Pick Cartesia if
product teams shipping a live voice agent or TTS API who will stay on Sonic / Ink.
Read the Cartesia pageCartesia vs Smallest.ai
Our take
Pick Cartesia if you're on a product team shipping a live voice agent or TTS API who will stay on Sonic / Ink. Pick Smallest.ai if you're voice-stack builders who will spend $10 credits, then $0.09–$0.21 / min. Skip Cartesia if you're narrators who only need a one-off MP3 of a script (WellSaid). Skip Smallest.ai if you're a creator who want a $6 one-time MP3 pack (Narakeet).
Best for
Cartesia Voice that has to answer live
Smallest.ai Low-latency speech APIs with a $10 credit and a printed per-minute band
Free plan
Cartesia $0 · 20K credits / month. $1 prepaid agents / month. TTS + STT. No commercial-use license on this card
Smallest.ai No free plan
Lowest paid
Cartesia Pro $5/mo
Smallest.ai
Next step up
Cartesia Startup $49/mo
Smallest.ai
Coding agent
Cartesia Managed voice agents
Smallest.ai Voice Agents
Runs where
Cartesia Hosted
Smallest.ai Hosted
Watch out
Cartesia Free is not a commercial license
Smallest.ai $0.09–$0.21 is a band, not one SKU
Last checked
Cartesia 2026-10-22 · cartesia.ai/pricing
Smallest.ai 2026-10-28 · smallest.ai/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Smallest.ai if
voice-stack builders who will spend $10 credits, then $0.09–$0.21 / min.
Read the Smallest.ai page