How much does Cartesia cost?

As of May 2026, Cartesia plans start at $99/mo and scale across 3 tiers. Cartesia also offers a free plan.

Does Cartesia offer a free plan?

As of May 2026, Cartesia offers a free plan. You can use the free tier indefinitely without a credit card.

What pricing model does Cartesia use?

As of May 2026, Cartesia uses a Freemium pricing model. A free tier is available indefinitely, with paid plans for advanced features.

Are there cheaper alternatives?

Yes. ElevenLabs (from $6/mo), Murf AI (from $19/mo), Play.ht (from $39/mo) offer lower starting prices in the same category.

What features are included in the Cartesia free plan?

As of May 2026, Cartesia offers a free plan with access to core features. Paid tiers unlock advanced functionality and higher usage limits. You can start for free without a credit card.

What are the hidden costs of Cartesia beyond the subscription price?

Beyond the Cartesia subscription, organizations typically budget for implementation and data migration, user training and onboarding, premium support tier upgrades, required add-on features, third-party integrations, and annual true-up costs from seat overages. These costs can add 20-80% to the base subscription price depending on team size and deployment complexity.

Does Cartesia charge for implementation or setup?

Cartesia may charge for professional services, data migration, and initial configuration, particularly for enterprise deployments. These costs are typically not listed on the public pricing page and are negotiated separately. Request a total cost of ownership estimate before signing.

Is Cartesia pricing stable or does it change frequently?

Cartesia pricing has been stable over the last 90 days based on our monitoring. We verify pricing on a rolling 30-day cadence and log all changes in our public changelog.

Home›AI Voice & Audio›Cartesia›Pricing

Cartesia Pricing Plans and Tiers 2026

Q: Is Cartesia worth the price?

Cartesia offers 15 features including Ultra-Low Latency (<100ms), Voice Cloning, 40+ Languages. With a 4.7/5 rating, most users find good value: its starting price of $99/mo is above the AI Voice & Audio category average of $18/mo.

Ultra-low latency text-to-speech API for real-time voice applications

AI Voice & AudioFreemiumPrice verified May 14, 2026From $99/moFree plan ✓

·3 plans·★★★★★4.7/5 G2

Full Review →

Alternatives to Cartesia →Compare with others →

Plans Analysis Worth It?True Cost Price History Alternatives FAQ

All Plans & Pricing

Free

Best for: 1M chars/month is enough to prototype a voice app and validate latency requirements before spending anything

✓100k characters/mo
✓All voices
✓Basic features

Get Started Free →

Growth

$99/mo

Best for: Calculate expected character volume from average conversation length - 10M characters covers moderate usage for most production voice apps

✓5M characters/mo
✓Voice cloning
✓Priority support

Start Plan →

Scale

$499/mo

Best for: If your voice app needs guaranteed uptime SLAs or dedicated capacity, negotiate enterprise pricing well before your public launch

✓50M characters/mo
✓Custom voices
✓SLA

Start Plan →

Pricing Analysis

Overview

Cartesia AI offers a free tier with 1 million characters per month. The Scale plan costs $50/month for 10 million characters, with additional usage billed per character beyond plan limits. Enterprise plans with SLA guarantees and dedicated capacity are priced separately.

Cost Per User

Growth$99/mo

Flat rate: cost doesn't scale with team size

Scale$499/mo

Flat rate: cost doesn't scale with team size

Which Plan Is Right for You?

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1M chars/month is enough to prototype a voice app and validate latency requirements before spending anything.

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Calculate expected character volume from average conversation length - 10M characters covers moderate usage for most production voice apps.

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If your voice app needs guaranteed uptime SLAs or dedicated capacity, negotiate enterprise pricing well before your public launch.

vs. Category Average

Cartesia$99/mo

Category avg$18/mo

450% above the ai voice & audio average

Our Verdict

At $50/month for 10M chars, Cartesia is priced similarly to ElevenLabs Creator tier - the decision should be based on latency requirements, not cost differences.

Is Cartesia Worth the Price?

Strengths

4 points

1Fastest TTS latency (<100ms)
2Excellent voice quality
3Strong voice cloning
4Built for real-time applications

Considerations

2 points

1More expensive than ElevenLabs at scale
2Fewer pre-made voices

Ideal For

Real-time voice apps needing sub-100ms TTS

Which plan fits you

Free — 1M chars/month is enough to prototype a voice app and validate latency requirements before spending anything.

Scale ($50/month) — Calculate expected character volume from average conversation length - 10M characters covers moderate usage for most production voice apps.

Enterprise — If your voice app needs guaranteed uptime SLAs or dedicated capacity, negotiate enterprise pricing well before your public launch.

Pricing Takeaway

★ 4.7/5

At $50/month for 10M chars, Cartesia is priced similarly to ElevenLabs Creator tier - the decision should be based on latency requirements, not cost differences.

450% above category avgCategory avg: $18/mo

Beyond the subscription: what to budget for

List price covers the subscription. Total cost of ownership for Cartesia typically includes additional line items that don't appear on the pricing page.

Implementation

Setup, data migration, initial configuration

Training

Onboarding, certification, admin enablement

Premium Support

SLA upgrades, dedicated CSM, 24/7 access

Required Add-ons

Features gated behind higher tiers or paid extras

Integrations

Third-party connectors, API usage, custom builds

Annual True-Up

Seat overages, usage spikes, contract reconciliation