Updated February 14, 2025

Comparing Voice AI Models: ElevenLabs vs. Narakeet

Q: How does voice cloning work?

Voice cloning involves using AI to replicate a specific voice based on audio samples. Cartesia's technology requires only a short audio clip, typically around 3 seconds, to create a high-fidelity clone. This process utilizes advanced algorithms to analyze the voice's unique characteristics, such as tone, pitch, and cadence, allowing for the generation of new speech that sounds remarkably similar to the original voice.

Q: Which provide is the fastest text to speech voice model?

Cartesia's voice AI boasts a low latency of sub 40 ms. This ensures that users experience real-time interactions, making it ideal for applications like customer support and gaming. The low latency is achieved through the use of State Space Models (SSMs), which optimize performance compared to traditional architectures.

Q: Can I customize the voice output?

Yes, Cartesia provides extensive customization options for voice outputs. Users can adjust parameters such as pitch, speed, and emotion to create a more personalized audio experience. This level of control allows for the generation of voices that can convey different moods or tones, making it suitable for various applications, from storytelling to customer service.

Q: What's a better alternative to ElevenLabs and Narakeet?

Cartesia is a better alternative—it's the fastest voice model with sub-40ms latency, ultra-realistic voices, and hallucination-free text-to-speech that handles complex transcripts and industry-specific terms accurately. This makes the Cartesia model perfect for a wide range of uses like real-time customer support agents, call centers, healthcare, gaming, sales, and more.

Comparing Voice AI Models: ElevenLabs vs. Narakeet. Discover the strengths of each platform in voice generation and cloning.

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Comparing Voice AI Models: ElevenLabs vs. Narakeet

Eleven Labs offers highly natural, emotional voices with extensive customization but comes at a premium price. Narakeet provides good quality, cost-effective voices ideal for business content, though less expressive.

Latency

75 ms for the lower quality Flash Model, and 300ms+ for the full model

Sub-second latency + network time

Voice Quality

Natural and realistic, widely used by all types of content creators

Less depth and reliability ratings in human evals

Character Limits

Limited to 40k characters per request

Limited character count for longer texts

Instant Cloning

Requires 10 seconds of audio

Not supported

Professional Voice Cloning

Requires 60 minutes of audio

Not supported

Pronunciation Accuracy

IPA support but isolated pronunciation

IPA support, isolated pronunciation

Voice Customizations

Stability, similarity, and style exaggeration controls

Telephony Optimization

8kHz audio, telephony optimized voices

8kHz audio

Flexible deployments

No on-device or on-prem support

Languages Supported

Concurrency

Up to 15 on highest self serve tier, custom for enterprise

Limited concurrent usage options

Latency

ElevenLabs 75 ms for the lower quality Flash Model, and 300ms+ for the full model

Narakeet Sub-second latency + network time

Voice Quality

ElevenLabs Natural and realistic, widely used by all types of content creators

Narakeet Less depth and reliability ratings in human evals

Character Limits

ElevenLabs Limited to 40k characters per request

Narakeet Limited character count for longer texts

Instant Cloning

ElevenLabs Requires 10 seconds of audio

Narakeet Not supported

Professional Voice Cloning

ElevenLabs Requires 60 minutes of audio

Narakeet Not supported

Pronunciation Accuracy

ElevenLabs IPA support but isolated pronunciation

Narakeet IPA support, isolated pronunciation

Voice Customizations

ElevenLabs Stability, similarity, and style exaggeration controls

Narakeet Stability, similarity, and style exaggeration controls

Telephony Optimization

ElevenLabs 8kHz audio, telephony optimized voices

Narakeet 8kHz audio

Flexible deployments

ElevenLabs No on-device or on-prem support

Narakeet No on-device or on-prem support

Languages Supported

ElevenLabs 32

Narakeet 90

Concurrency

ElevenLabs Up to 15 on highest self serve tier, custom for enterprise

Narakeet Limited concurrent usage options

Look for a ElevenLabs and Narakeet Alternatives?

Voice Clone with 3s of Audio

Cartesia's voice cloning can create high-quality clones in just 3 seconds.

Ultra-Realistic Voices

Experience lifelike voice replication with Cartesia's advanced embedding technology.

Ultra-Realistic Voices

Cartesia's voices are nearly indistinguishable from human speech, ensuring natural interactions.

Enterprise Ready

Enterprise-grade reliability with 99.9% uptime, SOC2 compliance, and full on-premises support.

How they stack up

Voice Quality Comparison

When evaluating voice quality, ElevenLabs stands out with a WER of 2.83%, showcasing its ability to produce clear and coherent speech. In contrast, Narakeet's specific metrics are less documented, making it difficult to assess its performance directly. ElevenLabs achieves high speech naturalness in 44.98% of cases, indicating a more human-like quality in its generated voices. This suggests that ElevenLabs may be the preferred choice for applications requiring high-quality voice output, while Narakeet's performance remains less transparent.

