What Is Azure AI Speech? Speech to Text, Turkish Neural Voices, Free F0 Tier, Pricing and Custom Voice
To add speech-to-text transcription, neural voice text-to-speech or speech translation to your app, you call Azure AI Speech's cloud service (now called “Azure Speech in Foundry Tools” in Microsoft's documentation). Turkish transcription (tr-TR) and Turkish voices (Emel, Ahmet; plus Neural HD Aydın and Elif) are available. The free F0 tier gives 5 hours of real-time transcription, 0.5 million characters of neural TTS and 5 hours of speech translation a month; batch transcription isn't on F0. Custom voice is limited access; prices are in dollars, with no Turkish lira pricing.
- What it does
- Turns speech into text and text into speech
- Free F0
- 5 hours transcription · 0.5M characters TTS · 5 hours translation/month
- Price (USD)
- STT ~$1/hour · neural TTS ~$15/1M characters
- Turkish
- STT tr-TR and TTS voices available
- Custom voice
- Limited access
What Is Azure AI Speech Used For? Why Did the Name Change?
Azure AI Speech does three things: it converts speech to text (meeting recordings, call centers), reads text aloud in a natural voice (neural voice), and translates speech in real time. The resource is now created as a Microsoft Foundry resource, and the docs call the product “Azure Speech in Foundry Tools”; the “Azure AI Speech” name and the old pricing URL are outdated.
To get started you need an Azure subscription (you can create one for free); whether a card, phone or age requirement applies at sign-up is unclear in the official sources. Who it's for: developers and organizations that want to add a voice interface, captions or translation to their app.
Is Azure AI Speech Free? The F0 Tier and Pricing
- 5 hours of real-time transcription a month
- 0.5 million characters of neural TTS a month
- 5 hours of speech translation a month
- Batch transcription
- Voice Live and LLM speech
- Quota increases
- Transcription about $1/hour
- Neural TTS about $15/1M characters
- Neural HD TTS about $22/1M characters
- Translation about $2.5/hour
The USD figures come from the Azure Retail Prices API (West Europe region); the pricing page loads its amounts with JavaScript, so they may not match its marketing table exactly. Turkish lira isn't in the pricing page's currency list. Custom voice is limited access: “limited based on eligibility and usage criteria; you apply with an intake form”; training and hosting prices and the approval time aren't stated in the official sources.
Official pricing page last checked on .
Does Azure AI Speech Work in Turkish?
| Speech to textYes | tr-TR is in the language list; Turkish support for sub-features such as fast transcription and post-stream refinement is unclear in the official sources. |
|---|---|
| Turkish voices (TTS)Yes | Standard Emel (female) and Ahmet (male); Neural HD Aydın and Elif (MAI-Voice-2 and Flash) are also listed. |
| Portal interfaceUnclear | Whether the Azure portal is available in Turkish is unclear in the official sources. |
How Does Azure AI Speech Use Your Data?
The data pages include “not stored” statements; there's no statement on whether data is used to train Microsoft models.
For terms, commercial use, cancellation, refunds and account deletion, read Microsoft's official terms yourself. A separate Azure statement on KVKK (Turkey's Personal Data Protection Law) is outside the scope of this guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is Azure AI Speech and what is it for?
Microsoft's service for converting speech to text, reading text aloud with neural voices and translating speech; the docs now call it “Azure Speech in Foundry Tools”.
Is Azure AI Speech free?
The F0 tier gives 5 hours of transcription, 0.5 million characters of TTS and 5 hours of speech translation a month; batch transcription isn't on F0.
Does Azure AI Speech have a Turkish voice?
Yes: standard Emel and Ahmet, plus Neural HD Aydın and Elif, are listed. Speech to text supports tr-TR.
How much does Azure AI Speech cost?
Transcription about $1/hour, neural TTS about $15 per million characters, translation about $2.5/hour (West Europe, USD). No lira pricing.
Is Azure custom voice available to everyone?
No, it's limited access; it's granted by eligibility through an application form.
Related guides
Sources
Not clear in the official sources: Card, phone and age requirements · use of data to train Microsoft models · custom voice application criteria, approval time and pricing · Turkish STT sub-features · portal interface language · terms, commercial use, cancellation, refunds, account deletion · whether the marketing table and API prices match exactly. Each one is covered in its section, along with what you can do.