ElevenLabs vs Cartesia pricing (2026)
ElevenLabs bills TTS per character on the API ($0.04 per 1K for Flash/Turbo, $0.08 for v4). Cartesia sells credit plans where 1 credit = 1 character; on the $49 Startup plan that works out to about $0.039 per 1K. At 50% talk time that is $0.0200 vs $0.0196 per call-minute. For hosted agents, ElevenLabs charges $0.08/min (LLM extra) and Cartesia $0.06/min.
Text-to-speech
| Vendor | Product | $/call-min | $/1,000 min | Vendor's price | Status | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cartesia | Sonic (Startup plan credits) | $0.0196 | $19.60 | 1 credit = 1 character; Startup $49/mo for 1.25M credits Plan-based; you pay the subscription whether or not you use the credits. Derived: $49 / 1,250,000 credits = $0.0392 per 1K characters. Overage is $45/1M on Startup, $38/1M on Scale, $65/1M on Pro. | verifiedderived | 2026-10-17 · source |
| ElevenLabs | Flash / Turbo | $0.0200 | $20.00 | $0.04 per 1K characters | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
| ElevenLabs | Eleven v4 Turbo | $0.0200 | $20.00 | $0.04 per 1K characters | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
| ElevenLabs | Eleven v3 Conversational | $0.0200 | $20.00 | $0.04 per 1K characters | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
| ElevenLabs | Eleven v4 | $0.0400 | $40.00 | $0.08 per 1K characters (page: ~$0.08/min) | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
| ElevenLabs | Multilingual v2 | $0.0400 | $40.00 | $0.08 per 1K characters | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
Realtime speech-to-text
| Vendor | Product | $/call-min | $/1,000 min | Vendor's price | Status | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | Scribe v2 Realtime | $0.0065 | $6.50 | $0.39/hr Keyterms +$0.08/hr. Batch Scribe v2 is $0.22/hr. | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
| Cartesia | Ink (streaming STT), Scale plan | $0.0065 | $6.50 | 3 credits/sec; ~$0.39/hr on Scale plan (vendor figure) Credit-based; effective rate depends on plan ($299/mo Scale). Lower plans cost more per credit. | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
Hosted agents
| Vendor | Product | $/call-min | $/1,000 min | Vendor's price | Status | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cartesia | Managed Agents | $0.0600 | $60.00 | $0.06/min (+$0.014/min if using a Cartesia phone number) Check Cartesia's page for what LLM usage is included. | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
| ElevenLabs | ElevenLabs Agents | $0.0800 | $80.00 | $0.08 per additional call minute (burst $0.16/min) LLM billed separately; telephony billed by your own provider. Plans include minutes: Free 15, Starter $6/75, Creator $22/275, Pro $99/1,238, Scale $299/3,738, Business $990/12,375. | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
| ElevenLabs | Speech Engine (STT+TTS for your agent) | $0.0800 | $80.00 | $0.08/min | verified | 2026-10-17 · source |
Sources: ElevenLabs, ElevenLabs, Cartesia, checked 2026-10-17. TTS per-minute assumes 1,000 characters per minute of speech and the agent talking 50% of the call.