Cartesia vs Deepgram: voice AI pricing compared
Updated 2026-11-10 · listed A to Z, not ranked
Cartesia sells real-time voice AI (text-to-speech, speech-to-text and managed voice agents). Plans bundle monthly credits plus prepaid dollars for voice agents; overages and telephony are billed on top.
Deepgram sells speech APIs billed by usage: speech-to-text per minute of audio (billed per second), text-to-speech per 1,000 characters, and its Voice Agent per minute of connection time. A prepaid annual Growth plan lowers the rates.
Listed A to Z, from cartesia.ai and deepgram.com. Every figure below is quoted from those pages.
- Main price table
- Free, Pro, Startup, Scale, Enterprise
- Free option
- Free: $0
- Published prices
- Free $0 (20K credits), Pro $5, Startup $49, Scale $299; voice agents $0.03/min; telephony $0.014/min.
- Main price table
- Flux STT English, Flux STT Multilingual, Nova-3 Monolingual, Nova-3 Multilingual
- Free option
- None in the published plan table
- Published prices
- Speech-to-text from $0.0077 per minute, Aura text-to-speech per 1,000 characters, Voice Agent per minute, and Growth plan rates.
How we checked: Prices quoted from each official pricing page: Cartesia checked Nov 10, 2026, Deepgram checked Nov 10, 2026. Taxes, usage overages and promotions can change what you pay; confirm with each provider before you buy.
How they compare
- Main price table. Cartesia lists 5 entries (Free, Pro, Startup, Scale, Enterprise); Deepgram lists 4 (Flux STT English, Flux STT Multilingual, Nova-3 Monolingual, Nova-3 Multilingual).
- Free option. Cartesia: Free: $0. Deepgram: none in the published plan table.
- How prices are quoted. Cartesia: “Plans”. Deepgram: “Speech-to-text”.
Cartesia plans and prices
| Plan | Price / mo | Credits / mo | Prepaid agents / mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 20K | $1 |
| Pro | $5 | 100K | $5 |
| Startup | $49 | 1.25M | $49 |
| Scale | $299 | 8M | $299 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Scale’s page copy states the $299 plan includes 8M credits plus $299 for voice agents. Checked Nov 6, 2026.
| Line | Price on cartesia.ai/pricing |
|---|---|
| Call duration (agent minutes) | $0.03 per minute (page also shows a previous $0.06 rate) |
| Telephony (Cartesia-provided number) | $0.014 per minute |
| Speech-to-text | 3 credits per second of audio; about $0.39 per hour on Scale |
| Credit overages | Pro $65 / 1M credits; Startup $45 / 1M; Scale $38 / 1M |
At $0.03/min, each plan’s prepaid agent dollars buy a fixed minute pool (Free ≈ 33 min from $1, Pro ≈ 167 min from $5, and so on). Confirm current rates on the pricing page.
From cartesia.ai, checked Nov 10, 2026. Full breakdown: Cartesia pricing.
Deepgram plans and prices
| Model | Pay as you go | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Flux STT English | $0.0077 / min | $0.0065 / min |
| Flux STT Multilingual | $0.0078 / min | $0.0068 / min |
| Nova-3 Monolingual | $0.0077 / min | $0.0065 / min |
| Nova-3 Multilingual | $0.0092 / min | $0.0078 / min |
Add-ons are billed on top, for example speaker diarization $0.0020 / min and redaction $0.0020 / min pay as you go; smart formatting is included.
| Product | Pay as you go | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Aura-2 TTS | $0.030 / 1k characters | $0.027 / 1k characters |
| Aura-1 TTS | $0.0150 / 1k characters | $0.0135 / 1k characters |
| Flux TTS | $0.0450 / 1k characters | $0.0450 / 1k characters |
| Voice Agent, Standard | $0.075 / min | $0.068 / min |
| Voice Agent, Custom with your own LLM and TTS | $0.050 / min | $0.041 / min |
| Voice Agent, Advanced | $0.163 / min | $0.146 / min |
Voice Agent is one rate covering speech-to-text, a managed language model and text-to-speech; bringing your own LLM or TTS lowers it.
From deepgram.com, checked Nov 10, 2026. Full breakdown: Deepgram pricing.
FAQ
How much does Cartesia cost?
Free $0 (20K credits), Pro $5, Startup $49, Scale $299; voice agents $0.03/min; telephony $0.014/min. (checked Nov 10, 2026).
How much does Deepgram cost?
Speech-to-text from $0.0077 per minute, Aura text-to-speech per 1,000 characters, Voice Agent per minute, and Growth plan rates. (checked Nov 10, 2026).
Do Cartesia and Deepgram have a free option?
Cartesia: Free: $0. Deepgram: none in the published plan table.
Which is better, Cartesia or Deepgram?
We do not pick a winner. The two price and package their products differently; the tables above quote each official pricing page so you can match a plan to your own usage.
Where do these prices come from?
Each vendor's own pricing page: cartesia.ai (checked Nov 10, 2026) and deepgram.com (checked Nov 10, 2026). Prices change; confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.
Sources (official pages, read 2026-11-10)
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