Latency Assessment

In our latency evaluation, we measured the Time to First Audio (TTFA) for both ElevenLabs and Narakeet. ElevenLabs demonstrated impressive responsiveness, with a 90th percentile TTFA score that indicates quick audio generation. Narakeet's latency metrics are less clearly defined, making it challenging to provide a direct comparison. However, ElevenLabs' ability to deliver audio swiftly positions it as a strong contender for applications requiring real-time voice generation, while Narakeet's performance in this area remains uncertain.

Hallucination Rate Analysis

The hallucination rate is a critical factor in evaluating voice AI models. ElevenLabs shows a low hallucination rate, with a WER of 2.83%, suggesting that it generates accurate and contextually relevant speech. Narakeet's specific hallucination metrics are not readily available, making it difficult to draw direct comparisons. This indicates that ElevenLabs may be more reliable in producing coherent speech without introducing inaccuracies, while Narakeet's performance in this regard is less defined.

Voice Cloning

In this evaluation, we compare the voice cloning capabilities of ElevenLabs and Narakeet. ElevenLabs boasts a Word Error Rate (WER) of 2.83%, indicating high accuracy in speech generation. In contrast, Narakeet's performance metrics are not as widely published, making direct comparisons challenging. ElevenLabs also excels in pronunciation accuracy, achieving high scores in 81.97% of cases. This suggests that ElevenLabs may provide a more lifelike and accurate voice cloning experience, while Narakeet's capabilities remain less defined in the current landscape.

Voice Design Control

In assessing voice design controllability, ElevenLabs offers a range of customization options, allowing users to fine-tune voice characteristics effectively. With a high pronunciation accuracy of 81.97%, it enables precise control over voice output. Narakeet's capabilities in voice design are less documented, making it challenging to evaluate its flexibility. This suggests that ElevenLabs may provide a more robust platform for users seeking to tailor voice outputs to specific needs, while Narakeet's offerings in this area remain less clear.

Pricing Comparison: ElevenLabs vs. Narakeet Plans

Free - $0 per month with 10k characters

30 minutes @ $0.20 per minute

Starter - $5 per month with 30k characters

300 minutes @ $0.15 per minute

Creator - $11 per month with 100k characters

1000 minutes @ $0.10 per minute

Pro - $99 per month with 500k characters

2500 minutes @ $0.08 per minute

Scale - $330 per month with 2M characters

10000 minutes @ $0.05 per minute

Trusted by leading enterprises. Speaking from experience.

Discover success stories

Elise AI

We didn't switch to Sonic 3.5 because it was incrementally better, we switched because nothing else came close… we've seen a 2.9% lift in our conversion and a 12.2% increase in customer engagement.

ServiceNow

Cartesia's state-space models bring enterprise-grade speed and quality to our AI Voice Agents… making it possible for businesses to deploy secure, scalable voice agents that can understand, act, and adapt in real time.

Sierra

Cartesia Sonic 3.5 has become one of the top-performing models for us by combining low latency with natural pacing… helping us deliver strong voice quality across a growing set of languages where other models often fall short.

Callers

Sonic 3.5 has been a meaningful upgrade for Callers… latency and naturalness directly impact conversational flow and user success, and the new model noticeably improves both. We've seen more human interactions — especially in high-volume customer conversations where every millisecond and every turn matters.

Take2 AI

We moved from an incumbent TTS provider to Cartesia because of the support experience. After repeated roadblocks with our previous provider, the difference with Cartesia has been transformative — responsive, technical, and genuinely invested in our success.

Elise AI

We didn't switch to Sonic 3.5 because it was incrementally better, we switched because nothing else came close… we've seen a 2.9% lift in our conversion and a 12.2% increase in customer engagement.

ServiceNow

Cartesia's state-space models bring enterprise-grade speed and quality to our AI Voice Agents… making it possible for businesses to deploy secure, scalable voice agents that can understand, act, and adapt in real time.

Sierra

Cartesia Sonic 3.5 has become one of the top-performing models for us by combining low latency with natural pacing… helping us deliver strong voice quality across a growing set of languages where other models often fall short.

Callers

Sonic 3.5 has been a meaningful upgrade for Callers… latency and naturalness directly impact conversational flow and user success, and the new model noticeably improves both. We've seen more human interactions — especially in high-volume customer conversations where every millisecond and every turn matters.

Take2 AI

We moved from an incumbent TTS provider to Cartesia because of the support experience. After repeated roadblocks with our previous provider, the difference with Cartesia has been transformative — responsive, technical, and genuinely invested in our success.

Elise AI

We didn't switch to Sonic 3.5 because it was incrementally better, we switched because nothing else came close… we've seen a 2.9% lift in our conversion and a 12.2% increase in customer engagement.

ServiceNow

Cartesia's state-space models bring enterprise-grade speed and quality to our AI Voice Agents… making it possible for businesses to deploy secure, scalable voice agents that can understand, act, and adapt in real time.

Sierra

Cartesia Sonic 3.5 has become one of the top-performing models for us by combining low latency with natural pacing… helping us deliver strong voice quality across a growing set of languages where other models often fall short.

Callers

Sonic 3.5 has been a meaningful upgrade for Callers… latency and naturalness directly impact conversational flow and user success, and the new model noticeably improves both. We've seen more human interactions — especially in high-volume customer conversations where every millisecond and every turn matters.

