Text to Speech AI Software for Hold Messages, Training and Videos

For a small business, pick the voice tool by the job. A hold message or IVR greeting needs a clear voice, a commercial licence and a phone-friendly file, so a low-tier plan from ElevenLabs or WellSaid is enough. Training voiceovers and videos need longer scripts, steady pacing and caption files, which favours plans with more monthly minutes.

Two checks matter more than voice quality. Does the plan you pay for allow commercial use, and do you have consent for any voice that resembles a real person? Get those right and the tool choice becomes a question of price per finished minute. A quick sum shows how small the hold-message job is: at about 140 spoken words a minute, a 45-second message is roughly 105 words, so even the smallest paid allowance covers it many times over.

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Three jobs, three sets of needs

Text-to-speech (TTS) software turns a written script into spoken audio. Small businesses use it for three kinds of work, and they differ in ways that decide which tool to buy.

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A hold message used by 50 callers a day is heard far more than a training module watched by six staff, so spend your care and money on the first. Longer jobs, such as an eight-minute module, are where monthly minutes allowances start to bite.

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The tools worth comparing, with current prices

Prices and plan details change often, so treat the figures below as of 4 November 2026 and check each vendor's page before buying. All figures are USD list prices.

ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs offers a free plan of 10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of speech, with no commercial licence listed. Starter is $6 a month ($5 a month billed annually) with 30,000 credits, about 30 minutes, and lists a commercial licence and instant voice cloning. Creator is $22 a month, with the first month shown at $11, and gives 121,000 credits, about 121 minutes, plus professional voice cloning. Pro is $99 a month for 600,000 credits. Minute figures are approximate, because ElevenLabs charges credits per character and the rate depends on the model. Its wide voice library and fine control suit expressive videos. Professional voice cloning works only for your own voice and needs a verification recording before the clone is trained, which is the kind of consent check you want.

WellSaid

WellSaid is aimed at business voiceover: curated voice actors, studio controls for tone and pitch, and caption files on paid plans. Its free trial gives 3 download minutes a month with no commercial rights. Starter is $19 a month billed monthly (20 download minutes a month, unlimited generation, 10 projects, full commercial rights, caption files, 24 kHz audio), or $10 a month when billed annually at $120 a year (240 minutes a year). Pro is $49 a month billed monthly with 180 minutes a month, unlimited projects and up to 48 kHz audio, or $33 a month billed annually at $396 a year (2,160 minutes a year). The plans count minutes you download, not minutes you generate, which suits a workflow of drafting, adjusting and downloading once. Two details from its comparison table matter for phone work: Starter and Pro download MP3 (WAV appears from the Business plan up), and WellSaid states that customer data is never used to train its models.

Murf

Murf runs a studio for voiceovers and a developer API. Its pricing page shows the API side clearly: a free trial and a pay-as-you-go plan priced per character, with a usage calculator, alongside badges for GDPR compliance and ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certification. The studio subscription plans sit on a separate tab that loads in the browser and could not be read when this tutorial was checked, so open the Studio tab on Murf's pricing page and compare its minutes, download rules and licence terms with the two tools above before you decide.

Built-in and developer options

The large cloud platforms sell speech APIs by usage, which suits a business with a developer or an automation tool. One caution: OpenAI's deprecations page lists its speech models tts-1, tts-1-hd and gpt-4o-mini-tts for removal from the API on 6 January 2027, so avoid building anything new on them without checking OpenAI's current guidance. If you are not building a system, a subscription tool above is simpler.

A comparison by job

Job 1: the phone hold message, costed

Say a coworking space with a front desk and an overflow line wants a hold message of about 45 seconds, repeating with a 10-second gap.

1. Write the script (20 minutes). Aim for 100 to 110 words at a conversational pace of roughly 140 words a minute. Put the single most useful thing first: opening hours, then the web address for bookings, then one offer. Avoid dates and prices that will go out of date; each change means re-recording.
2. Prepare it for speech. Spell out phone numbers with spaces ("zero one two, three four five") and write the website as words ("coworking dot example dot com"). Add commas where you want a breath.
3. Generate three takes (10 minutes). Try two voices at two speaking speeds. Listen on a phone speaker, not on headphones, because callers will hear it through a handset or a cheap earpiece.
4. Export and convert. Download at the best quality, then convert to the format your phone system names in its manual. Many systems take WAV files; some want a specific telephone format such as 8 kHz mono. WellSaid's Starter and Pro plans download MP3, so a free audio editor does the conversion. Ask your provider which format it wants.
5. Test through a real call. Phone the line from a mobile and a landline. Check volume, clipping, and the gap before the loop restarts.

Cost (illustrative): one month of WellSaid Starter at $19, or ElevenLabs Starter at $6, used for an hour of work. After the files are saved you can cancel, subject to the plan's terms. Compare that with booking a voice artist and studio for a minute of audio, which is a quote you would request and which can include licence terms of its own.

Sample script, and what to fix

Thank you for calling our coworking space. Our reception is open from eight until six, Monday to Friday. To book a meeting room or a day desk, please visit our website, at example dot com slash book, or stay on the line and we will be with you shortly. Thank you for your patience.

