Acapela

Speech synthesis for devices, accessibility and brand voices

AI Avatars & Digital HumansOverseasβ˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜† 3.0

What is Acapela?

Acapela Group is a Belgian speech technology company that has been building text-to-speech engines for specialised hardware long before the current wave of hosted voice APIs. Its catalogue covers dozens of languages and hundreds of voices, including genuine children's voices, expressive personas, and a voice banking service that lets someone losing their speech preserve their own voice from recorded sentences. Much of the business is licensing rather than self-service: an SDK for desktop and mobile platforms, an on-device engine for assistive devices and vehicles, and royalties per unit. This is not an API you sign up for overnight.

Last updated: 2026-09-20. This site only provides an index; for exact features, pricing, and licensing, see the official website.

Key features

  • Neural text-to-speech in over 30 languages and 120+ voices
  • Voice banking that rebuilds a personal voice from recorded sentences
  • On-device engines for assistive devices, vehicles and smart toys
  • Expressive voices with moods, vocal smileys and sound effects
  • Windows and mobile SDKs with SAPI, .NET and C/C++ bindings
  • Lexicon editor and SSML support for pronunciation control

Pros & cons

Strengths

  • Voice banking helps people who are losing the ability to speak
  • On-device engines suit products without reliable connectivity
  • Deep language coverage, including regional accent variants

Watch out for

  • Licensing is quote based with royalties, not a signup page
  • Demo voices do not show how a licensed build will behave
  • No timeline editor, so it is not aimed at video creators

Best for & use cases

assistive communication devices, in-car systems, telephony prompts and voice banking

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FAQ

What is voice banking?

It is the practice of recording a set of sentences while you can still speak, so a synthetic version of your own voice can be built for later use. Acapela's service targets people whose condition will take their speech.

Can I just buy a voice and use it online?

Not in the way a consumer API works. Most deployments are licensed projects with a developer kit and a per-unit royalty, which suits devices and long-lived products rather than one-off videos.

Which languages are covered?

Several dozen, with regional English variants among others, plus specialised children's voices. The exact list changes over time, and some voices are licensed only for particular device categories.