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What's the Difference Between Amazon Polly and Amazon Transcribe?

Compare Amazon Polly and Amazon Transcribe side by side — features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you choose the right product.

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Comparisons
Amazon Polly
Amazon Transcribe
Category

Machine Learning, Speech AI

Machine Learning, Speech AI
Description

Turn text into lifelike speech using deep learning for natural-sounding voices.

Automatic speech recognition service that converts audio to text.
Best for
  • Text-to-speech
  • Accessibility
  • E-learning
  • Telephony
  • Content creation
  • Call center analytics
  • Subtitling
  • Meeting transcription
  • Medical transcription
  • Content indexing
Key features
  • Neural voices
  • SSML support
  • Multiple languages
  • Real-time streaming
  • Speech marks
  • Real-time transcription
  • Custom vocabulary
  • Speaker identification
  • Channel identification
  • Toxicity detection
Pricing model

Pay per character converted to speech

Pay per second of audio transcribed
Free tier

Yes

Yes
Expert take

“Polly Neural voices are nearly indistinguishable from human speech. Use SSML tags to control pacing, emphasis, and pronunciation. For batch content production, Polly outputs audio files; for real-time use cases like IVR, it streams directly.”
— Oleksii Bebych, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]

“Custom vocabulary and custom language models are the two levers for improving accuracy on domain-specific terminology. For real-time use cases like live captioning, streaming transcription delivers partial results with low latency while speaker diarization separates overlapping voices.”
— Didier Durand, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]
Product page

Learn more about Amazon Polly »

Learn more about Amazon Transcribe »

When to use Amazon Polly or Amazon Transcribe

Use Amazon Polly when:

  • Text-to-speech
  • Accessibility
  • E-learning
  • Telephony
  • Content creation

Learn more about Amazon Polly »

Use Amazon Transcribe when:

  • Call center analytics
  • Subtitling
  • Meeting transcription
  • Medical transcription
  • Content indexing

Learn more about Amazon Transcribe »

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