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Comparison LabCompare 27 voice AI platforms and components across seven buying contexts, with sourced capabilities, current price captures and visible unknowns.Voice AI Price Index: prices, evidence and historyUnderstand the complete voice-agent cost stack: models, voice, transcription, telephony, subscriptions, capacity and add-ons.Know the cost before the first callEstimate monthly voice-agent costs, AI minutes, setup expenses and volume scenarios using your own transparent assumptions.AI voice agents for dentalAppointments, rescheduling and after-hours calls—with a person ready for clinical questions. Explore call flows, safe automation, integrations, tests and cost considerations.

Compare Lab

Cartesia vs Fish Audio

Cartesia is positioned as speech models for teams assembling a voice stack, with a separate managed-agent product. Fish Audio is positioned as a developer speech API and creative voice workspace; paid TTS usage is metered in UTF-8

The decision in context

Cartesia is positioned as speech models for teams assembling a voice stack, with a separate managed-agent product. Fish Audio is positioned as a developer speech API and creative voice workspace; paid TTS usage is metered in UTF-8 bytes. Start by deciding who owns the missing layers, then inspect the documented differences below.

14 jointly documented catalog fields. This measures evidence coverage, not equivalent quality or an overall winner.

Compare for the job

Test opening hours, booking conflicts and an unanswered transfer.

2 of 4 slots
CartesiaFish Audio
Decision signals / differences first

Start where the records differ.

5 of 8 priority fields differ

Values and evidence states are compared together. Shared facts follow the differences; Unknown never means No.

Selected platforms: buyer-critical differences before detailed dimensions
Decision pointCartesiaFish Audio
Billing unitDifferent records
TTS/STT credits; Managed Agents conversation minutesVerified Yes · 2026-09-28
TTS: million UTF-8 bytes; ASR: audio hours; Agents: conversation minutesVerified Yes · 2026-09-28
Bring your telephonyDifferent records
YesConditional · 2026-09-28
YesVerified Yes · 2026-09-28
Bring your modelDifferent records
YesConditional · 2026-09-28Line SDK versus Managed Agents distinction
YesVerified Yes · 2026-09-28
Warm transferDifferent records
UnknownUnknown after research · 2026-09-28
YesConditional · 2026-09-28Phone transport and carrier-dependent transfer
HIPAA pathDifferent records
YesVendor claim · 2026-09-28Cartesia vendor statement; specific service/contract scope must be confirmed
UnknownUnknown after research · 2026-09-28
Billing modelShared state
component-stackVerified Yes · 2026-09-28
component-stackVerified Yes · 2026-09-28
Your requirements & next steps
Carried from your shortlist

Your requirements

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Ready-made / AI receptionist · Strict evidence mode

No personal requirements yet. Add criteria in Advanced Filter to prioritize this comparison.

Unknown ≠ No
Evidence, side by sideNo benchmark scores
CartesiaVoice Engines
Fish AudioVoice Engines
Pricing model
Cartesia
component-stackVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

TTS/STT credit subscriptions and Managed Agents minute charges remain separate.

Fish Audio
component-stackVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

TTS uses UTF-8 bytes, ASR audio hours, Agents minutes plus carrier/model/add-ons. Multiple products must not share a fabricated normalized unit.

Headline / base price
Cartesia
Managed Agents $0.06/min; Cartesia-provided-number telephony $0.014/minVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

Speech model credits and selected LLM/evaluation charges have separate scope.

Fish Audio
TTS $15/M UTF-8 bytes; ASR $0.36/audio hour; Agents $0.06/min + applicable surchargesVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

Free TTS model and Agents promotional basic LLM scope are separate.

Billing unit
Cartesia
TTS/STT credits; Managed Agents conversation minutesVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

Product-specific units preserved.

Fish Audio
TTS: million UTF-8 bytes; ASR: audio hours; Agents: conversation minutesVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

Each product keeps its own billing unit.

Platform fee
Cartesia
$0 Free; $5 Pro; $49 Startup; $299 Scale; Enterprise customVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

Plan allowances include separate agent prepayment; do not double-count as universal included voice minutes.

Fish Audio
No API subscription fees or monthly minimumsVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

API access; managed numbers have separate rental and enterprise agreement may differ.

Included usage
Cartesia
Free 20K credits / $1 prepaid agent; Pro 100K / $5; Startup 1.25M / $49; Scale 8M / $299Verified Yes · 2026-09-28

Separate credit and agent budgets; no arbitrary cross-product minute conversion.

Fish Audio
One-time $5 Agents trial balance; preview calls freeVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

Real sessions consume balance including relevant carrier/model charges; no monthly included minutes.

Overage
Cartesia
UnknownUnknown after research · 2026-09-28

Free allowances and product rates are available; old changelog, bandwidth trial and speech volume controls do not establish these current billing terms.

Fish Audio
Metered charges debit prepaid API credit after trial balanceVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

Destination, transfer and selected model affect cost; no complete ceiling.

Pass-through costs
Cartesia
LLM tokens after promotional coverage; telephony and evaluation usageVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

LLM promotion ends October 1, 2026; quoted model/usage mix determines bill.

Fish Audio
Phone destination surcharge, $1.20/month managed number, cold $0.015/min or warm $0.025/min post-transfer, non-basic LLM tokens; BYO carrier separateVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

Rates have explicit event/destination scope, not a single maximum.

Free offer
Cartesia
UnknownNot researched

Not yet researched against this buyer-critical field standard.

Fish Audio
UnknownNot researched

Not yet researched against this buyer-critical field standard.

Complete cost ceiling
Cartesia
UnknownUnknown after research · 2026-09-28

Product mix, LLM promotion expiry, carrier routing and other metered components prevent a universal all-in ceiling.

Fish Audio
UnknownUnknown after research · 2026-09-28

Call mix, destination, transfer time, selected model/token usage and separate speech products prevent a universal complete monthly/minute ceiling.

What remains unresolved
Cartesia
UnknownUnknown after research · 2026-09-28

Product mix, LLM promotion expiry, carrier routing and other metered components prevent a universal all-in ceiling.

Fish Audio
UnknownUnknown after research · 2026-09-28

Call mix, destination, transfer time, selected model/token usage and separate speech products prevent a universal complete monthly/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

component-stackVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

TTS/STT credit subscriptions and Managed Agents minute charges remain separate.

Read the complete profile →

Fish Audio

UTF-8 bytes and characters are not interchangeable for multilingual scripts.

TTS $15/M UTF-8 bytes; ASR $0.36/audio hour; Agents $0.06/min + applicable surcharges · V3.3 evidence review · TTS API reference; Voice Agents beta has separate minute-based billing

Excluded / confirm: Complete cost cannot be established from this reference. Call mix, destination, transfer time, selected model/token usage and separate speech products prevent a universal complete monthly/minute ceiling. · Phone destination surcharge, $1.20/month managed number, cold $0.015/min or warm $0.025/min post-transfer, non-basic LLM tokens; BYO carrier separate

component-stackVerified Yes · 2026-09-28

TTS uses UTF-8 bytes, ASR audio hours, Agents minutes plus carrier/model/add-ons. Multiple products must not share a fabricated normalized unit.

Read the complete profile →

The evidence overlap.

Both records have documented values for Product type, Technical setup, Pricing model, Published numeric pricing, Free tier, Voice cloning, Realtime / streaming audio, Function / tool calling, Webhooks, Published included concurrency at least, Local number availability, Official product documentation and additional fields shown in Compare. 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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Editorial index gate: noindex-low-intent. Browseable utility pair. Independent demand evidence and unique editorial review have not passed the index gate.