Cartesia vs Typecast
We give Cartesia and Typecast the same GPA: 2.4 out of 4.0. Cartesia grades higher on value for money. Typecast grades higher on features. They get the same grade on the free plan, 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
Typecast
AI voice generator with emotion controls, voice cloning and video
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACartesiaFair | 2.4GPATypecastFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CAn hour of downloads a month needs Pro: $312 billed yearly ($29 monthly) for 75,000 credits, about 90 minutes. Plus, at $204 a year, stops at about 50 minutes. That's near the top of what this category charges, softened by unlimited generation. |
| 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. | CGenerating and playing is unlimited, which is handy for picking voices. But downloads come from 3,000 lifetime credits, about 5 minutes, with attribution and no commercial license. Not enough for anything you publish. |
| 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. | B600+ voices with Smart Emotion, instant cloning from Basic and professional cloning from Plus, a video editor up to 4K, talking avatars, and an API with SDKs in six languages. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the voice work. |
| 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. Typing a line and picking a voice is easy; getting the emotion, pace and intonation right takes some fiddling, and those controls are spread across plans. |
| 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, iPhone and Android, plus an API with SDKs. No desktop app and no integrations listed, so a B is the top. |
| Best for | fast speech for developers' voice agents | expressive voices with emotion controls |
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 Typecast. 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. Typecast starts at $5 a month and scores 2.7.
Typecast scores higher for the same starting price. Of the other AI voice generators on the chart, none scores higher than Cartesia for less, and none scores higher than Typecast 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. Typecast starts at $5 per month for 30,000 download credits, billed monthly.
- Cartesia has a free plan. Typecast does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only Typecast lists iOS and Android apps.
- Cartesia also covers transcription.
- Typecast also covers video editing.
At a glance
| Cartesia | Typecast | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $5 per month for 100,000 credits, billed monthly | $5 per month for 30,000 download credits, 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 plan with unlimited generation and 3,000 lifetime download credits (about 5 minutes); attribution required |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Cartesia | Neosapience, Inc. |
| Price read from | cartesia.ai | typecast.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
Typecast
- YouTube, TikTok and faceless video creators
- Character, game and audiobook voices that need emotion
- Cloning your own voice on a low monthly budget
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.
Typecast
- The free plan's 3,000 download credits are lifetime, not monthly, and downloads on it need attribution; the commercial license starts on Basic.
- Credits are used only when you download, so each plan's monthly allowance caps how much finished audio you can export.
- You may clone only your own voice or one you have the legal right to use, and cloned voices stay private to your account.
- Extra credits can be bought only on Business, and App Store and Google Play prices can differ from the web prices.
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.
Typecast
- Expressive AI voices
- More than 600 voices, including exclusive ones from real voice actors, for ads, audiobooks, narration, games and short videos, in 35+ languages through the API.
- Emotion and delivery controls
- Smart Emotion adjusts a line's delivery in one click, and Pro adds custom emotion, intonation and pitch. Speed control starts on Plus.
- Instant and Professional Cloning
- Instant Cloning works from a few seconds of audio and starts on Basic; Professional Cloning trains on longer recordings and starts on Plus.
- Video editor and talking avatars
- Put voiceovers on video and export up to 4K, and generate talking-avatar clips, from 6 a month on Basic up to 40 on Business.
- Typecast API
- A text-to-speech API with SDKs for Python, JavaScript, C#, Java, Kotlin and Rust, priced separately from the Studio plans.
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.
Typecast
Basic$5
per month for 30,000 download credits, billed monthly
About 35 minutes of downloads a month, all voices, 44.1 kHz audio, 1 Instant Cloning slot, 1080p video without a watermark and a commercial license.
Plus$19
per month for 40,000 download credits, billed monthly
About 50 minutes of downloads a month, speed control, Professional Cloning (1 slot in total), 4K video export and 30 GB storage.
Pro$29
per month for 75,000 download credits, billed monthly
About 90 minutes of downloads a month, emotion controls including Smart Emotion, intonation and pitch, and 2 cloning slots.
Business$69
per month for 200,000 download credits, billed monthly
About 250 minutes of downloads a month, team members, extra credit purchases, 10 cloning slots and 100 GB storage. Meant for businesses and agencies.
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.
Typecast
- Annual discount
Save 10% with yearly billing
Basic is $54 billed yearly, Plus $204, Pro $312 and Business $744, against $5, $19, $29 and $69 a month on monthly billing.
