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Cartesia vs Otter.ai

Features, pricing, ratings, and pros and cons, side by side.

Cartesia logo

Cartesia

Real-time speech AI for developers: fast text-to-speech, transcription and voice agents

Freemium
Visit websiteView details

Verdict

Cartesia and Otter.ai are both Audio & Speech AI tools. Both have a free plan or trial. Only Otter.ai is available on Windows, macOS and iOS.

Best overall

Otter.ai

  • Sales teams
  • Students and educators
  • Journalists and media teams
  • Recruiters

Choose Cartesia if

  • You want a tool built for Low-latency voice agents, real-time text-to-speech and streaming transcription inside applications.
  • Published time to first audio of about 90 ms for Sonic 3.6, suited to live conversation.
  • Free tier with 20K credits per month and a $5 Pro plan with commercial use and instant cloning.

Choose Otter.ai if

  • You want a tool built for meeting transcription and summaries.
  • Permanent free plan with 300 monthly transcription minutes.
  • Works through a notetaker bot or bot-free via desktop apps and Chrome extension.
Best for beginners
Cartesia
Best for business
Cartesia

Features

18 features compared.

  • Sonic Text-to-Speech
    Cartesia
    Available
    Otter.ai
    Not available
  • Ink Speech-to-Text
    Cartesia
    Available
    Otter.ai
    Not available
  • Managed Agents
    Cartesia
    Available
    Otter.ai
    Not available
  • Voice Cloning
    Cartesia
    Available
    Otter.ai
    Not available
  • Pronunciation Dictionaries
    Cartesia
    Available
    Otter.ai
    Not available
  • Regional API Routing
    Cartesia
    Available
    Otter.ai
    Not available
  • Telephony Support
    Cartesia
    Available
    Otter.ai
    Not available
  • Python and JavaScript SDKs
    Cartesia
    Available
    Otter.ai
    Not available
  • Usage and Access Controls
    Cartesia
    Available
    Otter.ai
    Not available
  • Live transcription
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Otter.ai
    Available
  • Notetaker bot
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Otter.ai
    Available
  • Bot-free recording
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Otter.ai
    Available
  • AI summaries and action items
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Otter.ai
    Available
  • Otter AI Chat
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Otter.ai
    Available
  • Channels
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Otter.ai
    Available
  • File import
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Otter.ai
    Available
  • CRM sync
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Otter.ai
    Available
  • Otter MCP server
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Otter.ai
    Available

Pricing

Plans as listed by each vendor. Check their sites for current prices.

  • Pricing model
    Cartesia
    Freemium
    Otter.ai
    Freemium
  • Free plan
    Cartesia
    Yes
    Otter.ai
    Yes
  • Starting price
    Cartesia
    $0
    Otter.ai
    $0
  • Plans
    Cartesia
    5 plans
    Otter.ai
    4 plans

Cartesia plans

  • Free

    $0

    Entry tier for testing text-to-speech and transcription

    • 20K credits/month
    • Text to Speech
    • Speech to Text
    • 2 concurrent TTS requests
    • 1 phone number

  • Pro

    $5/month

    Individuals building with commercial use rights

    • 100K credits/month
    • commercial use license
    • instant voice cloning
    • 3 concurrent TTS requests

  • Startup

    $49/month

    Small teams shipping voice products

    • 1.25M credits/month
    • professional voice cloning (2 slots)
    • Organizations
    • 5 concurrent TTS requests

  • Scale

    $299/month

    Higher-volume production workloads

    • 8M credits/month
    • priority support
    • high concurrency
    • 15 concurrent TTS requests
    • 4 professional voice clone slots

  • Enterprise

    Custom/custom

    Large organizations with custom requirements

    • Custom limits
    • DPAs and BAAs
    • SSO
    • shared Slack channel
    • security questionnaire support

Otter.ai plans

  • Basic

    $0

    For those who want to give it a try

    • 300 monthly transcription minutes
    • 30 minutes per conversation
    • 3 lifetime file imports
    • Live transcription
    • AI Chat
    • iOS and Android apps

  • Pro

    Most popular

    $16.99/user/mo

    For individuals and small teams

    • 1,200 monthly transcription minutes
    • 90 minutes per meeting
    • 10 monthly file imports
    • Advanced search and export
    • Custom vocabulary
    • Salesforce and HubSpot and Zapier integrations

  • Business

    $30/user/mo

    For medium-sized teams

    • Unlimited meetings and recordings
    • 4 hours per meeting
    • Unlimited file imports
    • 3 concurrent meetings
    • Custom AI workflows
    • Admin activity logs and usage analytics
    • Prioritized support

  • Enterprise

    Custom/custom

    For large teams and companies

    • Everything in Business
    • SSO and SCIM and Domain Capture
    • Otter API and Webhooks
    • Custom CRM and dialer integrations
    • HIPAA compliance add-on
    • Customer Success Program

Our ratings

Scored out of 10 by the Finder Atlas editorial team. Last reviewed October 2026.

