Cartesia vs LiveKit — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
Cartesia starts at $5/mo. LiveKit starts at $50/mo. Cartesia is $45/mo cheaper on the entry tier than LiveKit.
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- Cartesia (Hybrid) — Cartesia is hybrid: a fixed subscription from $5/mo plus metered usage on top. Your real bill moves with volume, not seat count.
- LiveKit (Hybrid) — LiveKit is hybrid: a fixed subscription from $50/mo plus metered usage on top. Your real bill moves with volume, not seat count.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
Voice AI research lab building state-of-the-art speech synthesis models (Sonic) with ultra-low latency (<100ms). Usage-based pricing: pay-per-character generation, entry rate around $0.017/1K characters. Enterprise custom for volume. Popular with voice agent developers who need faster-than-ElevenLabs synthesis for real-time conversations.
Open-source real-time audio/video infrastructure. LiveKit powers WebRTC for voice, video, and AI agent applications. Cloud pricing: Free tier (100 max concurrent participants, 10K minutes/mo), Build $50/mo (500 participants, 150K minutes), Ship $500/mo (3K participants, 1.5M minutes), Enterprise custom. Self-hosted is fully free (Apache 2.0). LiveKit Agents framework powers voice AI at OpenAI (ChatGPT Advanced Voice), Character.ai, and many voice startups.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | Cartesia monthly | Cartesia annual | LiveKit monthly | LiveKit annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Free / Self-hosted | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Entry paid | Pro / Ship | $5 | $4 | $50 | $50 |
| Mid tier | Startup / — | $49 | $39 | — | — |
| Pro / power | Scale | $239 | $239 | $500 | $500 |
| Enterprise | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
Cartesia is worth it if… developers building real-time voice agents where sub-100ms TTS latency matters (voice interruption handling, conversational feel). Sonic model is competitive with ElevenLabs on quality and faster on latency.
LiveKit is worth it if… developers building real-time voice or video features into their products — voice AI agents, video conferencing, live streams. 0).
Bottom line: Similar positioning, closer to a preference call than a strategic one.
Choose Cartesia over LiveKit if…
Choose Cartesia if…
- You're fine with a base subscription plus metered usage on top (from $5/mo).
- You match the profile Cartesia is built for: developers building real-time voice agents where sub-100ms TTS latency matters (voice interruption handling, conversational feel).
- You need a general-purpose voice agents & speech/audio option rather than a vertical-specific one.
Choose LiveKit if…
- You're fine with a base subscription plus metered usage on top (from $50/mo).
- You match the profile LiveKit is built for: developers building real-time voice or video features into their products — voice AI agents, video conferencing, live streams.
- You need a general-purpose voice agents & speech/audio option rather than a vertical-specific one.
At a glance
| Cartesia | LiveKit | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Entry price | $5/mo | $50/mo |
| Enterprise available | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Hybrid | Hybrid |
| Last verified | September 20, 2026 | September 20, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 20, 2026. Tracked daily.