Get started with Cloud Text-to-Speech

Cloud Text-to-Speech is an API that is powered by Google's artificial intelligence (AI) technology. You send your transcript data to Cloud Text-to-Speech in an API call, then receive natural-sounding, synthetic human speech as playable audio in response. For more information on how Cloud Text-to-Speech works, see the basics page.

This guide walks you through the steps necessary to start sending requests to the Cloud Text-to-Speech API. See the code samples section for examples of how to make a request to the API and receive a response, or learn how to use these samples by following the Cloud Text-to-Speech quickstarts and how-to guides.

Enable the Cloud Text-to-Speech API

Before you can begin using Cloud Text-to-Speech, you must enable the API in the Google Cloud console:

  1. Sign in to the Google Cloud console.

  2. Open the project selector page and either choose an existing project or create a new one. For details about creating a project, see the Google Cloud documentation.

  3. If you create a new project, you will be prompted to link a billing account to this project. If you are using a pre-existing project, make sure that you have billing enabled.

    Learn how to confirm that billing is enabled for your project

  4. Once you have selected a project and linked it to a billing account, you can enable the Cloud Text-to-Speech API. Go to the Search products and resources bar at the top of the page and type in "speech". Select the Cloud Text-to-Speech API from the list of results.

  5. To try Cloud Text-to-Speech without linking it to your project, choose the Try this app option. To enable the Cloud Text-to-Speech API for use with your project, click Enable.

  6. Set up authentication for your development environment. For instructions, see Set up authentication for Cloud Text-to-Speech.

Disable the Cloud Text-to-Speech API

To disable the Cloud Text-to-Speech API, navigate to your Google Cloud dashboard and click the Go to APIs overview link in the APIs box. Click Cloud Text-to-Speech API, then click the Disable API button at the top of the page.

What's next

Learn how to send a transcription request to the Cloud Text-to-Speech API using client libraries or the command line.