Inworld AI vs Rime (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Rime grades higher than Inworld AI: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Inworld AI grades higher on features. Rime grades higher on the free plan and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Inworld AI
Text-to-speech, speech-to-text and LLM API with monthly credit plans
Rime
Voice models for phone agents: text to speech and speech to speech
Which one is for you
Pick Inworld AI if
- Fits if you are building a real-time voice agent or companion
- Works for game or app teams that need many custom voices
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want to paste a script and download, because this is an API product
- Watch out: the 70 free minutes aren't described as monthly, so don't count on them renewing
- Watch out: zero data retention starts at Developer ($300), and HIPAA and BAA are Growth add-ons
- Pricey if you go over the credit: overage bills at the plan's own rates, and extra credits expire after a year
Pick Rime if
- Fits if you build phone or call-center voice agents
- Makes sense if you want per-minute pricing with no monthly fee
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a text box for voiceovers, because this is built for agents
- Pricey if you want a plan, since Scale starts at $100 a month
- Watch out: custom voices, a HIPAA BAA and the SOC 2 report are Enterprise only
- Watch out: speech to text is listed as free only until Nov 19
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAInworld AIFair | 2.2GPARimeFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CCreator is $25 a month in credits, with TTS-2 at $20 per 1M characters, dropping to $12.50 at the $1,500 Growth tier. The cheapest plan is in the dearer half of the category. | CFlex has no monthly fee: Mist v3 at $0.030 a minute, Coda v2 $0.050, Prism $0.080. Scale is $100 a month with rates 20% lower. The one paid plan is far above the category's middle. |
| Free plan and trial | COn-Demand is $0 pay as you go with up to 70 minutes of speech included. The page doesn't say it renews monthly, so treat it as a trial amount. | B$50 of usage every month on all models, no card. For testing an agent that is a lot of minutes. |
| Features | BTTS, speech to text and an LLM API, 100 to 30,000 custom voices by plan, professional clones from Creator. It covers the job for agents and games. | CSpeech, speech to speech and speech to text, with cloud, VPC and on-prem options on Enterprise. Custom voices and compliance reports sit there too. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. It is an API-first product that expects developers. | DNo store rating on record. It is an API for developers building agents. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb and an API. No integrations or apps are listed. | BWeb and an API, with LiveKit, Pipecat and Twilio listed. |
| Best for | real-time voice for agents and companions | voice models for phone agents |
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: Inworld AI and Rime. How we grade
Price against what you get
Inworld AI starts at $25 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Rime starts at $100 a month and scores 2.0.
They score the same, and Inworld AI starts $75 a month lower. Of the other AI voice generators on the chart, 19 score higher than Inworld AI for less, and 24 score higher than Rime 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
- Rime also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| Inworld AI | Rime | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $25 per month, billed monthly | $100 per month, with $100 of usage credit |
| Free plan | On-Demand: $0 pay as you go with up to 70 minutes of text to speech included; 100 custom voices, commercial license. | $50 of usage every month, renewing monthly, across Prism, Mist v3, Coda v2 and Rime speech to text. No card required. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Inworld AI | Rime Labs |
| Price read from | inworld.ai | rime.ai |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Inworld AI
- Overage is billed at the plan's own rates, and extra credits expire one year after purchase.
- The 70 free minutes on On-Demand are not described as monthly, so treat them as a trial amount.
- Zero data retention starts at Developer, and HIPAA and BAA are Growth add-ons.
- The page showed monthly prices; a Yearly toggle advertises 2 months free, so the annual amounts were not read.
Rime
- Flex has no monthly fee and bills usage by the minute: Mist v3 text to speech at $0.030, Coda v2 at $0.050 and Prism speech to speech at $0.080 a minute.
- Scale rates are 20% lower than Flex: $0.024 a minute for Mist v3, $0.040 for Coda v2 and $0.064 for Prism.
- Custom voices, a HIPAA BAA and the SOC 2 Type II report are limited to Enterprise.
- Rime's speech-to-text model is listed as free until Nov 19.
Key features
Inworld AI
- Realtime TTS-2 and TTS-2 Flash
- Two text-to-speech models priced per million characters, with steering on TTS-2, speaking rate and temperature controls, and 200+ languages.
- Voice cloning and design
- Instant cloning and voice design are on every plan; professional voice clones are capped by tier, from 2 to 40 and 100+ on Enterprise.
- Speech to text and speech to speech
- Real-time STT from $0.15 an hour on On-Demand and low-latency speech-to-speech conversations on the same credits.
- LLM inference
- Hosted open and third-party models are billed per token from the same credit balance, from $0.07 per 1M input tokens.
- Credits that roll over
- Unused subscription credits carry over for up to 3 months while a paid plan of equal or higher value stays active.
Rime
- Mist v3 text to speech
- Positioned as the lowest-latency model, with 78 voices in English, French, German and Spanish and a listed 37 ms median time to first audio.
- Coda v2 text to speech
- Positioned as the most natural model, with 313 voices across 10 languages including Japanese, Arabic and Hindi, and custom pronunciation lexicons.
- Prism speech to speech
- A model that hears the call, reasons over it and speaks; text is generated before audio so guardrails can check it, and it supports tool calls mid-call.
- Real-time streaming and telephony
- WebSocket streaming and 8 kHz phone audio are on every plan, with LiveKit, Pipecat and other agent-platform integrations.
- Custom voices and self-hosting
- Custom voice cloning and fine-tuning on your own calls are Enterprise features. The text-to-speech models can be self-hosted with Docker Compose or Kubernetes.
Plans
Inworld AI
On-Demand$0
Pay as you go: TTS-2 $25 per 1M characters, TTS-2 Flash $15. Up to 70 min of TTS included.
Creator$25
per month, billed monthly
$25 in credits a month. TTS-2 $20 per 1M characters, Flash $10. 500 custom voices, 4 professional clones.
Builder$100
per month, billed monthly
$100 in credits. TTS-2 $17.50 per 1M characters, Flash $9. 3,000 custom voices, higher concurrency.
Developer$300
per month, billed monthly
$300 in credits. TTS-2 $15 per 1M characters, Flash $8. 10,000 custom voices, zero data retention.
Growth$1,500
per month, billed monthly
$1,500 in credits. TTS-2 $12.50 per 1M characters, Flash $7. 30,000 voices, HIPAA and BAA as add-ons.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom limits and terms, SLA, DPA, EU and India data residency; TTS-2 from as low as $5 per 1M.
Rime
Free$0
$50 of usage each month on all models, no card required; email support and community docs.
Scale$100
per month, billed monthly to your card
$100 of credit a month that rolls over up to $200, with every rate 20% lower than Flex. Usage past the credit is billed at the same rates.
EnterpriseCustom
Volume rates billed annually, cloud, VPC or on-prem deployment, SLAs, custom voices, a HIPAA BAA and a SOC 2 Type II report. Sold through sales.
Ways to pay less
Inworld AI
- Annual discount
2 months free on yearly billing
Inworld's pricing page has a Yearly toggle labeled as giving 2 months free compared with monthly billing.
Rime
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Inworld AI or Rime?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Inworld AI is cheaper to start with: $25 a month, against $100 a month for Rime. Inworld AI starts at $25 per month, billed monthly, and Rime starts at $100 per month, with $100 of usage credit.
Which has a free plan, Inworld AI or Rime?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Inworld AI and Rime have a free plan.
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.