Google Cloud TTS Setup

Back to the TTS Guide

Google Cloud TTS uses WaveNet neural networks to generate natural-sounding speech. The free tier is very generous — one million characters per month. This walkthrough takes about 5 minutes.

What You Need

A Google account (the same one you use for Gmail or YouTube works fine). You’ll need to add a payment method, but you will not be charged unless you exceed 1 million characters in a month. That’s very hard to do with chess annotations.

Step 1: Sign In to Google Cloud Console

1. Open your browser and go to console.cloud.google.com
2. Sign in with your Google account
3. If this is your first time, Google will ask you to agree to the Terms of Service. Check the box and click Agree and Continue

You should now see the Google Cloud Console dashboard. It looks busy — don’t worry, we only need two things from here.

Step 2: Set Up Billing

Google requires a billing account even for their free tier. You will not be charged for normal chess study use.

1. In the top search bar, type “Billing” and click Billing in the dropdown
2. Click Link a billing account (or Create account if you don’t have one yet)
3. Follow the prompts to add a credit card or debit card
4. Once complete, you’ll see a green checkmark next to your billing account

Note: If you already have Google Cloud billing set up from another project, you can skip this step. Your existing billing account works fine.

Step 3: Enable the Text-to-Speech API

This tells Google which service you want to use.

1. In the top search bar, type “Text-to-Speech”
2. In the dropdown results, click Cloud Text-to-Speech API (it has a blue API icon)
3. You’ll land on the API details page. Click the big blue Enable button
4. Wait a few seconds. When the button changes to Manage, the API is enabled

Step 4: Create an API Key

The API key is what En Parlant~ uses to talk to Google’s servers.

1. In the top search bar, type “Credentials” and click Credentials under “APIs & Services”
2. Near the top of the page, click + Create Credentials
3. From the dropdown, select API key
4. A dialog pops up showing your new key. It looks something like: AIzaSyC...about 35 characters...
5. Click the copy icon next to the key to copy it to your clipboard
6. Click Close

Recommended: Restrict Your Key

After creating the key, you’ll see it listed on the Credentials page. Click the key name to open its settings:

1. Under API restrictions, select Restrict key
2. Choose Cloud Text-to-Speech API from the dropdown
3. Click Save

This means even if someone gets your key, they can only use it for TTS — nothing else.

Step 5: Configure En Parlant~

Almost there!

1. Open En Parlant~ and go to Settings (gear icon) > Sound tab
2. Scroll down to the TTS section
3. Set TTS Provider to Google Cloud
4. Click inside the Google Cloud API Key field and paste your key (Ctrl+V)
5. Set Text-to-Speech to On
6. Click the Test button next to the voice selector

You should hear a chess move spoken aloud. If you do — congratulations, you’re set up!

Troubleshooting

• Test is silent? Double-check that (1) you pasted the full API key, (2) the Text-to-Speech API is enabled (Step 3), and (3) billing is linked (Step 2). The most common issue is forgetting to enable the API.
• “API key not valid” error? Make sure you copied the key correctly — no extra spaces. If you restricted the key, verify that Cloud Text-to-Speech API is in the allowed list.
• “Billing account not found” error? Go back to Step 2 and make sure billing is linked to your project.
• Voices sound different than expected? En Parlant~ uses WaveNet voices by default. The voice gender can be changed in Settings > Sound > Google Voice Gender.

Cost

Google’s free tier covers 1 million characters per month of WaveNet voices. A heavily annotated game uses roughly 3,000-5,000 characters. At that rate, you could study 200-300 games per month before hitting the limit. Google shows you a usage warning well before any charges apply.