ElevenLabs vs Cartesia
Compare ElevenLabs and Cartesia on pricing, free tier, open source, API, self-host, verdict and momentum.
Both are audio tools. ElevenLabs is freemium (free tier (10k credits/mo, non-commercial); Starter $6/mo, Creator $22/mo) with an API, a free tier; Cartesia is freemium (free tier (20K credits/mo); paid plans from $5/mo) with an API and a free tier. The catalog stamp is ship for ElevenLabs and ship for Cartesia, last verified 2026-09-01 and 2026-08-19 respectively.
ElevenLabs
The reference standard for AI voice — TTS, cloning, dubbing and voice agents.
Cartesia
Ultra-low-latency voice AI with streaming TTS and voice cloning.
| field | ElevenLabs | Cartesia |
|---|---|---|
| pricing | freemium · free tier (10k credits/mo, non-commercial); Starter $6/mo, Creator $22/mo | freemium · free tier (20K credits/mo); paid plans from $5/mo |
| free tier | yes | yes |
| open source | no | no |
| api | yes | yes |
| self-host | no | no |
| verdict | ship | ship |
| momentum | blueshift | blueshift |
| last verified | 2026-09-01 | 2026-08-19 |
| key limitation | Credit-based pricing makes budgeting confusing. | Free tier credit cap limits sustained production use. |
The call
Pick ElevenLabs for product voice, dubbing, or agents where quality is the bott…
Pick Cartesia for real-time voice agents where latency is the product.
ElevenLabs sources
Cartesia sources
Open live compare →ElevenLabs pageCartesia pageElevenLabs.jsonCartesia.json