ElevenLabs vs Cartesia: what each costs, side by side
Quick answer
At the entry level, ElevenLabs Starter is $6 a month for 30,000 credits and Cartesia Pro is $5 a month for 100K credits. Both count 1 credit per character for their main text to speech models (ElevenLabs v2 Multilingual; Cartesia Sonic). Worked out per 1 million credits, ElevenLabs plans run from $165 to $200 and Cartesia plans from about $37.38 to $50. On ElevenLabs' pay-as-you-go API, v2 Multilingual is $80 per 1 million characters. Checked November 9, 2026 (ElevenLabs) and November 9, 2026 (Cartesia).
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Key takeaways
- Credits are counted the same way on both for these models: 1 character = 1 credit.
- ElevenLabs credits are also spent on music, sound effects and dubbing; Cartesia credits are spent on text to speech and speech to text.
- Rollover: ElevenLabs paid plans roll unused credits over for up to two months; Cartesia lets you hold up to 2x your monthly credits.
- Overage: Cartesia publishes $65, $45 and $38 per 1 million credits. ElevenLabs' extra usage price is not in this comparison.
- Commercial use: ElevenLabs from Starter, Cartesia from Pro.
Plans side by side (monthly billing)
| ElevenLabs | Cartesia | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, 10,000 credits | $0, 20K credits |
| Entry | Starter $6, 30,000 credits | Pro $5, 100K credits |
| Middle | Creator $22, 121,000 credits | Startup $49, 1.25M credits |
| Upper | Pro $99, 600,000 credits | Scale $299, 8M credits |
| Above | Scale $299, 1,800,000 credits; Business $990, 6,000,000 credits | Enterprise, custom |
Rows pair plans by position in each lineup, not by matching allowances.
Price per 1 million credits, worked out
| ElevenLabs | Per 1M credits | Cartesia | Per 1M credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $200 | Pro | $50 |
| Creator | about $181.82 | Startup | $39.20 |
| Pro | $165 | Scale | about $37.38 |
| Scale | about $166.11 | ||
| Business | $165 |
Formula: plan price / credits a month x 1,000,000, assuming every credit is used on text to speech.
Pay as you go
- ElevenLabs API: $0.08 per 1,000 characters on v4, v3 and v2 Multilingual ($80 per 1M); $0.04 on Flash / Turbo ($40 per 1M).
- Cartesia: no separate pay-as-you-go text to speech table was found on its pricing page; paid plans can turn on overages instead.
Same job, both vendors
One hour of speech at Cartesia's own count of about 750 to 800 characters a minute is about 45,000 to 48,000 characters. That fits inside ElevenLabs Creator (121,000 credits, $22) and Cartesia Pro (100K credits, $5). Your script length, voice and redone takes change the real count; try it in the calculator.
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FAQ
Is Cartesia cheaper than ElevenLabs?
Per 1 million plan credits at list price, Cartesia's plans work out lower: about $37.38 to $50, against $165 to $200 on ElevenLabs. Both count 1 credit per character on the models above. What a credit buys beyond text to speech differs.
Do both vendors allow commercial use?
ElevenLabs lists a commercial license from Starter; Cartesia from Pro. Neither lists it on Free.
Which is better?
This page compares price only, as each vendor publishes it.