Cartesia vs Respeecher
We give Cartesia a 2.4 GPA and Respeecher a 2.0, out of 4.0. Cartesia grades higher on value for money and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan, features and ease of use.
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
Respeecher
Voice cloning and speech-to-speech for film, TV, games and developers
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACartesiaFair | 2.0GPARespeecherFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CPay-as-you-go packs are $5 per 20,000 characters, commercial use included, and Respeecher puts 60,000 characters at about an hour, so an hour is $15. Subscriptions run from $18 for 30,000 characters to Creator at $74 a month billed yearly. The real-time API is $2 per 60,000 characters. |
| 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. | CNo free plan. There's a free trial of text to speech and speech-to-speech in the Marketplace, but the listing doesn't say how much it covers or whether it wants a card. The real-time API is free to start. |
| 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. | CSpeech-to-speech, licensed celebrity voices, a Pro Tools plugin and a real-time API, which few here offer. But custom voices and real-time conversion are Enterprise-only, subscriptions get 25+ voices, and Creator allows 100 requests a day. |
| 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. The Marketplace is a web app with a Pro Tools plugin, and speech-to-speech means recording your own takes. Custom voice work runs through Respeecher's team, not a sign-up. |
| 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. | CWeb only, with an API and one plugin, for Pro Tools. That's the right plugin for sound studios, but it's the whole list, and there's no phone or desktop app. |
| Best for | fast speech for developers' voice agents | recreating a particular voice for film and games |
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 Respeecher. 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. Respeecher starts at $18 a month and scores 2.0.
Cartesia scores higher and starts $13 a month lower. Of the other AI voice generators on the chart, none scores higher than Cartesia for less, and 5 score higher than Respeecher 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. Respeecher starts at $18 per month for 30,000 characters, billed monthly.
- Cartesia has a free plan. Respeecher does not, though it has a free trial.
- Cartesia also covers transcription.
At a glance
| Cartesia | Respeecher | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $5 per month for 100,000 credits, billed monthly | $18 per month for 30,000 characters, billed monthly |
| 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 of text to speech and speech-to-speech in the Voice Marketplace; limits not stated |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Cartesia | Respeecher |
| Price read from | cartesia.ai | respeecher.com |
| 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
Respeecher
- Film, TV and game studios that need a specific voice recreated
- Sound engineers working in Pro Tools
- Developers building real-time voice agents
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.
Respeecher
- Custom voices and real-time voice conversion are Enterprise-only, and cloning someone's voice needs a signed agreement with that person.
- Pay-as-you-go packs, from $5 for 20,000 characters or 5 minutes of speech-to-speech to $250 for 500 credits, include commercial usage rights but no API access.
- The real-time TTS API is billed separately at $2 per 60,000 characters, about an hour of speech.
- Subscriptions cap daily text-to-speech requests: 350 on TTS only, 100 on Creator and 500 on Power.
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.
Respeecher
- Custom voice cloning for productions
- Respeecher recreates or replicates a specific voice for film, TV, games and ads, working with the production team. Its case studies include a younger Luke Skywalker's voice for The Mandalorian.
- Speech-to-speech
- Record or upload a line in your own voice and convert it into another voice. Creator and Power include monthly speech-to-speech minutes; TTS only does not.
- Voice Marketplace
- A self-serve library of AI voices, including licensed celebrity voices, for text to speech and speech-to-speech, with a plugin for Pro Tools.
- Real-time TTS API
- Respeecher Space is a low-latency text-to-speech API for voice agents, billed by usage and free to start.
- Consent-based voices
- Respeecher says every voice replication needs explicit permission from the voice owner through a mutually signed agreement, and Marketplace celebrity voices are licensed and moderated.
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.
Respeecher
TTS only$18
per month for 30,000 characters, billed monthly
Text to speech only, 25+ voices, 350 requests a day and API access. Larger steps go up to 10 million characters, and the first month is $9.
Creator$74
per month for 400,000 characters, billed annually ($89 monthly)
400,000 text-to-speech characters plus 90 minutes of speech-to-speech, 25+ voices and API access. The first monthly-billed month is $44.50.
Power$414
per month for 3M characters, billed annually ($499 monthly)
3 million characters plus 900 minutes of speech-to-speech, 40+ voices and 20+ accents. The first monthly-billed month is $249.50.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom voices, real-time conversion, API, plugin and on-premise options, custom SSO, unlimited concurrency and support from sound engineers.
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.
Respeecher
- Annual discount
Save 17% with yearly billing
Creator is $74 a month billed yearly against $89 monthly, and Power is $414 against $499.
- Other savings
First month 50% off
Monthly subscriptions cost half for the first month: TTS only $9, Creator $44.50 and Power $249.50, then the regular price.
