Cartesia vs Murf
We give Cartesia a 2.4 GPA and Murf a 2.2, out of 4.0. Cartesia grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Cartesia
Low-latency speech models and voice agents for developers
Murf
AI voiceover studio with dubbing, translation and a speech API
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACartesiaFair | 2.2GPAMurfFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BPro is $5 a month for 100,000 credits, about 133 minutes of speech, with a commercial license, instant cloning and $5 of agent calls. An hour a month fits on the cheapest paid plan, which undercuts its alternatives for the same amount. | CCreator is $19 a month billed yearly, for 24 hours of voice generation a year with commercial rights. That's around what this category charges. Watch the meter, though: every render uses generation time, edits included, so an hour of finished audio can take more. |
| Free plan and trial | C20,000 credits a month, about 27 minutes of speech, plus $1 of agent usage. Plenty for testing, but there's no commercial use license, so nothing built on it can go live. | CA free trial with 10 minutes of voice generation and 10 of transcription, and its own page says no card is needed. It never runs out, but nothing can be downloaded until you pay, so nothing leaves the studio, commercial or not. |
| Features | CStreaming text to speech in dozens of languages, streaming transcription, instant and professional cloning, and voice agents with phone numbers. It does the developer job fully, but that's a narrower job: there's no voiceover editor, as the listing says. | C200+ voices with emphasis, pronunciation and pace controls, dubbing into 20+ languages, a voice changer, transcription and an API. The gap is cloning: it isn't self-serve, only Enterprise through Murf's team, and broadcasting rights are Enterprise-only too. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. It's built for developers: you call it from code with the Python or JavaScript SDK, or try voices in a web playground. Fine if you code, slow going if you don't. | CNo store rating on record. It's a web studio where you write the script, pick voices and tune each line, with video and music on the same project. Not hard, but there's a bit to learn, and generation time to keep an eye on. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb and an API with regional endpoints, plus LiveKit, Pipecat, Rasa and Genesys for voice agents, and on-premise setups through sales. No phone or desktop app. | BWeb only, but with add-ons for Canva, Google Slides, PowerPoint, Adobe Captivate and Adobe Audition, plus a pay-as-you-go API. No desktop or phone app, so a B is the top. |
| Best for | fast speech for developers' voice agents | voiceovers for training videos and slides |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Cartesia and Murf. How we grade
Price against what you get
Cartesia starts at $5 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Murf starts at $19 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and Cartesia starts $14 a month lower. Of the other AI voice generators on the chart, none scores higher than Cartesia for less, and 3 score higher than Murf for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Cartesia starts at $5 per month for 100,000 credits, billed monthly. Murf starts at $19 per month and up, billed annually.
- Cartesia has a free plan. Murf does not, though it has a free trial.
At a glance
| Cartesia | Murf | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $5 per month for 100,000 credits, billed monthly | $19 per month and up, billed annually |
| Free plan | 20,000 credits a month (about 27 minutes of text to speech or 1 hour 51 minutes of speech to text) and $1 of voice agent usage. No commercial use license. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | Free trial with 10 minutes of voice generation and 10 minutes of transcription, no downloads and no time limit |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Cartesia | Murf Inc. |
| Price read from | cartesia.ai | murf.ai |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Cartesia
- Developers building real-time voice agents and phone bots
- Apps that need fast streaming speech and transcription through one API
- Startups that can use the 12-month credit grant
Murf
- E-learning and corporate training voiceovers
- Narrating slide decks in Google Slides or PowerPoint
- Developers who want a pay-as-you-go speech API
Worth knowing
Cartesia
- Cartesia is a developer platform: you use it through the API or a web playground, and there is no voiceover editor or mobile app.
- The Free plan has no commercial use license; it starts on Pro, which also adds instant cloning. Professional cloning needs Startup or above.
- Paid plans can go past their credits at $65 per million on Pro, $45 on Startup and $38 on Scale; with overages off, requests are blocked.
- Voice agent calls cost $0.06 a minute from the plan's prepaid dollars, plus $0.014 a minute on a Cartesia phone number.
Murf
- The free trial gives 10 minutes of voice generation once, and nothing can be downloaded until you pay.
- Voice cloning is not self-serve: it is available only on Enterprise, through Murf's team. Broadcasting rights are Enterprise-only too.
- The API is billed separately by usage: $0.01 per 1,000 characters with Falcon and $0.03 with Gen2, after $10 of free credit.
- Voice generation time is used every time audio is rendered, edits included; unused monthly time carries forward to the next month.
Key features
Cartesia
- Sonic text to speech
- A streaming text-to-speech model built for live conversation, with dozens of languages and regional accents. One minute of audio uses about 750 to 800 credits.
- Ink speech to text
- A streaming transcription model with its own concurrency pool, so heavy transcription does not slow text to speech.
- Voice cloning
- Instant clones from 10 seconds of audio start on Pro; Professional clones start on Startup. Cartesia says to clone only your own voice or one you have explicit permission to use.
- Managed Agents
- Build voice agents that answer and make phone calls, with Cartesia-provided phone numbers, from 1 on Free to 10 on Scale.
- Deployment options
- Call the models through regional API endpoints with Python and JavaScript SDKs, or arrange on-premise, private cloud or on-device deployment with sales.
Murf
- Voiceover studio
- Write a script, pick from more than 200 voices and adjust emphasis, pronunciation, speed and pitch, then add video, images and music to the project.
- AI dubbing and translation
- Translate scripts and dub video and audio into more than 20 languages, with dubbing paid from separate dubbing credits.
- Voice changer and transcription
- Turn your own recording into a studio-quality AI voice, and transcribe audio to text within the studio.
- Text-to-speech API
- A pay-as-you-go API with the Falcon model for real-time voice agents and the Gen2 model for voiceovers, plus voice changer and translation endpoints.
- Add-ons for other apps
- Add Murf voiceovers inside Canva, Google Slides, PowerPoint and Adobe Captivate and Audition.
Plans
Cartesia
Free$0
20,000 credits a month, about 27 minutes of text to speech, plus $1 of prepaid agent usage. Not licensed for commercial use.
Pro$5
per month for 100,000 credits, billed monthly
About 133 minutes of text to speech a month, $5 of agent usage, a commercial use license and instant voice cloning.
Startup$49
per month for 1.25M credits, billed monthly
About 1,667 minutes of text to speech a month, $49 of agent usage and 2 Professional Voice Clone slots.
Scale$299
per month for 8M credits, billed monthly
About 10,667 minutes of text to speech a month, $299 of agent usage, 4 Professional Voice Clone slots, priority support and higher concurrency.
EnterpriseCustom
Volume pricing, custom concurrency, DPAs and BAAs, SSO, a shared Slack channel and on-premise or private cloud deployment.
Murf
Creator$19
per month and up, billed annually
24 hours of voice generation a year on yearly billing (2 hours a month on monthly billing), 5 project credits and commercial rights.
Business$66
per month and up, billed annually
For registered businesses, with a business license and 200 project credits; the help center lists 240 hours of voice generation a year.
EnterpriseCustom
Voice cloning, broadcasting rights, high-volume usage and custom terms, sold through sales.
Ways to pay less
Cartesia
- Startups
Startups Grant: 12 months of credits
Startups at any stage can apply for 12 months of Scale-level usage: 8 million credits a month plus $299 a month for Managed Agents. Students are considered case by case.
Murf
- Annual discount
33% off with yearly billing
Murf's help center says yearly plans are a flat 33% off every subscription.
