Cartesia AI Pricing Explained (2026)
Understanding Cartesia AI's pricing for real-time voice generation
About Cartesia AI
Cartesia AI positions itself as a real-time voice AI platform with a focus on low-latency streaming for conversational applications. Founded in 2023, the company emphasizes speed and efficiency for voice agents and real-time applications.
Who is it for?
Cartesia AI targets developers building voice agents, conversational AI, call center automation, and any real-time applications where voice latency is critical to user experience.
Cartesia AI Features
Sonic TTS
Cartesia's main text-to-speech model designed for real-time streaming with low latency across multiple languages.
Streaming API
WebSocket-based API optimized for real-time voice generation, streaming audio as it's generated.
Voice Cloning
Voice embedding technology for creating custom voices from audio samples.
Streaming STT
Real-time speech-to-text for complete conversational AI pipelines.
Cartesia AI Pricing Plans
Prices shown are for annual billing (20% discount). Monthly billing available at higher rates. Credits roughly equal characters for TTS. Voice agent usage is separate from model credits.
Free
For personal experimentation
Features Included
- 20,000 model credits/month
- $1 of voice agent usage included
- Access to Sonic-3 TTS model
- Discord community support
Best For
- Testing real-time voice capabilities
- Personal projects and experimentation
- Evaluating Cartesia's latency performance
Limitations
- Personal/non-commercial use only
- Limited monthly credits
- Basic agent usage allowance
- Community support only
- No instant voice cloning
Pro
For individual power users
Features Included
- 100,000 model credits/month
- $5 of voice agent usage/month
- Instant Voice Cloning included
- Commercial use license
Best For
- Individual developers and creators
- Small-scale commercial projects
- Projects requiring voice cloning
Limitations
- Annual billing required for discount
- Standard support only
- Basic voice cloning tier
- $5/mo if billed monthly
Startup
For small teams in production
Features Included
- 1,250,000 model credits/month
- $49 of voice agent usage/month
- Pro Voice Cloning (advanced)
- Organization workspaces and team keys
Best For
- Startups launching voice products
- Small teams in production
- Applications with moderate usage
Limitations
- Annual commitment required
- Standard support tier
- $49/mo if billed monthly
- Scale tier needed for higher volume
Scale
For business-scale deployments
Features Included
- 8,000,000 model credits/month
- $299 of voice agent usage/month
- High concurrency limits
- Priority support included
- Full feature access
Best For
- High-volume voice applications
- Products with large user bases
- Established businesses scaling up
Limitations
- Significant annual commitment
- $299/mo if billed monthly
- Enterprise features require upgrade
- Custom SLAs need Enterprise
Enterprise
Tailored for large organizations
Features Included
- Custom model credit allocations
- Custom voice agent packages
- Custom concurrency guarantees
- Dedicated Slack channel support
- Security and compliance features
Best For
- Large-scale enterprise deployments
- Organizations with custom requirements
- Mission-critical voice applications
Limitations
- Requires sales negotiation
- Custom contract terms
- Longer procurement process
- Minimum commitment likely
Fish Audio: A Better Value Alternative
Looking for professional AI voice generation without the premium price tag? Fish Audio offers industry-leading voice quality with competitive pricing, making it an excellent alternative to Cartesia AI.
Why Choose Fish Audio over Cartesia AI?
- More extensive voice library with community voices
- 60+ emotion tags for expressive speech
- Comparable streaming latency (sub-500ms)
- Voice cloning from just 10 seconds
- Established platform with proven stability
Cartesia AI Pricing FAQ
Looking for Better Value?
Try Fish Audio - professional AI voice generation at competitive prices