Bottom line: Fish Audio is a text-to-speech and voice-cloning platform with a real free plan: 8,000 credits a month, which works out to roughly 7 minutes of finished voice. That is enough to test voices, clone a voice from a short sample, and ship a few short narrations — but the free plan is for personal use, and anyone monetizing their audio should read the paid tiers as the true starting point.
Free-tier details checked October 15, 2026, against Fish Audio’s published plan information. This is a research-based review; we do not claim hands-on testing.
What does Fish Audio do?
Fish Audio generates spoken audio from text, clones voices from short reference recordings, and also offers speech-to-text through the same platform and API. Its script editor supports inline emotion and delivery tags — whispers, laughs, pauses — so a line can be performed, not just read. A very large community voice library (Fish Audio’s own blog puts it at over 2 million voices) sits alongside your own clones, and a Story Studio workspace handles multi-character, chapter-based projects such as audiobooks. Developers can use the pay-as-you-go API, and the underlying Fish Speech models are open source for self-hosting.
What is actually free on Fish Audio?
The Free plan is $0 with no credit card required. It includes 8,000 credits per month — at roughly 600 credits per minute of audio, that is about 7 minutes of generation. Each single generation is capped at 500 characters, and you get 3 public voice slots for clones. Credits reset monthly and do not roll over.
One warning matters more than the numbers: licensing. Fish Audio’s pages are not perfectly consistent about free-tier commercial rights, while its terms restrict free use to personal, non-commercial purposes. The safe reading — and the one this review uses — is that free output is for personal projects and evaluation only.
What do the paid plans add?
Plus is listed at $15/month (with a discounted annual option) and raises the allowance to 250,000 credits a month — roughly 200 minutes — with 15,000 characters per generation, private voice slots, and commercial rights. Pro and Max tiers scale credits, seats, and professional voice slots for studios and teams. Separately, the API charges per input size rather than by subscription, at $15 per million UTF-8 bytes.
Pros and cons of Fish Audio’s free plan
Pros
- Enough free audio to genuinely judge voice quality before paying
- Voice cloning from a short sample — about 10 to 15 seconds of reference audio
- Emotion tags and a huge community voice library to experiment with
- No credit card required, and an open-source path exists if you outgrow the hosted plans
Cons
- About 7 minutes a month disappears fast on any real project
- 500-character limit per generation forces short chunks
- Free use is personal only — commercial work needs a paid plan
- Credits never roll over
Who is Fish Audio best for?
Creators testing AI narration, game and animation hobbyists who need character voices, and developers prototyping voice features. If you publish monetized videos or client work, start your evaluation on free but budget for Plus.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fish Audio free to use?
Yes, within limits: 8,000 credits a month (about 7 minutes), 500 characters per generation, and 3 public voice slots, with no credit card required.
Can I use Fish Audio’s free plan commercially?
Treat it as personal use only. The terms restrict free use to non-commercial purposes, so monetized or client work should use a paid plan.
How much audio does 8,000 credits make?
Roughly 7 minutes. Fish Audio’s credit math works out to about 600 credits per minute of generated speech.
Can Fish Audio clone my voice?
Yes, from a short reference sample. Only clone voices you own or have clear permission to use.
Verdict: A small but honest free tier: short, capped, and personal-use — yet long enough to hear exactly what the paid product sounds like, which is what a free plan is for.