ElevenLabs vs Cartesia: Pricing Compared (2026)

ElevenLabs vs Cartesia pits the voice AI leader against a cheaper challenger: Cartesia Pro costs $5 a month for 100,000 credits (~133 minutes) while ElevenLabs Starter costs $6 for 30,000 credits (~30 minutes). Cartesia wins on per-minute price; ElevenLabs wins on voices, features, and ecosystem. Checked 1 Nov 2026.

The short version: same job, different pricing logic

ElevenLabs and Cartesia do the same job — turn text into natural speech through an API or a web app — but they price it differently. ElevenLabs sells credits where 1 credit equals 1 character (30,000 credits ≈ 30 minutes of speech). Cartesia sells credits sized by audio minutes (100,000 credits ≈ 133 minutes). The credits do not convert between the two, so the only honest comparison is minutes of speech per dollar — and there Cartesia is roughly five times cheaper at entry level.

Price is not the whole story. ElevenLabs is the established leader with the biggest voice library, the most integrations, and products beyond speech (voice design, sound effects, music, dubbing). Cartesia is the challenger: leaner, cheaper, and focused on low-latency voice for real-time uses like voice agents — where it prices calls at $0.03 a minute, half its previous $0.06 rate.

ElevenLabs vs Cartesia: side-by-side

Pricing maths: cost per minute of speech

Start with entry level. ElevenLabs Starter: $6 a month for 30,000 credits, and 1 credit buys 1 character, so 30,000 characters ≈ 30 minutes of speech — $6 ÷ 30 = $0.20 per minute. Cartesia Pro: $5 a month for 100,000 credits ≈ 133 minutes — $5 ÷ 133 ≈ $0.038 per minute. Per minute of finished speech, Cartesia Pro is about 5.3 times cheaper ($0.20 ÷ $0.038) than ElevenLabs Starter.

Scale the job up. A creator needing 2 hours (120 minutes) of speech a month pays $22 for ElevenLabs Creator (121,000 credits ≈ 121 minutes, $22 ÷ 121 ≈ $0.18/min) or $5 for Cartesia Pro — which covers 133 minutes with room to spare. At higher volume, Cartesia Startup at $49 buys ~1,667 minutes ($49 ÷ 1,667 ≈ $0.029/min); the comparable ElevenLabs volume sits at Pro $99 for 600,000 credits (~600 minutes, $0.165/min) or Scale $299 for 1.8M credits.

The free tiers tell the same story in miniature: Cartesia’s $0 plan gives 20,000 credits (~27 minutes) against ElevenLabs’ 10,000 credits (~10 minutes). Cartesia gives roughly 2.7 times more free speech. For the full ElevenLabs tier maths, see our ElevenLabs pricing breakdown and ElevenLabs API pricing guide.

Free tier face-off: 27 minutes vs 10 minutes

Before paying anything, the free plans set the tone. Cartesia’s free tier gives 20,000 credits, about 27 minutes of text to speech — enough for a full podcast episode’s narration or a long product demo. ElevenLabs’ free tier gives 10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes — enough for a few voiceovers or a short explainer. Both are $0, both are non-commercial, and both include API access for testing.

The practical difference is runway. On Cartesia’s 27 free minutes, a developer can prototype a voice feature across several test cycles before the credits run out. On ElevenLabs’ 10 minutes a month, the refill is monthly — smaller, but it renews, so a light user never pays. If your test needs one long session, Cartesia’s free tier goes further; if your need is a few minutes every month forever, ElevenLabs’ monthly refill fits better. Our ElevenLabs free plan guide details the limits.

Voice agents: where Cartesia leads

The one area where Cartesia clearly leads is real-time voice agents. Its pricing page lists voice-agent calls at $0.03 a minute — explicitly noting the previous $0.06 rate, a 50% cut. Cartesia’s models are built for low-latency streaming, which is what a phone agent or in-app assistant needs: the voice has to respond in fractions of a second, not render a finished audio file.

