MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo API

About MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo

MiniMax's Speech 2.8 Turbo text-to-speech, released January 2026: send a script, pick one of 472 system voices, set an emotion and get back an MP3. Turbo is optimized for speed and cost.

Call it with the model name minimax/speech-2.8-turbo/text-to-speech on POST /jobs/createTask, from 11 credits per 1,000 characters ($0.11). New accounts get 30 free credits to try it in the Playground first.

Introduction

What it returns

One audio file per task: a 32 kHz mono MP3 unless you set output_format, sample_rate, bitrate or audio_channels.

Choosing a voice

voice_id takes one of 472 system voices, such as Calm_Woman, Deep_Voice_Man, Lively_Girl or Elegant_Man, and defaults to Calm_Woman. There is no cloning and no upload of a reference voice.

Setting an emotion

emotion takes one of seven fixed values — neutral, happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgusted or surprised — and applies to the whole reading. It defaults to neutral.

Sound tags

Tags placed in parentheses inside text, such as (sighs), (laughs), (breath) or (gasps), are performed as sounds rather than read aloud.

Language

The language is detected from the script. language hints one of 40 languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Polish and more, to improve pronunciation on a short or mixed script.

Delivery controls

pronunciation_dict takes up to 100 {alias, pronunciation} pairs, so a name, acronym or loanword is always read the way you want: plain words or IPA in parentheses. english_normalization reads numbers, dates and abbreviations in English text the way a person would say them.

Output format

output_format picks mp3 (default), wav, flac or pcm; sample_rate goes from 8000 to 44100 Hz, bitrate sets the MP3 bitrate and audio_channels switches to stereo. pcm is raw 16-bit little-endian samples with no header, so it cannot be previewed in a browser; choose wav if you want the same samples in a playable file.

Request parameters

Pricing

Prices are in credits, the same credits you use on the website (1 credit = $0.01). The hold is taken when the task is accepted and settled to the actual charge when it finishes; failed tasks are refunded.

Each task is rounded up to whole credits, so one run at the lowest tier costs 11 credits per 1,000 characters ($0.11).

For an exact number before you run, send the same body to POST /jobs/quote.

API quick start

Call the MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo API in three steps

1. Create an API key. Sign in to PopNow and create a key in the API console. Keys start with sk-popnow- and use the same credits as the website.
2. Send the request. POST /jobs/createTask with model minimax/speech-2.8-turbo/text-to-speech and an input object that follows the parameter table. The response returns a task ID straight away.
3. Get the result. Poll GET /jobs/recordInfo with the task ID, or pass a callBackUrl and we post the result to it. Download the output links when the task succeeds.

# 1. Create the task. Keep the Idempotency-Key if you retry after a network error.
export IDEMPOTENCY_KEY="$(uuidgen)"
curl -X POST https://api.popnow.ai/api/v1/jobs/createTask \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POPNOW_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  -d '{
  "model": "minimax/speech-2.8-turbo/text-to-speech",
  "input": {
    "text": "Welcome back. Your files finished rendering a minute ago and are ready to download.",
    "voice_id": "Calm_Woman",
    "emotion": "neutral",
    "language": "auto",
    "output_format": "mp3"
  }
}'

# 2. Copy data.taskId from the response, then poll until state is succeeded, failed, canceled or expired.
TASK_ID="TASK_ID_FROM_RESPONSE"
curl "https://api.popnow.ai/api/v1/jobs/recordInfo?taskId=$TASK_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POPNOW_API_KEY"

Replace the prompt and any links with your own. The API tab has the response, polling and callback reference.

MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo API questions

All MiniMax models

MiniMax Speech 2.8 HD uses the same voices with higher fidelity, for finished narration.

• MiniMax H3 APIExpressive clips with audio, up to 2KFrom 28 credits for a 5-second clip
• MiniMax Speech 2.8 HD APIHigh-fidelity speech in 400+ voices with emotion controlFrom 18 credits per 1,000 characters
• MiniMax Music 3.0 APIFinished stereo songs, with vocals or instrumentalFrom 27 credits per run
• MiniMax H3 Singularity LoRA APICommunity-tuned H3 video that loads your own LoRAsFrom 45 credits for a 5-second clip
• MiniMax H3 Max APIFast clips with ambience, effects and musicFrom 38 credits for a 5-second clip
• MiniMax H3 LoRA APIMiniMax H3 video with sound and up to three of your LoRAsFrom 38 credits for a 5-second clip
• MiniMax H3 Image LoRA APIH3 stills and edits with up to three of your LoRAsFrom 7 credits per image
• MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo APIFast speech in 400+ voices with emotion controlFrom 11 credits per 1,000 characters

Other audio APIs

• Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS APIExpressive speech that acts out cues like [laughing]From 0.05 credits per second
• Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS APIFast, lightweight speech in 30 voicesFrom 0.03 credits per second
• Grok TTS API71 voices across 20 languages with speech tagsFrom 3 credits per 1,000 characters
• Seed Speech 2.0 API41 voices with tone set in plain languageFrom 11 credits per 1,000 characters
• Qwen3 TTS APIOpen-source speech with tone and pace set in plain wordsFrom 11 credits per 1,000 characters
• Chatterbox APIEnglish speech that can match a short voice sampleFrom 6 credits per run

More about MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo

Try it

MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo AI Voice Generator onlineCreate audio with MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo in PopNow

Docs

MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo model ID and input schema in the API docsPopNow API quickstart: your first request in five minutesWebhooks: get MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo results without polling