June 2, 2026 — Async’s latest text-to-speech model, Async Flash v1.5, has achieved a leading position on Artificial Analysis’ Quality vs. Price benchmark, ranking ahead of models from major AI providers including ElevenLabs, MiniMax, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
Among text-to-speech models priced below $10 per 1 million characters, Async Flash v1.5 delivers the highest quality on the benchmark. The result positions Async as a leading provider of high-quality, cost-efficient voice AI for teams building production-ready speech experiences.
“This recognition is a proud moment for the entire Async team,” said Arto Yeritsyan, CEO of Async. “For years, we have believed that world-class voice AI can be built by a focused team with deep technical conviction, product discipline, and a relentless focus on quality. Competing with, and outperforming, some of the largest companies in AI validates the work our team has been doing from the very beginning.”
The result follows Async’s continued investment in text-to-speech systems designed for real-world production use cases, where voice quality, naturalness, reliability, and speed all matter. As voice agents and AI-generated content become increasingly central to customer support, media production, education, and enterprise workflows, independent benchmarks are becoming an important signal for developers and businesses choosing the infrastructure behind their voice experiences.
Async’s latest performance on Artificial Analysis builds on the company’s broader voice AI work, including its open benchmark on text-to-speech accuracy in production voice agents. That benchmark revealed significant pronunciation and normalization gaps across leading commercial TTS systems when tested under real streaming conditions.
“Voice AI is moving quickly, but the winning systems will be the ones that perform reliably outside demos,” said Yeritsyan. “Our goal is to build models that sound natural, respond fast, and hold up in the production environments where businesses actually use them.”
Async will continue expanding its voice AI research and product capabilities across text-to-speech, voice agents, and AI-powered creation workflows. The company invites developers, enterprises, and the broader AI community to explore its work and compare performance through independent benchmarks.
About Async
Async (formerly Podcastle) empowers creators and teams by radically simplifying the end-to-end content creation process. The streamlined suite of AI-powered tools enables users to record, edit, transcribe, and publish audio and video content with unmatched simplicity. Backed by Tier-1 investors, including Andrew Ng’s AI Fund, Mosaic Ventures, RTP Global, Point Nine, and Sierra Ventures, the company has raised a total of $23.5M in funding to date. In 2024, the company closed a $13.5M Series A to scale its AI content creation platform.
Founded in 2020, the company began as a frontier voice AI lab, using a Chrome extension to showcase its text-to-speech technology. The platform rapidly evolved, based on market demand, into a full creative operating system used by millions. This product excellence has been recognized with Product Hunt’s Golden Kitty Award, The Webby Award, and G2’s Overall Market Leader status.
To learn more, visit www.async.com
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