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Cartesia vs Deepgram
Cartesia is positioned as speech models for teams assembling a voice stack, with a separate managed-agent product. Deepgram is positioned as speech recognition models with separate speech generation and managed voice-agent APIs. S
Cartesia is positioned as speech models for teams assembling a voice stack, with a separate managed-agent product. Deepgram is positioned as speech recognition models with separate speech generation and managed voice-agent APIs. Start by deciding who owns the missing layers, then inspect the documented differences below.
Voice Engines and STT are different product categories. An underlying engine or framework is not a complete substitute for a deployed agent workflow.
11 jointly documented catalog fields. This measures evidence coverage, not equivalent quality or an overall winner.
Test opening hours, booking conflicts and an unanswered transfer.
Start where the records differ.
Values and evidence states are compared together. Shared facts follow the differences; Unknown never means No.
| Decision point | Cartesia | Deepgram |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unitDifferent records | TTS/STT credits; Managed Agents conversation minutes | STT audio minute; TTS thousand characters; agent WebSocket connection minute |
| Bring your modelDifferent records | Yes | Yes |
| WebhooksDifferent records | YesAPI / webhook | YesUnknown |
| Billing modelShared state | component-stack | component-stack |
| Bring your telephonyShared state | Yes | Yes |
| Warm transferShared state | Unknown | Unknown |
Your requirements & next steps
Your requirements
Ready-made / AI receptionist · Strict evidence mode
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TTS/STT credit subscriptions and Managed Agents minute charges remain separate.
STT audio minutes, TTS characters and Voice Agent connection minutes are distinct.
Speech model credits and selected LLM/evaluation charges have separate scope.
External provider and telephony bills excluded where applicable. Do not infer a complete monthly ceiling.
Product-specific units preserved.
Billable open connection time is not just spoken audio.
Plan allowances include separate agent prepayment; do not double-count as universal included voice minutes.
Growth is annual prepaid commitment, not invented monthly subscription.
Separate credit and agent budgets; no arbitrary cross-product minute conversion.
No fixed included agent minutes inferred from credit dollars.
Free allowances and product rates are available; old changelog, bandwidth trial and speech volume controls do not establish these current billing terms.
Initial credits, Growth commitments and tier rates are documented; no recurring free plan or universal rounding/contract terms inferred.
LLM promotion ends October 1, 2026; quoted model/usage mix determines bill.
Agent pricing covers selected tier and components; full workload determines bill.
Not yet researched against this buyer-critical field standard.
Not yet researched against this buyer-critical field standard.
Product mix, LLM promotion expiry, carrier routing and other metered components prevent a universal all-in ceiling.
Carrier, hosting, model tier and BYO usage prevent a universal full monthly or per-minute ceiling.
Product mix, LLM promotion expiry, carrier routing and other metered components prevent a universal all-in ceiling.
Carrier, hosting, model tier and BYO usage prevent a universal full monthly or per-minute ceiling.
Anyone with this link can view the encoded decision criteria.
Vendor documentation establishes a claim. Public model benchmarks are separate context, not measurements of these platforms.
Open saved comparison ↗What to verify together.
Cartesia
A speech credit plan is not a complete phone-call bill.
Managed Agents $0.06/min; Cartesia-provided-number telephony $0.014/min · V3.3 evidence review · Managed Agents base rate; carrier/model charges and prepaid plan balances separate
Excluded / confirm: Complete cost cannot be established from this reference. Product mix, LLM promotion expiry, carrier routing and other metered components prevent a universal all-in ceiling. · LLM tokens after promotional coverage; telephony and evaluation usage
TTS/STT credit subscriptions and Managed Agents minute charges remain separate.
Deepgram
The current Nova-3 streaming rate is promotional.
Voice Agent Standard $0.075/min; BYO TTS $0.065/min; BYO LLM + TTS $0.050/min; Advanced $0.163/min (PAYG) · V3.3 evidence review · Voice Agent Standard PAYG WebSocket connection minutes; other tiers/BYO variants differ
Excluded / confirm: Complete cost cannot be established from this reference. Carrier, hosting, model tier and BYO usage prevent a universal full monthly or per-minute ceiling. · BYO model/TTS charges, carrier and customer transport hosting
STT audio minutes, TTS characters and Voice Agent connection minutes are distinct.
The evidence overlap.
Both records have documented values for Product type, Technical setup, Pricing model, Published numeric pricing, Cartesia TTS, Realtime / streaming audio, Function / tool calling, Published included concurrency at least, Official product documentation, Checked within 30 days, Retained price snapshot. Matching availability does not measure behavior under your call conditions.
Run the same booking, tool failure and unsuccessful human-transfer cases. Record both outcomes and billable units before signing a deployment agreement.
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