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Amazon Polly is an AWS cloud text-to-speech service: you send plain text or SSML, select a compatible voice and engine, and receive streamed audio or speech-mark metadata. The practical choices are the engine (Standard, Neural, Long-form, or Generative), a voice that supports it in your AWS Region, SSML features that the engine actually implements, and an output format and sample rate your player or device accepts.
Polly does not translate text. The language of the input, the selected voice, and the language and Region settings must agree. Once those constraints are handled, Polly can serve short API responses, long recordings, telephony audio, accessible interfaces, and synchronized captions or animation.
What is Amazon Polly and what does a request contain?
Amazon Polly converts text into synthetic speech in the AWS cloud. A request can contain ordinary text or a complete SSML document, plus a voice ID, engine, output format, and optional sample rate. For an audio request, Polly returns an audio stream; for a speech-mark request, it returns timing metadata rather than sound.
The core SynthesizeSpeech operation exposes these controls:
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- Engine:
standard,neural,long-form, orgenerative. If you omit it, Standard is used. - VoiceId: the named voice. The voice must support the engine you select.
- LanguageCode: the language associated with the voice and input.
- Text and TextType: the words to speak, marked as plain text or SSML.
- OutputFormat: an audio codec such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Opus, PCM, Mu-law, or A-law, or
jsonfor speech marks. - SampleRate: an optional rate constrained by the selected engine and format.
- SpeechMarkTypes: sentence, word, viseme, or SSML timing marks when metadata is requested.
Polly is synthesis, not a translation layer. If your application receives several languages, identify the language first and route each passage to a voice that supports that language and the chosen engine.
How does the Amazon Polly workflow work?
A reliable integration follows a short sequence, but each choice affects compatibility and the shape of the response.
- Prepare the text. Decide whether plain text is enough or whether pronunciation, pauses, dates, numbers, or delivery style need SSML. Keep markup well formed and escape reserved characters.
- Select a voice and engine pair. Start with a voice whose language and regional availability fit your deployment, then verify that the voice supports the requested engine. Voice IDs are not interchangeable across engines.
- Choose the response type. Select an audio format for playback or
jsonwith speech-mark types when the client needs word, sentence, viseme, or SSML timing. - Set a compatible sample rate. Leave the default when the consuming system has no fixed requirement, or set the rate required by your player, device, or telephony gateway.
- Send the request and consume the stream.
SynthesizeSpeechstarts returning response bytes as they become available. Your client should read the stream rather than waiting for a large file to be assembled in memory. - Handle size and retry boundaries. Split content that exceeds the synchronous limit, or use an asynchronous task for a larger finished asset. For interactive generative use, send incremental text events over the documented HTTP/2 stream.
These decisions are independent: a high-quality voice does not fix an unsupported SSML tag, and a high sample rate does not make an incompatible telephony endpoint accept the file.
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The four engines target different synthesis methods and workloads. Engine availability is not global: it depends on the voice and AWS Region, so confirm both before designing a production path.
| Engine | How AWS describes it | Best-fit considerations | Important constraints |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Concatenative synthesis joins recorded phoneme segments. | Broad language and regional availability; useful when a compatible, predictable voice is the priority. | Standard is the default when no engine is specified. Unsupported SSML can cause an error, and the chosen voice still has to support Standard. |
| Neural | A neural network converts phoneme sequences to spectrograms, then a vocoder converts the spectrogram into audio. | Use when a listed voice and Region provide the neural style or SSML features your application needs. | Neural voices have separate regional and feature-compatibility rules. Check the support matrix instead of assuming every Standard voice or tag is available. |
| Long-form | An engine intended for extended content. | Suitable for longer narration when a documented Long-form voice and Region meet your language requirements. | AWS currently documents Long-form in US East (N. Virginia). The documented voice list is limited, including English and Spanish options, so verify availability before committing. |
| Generative | AWS describes it as Polly’s largest text-to-speech model, designed for conversational and emotionally engaged behavior. | Useful for conversational delivery where the available Generative voice and output formats fit the product. | Generative supports MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and raw PCM. Speech-mark generation is currently unavailable, and incremental streaming is documented for this engine only. |
Do not treat the engine names as quality rankings that apply to every voice. Compare the actual voice-engine pair on naturalness, supported SSML tags, Region, output formats, timing requirements, and whether your workload needs request-response audio or incremental delivery.
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How do I choose a Polly voice and engine?
