Cartesia vs ElevenLabs
Cheapest paid tier each vendor publishes. Free plans are listed above; tiers priced on request are not plotted because there is no figure to plot.
Where they differ
Only on Cartesia
- Lower entry price: $5/mo against $6/mo
- Speech-to-text
- Transcription
- AI agents
From the pricing tiers and capability tags we track. A capability missing on one side means we have not recorded it there, not that the tool cannot do it.
At a glance
Cartesia and ElevenLabs both appear in this directory's audio listings. Prices below were read from the vendors' own pages, most recently on October 26, 2026. Paid plans start at $5/mo on Cartesia and $6/mo on ElevenLabs. We track speech to text on Cartesia and dubbing on ElevenLabs; both cover text to speech and voice cloning. No score and no winner: the facts do the picking.
Capability tags are factual labels we assign when a tool is added; they describe what a tool does, not how well it does it.
Checked against the vendors. Written from each vendor's own site and last re-checked there: Cartesia on October 26, 2026 · ElevenLabs on October 19, 2026. Vendors change pricing and features without notice, so confirm anything that decides your purchase on the vendor's page.
Cartesia
Real-time speech synthesis, transcription, and voice agent platform
Cartesia provides real-time voice intelligence powered by state space models, featuring Sonic-3.6 for text-to-speech and Ink-2 for transcription. Developers can build voice agents through Managed Agents or deploy custom implementations across cloud, on-premise, and on-device environments. The platform includes developer SDKs, instant voice cloning, and telephony support.
ElevenLabs
AI voice generation, text-to-speech, and voice cloning platform
ElevenLabs provides AI-powered text-to-speech and voice cloning technology. It allows users to generate realistic speech from text in various voices and languages. The platform also offers tools for creating new synthetic voices and translating audio.
Also in audio
A tool we have an affiliate relationship with. It is not part of the comparison above and we are not calling it the better pick.
- Creating realistic voiceovers for video and e-learning content
- Building low-latency real-time conversational voice agents
- Translating and dubbing videos into multiple languages
Cartesia and ElevenLabs in action
Each vendor's own walkthrough, from its homepage or official YouTube channel. We don't make these videos and we don't rate them.
Cartesia
ElevenLabs
Key features
Cartesia
- Sonic-3.6 text-to-speech model
- Ink-2 streaming speech-to-text transcription
- Managed Agents for building and shipping voice agents
- Cloud, on-premise, and on-device deployment options
- Instant and professional voice cloning
ElevenLabs
- Text-to-speech generation
- AI voice generator
- Voice cloning from audio
- Speech-to-speech conversion
- Multilingual voice conversion
What each one does well
Cartesia
- ✓ Building real-time conversational voice agents
- ✓ Low-latency streaming speech transcription and generation
- ✓ Deploying voice AI models on-premise or on-device
ElevenLabs
- ✓ Generating realistic voiceovers
- ✓ Creating custom AI voices
- ✓ Translating spoken content
People also ask
Which is cheaper, Cartesia or ElevenLabs?
Cartesia is cheaper: paid plans start at $5/mo for Cartesia and $6/mo for ElevenLabs.
Does Cartesia or ElevenLabs have a free plan?
Both Cartesia and ElevenLabs publish a free plan.
What is the difference between Cartesia and ElevenLabs?
Cartesia and ElevenLabs are both tracked for text-to-speech, voice-cloning, voice-generation. Of the capabilities they do not share, only Cartesia is tracked for speech-to-text, transcription, ai-agents, and only ElevenLabs is tracked for dubbing, sound-effects.
How much do Cartesia and ElevenLabs cost?
Cartesia: free plan, then $5/mo. ElevenLabs: free plan, then $6/mo.
Answers are generated from the tracked plans and capability tags shown above, so they move when the vendors' pages do.
Full fact sheets, FAQs, and discussion links: Cartesia · ElevenLabs · all audio tools