PlayHT is dead. Meta bought it in 2025 and pulled the plug for good on December 31, 2025. If you ran voiceovers through it, your dashboard went blank, your API calls 404'd, and your saved projects evaporated.
This guide covers what happened, what you lost, and how to be generating audio again in under 60 seconds on AltSpeak: 200+ voices across 100+ languages, starting free with 10,000 credits and no card.
Short version for anyone skimming: AltSpeak is a direct PlayHT replacement with 200+ voices across 100+ languages, a free tier of 10,000 credits with no card, and Creator at $11/month for 100,000 credits, half the $22/month ElevenLabs charges at its standing Creator rate.
What Happened to PlayHT
In 2025, Meta acquired PlayHT in what was widely reported as an acqui-hire. Meta wanted the team and their voice synthesis research, not the product.
By December 31, 2025, PlayHT was fully shut down. The site went dark, the API endpoints stopped responding, and no migration path was offered to existing users. One day it worked, the next it did not.
Thousands of creators, developers, and businesses that relied on PlayHT for voiceovers, podcasts, audiobooks, and content production were left without a platform overnight.
What PlayHT Users Lost
The shutdown hit users in three ways.
Voice library access. PlayHT carried a solid set of AI voices across several languages. Every one of them, including the presets and favourites you saved, is gone. Nothing recovers it.
Saved projects and audio files. Any scripts, saved generations, or audio files stored on PlayHT's servers were deleted when the platform shut down. If you did not download your generated audio before December 2025, those files are not recoverable.
API integrations. Anyone who built on PlayHT's API watched it break with no warning. No sunset period. No deprecation window. The endpoints just stopped answering.
Why AltSpeak Is the Best Alternative
We built AltSpeak because we watched this coming. TTS tools get acquired, APIs get deprecated, and creators get stranded. AltSpeak is built to be the one you do not have to worry about losing.
Here is what we offer.
200+ studio-quality voices across 100+ languages. We pull the best voices from more than one AI provider: Google Chirp3-HD covers 59 languages with native pronunciation, and Inworld TTS-2 adds crosslingual switching across 100+. You are not locked into one provider's library. When a provider ships a better model, you get the upgrade automatically.
Multi-provider architecture. This is the big one. Most TTS tools ride on a single voice model. If that model gets deprecated or the company pivots, you lose everything, which is exactly the PlayHT story. AltSpeak pulls from more than one provider, so your workflow never hangs on a single company's roadmap.
Half the price of ElevenLabs at the Creator tier. Premium voices do not need premium prices. Starter runs $5/month for 35,000 credits. Creator runs $11/month for 100,000 credits. ElevenLabs Creator is $22/month at its standing rate, so the same 100,000-character volume costs you half on AltSpeak.
Simple, clean interface. No bloated dashboards. No confusing credit math: 1 credit is 1 character, flat. Pick a voice, paste your text, hit generate. Search voices by category, language, style, or provider, save your favourites, and render up to 50,000 characters in a single pass.
Transparent pricing. No hidden regeneration fees, no surprise charges for retries. Every paid plan ships full commercial rights. What you see is what you pay.
Step-by-Step Migration Guide
Getting started on AltSpeak takes less than a minute.
Step 1: Create Your Free Account
Go to altspeak.torpenhow.ai and sign up with Google, GitHub, or Discord. No credit card. You get 10,000 free credits, one per character, to test everything out.
Step 2: Find Your Replacement Voices
AltSpeak has 200+ voices organized by category: narration, shortform content, professional, conversational, character, and more.
Use the voice browser to search by style, language, or mood. If you had a favourite PlayHT voice, here is how to find something similar:
Had a warm, natural narrator? Browse the Narration category or search "warm" and "natural" in the voice browser.
Needed multilingual voices? Filter by language. AltSpeak covers 100+ languages including Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean, with native pronunciation on the 59 Google Chirp3-HD handles.
Used a deep, authoritative voice for corporate content? Check the Professional category or search for "authoritative" and "commanding."
Hit the preview button on any voice to hear a sample before committing.
Step 3: Generate Your First Audio
Once you have found a voice you like:
Select the voice from the picker.
Paste or type your script in the text editor.
Adjust speed, pitch, and export format if needed. Free exports MP3 at 22kHz; paid plans go to 44.1 to 48kHz, plus WAV on Starter and up, and FLAC lossless on Pro.
Click Generate.
Your audio file is ready to download in seconds.
One generation handles up to 50,000 characters, so a long script does not need to be chopped into pieces. At 1 credit per character, that single render costs 50,000 credits, half of a Creator month.
