Cartesia vs Regal AI — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
Cartesia starts at $5/mo. Regal AI starts at Free. Regal AI is $5/mo cheaper on the entry tier than Cartesia.
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.
- Regal AI (Per Usage) — Regal AI bills purely on usage — Custom. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
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.
Enterprise-grade AI voice agent platform for contact centers. ~$0.20/min all-in based on aggregate data across millions of calls, plus platform and implementation costs. Enterprise-only sales motion — no self-serve tier. Third-party "$29/mo" claims are noise; ignore.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | Cartesia monthly | Cartesia annual | Regal AI monthly | Regal AI annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Free / — | Free | Free | — | — |
| Entry paid | Pro / — | $5 | $4 | — | — |
| Mid tier | Startup / — | $49 | $39 | — | — |
| Pro / power | Scale / — | $239 | $239 | — | — |
| Enterprise | Enterprise / — | 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.
Regal AI is worth it if… contact-center teams processing high call volumes (hundreds of thousands to millions of calls/year) that need enterprise integrations, workforce management fit, and negotiated volume rates. Not the fit if transparent self-serve pricing is a must-have or if call volume is under 100K/year — Vapi or Retell AI ship faster and cost less at that scale.
Bottom line: Choose based on how you want to pay — Cartesia is hybrid, Regal AI is per usage.
Choose Cartesia over Regal AI 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 Regal AI if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, a free entry tier).
- You match the profile Regal AI is built for: contact-center teams processing high call volumes (hundreds of thousands to millions of calls/year) that need enterprise integrations, workforce management fit, and negotiated volume rates.
- You're building for contact centers.
At a glance
| Cartesia | Regal AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Entry price | $5/mo | Free |
| Enterprise available | Yes | — |
| Pricing model | Hybrid | Per Usage |
| Last verified | September 20, 2026 | September 10, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 20, 2026. Tracked daily.