AI Voice Generators
Low-latency Sonic TTS, Ink transcription, voice cloning, and Managed Agents for real-time voice AI.
Free plan: 20K credits/mo.
Paid: Pro $5 a month, plus usage. Teams from $49/mo + usage. API billed separately.
Prices checked November 9, 2026 on cartesia.aiUSD as listed
Before you pay: Credits are not the whole bill
ToolColumn's pick
Startup
Teams moving beyond prototype usage
Production team track
Who each plan suits ↓Source: cartesia.ai · USD as listed
| Plan | Monthly | credits a month | per 1,000 credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plans | |||
| Free | Free | 20K credits/mo | — |
| Individual plans | |||
| Pro | $5 | 100,000 | $0.05 |
| Team plans | |||
| StartupToolColumn's pick | $49 | 1,250,000 | $0.04 |
| Scale | $299 | 8,000,000 | $0.04 |
| API plans | |||
| Managed Agents usage | Usage-based | $0.03 per minute of call duration | — |
| Enterprise plans | |||
| Enterprise | Contact for pricing | Custom credits & agent usage | — |
Free plans
20K credits/mo
Individual plans
100,000 credits a month · $0.05 per 1,000 credits
Team plans
API plans
$0.03 per minute of call duration
Enterprise plans
Custom credits & agent usage
Savings and costs per 1,000 credits are ToolColumn arithmetic from the prices and allowances above.
Cartesia lists monthly prices only, with no annual discount.
Self-serve developer plans · Direct API · Primary · From $5/mo
Monthly plans provide credits for Sonic TTS and Ink STT plus prepaid dollars for Managed Agents, making this the default route for developers evaluating and scaling API usage.
Free evaluation · Direct API · Included in subscription
Use the free route to test voice quality, Sonic and Ink integration, basic cloning, and Line agent behavior before committing budget.
Best for: Prototype and technical evaluation
Boundary: Free access is not the production budget; move to paid access once commercial use, concurrency, or sustained usage matters.
Self-serve API subscription · Recommended · Direct API · Shared subscription quota
Use paid self-serve plans when Sonic and Ink credits, commercial usage, cloning, and predictable API allowances are the main buying path.
Best for: Developers building production voice features
Boundary: Model credits, included speech minutes, and Line prepaid dollars need separate usage estimates.
Managed Agents · Direct API · Usage-based from $0.03
Managed Agents usage is billed by call minutes, with a separate per-minute telephony charge when using a Cartesia-provided phone number.
Line voice agents · Direct API · Separate API meter
Use the agent path when Cartesia is handling real-time calls or conversational workflows that consume metered agent minutes.
Best for: Voice agents and call workflows
Boundary: Agent minutes and phone-number charges are separate from the main Sonic and Ink credit pool.
Team and organization plans · Team workspace · From $49/mo
Startup and Scale add organization features, professional voice cloning, larger credit pools, higher concurrency, and priority support for production teams.
Team workspace · Team workspace · Shared subscription quota
Use team-oriented plans when organizations, professional cloning, higher concurrency, and shared production workflows are required.
Best for: Production teams and shared workspaces
Boundary: Team value comes from controls, cloning depth, concurrency, and support, not only from the headline credit pool.
Enterprise deployments · Enterprise sales · Custom
Enterprise is the route for custom credits, custom concurrency, SSO, compliance paperwork, shared support channels, on-premise, VPC, OEM, or regulated deployments.
Enterprise sales · Enterprise sales · Enterprise only
Use enterprise sales for custom volume, custom concurrency, SSO, compliance paperwork, on-premise, VPC, OEM, or regulated deployment needs.
Best for: High-volume and regulated deployments
Boundary: Do not infer final enterprise terms from public self-serve plan cards.
API boundary: Sonic and Ink credits, Managed Agents minutes, telephony, overages, and enterprise deployment terms are separate budget lanes even when they appear on the same pricing page.
Buyer guide
Cartesia sells 6 plans: 1 free, 1 individual, 2 team, 1 API, 1 enterprise.
Skip if: Agent call duration or concurrency points to a larger scale budget.
Includes: 1.25M credits/mo; ~1,667 TTS min; ~115h44m STT; 5 TTS concurrency; $49 prepaid agents
Technical evaluation
Skip if: The work is already commercial or needs dependable concurrency.
Includes: 20K credits/mo; ~27 TTS min; ~1h51m STT; 1 phone number; $1 prepaid agents
Early production builds
Skip if: The team needs organization controls, professional cloning, or higher concurrency.
Includes: 100K credits/mo; ~133 TTS min; ~9h16m STT; 3 TTS concurrent requests; 12 STT concurrent requests; 3 phone numbers; $5 prepaid agents; commercial use
Live products with meaningful speech traffic
Skip if: The workload needs custom deployment or compliance terms.
Includes: 8M credits/mo; ~10,667 TTS min; ~740h44m STT; 15 TTS concurrency; $299 prepaid agents
Includes: $0.03 per minute of call duration; $0.014 per minute with a Cartesia phone number; LLM usage billed separately; prepaid agent dollars vary by plan
Large, regulated, or custom deployments
Skip if: The buyer can stay inside public self-serve limits.
