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Pricing: Freemium
Editor rating: 4.1/5
Updated: September 2026

Low-latency TTS and voice-agent API. Free 20,000 credits/month; Pro $5/month (100,000 credits, instant cloning); Startup $49/month (1.25M credits, pro cloning); Scale $299/month (8M credits); Enterprise custom. Unlimited seats.

Editor's take: Low-latency TTS API with a real free tier and a $5 Pro plan; agents billed separately — Sohail Akhtar

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Editor's Verdict

Official Review
Cartesia is the developer alternative to the ElevenLabs API: a free tier, a $5 Pro plan with commercial rights and cloning, and unlimited seats on every tier.
4.1 / 5.0
Editor Rating

Reviewed by Sohail Akhtar

Lead Editor & Founder

Pros

What we like

  • Free tier with no seat limits
  • $5 Pro plan includes commercial use and instant cloning
  • Latency-focused models

Cons

Limitations

  • A developer product, no creator studio
  • Credits are abstract; 20,000 is about 2 minutes
  • Agent minutes billed on top of the plan

Pricing

PlanDetails
FreeFree – $0, 20,000 credits/month (about 2 minutes of audio), text to speech and speech to text, unlimited seats
ProPro – $5/month (listed on 14 September 2026) – 100,000 credits/month (about 133 TTS minutes), commercial licence, instant voice cloning
StartupStartup – $49/month (listed on 14 September 2026) – 1.25 million credits/month, professional voice cloning
ScaleScale – $299/month (listed on 14 September 2026) – 8 million credits/month, organisation features
AgentsVoice agents – prepaid; call duration $0.06/minute, telephony $0.014/minute (listed on 14 September 2026)
EnterpriseEnterprise – custom

Cartesia has a free plan with 20,000 credits a month. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Pro at $5 per month with 100,000 credits, a commercial licence and instant voice cloning; Startup at $49 per month with 1.25 million credits and professional voice cloning; Scale at $299 per month with 8 million credits; and Enterprise on custom terms. Every plan has unlimited workspace seats. Voice agents are billed on prepaid balances with call duration at $0.06 per minute and telephony at $0.014 per minute.

What is Cartesia?

Quick Summary

Cartesia is a developer-first speech platform: the Sonic text-to-speech model, speech-to-text and hosted voice agents. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Free with 20,000 credits a month, Pro at $5 a month with 100,000 credits and instant voice cloning, Startup at $49 with 1.25 million credits and professional cloning, Scale at $299 with 8 million credits, and Enterprise custom.

Cartesia builds the Sonic family of speech models and sells them as an API and a voice-agent platform, aimed at developers who care about latency. On 14 September 2026 its pricing page listed four self-serve tiers with unlimited workspace seats on every plan: Free at $0 with 20,000 credits a month (about 2 minutes of audio on its own estimate); Pro at $5 a month with 100,000 credits (about 133 text-to-speech minutes), a commercial licence and instant voice cloning; Startup at $49 a month with 1.25 million credits and professional voice cloning; Scale at $299 a month with 8 million credits for organisations; and Enterprise on request. Voice agents are prepaid separately, with call duration at $0.06 a minute and telephony at $0.014 a minute on the self-serve tiers. Explore more.

Associated Tags

text to speech api, low latency tts, voice agent api, voice cloning api, elevenlabs alternative

Key Features

Sonic low-latency text-to-speech
Speech-to-text
Instant and professional voice cloning
Hosted voice agents with telephony
Unlimited workspace seats on every plan

Target Audience

Who should use Cartesia?

Developers building voice productsTeams that want per-seat costs to be zeroReal-time and telephony use cases
Real Use Cases

How professionals leverage Cartesia – Sonic Text-to-Speech and Voice Agents API with a Free Tier

Discover practical workflows and real-world scenarios where Cartesia delivers key solutions.

01

A startup adds real-time speech to a customer-facing agent

02

A developer prototypes on the free tier and upgrades to Pro for a commercial licence

03

A product team runs phone agents on prepaid minutes

Freemium
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Resemble AI

Voice cloning, speech-to-speech and deepfake detection. Flex $0/month subscription with credits bought as you go; Team $350/month or $280 annual (5 seats); Business $1,000 or $800 annual (20 seats); Enterprise custom.

Freemium
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Listnr

Creator TTS and podcast studio. Free (1,000 credits, no card); Individual $19/month or $190 a year (20,000 credits, about 2 hours); Solo $39 or $390 (50,000 credits, about 5 hours); Agency $99 or $990 (250,000 credits, about 25 hours). Commercial rights on paid plans.

Paid
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Synthesys

Voice, avatar video and image suite. Indie $29/month or $20 annual ($240 a year, 1,000 credits, 10 voice clones); Studio $59 or $41 annual ($492, 2,500 credits, 25 clones); Agency $119 or $83 annual ($996, 5,400 credits, unlimited clones). No free plan listed.

Freemium
ElevenLabs logo

ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs converts text to realistic AI speech in 29 languages with instant voice cloning, dubbing, and a developer API across all plan tiers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Cartesia free?
Yes, the Free plan includes 20,000 credits a month (roughly 2 minutes of audio) with text-to-speech and speech-to-text, and does not limit seats.
How much does Cartesia cost?
Pro $5 a month for 100,000 credits; Startup $49 for 1.25 million; Scale $299 for 8 million; Enterprise custom, as listed on 14 September 2026. Voice-agent minutes are prepaid at $0.06 per minute of call time.
Cartesia or ElevenLabs?
Both sell speech APIs. ElevenLabs has the larger voice catalogue and a creator studio; Cartesia is cheaper to start, charges nothing per seat, and focuses on real-time latency for agents.