Read it aloud. "Eight until six" is clear. "Example dot com slash book" is fine once and tiring on a loop, so cut it from the hold loop and keep it in the greeting. Resist adding a street or area name: callers have already dialled your number, so it adds nothing.

Job 2: the IVR greeting and menu

An interactive voice response (IVR) is the menu callers hear: "Press 1 for bookings". The writing rules are different from a hold message. Each prompt must be short, in a fixed order, with the option last: "For bookings, press one." Callers listen for their word, then the number.

1. List every prompt in a sheet with columns: ID, text, notes. Typical set: welcome, main menu, five options, out-of-hours, busy, voicemail, goodbye.
2. Generate every prompt in the same voice and speed, in one session, so they sound like one person.
3. Normalise the volume of all files to the same level in a free audio editor.
4. Keep a "last updated" date for each prompt. When opening hours change, you re-generate one clip, not the whole menu.

A realistic mistake: an owner changes a menu option from "two" to "three" and re-records only that line in a different voice setting. Callers hear a sudden shift. The fix is to keep the voice and settings in a note beside the sheet, and re-generate adjacent prompts if the change is audible.

A recorded menu is a different job from an AI agent that talks to callers and takes bookings. If that is what you are weighing up, what AI can and cannot handle on a business phone covers the agent route; the voice tools here only speak the words you write.

Job 3: training voiceovers

A catering company has a 10-minute induction module for new kitchen staff: allergens, handwashing, handover. Staff watch it on a tablet. A TTS voice replaces a voice recording that nobody wants to redo each time a procedure changes.

• Script in short blocks. One slide, one block, 40 to 70 words. Short blocks regenerate cheaply and are easy to edit.
• Pronunciation list. Keep a list of terms: product names, allergen terms, your own name. Add phonetic respellings where the tool allows, or write them out in the script.
• Pacing. Slow a little for procedures that people will follow step by step.
• Captions. WellSaid's paid plans list caption files (SRT and VTT); with other tools you can generate captions in your video editor. Captions help people who watch on mute in a kitchen.

Sum for the module (illustrative): 10 minutes of finished audio, regenerating 20 per cent of blocks twice for edits, is about 14 minutes of generation. On a plan that counts download minutes, you download once at the end (10 of WellSaid Starter's 20 monthly minutes); on a credit-based plan, count the retakes too. ElevenLabs Starter's 30 minutes covers one such module a month with little room for a second; the 121-minute Creator allowance suits regular production.

When procedures change, edit the block, regenerate it and replace the clip. That is the real saving, because re-recording a human voice means finding the person and the room again. For writing the scripts so they sound like your business, how to build a brand voice guide that AI can follow applies directly: the same guide that shapes your emails shapes what your voice says.

Job 4: videos, social clips and explainers

A sports club makes a 90-second video each month showing fixtures and club news. Here expression and timing matter more than price. Generate the narration first, then edit the video to the audio, not the reverse; it is far quicker to cut pictures to fit a voice than to stretch a voice to fit pictures.

For marketing uses, check the licence wording for paid advertising and for use by a third party, such as an agency. Some plans permit commercial use but with conditions, and the wording changes. Read the terms page for your plan rather than relying on a summary, including this one.

Writing a script that sounds right when spoken

Most disappointing AI voice results are script problems. Text written for the eye has long sentences, brackets and abbreviations, and a voice reads all of them literally. Before you generate anything, read the script aloud once, at the pace you want the voice to use, and mark where you ran out of breath. Those marks are where a full stop or comma belongs.

Here is a before and after for one paragraph of a training module (illustrative). Before: "Staff must wash hands (min. 20 secs) before handling RTE food, e.g. salads, & after bins." After: "Wash your hands for at least twenty seconds before you handle ready-to-eat food, such as salads. Wash them again after you touch the bins." The second version has no abbreviations, no ampersand, no brackets, and each sentence has one instruction. A voice reads it smoothly, and a new starter on the first day follows it more easily too. Numbers deserve a similar rule: write "twenty seconds", and spell out telephone numbers digit by digit with commas for the pauses.

Keep a "pronunciation sheet" in the same folder as the scripts: business name, product names, any word the tool stumbled over, and the respelling that fixed it. It saves ten minutes on every new script and means a colleague can produce the next module without guessing.

Licence and consent: the part people skip

Voices carry rights. Three situations come up in small businesses.

1. A stock or library voice. Check that your plan's licence covers your use, including phone systems, video ads and any resale or client work. A free trial is usually for testing only.
2. Your own voice, cloned. Fine, with the vendor's verification. Keep a record that you consented, and note which plan the clone sits on, because some vendors restrict cloning to higher tiers. ElevenLabs lists professional voice cloning on its Creator plan and above.
3. Someone else's voice. An employee, a voice actor or a family member. ElevenLabs does not let you professionally clone another person's voice even with their consent; that person creates and verifies the clone on their own account and shares it with you. Other vendors set their own rules, so read them. Either way, get a written agreement that names the uses, the length of time, the payment, what happens if they leave, and the right to withdraw. Never clone a customer, a celebrity or a competitor's recording.

