats your TTS output as your customer data under the Cloud Customer Agreement. That means commercial use, YouTube monetization, and resale in your products are all standard. The free tier is a billing promotion, not a different license — same Cloud ToS, same commercial rights.

The Voice AI API (Google's custom voice feature) requires a separate agreement and proof that you have rights in any training data used. Standard pre-built voices? No extra paperwork. No attribution required in your content. The Cloud AUP still applies: no illegal uses, no deceptive content in regulated contexts.

Polly operates under the AWS Customer Agreement. Generated audio is your customer content. Podcasts, audiobooks, YouTube videos with ads, apps, IVR systems — all standard commercial use and all allowed. The AWS 12-month free tier carries the same agreement, so you get commercial rights from day one.

The one thing you can't do is build a TTS platform that exposes Polly as your own voice engine and sell access to it. That's API resale, and it requires an AWS partner agreement. Selling your own products that contain Polly-generated audio is fine. Brand Voice (custom voice training) needs a separate contract and documented consent from the voice talent.

Azure Neural TTS is commercial by default under Microsoft's Online Services Terms. Standard plan covers commercial use, YouTube, and product resale without attribution. The free tier operates under the same OST.

Custom Neural Voice (CNV) has a strict separate policy. Microsoft requires explicit written consentfrom the voice talent, and their Responsible AI standard bars deepfakes and political impersonation. Some voices are "Limited Access" — you have to apply for them and Microsoft approves use cases individually. For standard pre-built voices, none of that applies. No attribution required.

OpenAI is one of the clearest on this. Their Terms of Use directly address commercial output: you can use content generated by OpenAI — including audio from the TTS API — for commercial purposes including sale or publication. No ambiguity, no plan restriction.

The main restriction is impersonation. OpenAI's Usage Policies prohibit using TTS to impersonate real people without their consent. There's no general voice cloning feature in standard TTS — you get six preset voices. What you can't do is use those voices in a way that makes people think a real person said something they didn't. No attribution required.

ElevenLabs draws a hard line between personal and commercial use. The free tier is explicitly personal use only. If you've been generating audio on the free plan and putting it in monetized content, you're outside their ToS. The Creator plan is where commercial rights begin.

On paid plans, YouTube monetization and audiobook resale are allowed. Voice cloning is a core ElevenLabs feature, but the rules are strict: you need explicit consent from the person you're cloning, and you absolutely cannot clone a third-party celebrity or public figure's voice without their permission. ElevenLabs has been aggressive about enforcing this, including account terminations for violations.

Their plan structure has changed multiple times. Always verify the current pricing page for what commercial rights are included at your tier.

PlayHT markets heavily to creators and content producers, so commercial use is the whole point of their paid plans. On any paid tier, you can use generated audio in monetized YouTube videos, podcasts, sold audiobooks, and paid apps. The free plan is for testing the product, not for production content.

PlayHT 2.0 includes voice cloning. Same consent rules apply: your own voice, fine. A third party's voice, you need their documented consent. No selling raw voice clones without an OEM agreement. And you can't resell API access as your own competing TTS service.

Murf uses "royalty-free license" language for generated content on paid plans. That covers YouTube monetization, selling e-learning courses, explainer videos, ads, and similar productions. The free plan is evaluation only — no commercial use.

Some voice actors in the Murf library have additional restrictions, particularly around political advertising. If you're creating political content at any level, check the individual voice notes in the Murf interface before using that voice in production. Custom voice features require consent and a separate agreement.

WellSaid is built for enterprise and professional studio use. Commercial rights on paid plans cover corporate training videos, YouTube, ads, and product narration. They don't have a real free tier — trial access exists for evaluation but carries no commercial rights.

Custom Voices come with a dedicated contract and require strict written consent from the voice talent. Some WellSaid voices have restrictions around political content. No attribution required for standard commercial use.

Speechify's main ToS states directly that their Business, Enterprise, Studio, Voice-Over, and API offerings are intended for commercial use. The consumer reading app has no commercial API rights. If you're building on Speechify's voice generation for production use, you need one of those commercial product lines.

The AI Voice API has a supplemental terms document worth reading separately from their main ToS. It covers data handling, output rights, and voice cloning consent requirements in more detail than the main agreement.

TTSMaker stands out by offering commercial use on the free tier, which is genuinely unusual in this space. The catch is attribution: you must credit TTSMaker in any commercial content using their audio. If your product or brand doesn't want a visible attribution to a third-party TTS tool, this won't work for you.

No voice cloning on the free tier. Paid plans may relax attribution requirements — check the current pricing page for details. For anything where clean, unbranded audio is important (branded IVR, professional narration), you'll want a cloud API or a paid SaaS plan instead.

Replica Studios targets game developers and entertainment productions. Commercial rights on paid plans cover games, films, YouTube, and similar media. They have explicit licensing language around game development use cases, which is more detailed than most competitors.

Voice cloning is allowed with consent, but they're particularly strict about character likeness: if you're trying to replicate a well-known game character or actor's voice without IP rights, that's a hard no. Their consent and likeness documentation is worth reading if you're doing entertainment work.

LOVO markets to YouTube creators, e-learning producers, and ad agencies. Commercial rights on paid plans cover those use cases. The free plan is evaluation only. Standard SaaS consent rules apply for voice cloning. No attribution required on paid plans.

Coqui TTS is a family of open-source models, not a single product. Each model checkpoint has its own license, and they vary significantly. This is the most important thing to understand before building anything on Coqui.

XTTS v2, which is the flagship voice cloning model, uses the Coqui Public Model License (CPML). That license restricts commercial use for companies with more than $1 million in annual revenue or more than 10,000 end users. Below those thresholds, commercial use is generally allowed. Above them, you need a separate commercial license from Coqui.

Other Coqui models use Apache 2.0 or MIT licenses, which are fully permissive for commercial use. Read the model card — not the repository README — for the specific checkpoint you're using. Don't assume the repo-level license applies to every model in it.

Bark's code is MIT licensed. MIT is one of the most permissive software licenses: you can use, modify, distribute, and sell products built on it commercially without paying anything or requiring attribution. That covers YouTube monetization, audiobooks, apps, and SaaS products.

The model weights should be checked separately from the code license — these sometimes differ. Verify the current model weights license on the Suno Bark GitHub repository before large-scale commercial deployment. Bark doesn't offer traditional voice cloning in the way ElevenLabs or XTTS do — voice consistency across generations is more constrained.