Cartesia vs telli — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
Cartesia starts at $5/mo. telli uses custom pricing — request a quote to compare.
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.
- telli (Per Usage) — telli 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.
AI voice call operations platform built for outbound sales agents. Serves solar, HVAC, healthcare, real estate, insurance, and financial services with human-like voice AI and auto-dialers. Three tiers (Starter, Scale, Enterprise) with usage-based per-minute billing — quote-only. Raised $3.6M seed 2025. Berlin-founded.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | Cartesia monthly | Cartesia annual | telli monthly | telli 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.
telli is worth it if… outbound sales teams in appointment-heavy verticals (solar, home services, insurance) who want AI voice agents that dial and qualify at scale without hiring more SDRs. Pricing is opaque and quote-driven — expect setup support that varies by tier and per-minute rates that need negotiation.
Bottom line: Choose based on how you want to pay — Cartesia is hybrid, telli is per usage.
Choose Cartesia over telli 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 telli if…
- You want an outbound calling agent that ships with the playbook already built.
- You're a revenue team, not an engineering team, and want speed over stack control.
- You're calling leads in solar, HVAC, insurance, or other high-intent home-services verticals.
At a glance
| Cartesia | telli | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Entry price | $5/mo | Custom |
| 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.