Also think about disclosure. If your customers include people in the EU, Article 50 of the EU AI Act sets transparency duties for AI-generated audio: the voice tool's provider must mark its output as AI-generated in a machine-readable way, and anyone who publishes audio imitating a real person (a "deep fake") must say so. A short line in your privacy notice, such as "some of our recorded messages use AI-generated voices", is cheap, honest and easy to remove if the rules turn out lighter. A qualified adviser can confirm what applies to you.

A short test to run before you buy

Take the same 60-word paragraph from your own business and run it through the free or trial tier of two tools. Then score each from 1 to 5 on:

• Pronunciation of your business name and one awkward product term.
• Warmth at phone quality, played through a handset.
• Consistency when you regenerate the same line three times.
• How easily you can adjust a pause or emphasis.
• Whether the plan you would need allows your use.

Make the choice on the total and on the licence line, not on the demo voice, which is usually the vendor's best.

Hold-message and voiceover slips to avoid

• Baking in details that change. Opening hours, prices and names of people. Keep the voice file generic, and let your website carry the changing facts.
• Testing on headphones only. Callers hear a compressed phone line. Always test through a call.
• Trusting a free tier. No commercial rights, watermarks or minute caps can leave you re-doing the job.
• Leaving the voice undocumented. Six months later nobody knows which voice, setting or plan made the prompts. Keep a one-line record.
• Over-using one voice for every job. A cheerful video voice may sound wrong on a hold message for a clinic or a legal service. Match tone to the caller's mood.

If you are also considering the reverse job, turning spoken notes into text, turning on-site voice notes into job sheets and quotes with AI covers it. And for tone across messages, using AI in a yoga or Pilates studio while keeping your voice shows how a small business keeps its own sound.

Which plan, for which business

• An event venue with one phone line and a greeting: a month of ElevenLabs Starter or WellSaid Starter, then cancel or keep for edits.
• A catering company with monthly staff modules: WellSaid Pro or ElevenLabs Creator, depending on the voice and caption needs; log your retakes in the first month to choose.
• A sports club with a monthly video: ElevenLabs Creator or Starter, depending on how many retakes you make; start with Starter and upgrade if you run out of credits.
• A coworking space with a menu of 20 prompts and a monthly announcement: WellSaid Starter, which covers short clips, or ElevenLabs Starter if you prefer its voices.

If you want help deciding where recorded audio fits in your business, and whether a one-off job or an automated workflow is the right size, that is what my AI implementation consultation covers; you can book a call. The comparison above is enough to choose a first tool without it.

Questions about AI voices for business use

Can I use a free text-to-speech plan for a business hold message?

Check the licence first. Free plans from voice vendors often limit or exclude commercial use, and some require attribution. WellSaid's free trial, for instance, states no commercial rights; ElevenLabs lists a commercial licence from its Starter plan. For anything customers will hear, use a paid plan whose terms clearly allow commercial use.

Can I clone my own voice for the hold message?

Yes, with a vendor that verifies the voice is yours. ElevenLabs' professional cloning, on Creator and above, accepts only your own voice and asks for a verification recording. For an employee or a voice actor, they clone and share their own voice, and you need their written agreement covering where and how long it is used, and what happens when they leave.

What audio format does a phone system need?

It depends on your system, so check its manual. Many phone systems accept WAV files, and some expect a telephone-quality format such as 8 kHz mono. Generate at the highest quality the tool offers, then convert to the format your system names, and test through a real call.

Do I have to tell callers the voice is AI-generated?

Rules vary and are changing. If you have customers in the EU, Article 50 of the EU AI Act asks voice-tool providers to mark AI audio and requires disclosure of audio that imitates a real person. For an ordinary greeting, a short line in your privacy information is a cheap, honest step. Ask a qualified adviser for your own case.

Further reads

• How to Keep AI-Made Videos On-Brand: Captions, Voice and Intros — Keep AI voiceovers, captions and intros on-brand across videos.
• How to Make Marketing Videos With AI Without Being on Camera — Build marketing videos around an AI voice without filming yourself.
• How to Label AI-Generated Images and Video on Social Media — How to label AI-made video and audio when you post it.
• How to Spot Deepfake Voice and Video Scams Aimed at Your Business — The flip side of voice cloning: spotting fake calls aimed at you.
• How to Set Up an AI Phone Agent for After-Hours Calls — When a live AI agent beats a recorded out-of-hours message.
• Pharmacy Staff Training: Induction Packs for Counter Staff With AI — Induction packs that a training voiceover can sit alongside.
• Can You Make an AI Audio Tour Guide? Scripts, Voices and Licensing — A claim-log method for scripts, what four speech services' own terms say, consent wording for cloned voices and the royalty-free music trap.
• ElevenLabs vs Speechify: Which Voice Tool Suits Business Audio? — Two voice tools, two different jobs: what each licence allows for commercial audio, what a finished minute costs, and how to test both.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: ElevenLabs pricing page and professional voice cloning docs; WellSaid pricing and plan comparison; Murf pricing page (API tab); OpenAI API deprecations page; EU AI Act Article 50 text (all checked 4 November 2026).