Last updated: 28 June 2026
Cartesia TTS Pricing
Cartesia Sonic delivers the fastest TTS with sub-65ms time-to-first-audio. Supports 40+ languages and offers voice cloning. Credit-based pricing model with different tiers.
Models
1
Sonic
From
$0.050
per 1K chars
Quality
4/5
Latency
65ms
time-to-first-audio
Languages
40
supported
Free Tier
AvailableAvailable Models & Pricing
Cartesia Sonic
Quality
4/5
Latency
65ms
Languages
40
Pay-as-you-go. Sub-100ms latency, voice cloning.
Cost Examples
| Characters | Sonic |
|---|---|
| 1K | $0.050 |
| 10K | $0.500 |
| 100K | $5.00 |
| 1M | $50.00 |
When to Use Cartesia
Best for
Ultra-low-latency applications like gaming, real-time voice agents, and interactive experiences.
Key strengths
- ✓Fastest latency (65ms)
- ✓Voice cloning
- ✓40+ languages
- ✓Streaming support
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Cartesia Sonic TTS cost?
Cartesia Sonic costs $50 per million characters ($0.050/1K chars), making it the most expensive pay-as-you-go TTS API. The premium price reflects its sub-100ms latency and advanced voice cloning capabilities designed for real-time voice agents.
Why is Cartesia Sonic more expensive than other TTS APIs?
Cartesia Sonic is optimized for ultra-low latency at approximately 65ms time-to-first-audio — the fastest of any TTS API. It also supports real-time voice cloning and scores 4.0/5 on quality benchmarks. The $50/1M chars price reflects these real-time performance capabilities.
Is Cartesia Sonic the fastest TTS API?
Yes — Cartesia Sonic has the lowest latency of any TTS API at approximately 65ms time-to-first-audio (TTFA). Deepgram Aura-2 is also very fast at ~120ms. Traditional cloud providers like Azure, Google, and Amazon typically range from 150–250ms.
How does Cartesia compare to ElevenLabs?
Cartesia Sonic costs $50/1M chars on pay-as-you-go vs. ElevenLabs at $0.182–$0.20/1K chars (subscription-based). Cartesia is cheaper per character at scale and has much lower latency (65ms vs. 180ms), but ElevenLabs scores higher on quality (4.5/5 vs. 4.0/5) and has more voice variety.