Take2 AI

We moved from an incumbent TTS provider to Cartesia because of the support experience. After repeated roadblocks with our previous provider, the difference with Cartesia has been transformative — responsive, technical, and genuinely invested in our success.

Elise AI

We didn't switch to Sonic 3.5 because it was incrementally better, we switched because nothing else came close… we've seen a 2.9% lift in our conversion and a 12.2% increase in customer engagement.

ServiceNow

Cartesia's state-space models bring enterprise-grade speed and quality to our AI Voice Agents… making it possible for businesses to deploy secure, scalable voice agents that can understand, act, and adapt in real time.

Sierra

Cartesia Sonic 3.5 has become one of the top-performing models for us by combining low latency with natural pacing… helping us deliver strong voice quality across a growing set of languages where other models often fall short.

Callers

Sonic 3.5 has been a meaningful upgrade for Callers… latency and naturalness directly impact conversational flow and user success, and the new model noticeably improves both. We've seen more human interactions — especially in high-volume customer conversations where every millisecond and every turn matters.

Take2 AI

We moved from an incumbent TTS provider to Cartesia because of the support experience. After repeated roadblocks with our previous provider, the difference with Cartesia has been transformative — responsive, technical, and genuinely invested in our success.

Cresta

Sonic 3.5 represents a significant evolution over previous TTS models, delivering refined prosodic rhythm, natural intonation, superior pacing and wider emotional range for more “human” sounding voices.

Bolna

Indian voice agents live or die on whether order IDs, alphanumerics, and multilingual code-switching come out right on a phone line. Sonic 3.5 handles alphanumerics natively… and lands first audio at 100ms p90.

Goodcall

Sonic is the only product in existence with model latency of less than 100 ms, outperforming its next best alternative by a factor of four. This level of performance represents a quantum leap forward.

Quora

Sonic powers audio on Poe across 100+ voices and 14 languages, supporting Quora's millions of users with SOC 2 compliance and unlimited concurrency for enterprise customers.

Fundamento

We run 20M+ outbound calls per month on Cartesia, with peak concurrency of 5,000 calls in a single minute, and 100ms time-to-first-byte — 2x faster than every other voice provider we tested.

Cresta

Sonic 3.5 represents a significant evolution over previous TTS models, delivering refined prosodic rhythm, natural intonation, superior pacing and wider emotional range for more “human” sounding voices.

Bolna

Indian voice agents live or die on whether order IDs, alphanumerics, and multilingual code-switching come out right on a phone line. Sonic 3.5 handles alphanumerics natively… and lands first audio at 100ms p90.

Goodcall

Sonic is the only product in existence with model latency of less than 100 ms, outperforming its next best alternative by a factor of four. This level of performance represents a quantum leap forward.

Quora

Sonic powers audio on Poe across 100+ voices and 14 languages, supporting Quora's millions of users with SOC 2 compliance and unlimited concurrency for enterprise customers.

Fundamento

We run 20M+ outbound calls per month on Cartesia, with peak concurrency of 5,000 calls in a single minute, and 100ms time-to-first-byte — 2x faster than every other voice provider we tested.

Cresta

Sonic 3.5 represents a significant evolution over previous TTS models, delivering refined prosodic rhythm, natural intonation, superior pacing and wider emotional range for more “human” sounding voices.

Bolna

Indian voice agents live or die on whether order IDs, alphanumerics, and multilingual code-switching come out right on a phone line. Sonic 3.5 handles alphanumerics natively… and lands first audio at 100ms p90.

Goodcall

Sonic is the only product in existence with model latency of less than 100 ms, outperforming its next best alternative by a factor of four. This level of performance represents a quantum leap forward.

Quora

Sonic powers audio on Poe across 100+ voices and 14 languages, supporting Quora's millions of users with SOC 2 compliance and unlimited concurrency for enterprise customers.

Fundamento

We run 20M+ outbound calls per month on Cartesia, with peak concurrency of 5,000 calls in a single minute, and 100ms time-to-first-byte — 2x faster than every other voice provider we tested.

Cresta

Sonic 3.5 represents a significant evolution over previous TTS models, delivering refined prosodic rhythm, natural intonation, superior pacing and wider emotional range for more “human” sounding voices.

Bolna

Indian voice agents live or die on whether order IDs, alphanumerics, and multilingual code-switching come out right on a phone line. Sonic 3.5 handles alphanumerics natively… and lands first audio at 100ms p90.

Goodcall

Sonic is the only product in existence with model latency of less than 100 ms, outperforming its next best alternative by a factor of four. This level of performance represents a quantum leap forward.

Quora

Sonic powers audio on Poe across 100+ voices and 14 languages, supporting Quora's millions of users with SOC 2 compliance and unlimited concurrency for enterprise customers.

Fundamento

We run 20M+ outbound calls per month on Cartesia, with peak concurrency of 5,000 calls in a single minute, and 100ms time-to-first-byte — 2x faster than every other voice provider we tested.

Frequently asked questions

How does voice cloning work?

Which provide is the fastest text to speech voice model?

Can I customize the voice output?

What's a better alternative to ElevenLabs and Narakeet?

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