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Cartesia vs Udio

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
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Verdict

Cartesia and Udio are both Audio & Speech AI tools. Cartesia scores higher in FinderAtlas's editorial review (8.3 vs 6.9 out of 10), led by value for money. Both have a free plan or trial. Only Cartesia offers an API. Only Udio is available on iOS.

Best overall

Cartesia

  • Developers
  • Voice AI Engineers
  • Contact Centre Teams
  • Enterprises

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 Udio if

  • You want a tool built for generating song drafts with vocals.
  • Generates songs with vocals from a prompt and lyrics.
  • Extend, remix and inpainting tools for editing tracks.
Best for beginners
Udio
Best for business
Cartesia

Features

17 features compared.

  • Sonic Text-to-Speech
    Cartesia
    Available
    Udio
    Not available
  • Ink Speech-to-Text
    Cartesia
    Available
    Udio
    Not available
  • Managed Agents
    Cartesia
    Available
    Udio
    Not available
  • Voice Cloning
    Cartesia
    Available
    Udio
    Not available
  • Pronunciation Dictionaries
    Cartesia
    Available
    Udio
    Not available
  • Regional API Routing
    Cartesia
    Available
    Udio
    Not available
  • Telephony Support
    Cartesia
    Available
    Udio
    Not available
  • Python and JavaScript SDKs
    Cartesia
    Available
    Udio
    Not available
  • Usage and Access Controls
    Cartesia
    Available
    Udio
    Not available
  • Text-to-song generation
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Udio
    Available
  • Extend and Remix
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Udio
    Available
  • Audio inpainting
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Udio
    Available
  • Audio-guided generation
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Udio
    Available
  • Voices
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Udio
    Available
  • Sessions
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Udio
    Available
  • Library and sharing
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Udio
    Available
  • iOS app
    Cartesia
    Not available
    Udio
    Available

Pricing

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

  • Pricing model
    Cartesia
    Freemium
    Udio
    Freemium
  • Free plan
    Cartesia
    Yes
    Udio
    Yes
  • Starting price
    Cartesia
    $0
    Udio
    $0
  • Plans
    Cartesia
    5 plans
    Udio
    3 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

Udio plans

  • Free

    $0

    10 daily credits plus a 100-credit monthly limit

    • 10 daily credits
    • 100 monthly credits
    • Three 2-minute songs per day

  • Standard

    Most popular

    $10/month

    Up to 2,400 credits per month

    • 2,400 monthly credit limit
    • Unlimited 2-minute song creations within credits
    • Up to 6 songs at once
    • Voice Control
    • Audio-guided generation

  • Pro

    $30/month

    Up to 6,000 credits per month

    • 6,000 monthly credit limit
    • Up to 10 songs at once
    • Everything in Standard
    • Priority generation queue

Our ratings

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

Cartesia
8.3overall
Udio
6.9overall

Cartesia leads in 1 category and Udio in 0.

  • Ease of Use

    Cartesia
    7.8
    Udio
    Not rated

  • Feature Depth

    Cartesia
    8.5
    Udio
    Not rated

  • Value for Money

    Cartesia leads by 1.7
    Cartesia
    8.2
    Udio
    6.5

  • Performance & Speed

    Cartesia
    9.0
    Udio
    Not rated

  • Documentation & Support

    Cartesia
    8.2
    Udio
    Not rated

  • Audio Quality

    Cartesia
    Not rated
    Udio
    8.5

  • Vocal Realism

    Cartesia
    Not rated
    Udio
    8.5

  • Editing Control

    Cartesia
    Not rated
    Udio
    8.0

  • Export & Ownership

    Cartesia
    Not rated
    Udio
    3.0

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.

Udio

Pros

  • Generates songs with vocals from a prompt and lyrics
  • Extend, remix and inpainting tools for editing tracks
  • Free plan with daily and monthly credits
  • Official iOS app alongside the web app
  • Paid credit limits were doubled or raised after the UMG deal

Cons

  • Downloads of audio, video and stems are disabled on all plans
  • Free plan is capped at three 2-minute songs per day
  • No public API and no Android app
  • Licensed platform and new models are announced but have no published launch date

Platforms

  • Web
    Cartesia
    Supported
    Udio
    Supported
  • Windows
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Udio
    Not supported
  • macOS
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Udio
    Not supported
  • iOS
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Udio
    Supported
  • Android
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Udio
    Not supported
  • API
    Cartesia
    Supported
    Udio
    Not supported
  • Browser Extension
    Cartesia
    Not supported
    Udio
    Not supported

Integrations

Cartesia

3 integrations
  • Twilio
  • Anthropic
  • OpenAI

Udio

No integrations listed.

Company

  • Company
    Cartesia
    Cartesia
    Udio
    Udio (Uncharted Labs)
  • Founded
    Cartesia
    2023
    Udio
    2023
  • Headquarters
    Cartesia
    San Francisco, CA
    Udio
    New York, NY
  • Listing
    Cartesia
    Claimed
    Udio
    Claimed

Frequently asked questions

Is Cartesia better than Udio?

It depends on your workflow. Cartesia is built for Low-latency voice agents, real-time text-to-speech and streaming transcription inside applications. Udio is built for generating song drafts with vocals.

What are the key feature differences between Cartesia and Udio?

Cartesia: Real-time speech AI for developers: fast text-to-speech, transcription and voice agents. Udio: Generate songs with vocals from text prompts and lyrics, with in-browser editing.

Does Cartesia or Udio have a free plan?

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

Which is cheaper, Cartesia or Udio?

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