Svara TTSTurbovs Sarvam.
Bulbul v3 lists ₹3 per 1,000 characters across 11 Indian languages. Svara TTS Turbo is ₹1 per 1,000 across 80+. The rest of the comparison, dated and sourced, is below.
The short answer.
For Indian-language speech behind an API, Svara TTS TURBO costs a third of Bulbul's rate and covers every language Bulbul does — then dozens more, in the same model, from the same voices, with zero-shot cloning and about 80 ms to first audio. Sarvam fits if you are buying their wider Indic stack — speech to text, translation, LLMs — and staying inside its 11 languages.
| Side by side |  Svara TTS TURBO |  Sarvam (Bulbul v3) |
|---|---|---|
| Rate per 1,000 characters | ₹1 | ₹3 (₹30 per 10,000) |
| Roughly per minute of audio | ~₹1 | ~₹3 |
| Currencies | ₹ for India, $ everywhere else | INR only, prepaid credits |
| Free tier | 100,000 characters a month, every month | ₹100 in credits, one time |
| Languages | 80+ in one model — Indic, African, and the world's majors | 11 (10 Indian languages + Indian English) |
| Voices | Hundreds; every voice speaks every language | 35+ (bulbul:v3) |
| Voice cloning | Zero-shot in the API, self-serve | Enterprise only, via their team |
| Time to first audio | ~80 ms, with input streaming | Not published |
| Plans and limits | Published plans with concurrent streams; Growth is ₹1,000 per month | Prepaid credits; requests-per-minute tiers; volume via their sales team |
| API compatibility | OpenAI-style and ElevenLabs-style endpoints | Sarvam API |
Per-minute estimates use the rule of thumb that 1,000 characters is about a minute of audio.
Where Svara wins.
- A third of the rate: ₹1 against ₹3 per 1,000 characters — and $0.01 internationally, where Sarvam prices only in rupees.
- 80+ languages in one model, including all 11 Bulbul covers; Bulbul covers Indian languages only. One vendor whether your product speaks Hindi, Swahili or Spanish.
- Hundreds of voices against their 35+, and every one of ours speaks every language and code-switches mid-sentence.
- Voice cloning is an API call — zero-shot, from a few seconds of reference audio. Bulbul's cloning is an enterprise conversation with their team.
- About 80 ms to first audio with input streaming for live agents; Sarvam publishes no latency figure.
- Plans you can read before you buy — monthly tiers with concurrent-stream limits, a recurring free tier, no sales call.
Where Sarvam fits.
- A wider Indian-language stack — speech to text, translation and LLMs beside TTS.
- An Indic-focused research effort with a public roadmap in that direction.
Switching is an afternoon, not a project
The request shape is the OpenAI speech standard — POST /v1/audio/speech with text, voice and language — and Indic text normalization is a built-in parameter, so numbers, dates and amounts read aloud properly. The free tier is 100,000 characters a month with no card, so you can run your own traffic through both before deciding.
Questions
Competitor rates as of September 2026, read from each vendor's own site — check the sources before deciding, since prices change. Sources, with our own pages beside them: docs.sarvam.ai pricing · docs.sarvam.ai text-to-speech · sarvam.ai/blogs/bulbul-v3 · kenpathlabs.com/pricing · API overview.
Also compared: Svara TTS Turbo vs ElevenLabs · ElevenLabs alternatives