Includes: Custom credits, agent usage, concurrency, deployment, and compliance terms
Notes
Cartesia's monthly price buys two budgets: credits for Sonic text to speech and Ink speech to text, and the same amount again in prepaid dollars for Managed Agents ($5 on Pro, $49 on Startup, $299 on Scale). Estimate model usage in credits and calls in minutes; for a live voice agent, the number of simultaneous streams often decides the plan before either budget runs out.
Cartesia's own conversions put a minute of text to speech at about 750 credits on every plan (Pro's 100,000 credits make about 133 minutes) and a minute of speech to text at about 180 credits (Pro's credits make about 9 hours 16 minutes). Both come out of one pool, so Pro covers 133 minutes of speech or about 9 hours of transcription, not both. In ToolColumn's arithmetic, a minute of speech costs about 3.8 cents on Pro, 2.9 cents on Startup and 2.8 cents on Scale.
Startup's 1.25 million credits cover about 1,667 minutes of speech a month, but it allows 5 simultaneous text-to-speech requests against Scale's 15. An agent that may speak on six calls at the same moment needs Scale even when Startup's credits would last the month, so for that agent the step from $49 to $299 pays for ten more streams, not the extra credits. Startup fits a product that stays within five simultaneous streams and needs more than Pro's 133 minutes of speech.
Managed Agents costs $0.03 per minute of call duration on every plan, down from the $0.06 Cartesia previously listed, plus $0.014 a minute on a Cartesia phone number; LLM usage during calls is billed separately. In an illustrative month, an agent taking 1,000 minutes of calls on a Cartesia number runs up $44 in agent and telephony charges before LLM usage. In ToolColumn's arithmetic, Startup's $49 of prepaid agent dollars equals about 1,110 such minutes and Scale's $299 about 6,800.
Watchouts
TTS, STT, Managed Agents, phone-number usage, cloning, overages, and enterprise needs can affect the actual monthly cost differently.
Pro allows 3 simultaneous text-to-speech requests, Startup 5 and Scale 15, so a live agent can need a higher plan while its credits are still unused.
How Cartesia pricing has moved over time: plan lineup shifts, free access changes and starting price updates.
5 archived snapshots
Managed Agents usage usage terms were updated.
From $5 · Free plan available · Freemium · Hybrid
Free
Monthly: $0/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 20K credits/mo; ~27 TTS min; ~1h51m STT; 1 phone number; $1 prepaid agents
Pro
Monthly: $5/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 100K credits/mo; ~133 TTS min; ~9h16m STT; 3 TTS concurrent requests; 12 STT concurrent requests; 3 phone numbers; $5 prepaid agents; commercial use
Startup
Monthly: $49/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 1.25M credits/mo; ~1,667 TTS min; ~115h44m STT; 5 TTS concurrency; $49 prepaid agents
Scale
Monthly: $299/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 8M credits/mo; ~10,667 TTS min; ~740h44m STT; 15 TTS concurrency; $299 prepaid agents
Managed Agents usage
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: $0.03 per minute of call duration; $0.014 per minute with a Cartesia phone number; LLM usage billed separately; prepaid agent dollars vary by plan
Enterprise
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: Custom credits, agent usage, concurrency, deployment, and compliance terms
Managed Agents usage usage terms were updated.
Free
Monthly: $0/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 20K credits/mo; ~27 TTS min; ~1h51m STT; 1 phone number; $1 prepaid agents
Pro
Monthly: $5/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 100K credits/mo; ~133 TTS min; ~9h16m STT; 3 TTS concurrent requests; 12 STT concurrent requests; 3 phone numbers; $5 prepaid agents; commercial use
Startup
Monthly: $49/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 1.25M credits/mo; ~1,667 TTS min; ~115h44m STT; 5 TTS concurrency; $49 prepaid agents
Scale
Monthly: $299/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 8M credits/mo; ~10,667 TTS min; ~740h44m STT; 15 TTS concurrency; $299 prepaid agents
Managed Agents usage
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: $0.06 per minute of call duration; $0.014 per minute with a Cartesia phone number; prepaid agent dollars vary by plan
Enterprise
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: Custom credits, agent usage, concurrency, deployment, and compliance terms
4 plans had usage terms updated.
Free
Monthly: $0/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 20K credits/mo; ~27 TTS min; ~1h51m STT; 1 phone number; $1 prepaid agents
Pro
Monthly: $5/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 100K credits/mo; ~133 TTS min; ~9h16m STT; 3 TTS concurrent requests; 12 STT concurrent requests; 3 phone numbers; $5 prepaid agents; commercial use
Startup
Monthly: $49/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 1.25M credits/mo; ~1,667 TTS min; ~115h44m STT; 5 TTS concurrency; $49 prepaid agents
Scale
Monthly: $299/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 8M credits/mo; ~10,667 TTS min; ~740h44m STT; 15 TTS concurrency; $299 prepaid agents
Managed Agents usage
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: $0.03 per minute of call duration; $0.014 per minute with a Cartesia phone number; LLM usage billed separately; prepaid agent dollars vary by plan
Enterprise
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: Custom credits, agent usage, concurrency, deployment, and compliance terms
Removed Model credit overages.
