How do I add text-to-speech to my app with an API?

To add text-to-speech (TTS) to your app with an API, the usual flow is:

1. Send text to a TTS endpoint
2. Receive audio back, usually as MP3/WAV/OGG
3. Play or store that audio in your app

Basic approach

1) Pick a TTS provider

Common options:

• OpenAI TTS
• Google Cloud Text-to-Speech
• Amazon Polly
• Azure Speech
• ElevenLabs

Choose based on:

• voice quality
• supported languages/voices
• pricing
• latency
• streaming support

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2) Create an API request

Most TTS APIs take:

• text
• voice
• format or audio encoding
• sometimes speed, language, style

Example request shape:

{
  "text": "Hello, world!",
  "voice": "alloy",
  "format": "mp3"
}

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3) Handle the audio response

The API may return:

• raw audio bytes
• a base64-encoded string
• a URL to download the file

Then you:

• save it as a file, or
• stream it directly to the user, or
• play it in the browser/mobile app

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Example: Browser playback

If your backend returns an MP3 file, your frontend can do:

const res = await fetch("/api/tts", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ text: "Hello there!" })
});

const blob = await res.blob();
const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
const audio = new Audio(url);
audio.play();

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Example: Backend proxy

It’s best to call the TTS provider from your server, not directly from the client, so your API key stays secret.

Example flow:

• Frontend sends text to your backend
• Backend calls TTS provider using secret API key
• Backend returns audio to frontend

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Important best practices

Security

• Never expose your TTS API key in frontend code
• Validate and limit text length to prevent abuse

Performance

• Cache repeated audio if the same text is requested often
• Use streaming if supported for faster playback

UX

• Show loading state while audio is being generated
• Add voice selection if your provider supports multiple voices

Accessibility

• TTS can help visually impaired users and support hands-free use

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Minimal backend example in Node.js

Here’s the general idea:

import express from "express";
import fetch from "node-fetch";

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

app.post("/api/tts", async (req, res) => {
  const { text } = req.body;

  const ttsRes = await fetch("TTS_PROVIDER_ENDPOINT", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.TTS_API_KEY}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      text,
      voice: "default",
      format: "mp3"
    })
  });

  const audioBuffer = await ttsRes.arrayBuffer();
  res.setHeader("Content-Type", "audio/mpeg");
  res.send(Buffer.from(audioBuffer));
});

app.listen(3000);

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If you want, I can help you with:

• a specific provider (OpenAI, Polly, Google, Azure, ElevenLabs)
• frontend code for web or mobile
• backend code in Node, Python, or PHP
• streaming TTS instead of waiting for the full file

If you tell me your stack, I can give you a drop-in example.