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Cartesia

A voice AI company providing a low-latency text-to-speech API for building real-time voice agents and applications.

AI voice and text to speech

Updated

Visit Cartesia (the official site)

Main use cases

  1. Build a voice agent
  2. Add narration to an app
  3. Clone a specific voice

Ranked in the order the vendor's pages put them.

Alternatives to Cartesia

  1. Google Cloud Text-to-SpeechSubstitute
    shares 2 of 3shares 2 of 3: Build a voice agent, Add narration to an app

    Google Cloud Text-to-Speech states pre-built voice library, emotion or style control, SSML or markup control and 2 more; Cartesia's pages do not say. Cartesia states speech to text and self-hosted or on-device deployment; Google Cloud Text-to-Speech's pages do not say. Cartesia lists self-hosted; Google Cloud Text-to-Speech's pages do not say.

  2. DeepgramSubstitute
    shares 2 of 3shares 2 of 3: Build a voice agent, Add narration to an app

    Cartesia states voice cloning, multilingual voices and phone or telephony integration; Deepgram's pages do not say. Deepgram states official SDK; Cartesia's pages do not say. Deepgram lists cli; Cartesia's pages do not say.

  3. ElevenLabsSubstitute
    shares 1 of 3shares 1 of 3: Build a voice agent

    ElevenLabs states pre-built voice library, emotion or style control, video dubbing and 2 more; Cartesia's pages do not say. ElevenLabs lists web; Cartesia's pages do not say.

  4. Amazon PollyPartial overlap
    shares 1 of 3shares 1 of 3: Add narration to an app

    Cartesia states self-hosted or on-device deployment; Amazon Polly states no self-hosted or on-device deployment. Amazon Polly states pre-built voice library, emotion or style control, SSML or markup control and 2 more; Cartesia's pages do not say. Cartesia states voice cloning and speech to text; Amazon Polly's pages do not say.

Cartesia next to its top 4 alternatives

Each cell is what the vendor's own pages state. Unknown means the pages do not say, which is not the same as no. Where a no rests on a figure, the cell shows the figure.

FeatureCartesiaGoogle Cloud Text-to-SpeechDeepgramElevenLabsAmazon Polly
Text-to-speech APIYes1Yes8Yes10Yes12Yes14
Voice cloningYes3Yes8UnknownYes13Unknown
Pre-built voice libraryUnknownYes8UnknownYes13Yes15
Multilingual voicesYes3Yes8UnknownYes13Yes15
Emotion or style controlUnknownYes8UnknownYes13Yes14
Real-time streaming outputYes3Yes8Yes10Yes13Yes14
Speech to textYes3UnknownYes10Yes13Unknown
Video dubbingUnknownUnknownUnknownYes12Unknown
SSML or markup controlUnknownYes8UnknownUnknownYes14
Long-form generationUnknownYes8UnknownYes12Yes14
Clear commercial usage rightsUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknown
Voice consent verificationUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknown
Background music or sound mixingUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknown
Webhook or async job supportUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknown
Official SDKUnknownYes9Yes11Yes13Yes14
Phone or telephony integrationYes3Yes8UnknownYes12Yes15
Self-hosted or on-device deploymentYes1UnknownYes10Yes13No15
Consumer reading appUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknown

Feature list with quotes

  • Text-to-speech API: Yes1

    One API for speech generation, transcription, and production voice agents - fast enough for live conversation

  • Voice cloning: Yes3

    Clone a voice from a 10-second clip into 40+ languages and accents

  • Multilingual voices: Yes3

    Clone a voice from a 10-second clip into 40+ languages and accents

  • Real-time streaming output: Yes3

    Stream ultra-realistic speech with Sonic 3.5 at sub-90ms latency

  • Speech to text: Yes3

    Transcribe in real time with Ink 2, with turn detection built in

  • Phone or telephony integration: Yes3

    then handles turn-taking, tools, and telephony for you

  • Self-hosted or on-device deployment: Yes1

    The same models and agents across cloud, on-premise, and on-device

Not stated on the vendor's pages: Pre-built voice library, Emotion or style control, Video dubbing, SSML or markup control, Long-form generation, Clear commercial usage rights, Voice consent verification, Background music or sound mixing, Webhook or async job support, Official SDK, Consumer reading app.

Sources

  1. https://www.cartesia.ai/, checked 20 Sep 2026
  2. https://www.cartesia.ai/pricing, checked 20 Sep 2026
  3. https://docs.cartesia.ai/get-started/overview, checked 20 Sep 2026
  4. https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/cartesia.ai, checked 2 Oct 2026
  5. https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=%22cartesia.ai%22&restrictSearchableAttributes=url&tags=story&hitsPerPage=1000, checked 2 Oct 2026
  6. https://status.cartesia.ai/, checked 2 Oct 2026
  7. https://www.cartesia.ai/.well-known/security.txt, checked 2 Oct 2026
  8. https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech, checked 20 Sep 2026
  9. https://docs.cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/docs, checked 20 Sep 2026
  10. https://deepgram.com/, checked 20 Sep 2026
  11. https://developers.deepgram.com/home, checked 20 Sep 2026
  12. https://elevenlabs.io/, checked 20 Sep 2026
  13. https://elevenlabs.io/docs/overview/intro, checked 20 Sep 2026
  14. https://aws.amazon.com/polly/features/?nc=sn&loc=3, checked 20 Sep 2026
  15. https://aws.amazon.com/polly/, checked 20 Sep 2026

Updated