ElevenLabs API vs Cartesia API
Free API comparison
| ElevenLabs API | Cartesia API | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Speech, image and audio | Speech, image and audio |
| API key | Needed, free | Needed, free |
| Pricing | Free plan with 10,000 credits per month (about 10 minutes of speech), for non-commercial use only and with attribution to ElevenLabs; paid plans for commercial use. | Free plan with 20,000 credits per month (text-to-speech uses about one credit per character); a commercial use license comes with paid plans. |
| Commercial use | Not on the free plan | Not on the free plan |
| From the browser | Yes (CORS) | Yes (CORS) |
| Formats | JSON | JSON |
| Interface | REST, MCP | REST, MCP |
| Provider | elevenlabs.io | docs.cartesia.ai |
| Last checked | Working on October 31st, 2026 | Working on November 3rd, 2026 |
| MCP server | Yes, official | Yes, official |
Which one to choose
Both turn text into speech and speech into text, and both have an official MCP server. ElevenLabs' free plan has 10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of speech, for non-commercial use with attribution, and adds voice cloning, sound effects and dubbing. Cartesia's free plan has 20,000 credits a month, about one per character, and a commercial licence only comes with paid plans. For the most free speech per month, Cartesia.
Each service's own page has its full description, a code example and what visitors report: ElevenLabs API, Cartesia API.