Cartesia
Cartesia is the developer-and-voice-agent platform: unlimited seats on every plan, credits from $0 on the free tier to 8M on Scale, and voice agents at $0.06 per minute.
Verified against: cartesia.ai as of 2026-09-30
Quick verdict: Cartesia belongs in the stack when voice is a feature of your product rather than a task you do occasionally. The free 20,000 credits a month with unlimited seats makes it safe to prototype on, Pro at $5 lifts that to 100,000, and the real decision point is Startup at $49 if you are running a voice agent in production, where $0.06 per minute and per-tier concurrency matter more than the subscription. Choose ElevenLabs for the broadest voice library and cloning quality, Murf or Typecast for creator video work, and WellSaid for governed per-seat rollouts.
- Our rating: 4.1/5
- Strongest dimension: Functionality (4/5, research only)
- Weakest dimension: Localization (3/5, research only)
- Pricing: Free plan · $5/mo (Pro, 100k credits)
- Verification: Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-09-30. Sources: cartesia.ai
Cartesia pricing details
- Free plan available
- paid plans from $5/mo (Pro, 100k credits)
- free $0 (20k credits/mo) · Pro $5/mo (100k credits) · Startup $49/mo (1.25M) · Scale $299/mo (8M) · Enterprise custom
- no annual pricing published on the pricing page; monthly rates shown
Workspace seats are unlimited on every plan. Credits cover text-to-speech, speech-to-text and voice agents; prepaid agent minutes run $1 on Free, $5 on Pro, $49 on Startup, $299 on Scale. Live agent calls are $0.06/min plus $0.014/min telephony, with per-plan concurrent-call and provisioned-number limits.
In our index: Free plan $0 (20k credits/mo) · Pro $5/mo (100k) · Startup $49/mo (1.25M) · Scale $299/mo (8M) · agents $0.06/min
How Cartesia scores across our 6 index dimensions
- Functionality: 4/5 (research only)
- Usability: 4/5 (research only)
- Stability: 4/5 (research only)
- Collaboration: 4/5 (research only)
- Localization: 3/5 (research only)
- Value: 4/5 (research only)
Score rationale: Priced for shipping voice into a product rather than for making a voiceover: sub-100 ms time-to-first-audio, instant and professional cloning, unlimited workspace seats and per-minute agent billing. There is no browser studio to speak of, and non-English voice coverage is narrower than the studio-first tools.
What Cartesia does well
- Unlimited workspace seats on every plan, so inviting contractors or the whole company costs nothing extra
- Voice agents are billed per minute at $0.06 plus $0.014 telephony, with concurrency and provisioned numbers rising by tier
- Sub-100 ms time-to-first-audio on the conversational model and instant voice cloning from a short sample
Where Cartesia falls short
- No visual browser studio comparable to Murf, so it is a poor fit for one-off voiceover work
- Non-English voice coverage is narrower than the studio-first tools in this comparison
- Credit allowances are abstract, and a busy production integration can consume 100,000 credits far faster than expected
How Cartesia compares to other AI Voice Generation tools
Our index tracks 5 AI Voice Generation tools. Cartesia sits at 4.1/5, with no annual pricing published on the pricing page; monthly rates shown. Here are the 4 closest alternatives we hold pricing and scoring evidence for.
- ElevenLabs — 4.6/5 · Free plan · $6/mo (Starter, 30k credits)
ElevenLabs is the quality benchmark in AI voice: credit-metered plans from $6/mo, a free 10,000-credit tier, and the widest voice library and cloning options in the class. - Murf — 4.3/5 · Free plan · $19/mo annual (Creator)
Murf is the studio-editor voice generator: $19/mo annual Creator with 200+ voices and a timeline editor, plus a separate pay-as-you-go API from $0.01 per 1,000 characters. - Typecast — 4.2/5 · Free plan · $5/mo (Basic, yearly billing)
Typecast is the emotion-and-video voice tool: $5/mo gets 35 minutes of 44.1 kHz downloads, and Pro at $29/mo adds Smart Emotion plus 4K talking-avatar exports. - WellSaid — 4.0/5 · Free plan · $10/mo annual (Starter)
WellSaid is the governance-first voice platform: per-seat team plans from $160/user/mo annual, minute-based allowances and the most restrictive commercial terms in the class.
Frequently asked questions about Cartesia
How much does Cartesia cost?
Free plan available; paid plans from $5/mo (Pro, 100k credits); free $0 (20k credits/mo) · Pro $5/mo (100k credits) · Startup $49/mo (1.25M) · Scale $299/mo (8M) · Enterprise custom; no annual pricing published on the pricing page; monthly rates shown. Billing detail: Workspace seats are unlimited on every plan. Credits cover text-to-speech, speech-to-text and voice agents; prepaid agent minutes run $1 on Free, $5 on Pro, $49 on Startup, $299 on Scale. Live agent calls are $0.06/min plus $0.014/min telephony, with per-plan concurrent-call and provisioned-number limits. Figures verified 2026-09-30.
Does Cartesia have a free plan?
Yes. Cartesia has a free tier; paid plans start at $5/mo (Pro, 100k credits).
What is Cartesia rated in our index?
Cartesia sits at 4.1/5 in our index, strongest on functionality (4/5, research only) and weakest on localization (3/5, research only). Cartesia belongs in the stack when voice is a feature of your product rather than a task you do occasionally. The free 20,000 credits a month with unlimited seats makes it safe to prototype on, Pro at $5 lifts that to 100,000, and the real decision point is Startup at $49 if you are running a voice agent in production, where $0.06 per minute and per-tier concurrency matter more than the subscription. Choose ElevenLabs for the broadest voice library and cloning quality, Murf or Typecast for creator video work, and WellSaid for governed per-seat rollouts.
What are the drawbacks of Cartesia?
No visual browser studio comparable to Murf, so it is a poor fit for one-off voiceover work Non-English voice coverage is narrower than the studio-first tools in this comparison Credit allowances are abstract, and a busy production integration can consume 100,000 credits far faster than expected.
What does Cartesia do well?
Unlimited workspace seats on every plan, so inviting contractors or the whole company costs nothing extra Voice agents are billed per minute at $0.06 plus $0.014 telephony, with concurrency and provisioned numbers rising by tier Sub-100 ms time-to-first-audio on the conversational model and instant voice cloning from a short sample.
How was Cartesia verified?
Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-09-30. Sources: cartesia.ai.
What are the alternatives to Cartesia?
We track ElevenLabs, Murf, WellSaid, Typecast as the closest alternatives in our AI Voice Generation index, and 4 head-to-head comparisons against Cartesia are available.