Cartesia vs PlayHT
Explore the differences between Cartesia and PlayHT voice AI models. Discover features, pricing, and performance metrics.
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Comparing Cartesia and PlayHT Voice AI Models
Cartesia offers ultra-fast voice generation with a latency of 90 ms, ensuring real-time interactions. Its models provide ultra-realistic voices without hallucinations, making it a reliable choice for developers. In contrast, other models may not match this level of performance.
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
19 languages with extensive dialect coverage
Up to 15 on highest self serve tier, custom for enterprise
PlayHT
200 ms + network time, slower response times
Voice quality may lack depth and realism
Limited character count for longer texts
Requires 20-40 minutes of audio
Requires 1 to 2 hours of audio
Pronunciation may lack contextual awareness
Limited customization options available
Basic telephony optimization features
No on-device generation capabilities
Supports a wider range of languages
Limited concurrency options available
Voice Quality Evaluation
In terms of voice quality, Cartesia consistently outperforms PlayHT. Cartesia's Sonic model has been rated 4.7 in independent evaluations, while PlayHT scores lower at 4.38. This is supported by human evaluators who preferred Cartesia's voices 36 times out of 50 compared to PlayHT's 14. The clarity, naturalness, and emotional sensitivity of Cartesia's voices make them a top choice for applications requiring high-quality audio.
Latency Performance Review
Latency is a crucial factor in voice AI applications. Cartesia's Sonic model boasts a Time to First Audio (TTFA) of just 199 ms, significantly faster than PlayHT's 832 ms. This measurement is based on the 90th percentile score from 100 TTFA measurements, showcasing Cartesia's efficiency. The Sonic model's architecture, based on State Space Models (SSMs), allows for superior latency optimization compared to traditional transformer models used by PlayHT.
Hallucination Rate Analysis
Cartesia's voice cloning technology excels in minimizing hallucinations, providing crystal-clear audio without errors. This is achieved through advanced algorithms that ensure high fidelity and authenticity in voice replication. In contrast, PlayHT's models may exhibit more inconsistencies, leading to a higher rate of hallucinations. Cartesia's commitment to quality ensures that users receive reliable and accurate voice outputs.
Voice Cloning Comparison
When it comes to voice cloning, Cartesia shines with its ability to create an instant voice clone from just 5 seconds of audio. In contrast, PlayHT imposes restrictions on cloning capabilities, requiring longer audio samples. Cartesia's advanced embedding technology ensures high-quality voice clones that maintain accents and clarity, even in noisy conditions. Additionally, Cartesia's voice mixing and design features provide a wider variety of voices, enhancing the overall user experience.
Voice Design Controllability
Cartesia stands out by offering unique features for voice design, including emotion and speed modulation. This allows users to make refined adjustments while maintaining a natural sound. Additionally, Cartesia enables localization, allowing an American voice to adopt a French accent, enhancing versatility. In contrast, PlayHT provides limited control options, focusing mainly on stability and similarity, which may not meet the diverse needs of users.
Cartesia - Advanced AI Voice Capabilities
Cartesia AI offers the fastest voice model with hallucination-free, ultra-realistic voice generation and cloning.
Low Latency Performance
Cartesia's Sonic model achieves a remarkable latency of 199 ms, ensuring real-time responsiveness.
High-Quality Voice Cloning
With just 5 seconds of audio, Cartesia can create high-fidelity voice clones that sound natural and authentic.
Ultra-Realistic Voices
Cartesia's voices are nearly indistinguishable from human speech, enhancing user engagement and satisfaction.
Explore Pricing Options for Cartesia and PlayHT
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
PlayHT
Basic - $19/mo. with 50k credits and limited features
Standard - $49/mo. with 200k credits and additional features
Advanced - $99/mo. with 500k credits and premium features
Enterprise - $499/mo. with 5M credits and priority support
Custom plans available for large organizations
What Cartesia customers say
Join the growing list of companies opting for Sonic.
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"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
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"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."