Fish Audio vs Cartesia Sonic
A side-by-side look at pricing plans, free tiers, features, pros and cons, updated for 2026. Cartesia Sonic has the lower starting price: about $5 a month, against $15 for Fish Audio.
At a glance
Best for
Category
Pricing model
Starting price
Free plan
Made by
Based in
Rating
Key features
- Instant voice cloning
- Community voice library
- Emotion control tags
- Pay-as-you-go API
- Open-weight models
- Real-time speech under 90ms
- 44 languages
- Instant voice cloning
- Emotion and laughter control
- Voice localisation
| Feature | Fish Audio | Cartesia Sonic |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Low-cost AI voice generation and cloning with a huge community library | Low-latency text-to-speech API for voice agents |
| Category | Audio & voice | Audio & voice |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | $15/mo | $5/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Made by | Fish Audio | Cartesia |
| Based in | – | United States |
| Rating | No ratings yet | No ratings yet |
| Key features |
|
|
Both offer: Instant voice cloning.
Pricing compared
Cartesia Sonic has the lower starting price: about $5 a month, against $15 for Fish Audio.
Free plan
Cheapest paid plan
Top plan
Free trial
5 plans
Free
Free
- 8,000 credits / month
- Up to 7 minutes of generation
- Voice cloning, commercial use
Plus
$15/mo
- 250,000 credits / month
- Up to 200 minutes of generation
- 10 private voice slots
Pro
$100/mo
- 2,000,000 credits / month
- Up to 1,620 minutes of generation
- 3 team seats, unlimited voice slots
Max
$999/mo
- 25,000,000 credits / month
- Up to 6,250 minutes of generation
- 10 team seats
Enterprise
Custom
- Volume pricing billed annually
- Zero data retention, on-prem option
- SOC 2 compliance
5 plans
Free
Free
- 20K credits per month
- Text to speech and speech to text
- $1 of prepaid voice agent usage
Pro
$5/mo
- 100K credits per month
- Commercial use license
- Instant voice cloning
Startup
$49/mo
- 1.25M credits per month
- Professional voice cloning
- $49 of prepaid agent usage
Scale
$299/mo
- 8M credits per month
- Priority support
- High concurrency limits
Enterprise
Contact sales
- Custom credits and volume pricing
- SSO and DPAs
- Shared Slack channel
Prices in USD, checked Oct 28, 2026 or later. Plans change often, so confirm on each tool's site before you buy.
Pros and cons
Fish Audio
- Much cheaper than most rivals
- Cloning available on free plan
- Large choice of voices
- Community voices vary in quality
- Free plan limits text per generation
Cartesia Sonic
- Very fast time to first audio
- Wide language coverage in one model
- Cloning from ten seconds of audio
- Aimed at developers more than casual users
- Credit system takes a while to understand
- Commercial license needs a paid plan
Which one should you choose?
Choose Fish Audio if you want:
- Much cheaper than most rivals
- Cloning available on free plan
- Large choice of voices
Watch out: community voices vary in quality.
Choose Cartesia Sonic if you want:
- Very fast time to first audio
- Wide language coverage in one model
- Cloning from ten seconds of audio
Watch out: aimed at developers more than casual users.
Fish Audio vs Cartesia Sonic FAQ
What is the difference between Fish Audio and Cartesia Sonic?
Fish Audio: Low-cost AI voice generation and cloning with a huge community library. Cartesia Sonic: Low-latency text-to-speech API for voice agents. Both are audio & voice tools.
Is Fish Audio or Cartesia Sonic cheaper?
Cartesia Sonic has the lower starting price: about $5 a month, against $15 for Fish Audio.
Do Fish Audio and Cartesia Sonic have free plans?
Fish Audio: Yes. Cartesia Sonic: Yes.
Who makes Fish Audio?
Fish Audio is made by Fish Audio.
Who makes Cartesia Sonic?
Cartesia Sonic is made by Cartesia, based in United States.
Which should I choose, Fish Audio or Cartesia Sonic?
Choose Fish Audio if you value much cheaper than most rivals and cloning available on free plan. Choose Cartesia Sonic if you value very fast time to first audio and wide language coverage in one model.