Cartesia Sonic 3 costs $0.05 per 1,000 characters. That is $0.043/min of audio at 850 characters per minute. Cheapest estimated path: Cartesia (Pro tier (cheapest incl.)) at $0.05. Prices stamped 2026-08-28; labels below state how each number was obtained.
Cartesia Sonic 3 pricing
The low-latency challenger — credit-billed plans that undercut ElevenLabs by roughly 3× per character.
How much does Cartesia Sonic 3 cost per 1,000 characters?
| Provider | Price /1k chars | Provider's own unit | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cartesia · Pro tier (cheapest incl.)cheapest | $0.05$0.043/min of audio | 1 credit per charactercredits | Estimated2026-08-28 | source |
How these numbers were computed
- Cartesia (Pro tier (cheapest incl.)): Entry-tier credit math from plans published at research time (Pro ≈ $5/mo · 100k credits). Pending live verification.
Subscription paths
| Plan | Monthly | Includes | Effective /1k chars | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cartesia Pro | $5.00/mo | ~100,000 credits/mo | $0.05 | Estimated2026-08-28 |
| Cartesia Startup | $49.00/mo | ~1.25M credits/mo | $0.039 | Estimated2026-08-28 |
| Cartesia Scale | $299.00/mo | ~8M credits/mo | $0.037 | Estimated2026-08-28 |
Conversion math
- Cartesia Pro: $5 ÷ 100,000 credits × 1,000 chars ≈ $0.05/1k chars.
- Cartesia Startup: $49 ÷ 1.25M credits × 1,000 ≈ $0.039/1k chars.
- Cartesia Scale: $299 ÷ 8M credits × 1,000 ≈ $0.037/1k chars.
What would Cartesia Sonic 3 cost you?
| Model · provider | $/1k chars | Total | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cartesia Sonic 3 · Cartesia (Pro tier (cheapest incl.)) | $0.050 | — | estimated |
Totals use the normalized canonical rate (USD per 1,000 characters). Resolution multipliers, minimum charges, and tier effects can change real invoices — check each model page.
Price history
- 2026-08-28 — Seeded from the operator's cost audit (2026-03-23) and launch research. Live re-verification pending.
Every future change to a Cartesia Sonic 3 price lands in the public change log.
Frequently asked
How much does Cartesia Sonic 3 cost per 1,000 characters?
Cartesia Sonic 3 costs $0.05 per 1,000 characters of input text (stamped 2026-08-28).
What do 10,000 characters cost with Cartesia Sonic 3?
About $0.500 — roughly 12 minutes of finished audio at 850 characters/minute.
What is the cheapest way to run Cartesia Sonic 3?
The lowest estimated price in the index is $0.05/1k chars via cartesia (Pro tier (cheapest incl.)).
Compare
Data provenance: FairStack operational cost audit, 2026-03-23 (price-audit-full.json) + launch-spec research pass 2026-08-28. Live re-verification pending (deploy-day). For quality benchmarks (not pricing), seeArtificial Analysis — we index cost, they index quality.