Cartesia
Input: text for synthesis, short audio samples for cloning, and telephony settings. Actions: produce ultra-realistic TTS, transcribe audio, perform instant voice cloning from ~3 seconds, and operate managed voice agents with included monthly minutes. Output: cloned voices, TTS audio, transcriptions, and managed call agents with monthly allowances and telephony billing. Workflow: pick a plan, provision minutes/credits, and deploy agents.
Cartesia publishes tiered monthly plans (Free, Pro, Startup, Scale, Enterprise) with included credits, minutes, concurrency limits, and per-minute telephony rates; higher tiers add concurrency, support, and compliance features.Is Cartesia right for you?
Good for
- Teams that need bundled TTS, STT, instant voice cloning, and managed voice agents with predictable included minutes per month.
- Supports instant voice cloning from very short samples, enabling rapid creation of custom voices from 3 seconds of audio.
- Offers an ultra-realistic, low-latency TTS model and an explicit managed agents product for production voice agents.
Keep in mind
- Telephony and live call usage incur per-minute charges; call duration is billed at a stated per-minute rate.
- Founders who require published SLAs or independent benchmarked accuracy metrics; confirm availability of uptime commitments or external evaluations if these matter.
Pricing and plan limits
The pricing page lists specific monthly prices ($0, $5, $49, $299 /mo) and a Custom enterprise option; telephony and per-call rates are listed. The linked official pages list plan prices and per-minute telephony fees.
More about capabilities and limits
Documented strengths
Supports instant voice cloning from very short samples, enabling rapid creation of custom voices from 3 seconds of audio.
Offers an ultra-realistic, low-latency TTS model and an explicit managed agents product for production voice agents.
Limitations to consider
Telephony and live call usage incur per-minute charges; call duration is billed at a stated per-minute rate.
Choosing a plan
Run your primary call script through Cartesia’s free or low-cost tier to verify voice cloning quality, concurrency limits, and the real telephony per-minute costs for your expected call volume.
Based on the linked product documentation.
Available on
Api.
Official sources
Alternatives to Cartesia
Choose around the work you need to do.
Read the full Cartesia alternatives guide
Deepgram
Use Deepgram when building conversational voice agents requiring conversation-aware TTS, speech-to-text, and flexible deployment (cloud, VPC, or on-prem) for production voice agent workloads.
Retell AI
Choose Retell AI to build telephone-based inbound and outbound agents with integrated telephony, call management, configurable voices and models, and usage-based billing for real call workflows.
ElevenLabs
Pick ElevenLabs to generate high-quality speech and clone voices for narration, voiceovers, dubbing, and localized audio asset production with a focus on speech generation workflows.