Upgrade to Text-to-Speech Neural Voice by 31 August 2024
Published date: August 17, 2021
Text-to-Speech currently supports both standard and neural voices. However, since the neural voices provide more natural sounding speech output, and thus, a better end-user experience, we are retiring the standard voices on 31st August 2024 and they will no longer be supported after that date.
Here is a quick comparison between Standard Text-to-Speech and Neural Text-to-Speech features：
Standard text-to-speech | Neural text-to-speech |
Noticeably robotic | Natural sounding, closer to human-parity |
Limited capabilities in voice tuning | Advanced capabilities in voice tuning |
No new investment in future voice fonts | On-going investment in future voice fonts |
Action required
Review the price structure and listen to the neural voice samples to determine the right voice for your business needs.
To make the change, follow the steps to update the voice name in your speech synthesis request to the supported neural voice names in chosen languages by 31 August 2024. Starting 1st September 2024, standard voices will no longer be supported, please use neural voices for your speech synthesis request, on cloud or on prem.
Help and support
If you have questions, get answers from community experts in Microsoft Q&A. If you have a support plan and you need technical help, create a support request.