Vapi vs Cartesia pricing
Voice agents: Vapi from $0.05 vs Cartesia from $0.06.
Last updated · prices checked daily
Voice agent platforms: Vapi vs Cartesia
Vapi has the lower listed Voice agents price: $0.05 per minute (Vapi hosting fee (platform only)) vs $0.06 for Cartesia (Managed voice agents (call duration)), about 17% less.
Not apples to apples: Vapi's rate is platform fee only while Cartesia's is bundled models. Use the calculator below to add speech, LLM and telephony costs.
| Vendor | Product / tier | $/min |
|---|---|---|
| Vapi Try Vapi ↗ | Vapi hosting fee (platform only) Pay as you go Platform fee only Platform fee only. STT, LLM, TTS and telephony are passed through at cost on top. | $0.05 |
| Cartesia Visit site ↗ | Managed voice agents (call duration) Bundled models Telephony extra ($0.014/min on Cartesia numbers per page); LLM free for UI agents for a limited time. | $0.06 |
"Try" links for Vapi are affiliate links. Source links go to official pricing pages. Disclosure
What it costs at volume (lowest listed rate)
| Minutes | Vapi | Cartesia |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 min | $50.00 | $60.00 |
| 10,000 min | $500.00 | $600.00 |
| 100,000 min | $5,000.00 | $6,000.00 |
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 Vapi or Cartesia cheaper for voice agent platforms?
Vapi has the lower listed Voice agents price: $0.05 per minute (Vapi hosting fee (platform only)) vs $0.06 for Cartesia (Managed voice agents (call duration)), about 17% 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.