Cartesia
8.3overall
Otter.ai
8.4overall

Cartesia leads in 1 category and Otter.ai in 1.

  • Ease of Use

    Otter.ai leads by 1.2
    Cartesia
    7.8
    Otter.ai
    9.0

  • Feature Depth

    Cartesia
    8.5
    Otter.ai
    Not rated

  • Value for Money

    Cartesia leads by 0.4
    Cartesia
    8.2
    Otter.ai
    7.8

  • Performance & Speed

    Cartesia
    9.0
    Otter.ai
    Not rated

  • Documentation & Support

    Cartesia
    8.2
    Otter.ai
    Not rated

  • Transcription Accuracy

    Cartesia
    Not rated
    Otter.ai
    8.4

  • Meeting Summaries & Action Items

    Cartesia
    Not rated
    Otter.ai
    8.5

  • Integrations

    Cartesia
    Not rated
    Otter.ai
    8.3

Scores weigh documented features, plan value, platform coverage, integrations and user feedback. A missing score means we have not rated that area yet.

Pros and cons

Cartesia

Pros

  • Published time to first audio of about 90 ms for Sonic 3.6, suited to live conversation.
  • Free tier with 20K credits per month and a $5 Pro plan with commercial use and instant cloning.
  • One platform covers text-to-speech, speech-to-text and managed voice agents.
  • Regional endpoints in the US, EU and APAC, with on-premise and on-device options.
  • Frequent releases: the changelog shows monthly model, voice and API updates in 2026.
  • Ranked first on Artificial Analysis speech leaderboards according to the company.

Cons

  • The free tier has no instant voice cloning, only 2 concurrent TTS requests and no commercial license.
  • Credit-based billing with overage up to $65 per 1M credits can be hard to forecast as usage grows.
  • Independent reviews note a smaller preset voice library than some narrative-focused competitors.
  • Developer-oriented; there is no consumer app and no released iOS or Android app.

Otter.ai

Pros

  • Permanent free plan with 300 monthly transcription minutes
  • Works through a notetaker bot or bot-free via desktop apps and Chrome extension
  • Summaries, action items and AI Chat across past meetings
  • Apps for web, iOS, Android, Mac and Windows, rated 4.8 on the App Store from 86K ratings
  • Integrations with Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Slack and CRMs such as Salesforce and HubSpot

Cons

  • Free plan caps conversations at 30 minutes and file imports at 3 lifetime
  • Pro caps monthly transcription at 1,200 minutes and meetings at 90 minutes
  • Business costs $30 per user per month on monthly billing
  • API access, SSO and HIPAA add-on require the Enterprise plan
  • Transcription is limited to six listed languages

Platforms

  • Web
    Cartesia
    Supported
    Otter.ai
    Supported
  • Windows
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Otter.ai
    Supported
  • macOS
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Otter.ai
    Supported
  • iOS
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Otter.ai
    Supported
  • Android
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Otter.ai
    Supported
  • API
    Cartesia
    Supported
    Otter.ai
    Supported
  • Browser Extension
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Otter.ai
    Not supported
  • Chrome Extension
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Otter.ai
    Supported

Integrations

Cartesia

3 integrations
  • Twilio
  • Anthropic
  • OpenAI

Otter.ai

13 integrations
  • Zoom
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Google Meet
  • Google Calendar
  • Slack
  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot
  • Zapier
  • Dropbox
  • Google Drive
  • Asana
  • ClickUp
  • Claude

Company

  • Company
    Cartesia
    Cartesia
    Otter.ai
    Otter.ai, Inc.
  • Founded
    Cartesia
    2023
    Otter.ai
    2016
  • Headquarters
    Cartesia
    San Francisco, CA
    Otter.ai
    Mountain View, CA
  • Listing
    Cartesia
    Claimed
    Otter.ai
    Claimed

Frequently asked questions

Is Cartesia better than Otter.ai?

It depends on your workflow. Cartesia is built for Low-latency voice agents, real-time text-to-speech and streaming transcription inside applications. Otter.ai is built for meeting transcription and summaries.

What are the key feature differences between Cartesia and Otter.ai?

Cartesia: Real-time speech AI for developers: fast text-to-speech, transcription and voice agents. Otter.ai: Record, transcribe and summarize meetings, with action items and searchable AI chat.

Does Cartesia or Otter.ai have a free plan?

Yes, both do. Cartesia is freemium and Otter.ai is freemium, and each has a free plan or trial.

Which is cheaper, Cartesia or Otter.ai?

Both can be used for free. Paid plans differ in limits and features, so compare the tiers in the pricing table above.