Cartesia vs Microsoft Azure Speech pricing
STT: Cartesia from $0.0065 vs Microsoft Azure Speech from $0.003; TTS: Cartesia from $37.38 vs Microsoft Azure Speech from $15.00.
Last updated · prices checked daily
Speech-to-text: Cartesia vs Microsoft Azure Speech
Microsoft Azure Speech has the lower listed STT price: $0.003 per minute (Standard batch transcription) vs $0.0065 for Cartesia (Ink (Scale plan)), about 54% less.
| Vendor | Product / tier | $/min |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure Speech Visit site ↗ | Standard batch transcription | $0.003 |
| Cartesia Visit site ↗ | Ink (Scale plan) | $0.0065 |
| Microsoft Azure Speech Visit site ↗ | Standard real-time transcription | $0.0167 |
What it costs at volume (lowest listed rate)
| Minutes | Cartesia | Microsoft Azure Speech |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 min | $6.50 | $3.00 |
| 10,000 min | $65.00 | $30.00 |
| 100,000 min | $650.00 | $300.00 |
Text-to-speech: Cartesia vs Microsoft Azure Speech
Microsoft Azure Speech has the lower listed TTS price: $15.00 per 1M characters (Neural / Neural HD Flash) vs $37.38 for Cartesia (Sonic (Scale plan, $299 / 8M credits)), about 60% less.
| Vendor | Product / tier | $/1M chars |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure Speech Visit site ↗ | Neural / Neural HD Flash | $15.00 |
| Cartesia Visit site ↗ | Sonic (Scale plan, $299 / 8M credits) Derived: plan price / included credits; page states 1 credit = 1 character. | $37.38 |
| Cartesia Visit site ↗ | Sonic (Startup plan, $49 / 1.25M credits) Derived: plan price / included credits; page states 1 credit = 1 character. | $39.20 |
What it costs at volume (lowest listed rate)
| Characters | Cartesia | Microsoft Azure Speech |
|---|---|---|
| 1M chars | $37.38 | $15.00 |
| 10M chars | $373.75 | $150.00 |
| 100M chars | $3,737.50 | $1,500.00 |
Cost-per-call calculator
Estimate what one call really costs. Prices come from today's table; LLM and telephony presets are per-minute rates published by Retell and Vapi. Everything is editable.
Cartesia's pricing page puts one minute of speech at 750–800 characters; Rime says about 1,000. The talk share is your own guess at how much of each call the agent is speaking.
FAQ
Is Cartesia or Microsoft Azure Speech cheaper for speech-to-text?
Microsoft Azure Speech has the lower listed STT price: $0.003 per minute (Standard batch transcription) vs $0.0065 for Cartesia (Ink (Scale plan)), about 54% less. Prices checked Oct 28, 2026.
Is Cartesia or Microsoft Azure Speech cheaper for text-to-speech?
Microsoft Azure Speech has the lower listed TTS price: $15.00 per 1M characters (Neural / Neural HD Flash) vs $37.38 for Cartesia (Sonic (Scale plan, $299 / 8M credits)), about 60% less. Prices checked Oct 28, 2026.
How often are these prices updated?
Every day. A script reads each vendor's public pricing page, extracts the listed rates and keeps a dated copy, so price changes show up in the history.