Compare Lab
Cartesia vs Hume AI
Cartesia is positioned as speech models for teams assembling a voice stack, with a separate managed-agent product. Hume AI is positioned as hume TTS and EVI API sunset: announced access end November 13, 2026 at 05:01 UTC. Retained
Cartesia is positioned as speech models for teams assembling a voice stack, with a separate managed-agent product. Hume AI is positioned as hume TTS and EVI API sunset: announced access end November 13, 2026 at 05:01 UTC. Retained for historical comparison and migration research. Start by deciding who owns the missing layers, then inspect the documented differences below.
13 jointly documented catalog fields. This measures evidence coverage, not equivalent quality or an overall winner.
TTS + EVI API sunset · Announced end: 13 Nov 2026, 05:01 UTC. Read notice & sources →
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 | Hume AI |
|---|---|---|
| Billing modelDifferent records | component-stack | monthly-bundle |
| Billing unitDifferent records | TTS/STT credits; Managed Agents conversation minutes | Monthly subscription + EVI minutes / TTS characters / supplemental LLM usage |
| Bring your telephonyDifferent records | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your modelDifferent records | Yes | Yes |
| Warm transferShared state | Unknown | Unknown |
| HIPAA pathShared state | Yes | Yes |
Your requirements & next steps
Your requirements
Ready-made / AI receptionist · Strict evidence mode
No personal requirements yet. Add criteria in Advanced Filter to prioritize this comparison.
TTS/STT credit subscriptions and Managed Agents minute charges remain separate.
Subscription includes TTS/EVI/Voice allowances; overage and managed external LLM usage add cost.
Speech model credits and selected LLM/evaluation charges have separate scope.
Free plan exists; paid entry is not a complete phone-call bill.
Product-specific units preserved.
Incompatible product allowances are not collapsed into one all-in minute price.
Plan allowances include separate agent prepayment; do not double-count as universal included voice minutes.
First-month Creator promotion is separate from regular price; Enterprise custom.
Separate credit and agent budgets; no arbitrary cross-product minute conversion.
Plan-scoped EVI allowance; does not include every third-party carrier/model charge.
Free allowances and product rates are available; old changelog, bandwidth trial and speech volume controls do not establish these current billing terms.
TTS characters, EVI minutes and supplemental model usage remain separate.
LLM promotion ends October 1, 2026; quoted model/usage mix 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.
Product mix, LLM promotion expiry, carrier routing and other metered components prevent a universal all-in 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.
Hume AI
VoiceAgent.best recommends evaluating migration options rather than starting a new long-term TTS or EVI API deployment. This is our editorial judgment; replacement compatibility has not been established.
$3/month Starter; included EVI minutes and overage depend on plan · V3.3 evidence review · Starter subscription reference; EVI 40 minutes; external LLM/telephony extra
Excluded / confirm: Complete cost cannot be established from this reference. Selected external LLM, carrier, token/character consumption and overages prevent a complete cost ceiling from monthly minutes alone. · Hume-managed external LLM usage extra; BYO key/custom model paid outside Hume; Twilio separate
Subscription includes TTS/EVI/Voice allowances; overage and managed external LLM usage add cost.
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, Silence handling, Webhooks, Published included concurrency at least, Official product documentation, Checked within 30 days 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.
Review Hume API sunset & migration guidance →