Cartesia vs Vapi: tool 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.
Vapi is a platform for building voice AI agents. A call’s cost is Vapi’s own hosting fee plus the providers you pick for transcription, the language model and the voice, which Vapi passes through at cost, plus telephony if you use an outside carrier.
Listed A to Z, from cartesia.ai and vapi.ai. 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
- Vapi hosting, Transcriber, model, voice, Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC, Twilio inbound / outbound (charged by the carrier), Vonage / Telnyx (charged by the carrier)
- Free option
- Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC: Free
- Published prices
- $0.05 per minute Vapi hosting, provider costs passed through at cost, Core $29 and Pro $999 packages, concurrency and add-ons.
How we checked: Prices quoted from each official pricing page: Cartesia checked Nov 10, 2026, Vapi 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); Vapi lists 5 (Vapi hosting, Transcriber, model, voice, Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC, Twilio inbound / outbound (charged by the carrier), Vonage / Telnyx (charged by the carrier)).
- Free option. Cartesia: Free: $0. Vapi: Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC: Free.
- How prices are quoted. Cartesia: “Plans”. Vapi: “What a minute is made of”.
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.
Vapi plans and prices
| Line | Price on vapi.ai/pricing |
|---|---|
| Vapi hosting | $0.05 per minute (prepaid) |
| Transcriber, model, voice | Passed through at the provider’s cost, no markup |
| Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC | Free |
| Twilio inbound / outbound (charged by the carrier) | $0.008 / $0.014 per minute |
| Vonage / Telnyx (charged by the carrier) | $0.00814 / $0.0055 per minute |
New accounts get $5 in free credits. Vapi’s calculator shows ranges for one example setup: Deepgram transcriber $0.0095–$0.0099, OpenAI model $0.0077–$0.0452 and ElevenLabs voice $0.0146–$0.0238 per minute; its 1,000-minute example totals $82–$129 a month (Nov 3, 2026).
| Package | Price | Concurrent calls | Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usage only | Pay per minute | 4 | 2 organizations, 1 Vapi phone number, 14 days data retention |
| Core | $29 / month | 10 | 5 Vapi numbers, 30 days retention, ZDR, 2 business day email SLA |
| Pro | 10% of the Vapi hosting fee, $999 / month minimum | 30 | 10 numbers, 180 days retention, Slack support, 99% uptime SLA |
| Premier | Contact sales | Custom | 99.9% uptime SLA, SSO, dedicated SIP available |
Add-ons seen Nov 1, 2026: extra concurrent lines $10 per line per month, extra organizations $20 each per month, HIPAA $2,000 per month.
From vapi.ai, checked Nov 10, 2026. Full breakdown: Vapi 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 Vapi cost?
$0.05 per minute Vapi hosting, provider costs passed through at cost, Core $29 and Pro $999 packages, concurrency and add-ons. (checked Nov 10, 2026).
Do Cartesia and Vapi have a free option?
Cartesia: Free: $0. Vapi: Vapi telephony / SIP, WebSockets, Daily WebRTC: Free.
Which is better, Cartesia or Vapi?
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 vapi.ai (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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