Free TTS Commercial Use: Which $0 Plans Actually Say You Can Publish
A field-by-field check of commercial statements on free TTS plans, from TTSMaker's 100% rights claim to the tiers where ElevenLabs and Typecast move the licence.
A free TTS plan can give you a generous monthly allowance and still leave the publishing question unanswered. That is the gap this guide fills: not “which tool sounds best”, but which $0 plan actually states that the output can be used commercially, and where the licence moves to a paid tier.
The short answer
TTSMaker is the only free tier in this run that says, on its own page, that generated audio comes with 100% commercial usage rights. Everything else falls into one of four buckets: a paid tier carries the licence, a separate commercial product carries it, the free grant excludes it, or the page does not address it at all.
That is a narrow answer, and it is more useful than a vague “check the terms”. It tells you where to start and what to budget.
The evidence table
| tool | what the page says about commercial use | what that means for a $0 project |
|---|---|---|
| TTSMaker | “100% commercial usage rights” for generated audio (site) | publishable inside the weekly allowance |
| ElevenLabs | Commercial License listed on Starter, $6/month (pricing) | the free 10,000 credits are not the commercial tier |
| Typecast | free grant has no commercial licence; Basic $5/month lists it (pricing) | paid tier needed, and free output carries attribution |
| Murf | free allowance about 10 minutes, without commercial licence (site) | a test drive, not a release plan |
| NaturalReader | Personal and Commercial sold as separate products (site) | the free-forever plan is on the personal side |
| Speechify | free plan does not state commercial rights (pricing) | confirm before publishing; the page is silent |
| Google Cloud TTS | pricing page covers characters and free allowances (pricing) | licence question sits in the service terms, not verified here |
| Amazon Polly | pricing page covers characters and free allowances (pricing) | same: service terms govern, not verified here |
| Balabolka | freeware; voices come from the installed SAPI set (site) | the app licence and the voice licence are separate questions |
| ReadAloud | browser listening extension (site) | no audio export published, so commercial release is not the use case |
The right-hand column is an editorial reading of the middle column, not a legal opinion. When a page says nothing, the table says nothing.
Why the free tier is usually not the commercial tier
A free tier is designed to let you test the workflow. A commercial licence is a business permission, and vendors price it accordingly. The pattern repeats across the category:
- ElevenLabs puts Commercial License, instant cloning and more credits on Starter at $6 a month.
- Typecast gives 3,000 one-time credits on free, then adds the commercial licence and 44.1 kHz output on Basic at $5 a month.
- Murf offers about ten minutes on free and excludes the commercial licence.
- NaturalReader keeps a Personal product and a Commercial product apart, so the free plan is not a back door to the commercial one.
None of that is unfair. It is a pricing boundary, and the buyer’s job is to see it before the render, not after the upload.
The one free plan with a clear statement
TTSMaker’s page is unusually direct: generated audio has 100% commercial usage rights. The same page gives the free allowance as 20,000 characters per week and says files are deleted within 30 minutes. Put together, the free workflow is: generate inside the weekly cap, download immediately, publish with the stated right.
Two caveats belong in the project file. First, the statement is about generated audio, not about every input you might feed the tool; do not paste text you do not have the right to use. Second, the page can change. Save a dated copy of the commercial statement with the project so the permission you relied on is documented.
The cloud APIs need a different check
Google Cloud TTS and Amazon Polly are usage-priced services with free allowances, not consumer apps with a “free plan” licence line. Their pricing pages answer “how much”, not “may I publish”. The publishing question lives in the service terms and the customer agreement, and this run did not verify those documents.
If you are building a product on either API, the commercial question is part of the contract review, not the pricing page. That is a job for the team that signs the cloud agreement, and it should happen before launch rather than after the first invoice.
A records checklist for a $0 project
- Screenshot or archive the page that states the commercial right, with the date.
- Save the plan name and the allowance you used.
- Keep the exact voice name or ID.
- If a real performer is involved, keep their written consent separately.
- Note the export date and the file name that went into the release.
This is a records question, not a legal opinion. The point is to be able to show what you bought or relied on at the time, even after the vendor redesigns its pricing page.
When to stop looking for a free option
If the project has a client, a deadline and a budget, the $0 tier is usually the wrong place to optimize. A $5 or $6 monthly plan buys a commercial line and removes the ambiguity. The free tier is for testing whether the voice fits; the paid tier is for the release.
That is also the honest reading of the ranking on this site. NaturalReader wins the free-tier evaluation because its free plan is genuinely useful for reading, not because it grants publishing rights. TTSMaker wins the commercial question because it says the quiet part out loud. Those are different kinds of “best”, and the project decides which one matters.
FAQ
Which free TTS plan explicitly allows commercial use?
TTSMaker states that generated audio has 100% commercial usage rights, and that statement sits on the free tool's own page. It is the clearest free-tier commercial claim in this run. Keep a dated copy of the page with the project.
Does ElevenLabs' free plan include a commercial licence?
No. Its pricing page places the Commercial License on the Starter plan at $6 a month, not on the free plan. The free plan is a 10,000-credit monthly allowance. If the output will be monetised, budget the paid tier from the start.
Can I use Typecast's free credits for a client project?
The free grant is 3,000 one-time credits, and the source used here says it carries no commercial licence and requires attribution. The Basic plan at $5 a month lists the commercial licence. A client project belongs on the paid tier.
What about Google Cloud TTS and Amazon Polly?
Their pricing pages describe usage charges and free allowances, not a plain-language commercial licence for the output. The service terms govern that question, and this run did not verify them. Read the current terms before a commercial launch.