Choose the compatible pair first, then optimize for delivery style and system constraints. A voice that sounds right but is unavailable in your Region or lacks a required SSML feature is not a usable production choice.
Check language and Region
Match the input language to the voice’s language, and verify that the engine is offered in the AWS Region where the request will run. Regional availability is especially important for Neural and Long-form voices; Long-form is currently documented in US East (N. Virginia).
Check feature compatibility
List the features your script needs—pronunciation overrides, pauses, prosody, Newscaster style, or timing marks—and compare them with the engine’s SSML support. The same tag can be fully supported, partially supported, or unavailable depending on the engine and voice.
Check the response contract
If the application needs animation timing, Generative is not suitable for that request because speech marks are unavailable. If a device accepts only 8-kHz telephony audio, choose a format and rate that meet that interface rather than selecting a voice on sound quality alone.
Prototype with representative text
Test names, abbreviations, numbers, dates, and the longest sentences in your real content. Listen for pronunciation and pauses, and test the exact output format in the destination player or gateway. A short greeting will not reveal every SSML or punctuation edge case.
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How does SSML work in Amazon Polly?
SSML is optional markup that lets you control pronunciation, pauses, rate, pitch, volume, emphasis, and related delivery behavior. The entire document must be wrapped in a single <speak> element.
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Useful SSML elements
<break>inserts a pause of a specified strength or duration.<phoneme>supplies a pronunciation using a supported phonetic alphabet.<prosody>adjusts rate, pitch, or volume where the selected engine supports those attributes.<say-as>tells Polly how to interpret dates, numbers, telephone-like strings, or other formats.<sub>substitutes a spoken phrase for an abbreviated or technical written form.<lang>marks a language span when the voice and engine support that usage.<mark>inserts a custom timing marker that can be returned as an SSML speech mark.<amazon:domain name="news">requests the Newscaster style on supported Neural voices.
Why SSML requests fail
Support is engine-dependent. AWS’s support matrix identifies tags as fully supported, partially supported, or unavailable for Neural, Long-form, and Generative voices. AWS also warns that unsupported tags can produce an error for Standard, Neural, and Long-form requests. Validate the XML, escape reserved characters such as &, <, and > when they are meant literally, and remove or replace tags not supported by the selected voice-engine pair.
Keep SSML semantic rather than decorative. Use <say-as> for values that would otherwise be misread, <phoneme> for names and specialist terms, and <break> where a deliberate pause improves comprehension. Then test the result with the same engine, Region, and output format used in production.
Which audio formats and sample rates does Polly support?
Polly offers formats for web playback, open-codec applications, low-level audio pipelines, and telephony. The correct choice is the one accepted by the consuming system, not automatically the highest rate.
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| OutputFormat | Typical fit | Documented sample rates |
|---|---|---|
mp3 |
Broadly compatible downloadable or web audio. | 8,000, 16,000, 22,050, 24,000, 44,100, or 48,000 Hz. |
ogg_vorbis |
Applications that prefer the open Vorbis codec. | 8,000, 16,000, 22,050, 24,000, 44,100, or 48,000 Hz. |
ogg_opus |
Opus-capable applications and interactive audio pipelines. | 48,000 Hz. |
pcm |
Low-level processing or device pipelines requiring raw audio. | 8,000 or 16,000 Hz; signed 16-bit, mono, little-endian audio. |
mulaw |
Telephony systems using μ-law encoding. | 8,000 Hz. |
alaw |
Telephony systems using A-law encoding. | 8,000 Hz. |
json |
Speech-mark metadata rather than audio. | Not an audio stream; sample-rate selection is not used for the metadata response. |
The documented defaults are 22,050 Hz for Standard and 24,000 Hz for Neural, Long-form, and Generative. PCM defaults to 16,000 Hz. An explicit rate must be valid for both the selected engine and output format; an otherwise valid rate can be rejected when that pair does not support it.
How to select a format
- Use MP3 when browsers, downloads, or general media players need the widest practical compatibility.
- Use Ogg Vorbis or Ogg Opus when the application already supports those codecs and their container behavior.
- Use PCM when your downstream component expects raw signed 16-bit mono samples and can handle the larger uncompressed stream.
- Use Mu-law or A-law when a telephony interface specifies that encoding and 8-kHz audio.
What are Polly speech marks and when should I use them?
Speech marks are timing metadata, not audio. Polly can return sentence, word, viseme, or SSML marks in JSON. A client can use those timestamps to highlight the current word, move a reading cursor, trigger an event, or synchronize lip-shape animation with separately generated audio.
