Cartesia vs PlayAI
Discover the key differences between leading voice AI models. Compare features, pricing, and performance metrics.
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Comparing Cartesia and PlayAI Voice Models
Cartesia offers ultra-fast voice generation with a latency of just 90ms, ensuring real-time interactions. Its voices are rated as more natural and realistic, with no hallucinations. In contrast, the other provider has a longer latency and lower quality ratings, making Cartesia a superior choice for voice applications.
Updated at:
Feb 14, 2025
Features
Cartesia
90 ms + network time
Consistently rated as more natural, expressive, and realistic in blinded human evaluations
Infinite request length
Requires 5-10 seconds of audio
IPA Support, strong contextual understanding
Slider control for speed and emotion + synthetic voice mixing and design
8kHz audio, telephony optimized voices
Real-time generation on-device
32 languages with extensive dialect coverage
Up to 15 on highest self serve tier, custom for enterprise
PlayAI
<130ms
Less depth and reliability ratings in human evals
Limited character count for longer texts
Not supported
Not supported
IPA Support, isolated pronunciation
Stability, similarity, and style exaggeration controls
8kHz audio
None
30
Limited concurrent usage options
Voice Quality Comparison
In the realm of voice quality, Cartesia consistently outperforms PlayAI. Cartesia's Sonic model has been rated 4.7 out of 5 in independent evaluations, showcasing its natural and realistic voice output. In contrast, PlayAI's voices have received lower ratings for depth and reliability. Cartesia's commitment to quality is evident in its use of state space models, which enhance clarity and emotional sensitivity in voice generation, making it the preferred choice for applications requiring high-quality voice interactions.
Latency Performance Review
Latency is a critical factor in voice applications. Cartesia's Sonic model boasts a Time to First Audio (TTFA) of just 199 ms, significantly faster than PlayAI's 832 ms. This measurement is based on the 90th percentile score from 100 TTFA measurements for each provider. Cartesia's architecture, built on State Space Models (SSMs), allows for greater latency optimization compared to traditional transformer architectures, ensuring that users experience seamless and responsive voice interactions.
Hallucination Rate Analysis
Cartesia excels in minimizing hallucination rates in voice generation. Its AI voice cloning technology ensures crystal-clear audio without errors, maintaining authenticity in voice replication. This is particularly important for applications where accuracy is paramount. In contrast, PlayAI has been noted for producing less reliable outputs, which can lead to distortions and inaccuracies in voice generation. Cartesia's focus on eliminating hallucinations makes it a trustworthy choice for developers seeking high-fidelity voice solutions.
Voice Cloning Showdown
When it comes to voice cloning, Cartesia shines with its ability to create an instant clone from just 5 seconds of audio. In contrast, PlayAI imposes restrictions on cloning capabilities, making it less flexible. Cartesia's advanced embedding technology ensures high-quality voice clones that maintain accents and voice quality, even in noisy conditions. Additionally, Cartesia offers voice mixing and design capabilities, providing a diverse range of voices for various applications, making it a superior choice for voice cloning needs.
Voice Design Controllability
Cartesia stands out by offering unique features like emotion and speed modulation, allowing users to refine voice adjustments while maintaining a natural sound. This capability enables users to create more engaging and personalized audio experiences. Additionally, Cartesia allows for localization of voices to match different accents, enhancing versatility. In contrast, PlayAI provides limited control options, lacking the depth of customization that Cartesia offers, making Cartesia the go-to choice for developers focused on voice design.
Cartesia - Advanced AI Voice Capabilities
Cartesia AI offers the fastest voice model with hallucination-free, ultra-realistic voice generation and cloning.
High-Quality Voice Cloning
Cartesia provides high-fidelity voice cloning with unmatched accuracy.
Ultra-Realistic Voices
Experience lifelike voices that are nearly indistinguishable from human speech.
No Hallucinations
Cartesia's AI ensures clear audio without errors, maintaining authenticity.
Cartesia
Free - $0/mo. per month with 10k free credits
Pro - $5/mo. per month with 100k credits
Startup - $49/mo. per month with 1.25M credits
Scale - $299/mo. per month with 8M credits
Enterprise - trusted by Fortune 500 companies
PlayAI
Free Plan - $0 per month with 30 minutes of speech credits
Starter - $9.00 per month with 50 minutes of speech credits
Creator - $49.00 per month with 300 minutes of speech credits
Pro - $99.00 per month with 700 minutes of speech credits
Business - $999.00 per month with 11000 minutes of speech credits
What Cartesia customers say
Join the growing list of companies opting for Sonic.
"This partnership represents a transformative moment in enterprise AI adoption," said Melissa Gordon, CEO of Rasa. "By combining Rasa’s strengths in enterprise conversational AI with Cartesia's innovative voice technology, we're fundamentally changing how enterprises can deploy and scale AI assistants across their organizations."
"We're thrilled to partner with Cartesia - their technology has dramatically improved the accuracy and reliability of our call center agents. Beyond just providing best-in-class voice AI, the Cartesia team has been a true partner in helping us transform 24/7 patient support for over 215,000 patients. Their support has been instrumental in making exceptional care accessible anytime, anywhere."
Jeffrey Liu, Founder and co-CEO, Assort Health
"Together AI's mission has always been to provide developers with the most powerful and efficient tools for building AI applications," says Vipul Ved Prakash, Together AI's CEO. "Cartesia is leading the charge of building efficient, multimodal models from first principles, starting with their Sonic TTS model. By integrating Sonic into our platform, we're enabling developers to create sophisticated multi-modal applications that leverage the most advanced and lowest latency voice model available today, all while maintaining the simplicity and reliability our users expect."
