# SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language)

**Source:** https://promtable.com/glossary/ssml

> SSML is the XML-based markup language for TTS — controls pronunciation, prosody (rate, pitch, volume), pauses, emphasis, voice swaps, and audio insertion. Google Cloud TTS, Amazon Polly, Azure Speech support full SSML; ElevenLabs + others support subsets in 2026.

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SSML is the XML-based markup language for TTS — controls pronunciation, prosody (rate, pitch, volume), pauses, emphasis, voice swaps, and audio insertion. Google Cloud TTS, Amazon Polly, Azure Speech support full SSML; ElevenLabs + others support subsets in 2026.

Plain text into TTS gives default prosody — fine for short utterances, limiting for longer / nuanced content. SSML adds control: `<break time='500ms'/>` for explicit pauses, `<prosody rate='slow' pitch='+2st'>...</prosody>` for emotion, `<phoneme alphabet='ipa' ph='...'/>` for tricky pronunciation, `<emphasis level='strong'>...</emphasis>` for stress, `<say-as interpret-as='date' format='ymd'>2026-06-01</say-as>` for structured reads. Production use: audiobook narration, IVR / phone agents that need brand pronunciation, multilingual content with mixed languages mid-sentence. Trade-offs: full SSML is verbose; partial-SSML providers limit available tags. Some 2026 TTS APIs (ElevenLabs Eleven v3) accept emotion tags `[laughs]`, `[whispers]` as a lighter SSML alternative.

## When to use

- Audiobook + long-form narration.
- IVR / phone agents with brand pronunciations.
- Multilingual content.

## Common mistakes

- Forgetting to escape `&`, `<`, `>` in source text — SSML parser fails.
- Over-marking — too many `<break>` tags make voice feel halting.

## Related terms

- [neural-tts](https://promtable.com/glossary/neural-tts)
- [voice-cloning](https://promtable.com/glossary/voice-cloning)

## Sources

- [SSML W3C spec](https://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis11/)

*Last updated: 2026-06-01*
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