Cartesia vs Voice.ai (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Cartesia and Voice.ai share a 2.4 GPA, both have a free plan and they start at the same price, so the choice depends on which platforms you need.
Checked Nov 9, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 9, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on all five counts.
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
Voice.ai
Real-time voice changer, text to speech and voice agents
Which one is for you
Pick Cartesia if
- Fits if you're building a voice agent or phone bot through an API
- Works for developers who want speech and transcription from one API
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you don't write code, or want a voiceover editor or a phone app
- Skip it if you hoped to go live on the free plan, which has no commercial use license
- Tight if you leave overages off, since requests stop when credits run out
- Watch out: overages run $65 per million credits on Pro, and agent calls cost $0.03 a minute plus $0.014 on a Cartesia number
- Pricey if you need a professional voice clone, which starts on the $49 Startup plan
Pick Voice.ai if
- Fits if you want a free real-time voice changer for games or chat
- Works for creators who need cloned voices with a commercial license
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want cloning on the free plan, which has none
- Tight if you stay free: 5k credits and 500 characters a conversion
- Watch out: credits are shared across speech, agents and audio tools
- Watch out: Enterprise features such as SSO and HIPAA BAAs are custom-priced and not listed
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACartesiaFair | 2.4GPAVoice.aiFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 that plan, which is less than its alternatives charge for the same amount. Overages cost $65 per million credits on Pro. | BStarter is $5 a month billed monthly, inside the cheapest quarter. Launch is $24, Core $99, Scale $330, Business $880. |
| Free plan and trial | C20,000 credits a month, about 27 minutes of speech, plus $1 of agent usage. Enough to try it, but there's no commercial use license, so nothing built on it can go live. | C5k credits a month, about 5 minutes of speech, 500 characters a conversion, no instant clones. Tight for anything past a try. |
| 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. | CVoice changer, TTS, 5 to 2,200 instant clones, agents and audio tools. One credit pool covers everything, so heavy use of one drains the others. |
| 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. Install the changer or open the web app and go, with credits to watch. |
| 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, Windows and Mac, with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Slack, Zoom and Discord listed. No phone app. |
| Best for | speech through an API for voice agents | a free real-time voice changer, plus cloned voices |
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 Voice.ai. 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. Voice.ai starts at $5 a month and scores 2.3.
On this chart the two sit in the same place: the same score 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 Voice.ai 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 also covers transcription.
- Voice.ai also covers chatbots.
At a glance
| Cartesia | Voice.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $5 per month for 100,000 credits, billed monthly | $5 per month, 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. | 5k credits a month, no instant voice clones, 500 characters per conversion. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Made by | Cartesia | Voice AI, Inc. |
| Price read from | cartesia.ai | voice.ai |
| Checked | Nov 9, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
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 $0.03 a minute from the plan's prepaid dollars, plus $0.014 a minute on a Cartesia phone number.
Voice.ai
- The Free plan has no instant voice clones and caps each conversion at 500 characters.
- Credits are shared across text to speech, voice agents and audio tools, so heavy use of one drains the others.
- Enterprise is custom-priced, adding SSO, HIPAA BAAs and custom SLAs, and is not listed here as a plan.
- Prices shown are monthly; a yearly toggle on the page advertises 2 months free.
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.
Voice.ai
- Real-time voice changer
- A free voice changer for PC and Mac that works across Zoom, Discord, games and chat apps, plus a recording mode for short clips.
- Text to speech
- Generates speech in over 15 languages, with a text to speech studio and file downloads on paid plans.
- Instant voice cloning
- Paid plans include instant voice clones, from 5 on Starter up to 2,200 voice clones on Business.
- AI voice agents
- Agents that handle inbound and outbound phone calls, with concurrent-call and phone-number limits that grow by plan.
- Audio tools
- Includes a vocal remover, echo and reverb remover, stem splitter, audio enhancer and key and BPM finder, all drawing on the same credits.
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.
Voice.ai
Free$0
5k credits a month, about 5 minutes of text to speech; 500 characters per conversion and no instant voice clones.
Starter$5
per month, billed monthly
15k credits, 5 instant voice clones, file downloads and a commercial license.
Launch$24
per month, billed monthly
200k credits and 10 instant voice clones. First month is $12 at 50% off.
Core$99
per month, billed monthly
1M credits, 50 instant voice clones and priority support.
Scale$330
per month, billed monthly
4M credits, 200 instant voice clones and higher-priority generations.
Business$880
per month, billed monthly
22M credits, 2,200 voice clones and technical success manager support.
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.
Voice.ai
- Annual discount
Yearly billing gives 2 months free
The pricing page's yearly toggle is labeled 2 months free; the yearly prices were not readable in the page text.
- Other savings
50% off the first month of Launch
The Launch plan is shown at $12 for the first month, then $24 a month.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Cartesia or Voice.ai?
As of Nov 12, 2026, they start at the same price. Cartesia starts at $5 per month for 100,000 credits, billed monthly, and Voice.ai starts at $5 per month, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Cartesia or Voice.ai?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Cartesia and Voice.ai have a free plan.
Which platforms do Cartesia and Voice.ai run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Voice.ai lists macOS and Windows apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.