Free
Monthly: $0/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 20K credits/mo; ~27 TTS min; ~1h51m STT; 1 agent slot; $1 prepaid agents
Pro
Monthly: $5/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 100K credits/mo; ~133 TTS min; ~9h16m STT; 3 TTS concurrent requests; 12 STT concurrent requests; 3 agent slots; $5 prepaid agents; commercial use
Startup
Monthly: $49/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 1.25M credits/mo; ~1,667 TTS min; ~115h42m STT; 5 TTS concurrency; $49 prepaid agents
Scale
Monthly: $299/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 8M credits/mo; ~10,667 TTS min; ~740h44m STT; 15 TTS concurrency; $299 prepaid agents
Line voice agent usage
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: $0.06 per minute for Line calls; $0.014 per minute with a Cartesia phone number; prepaid agent dollars vary by plan
Enterprise
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: Custom credits, agent usage, concurrency, deployment, and compliance terms
Earliest archived snapshot.
From $5 · Free plan available · Freemium · Hybrid
Free
Monthly: $0/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 20K credits/mo; ~27 TTS min; ~1h51m STT; 2 TTS concurrent requests; 8 STT concurrent requests; 1 agent slot; $1 prepaid agents
Pro
Monthly: $5/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 100K credits/mo; ~133 TTS min; ~9h16m STT; 3 TTS concurrent requests; 12 STT concurrent requests; 3 agent slots; $5 prepaid agents; commercial use
Startup
Monthly: $49/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 1.25M credits/mo; ~1,667 TTS min; ~115h42m STT; 5 TTS concurrent requests; 20 STT concurrent requests; 5 agent slots; $49 prepaid agents
Scale
Monthly: $299/mo + usage · Annual: Not listed
Usage: 8M credits/mo; ~10,667 TTS min; ~740h44m STT; 15 TTS concurrent requests; 60 STT concurrent requests; 10 agent slots; $299 prepaid agents
Line voice agent usage
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: $0.06 per minute for Line calls on public plans; Cartesia-provided phone numbers add $0.014 per minute
Model credit overages
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: Paid overages can be enabled: Pro $65 per 1M credits, Startup $45 per 1M credits, Scale $38 per 1M credits
Enterprise
Monthly: Not listed · Annual: Not listed
Usage: Custom credits, agent usage, volume pricing, concurrency, deployment, compliance, SSO, and support terms
AI Voice Generators
| Product | Free tier | Cheapest paid plan | Top plan | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | Free | $6 | $99 | Prices checked |
| Fish Audio | Free | $15 | Same as cheapest | Prices checked |
| Resemble AI | FreeSee plans on the tool page | Usage-based API | — | Prices checked |
| Unreal Speech | Free | Usage-based API | — | Prices checked |
| MiniMax Audio | No free plan | $5 | $999 | Prices checked |
| WellSaid | Free | $19 | $49 | Prices checked |
Cartesia is a developer-first voice AI platform for real-time applications. Its Sonic 3.6 text-to-speech model covers 44 languages and is built for streaming with very low latency, Ink-2 handles speech-to-text, and Managed Agents hosts complete voice agents. The Free plan has 20,000 credits; Pro costs $5 a month for 100,000 credits, about 133 minutes of speech; Startup costs $49 for 1.25 million credits and Scale $299 for 8 million, with Enterprise above that for custom deployment, compliance and volume terms. Hosted agents cost $0.03 a minute plus $0.014 a minute for telephony. Instant voice cloning starts on Pro, with professional cloning on Startup and Scale and rights and consent required. Cartesia is best for teams building phone and web voice agents, interactive apps and other products where time to first audio and streaming behavior matter more than a creator studio. The caveat is cost modeling: compare credits, agent minutes, telephony and concurrency against your real call volumes, because cheaper per-character providers exist for batch narration.
FAQ
Yes. Cartesia's Free plan includes 20K credits a month (about 27 minutes of text to speech), one phone number and $1 of prepaid agent usage.
Cartesia separates Managed Agents usage from the main credit pool, with metered agent minutes and a separate telephony charge when using a Cartesia-provided phone number.
Cartesia supports instant voice cloning from the Pro plan up and professional voice cloning on Startup and Scale, with official terms requiring rights and consent for cloned voices.
No. Cartesia is developer-led and API-first, but it also offers a web workspace and developer console for account, voice, and agent workflows.
Cartesia lists commercial use as included on paid self-serve plans. Enterprise use cases that need custom deployment, compliance, or high volume should verify terms with sales.
Cartesia From $5/mo + usage · Free plan
Prices checked November 9, 2026
Editorial guidance grounded in official product sources.
Prices come from cartesia.ai's official pricing page; the date at the top of this page is the latest check. Plan details and limits are reviewed against official pages every month. Picks are ToolColumn's judgment.
Edited byRick Finch
Reference links