Step 4: Save Your Favourites
Click the heart icon on any voice to save it to your favourites. This builds your personal voice library so you do not have to search every time.
Step 5: Upgrade When Ready
The free tier gives you 10,000 credits to confirm AltSpeak fits your workflow. When you need production volume, upgrade from inside the app: Starter $5/mo for 35,000 credits, Creator $11/mo for 100,000, Pro $63/mo for 700,000. Annual billing saves up to 33%, two months free. No sales calls, no demos.
Pricing Comparison
Here is how AltSpeak stacks up against PlayHT's old pricing and the current market leader.
AltSpeak Creator is $11/month for 100,000 credits. ElevenLabs Creator is $22/month at its standing rate for comparable volume. That is half the cost, and it compounds fast if you publish every week. Push to annual and AltSpeak saves up to 33% on top, two months free.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I keep my PlayHT voices?
No. PlayHT's voice models were proprietary and went offline with the shutdown on December 31, 2025. All of that voice data is gone. You pick new voices on AltSpeak instead, and with 200+ options across more than one provider, most people land on a comparable or better match in minutes.
What about API compatibility?
AltSpeak's API is not a drop-in replacement for PlayHT's API. The endpoints, authentication, and request format are different. However, the migration is straightforward: update your API calls to point to AltSpeak's endpoints, swap your API key, and adjust the voice ID parameter. The response format (audio file) works the same way.
Is there a free tier?
Yes. Every new account gets 10,000 free credits, one per character, with no credit card. That covers testing several voices, generating a handful of clips, and confirming AltSpeak fits your workflow before you pay a cent.
What TTS providers does AltSpeak use?
Google Chirp3-HD, which covers 59 languages with native pronunciation, and Inworld TTS-2, which adds crosslingual switching across 100+ languages. More providers are landing. Because of the multi-provider architecture, new voice models slot in without breaking your existing workflow.
What if AltSpeak gets acquired too?
Fair question. AltSpeak is built by Torpenhow Technologies, a bootstrapped company building tools for creators. We are not chasing an exit, we are building a business. Your data is yours, and you can always export your work as MP3, WAV on Starter and up, or FLAC lossless on Pro.
How many characters can I generate at once?
Up to 50,000 characters in a single generation, which is roughly a full chapter or a whole episode in one pass instead of stitching short clips together.
Do credits roll over month to month?
Credits reset monthly on your billing anniversary. Use them or lose them. We keep the price low instead of bolting on rollover tiers nobody reads.
Start Generating
PlayHT is gone, but your workflow does not have to be. AltSpeak gives you 200+ voices across 100+ languages at $11/month for 100,000 credits, half what ElevenLabs charges at the same tier.
Sign up free at altspeak.torpenhow.ai and generate your first audio in under 60 seconds.
Yes. Meta acquired the Play.ht team in 2025, and the consumer service closed on December 31, 2025. Accounts, saved audio, and API endpoints were taken down. As of 2026 there is no Play.ht service left to log into.
No. When Play.ht closed on December 31, 2025, stored audio files, saved projects, and voice presets were removed with no export window. If you did not download your generated audio before then, it is gone. You rebuild on a new tool and carry over your own scripts.
It depends on the job. For most stranded Play.ht users AltSpeak is the closest fit: a browser studio with 200+ voices across 100+ languages, hero voices like Lauren, Graham, and Hades, a free tier, and Creator at $11/mo. ElevenLabs wins on raw voice count; Google Cloud TTS wins on cheapest raw API for developers.
AltSpeak Creator is $11/mo for 100,000 credits, and annual saves up to 33%. ElevenLabs Creator is $22/mo at the standing rate for 100,000 credits, so for comparable monthly volume AltSpeak Creator runs about half. AltSpeak Starter is $5/mo for 35,000 credits and Pro is $63/mo for 700,000 credits. One credit equals one character.
Yes. New accounts get 10,000 credits one time, no card. One credit is one character, so that is 10,000 characters to spend. It covers testing several voices on your own script and confirming the tool fits before you pay anything. Paid plans add commercial-use rights and higher monthly volume.
Not as a drop-in. The Play.ht API is dead, and AltSpeak uses different endpoints, authentication, and request format. You point your calls at AltSpeak's endpoints, swap the key, and set the new voice ID. If raw per-character API cost is your main concern, Google Cloud TTS and Amazon Polly both run about $4 per 1M characters for standard voices and about $16 per 1M for neural, with no studio UI.