Google Just Handed You a Voice Director’s Chair for Free With Flash 3.1 TTS

2026-04-16 · Source: AI Advances - Medium · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Emerging Technologies & Innovation · Depth: Intermediate, quick

Summary

Google has released Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS, a new text-to-speech model now available via Google AI Studio, the Gemini API, and Vertex AI under the model ID `gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview`. This model, built on Gemini 3 Pro, offers extensive control over audio output, featuring over 200 inline audio tags for managing emotion, pacing, and style. It includes 30 voice presets, supports more than 70 languages, and handles multi-speaker dialogue natively. Benchmarked at an Elo score of 1,211 on Artificial Analysis, it ranks second overall and leads in cost-efficiency, distinguishing itself primarily through its advanced controllability rather than just raw voice quality.

Key takeaway

For developers and content creators building applications requiring highly expressive and controllable synthesized speech, Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS offers a significant advancement. Its 200+ audio tags and 30 voice presets allow for fine-grained direction of emotion and pacing, potentially reducing the need for extensive post-processing. Evaluate this model for projects where dynamic, natural-sounding dialogue is critical, especially given its reported cost-efficiency.

Key insights

Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS offers unprecedented control over synthesized speech through extensive audio tags and presets.

Principles

• Controllability is key for advanced TTS.
• Cost-efficiency enhances model utility.

Method

The model uses 200+ inline audio tags to direct emotion, pacing, and style, alongside 30 voice presets and multi-speaker support.

In practice

• Utilize inline audio tags for nuanced speech.
• Explore 30 voice presets for diverse outputs.

Topics

• Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS
• Text-to-Speech Technology
• Audio Tags
• Voice Presets
• Multi-speaker Dialogue

Best for: Machine Learning Engineer, CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, AI Engineer, NLP Engineer, AI Product Manager

Related on AIssential

• Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS — Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS offers highly granular, prompt-driven control over speech generation, including accents and vocal styles.
• Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS — Google's Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS tool offers customizable, multi-speaker text-to-speech with directorial tags.
• Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS: the next generation of expressive AI speech — Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS offers granular control over AI speech through natural language audio tags and SynthID watermarking.
• Build Human-Like AI Voice App with Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS — Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS offers advanced emotional and multi-character voice direction, setting a new benchmark for expressive AI speech.
• Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS: the next generation of expressive AI speech — Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS offers granular control over AI speech through natural language audio tags and high-quality, cost-effective generation.
• Azure Speech – Neural HD Text to Speech: Recent Voice Updates — Azure Speech enhances its Neural HD voices with improved expressiveness, multi-speaker support, low-latency options, expanded regions, and reduced pricing.

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by AI Advances - Medium.