ElevenLabs also offers conversational AI and voice agents, plus a much larger ecosystem of integrations — but its public pricing page prices TTS credits, not agent minutes, so agent costs are harder to predict upfront. A developer budgeting 1,000 agent minutes a month knows exactly what Cartesia costs: $30 (1,000 × $0.03). For a developer-first voice-agent project, Cartesia’s transparent per-minute agent pricing is the practical advantage.

ElevenLabs vs Cartesia: strengths and weaknesses

Who should pick which

Pick Cartesia if cost per minute is the deciding factor: high-volume TTS, audiobook production, or any project where the budget is measured in dollars per hour of audio. The $5 Pro plan’s ~133 minutes beat every ElevenLabs tier on price, and the $0.03/min agent pricing suits real-time voice applications. Developers building voice agents on a budget get the clearest deal.

Pick ElevenLabs if the voice itself is the product: character voices, a specific narrator for a brand, multilingual dubbing, or a project that needs the biggest voice library and the widest integrations. The $6 Starter plan is enough for most solo creators, and the ecosystem (Studio, dubbing, sound effects) covers jobs Cartesia does not do. Our ElevenLabs review and ElevenLabs discount guide cover the voice side further.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cartesia cheaper than ElevenLabs?

Yes, per minute of speech. Cartesia Pro at $5 a month buys ~133 minutes (~$0.038/min) while ElevenLabs Starter at $6 buys ~30 minutes (~$0.20/min) — Cartesia is about 5 times cheaper per minute at entry level. The gap persists up the tiers: Cartesia Startup’s ~$0.029/min beats ElevenLabs Pro’s ~$0.165/min.

How much does Cartesia cost per month?

Cartesia’s plans are Free ($0, 20,000 credits ≈ 27 minutes), Pro ($5/month, 100,000 credits ≈ 133 minutes), Startup ($49/month, 1.25M credits ≈ 1,667 minutes), Scale ($299/month, 8M credits ≈ 10,667 minutes), and Enterprise (custom). Voice-agent calls cost $0.03 a minute. Prices from cartesia.ai/pricing, checked 1 Nov 2026.

Do ElevenLabs and Cartesia credits work the same way?

No — the credits are defined differently, which is why minute math matters. On ElevenLabs, 1 credit equals 1 character of text (30,000 credits ≈ 30 minutes of speech). On Cartesia, credits are sized by audio output (100,000 credits ≈ 133 minutes, roughly 750 credits per minute). Never compare the two tools’ credit counts directly.

Can Cartesia clone a voice?

Yes — Cartesia includes instant voice cloning on Pro ($5/month) and above. Like ElevenLabs, it requires consent for the voice being cloned. Commercial use is licensed from the $5 Pro plan, one dollar below ElevenLabs’ $6 Starter commercial entry point.

Which is better for voice agents, ElevenLabs or Cartesia?

Cartesia has the clearer deal: voice-agent calls at $0.03 a minute (halved from $0.06) with models built for low-latency streaming. ElevenLabs also offers conversational AI and a larger integration ecosystem, but its pricing page prices TTS credits rather than agent minutes, making agent costs harder to budget. For cost-predictable agents, Cartesia wins; for ecosystem depth, ElevenLabs.

Does Cartesia have a free plan?

Yes — Cartesia’s free plan costs $0 and includes 20,000 credits, roughly 27 minutes of text to speech. That is about 2.7 times more free speech than ElevenLabs’ free plan (10,000 credits, ~10 minutes). Both free plans are non-commercial, so monetized output needs a paid tier.

Why is ElevenLabs more expensive than Cartesia?

ElevenLabs charges for market leadership: the largest voice library, the most integrations, and products Cartesia does not offer (dubbing, voice design, sound effects, music). Cartesia prices aggressively as the challenger, focusing on cheap, low-latency speech. You pay ElevenLabs for breadth; you pay Cartesia for cheap minutes.

Sources checked

Cartesia plans, credit allowances, and voice-agent pricing come from the official Cartesia pricing page (https://www.cartesia.ai/pricing), checked 1 Nov 2026. ElevenLabs plans and credit rates come from the official pricing page (https://elevenlabs.io/pricing), checked the same day. Cartesia is covered text-only with no affiliate link.