Request speech marks by selecting json as the output format and specifying the mark types. A common synchronization design makes one audio request and a corresponding metadata request using identical text, voice, engine, and SSML. The client then aligns the returned time offsets with playback. Because Generative currently cannot produce speech marks, choose another compatible engine when timing metadata is a requirement.
Sentence marks suit captions or paragraph-level progress. Word marks support karaoke-style highlighting and read-along interfaces. Viseme marks are intended for mouth-shape or lip-sync systems, while SSML marks expose custom points inserted with <mark>.
What are the request limits and streaming options?
Request size and delivery mode determine whether synchronous synthesis is appropriate.
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| Operation | Delivery | Documented limit and capability |
|---|---|---|
SynthesizeSpeech |
Request-response audio or speech marks; response bytes stream as they become available. | 6,000 total characters per request, with no more than 3,000 billed characters. Supports all four engines and speech marks. |
StartSpeechSynthesisTask |
Asynchronous synthesis for a completed larger asset. | Up to 200,000 total characters, with 100,000 billed characters. |
StartSpeechSynthesisStream |
Incremental HTTP/2 text events and audio events while generation proceeds. | Documented for the Generative engine only; no speech marks. Each TextEvent has a 6,000-character limit rather than one whole-request text limit. |
Choosing a mode
Use SynthesizeSpeech for short prompts, transactional responses, or cases where the caller can consume a stream immediately. Use StartSpeechSynthesisTask when a long document should be rendered as a finished object without holding a synchronous request open. Use the HTTP/2 generative stream when text arrives incrementally and the application needs audio events during generation, provided that speech marks are not required.
Split content at natural sentence or paragraph boundaries when you must stay within a character limit. Preserve the same voice, engine, language, SSML conventions, and sample-rate choice across segments so that the joins do not introduce an avoidable change in delivery.
How can I troubleshoot common Polly failures?
- Unsupported engine or voice: Check the voice’s engine list and the Region of the endpoint. Change the voice, engine, or Region rather than retrying the same incompatible pair.
- SSML validation error: Confirm one outer
<speak>element, balanced tags, properly escaped reserved characters, and only tags supported by that engine and voice. - Invalid sample rate: Compare the requested rate with the output-format table and the selected engine’s allowed values. Ogg Opus, Mu-law, and A-law have especially narrow documented choices.
- Unexpected pronunciation: Use
<phoneme>,<say-as>, or<sub>for the specific word or value, then test with representative text rather than a single sentence. - Request too large: Count characters before calling the API. Move a long document to the asynchronous task, or divide interactive input into valid HTTP/2 text events for Generative streaming.
- No timing data: Ensure the request asks for JSON speech marks and uses an engine that supports them. Generative requests cannot supply speech marks.
- Playback failure: Verify that the client understands the returned container and codec, that the sample rate matches its configuration, and that raw PCM is being treated as signed 16-bit mono little-endian data rather than as a file with a hidden header.
What should I verify before putting Polly in production?
Run this checklist against every deployment target:
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- The selected SSML tags are supported by that exact engine and voice, and markup passes XML validation.
- The output format and sample rate match the browser, mobile client, media pipeline, or telephony gateway.
- Character counting and splitting keep synchronous requests within their limits.
- The client consumes streamed bytes correctly and handles incomplete or failed requests.
- Any word highlighting, captions, or animation uses speech marks from a compatible engine and coordinates metadata with the audio request.
- Long-form workloads use the asynchronous operation when a synchronous response would exceed its limit.
- Generative streaming designs account for its lack of speech marks and its MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and raw PCM output set.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the same Polly voice ID be used with every engine?
No. Voice IDs are engine-specific in practice: a voice may be offered for Standard but not Neural, Long-form, or Generative. Treat the voice-and-engine pair, not the voice name alone, as the selectable unit.
Can Amazon Polly translate a sentence while synthesizing it?
No. Polly speaks the text you submit; it does not translate between languages. Translation must happen before synthesis, followed by selection of a voice that supports the translated language.
Can I get audio and speech marks from one Polly response?
Speech marks are returned as JSON metadata instead of audio. Applications that need both normally make matching audio and metadata requests, then align the metadata timestamps with the audio playback.
Is a higher sample rate always better for Polly audio?
No. The receiving system may require a specific rate, and some formats permit only a narrow set of values. Choose the rate your player, processing chain, or telephony service accepts; increasing it beyond that requirement does not automatically improve the result.
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