AI Tools · head to head
Cartesia vs Poolside
Cartesia
AI Tools
Real-time voice AI platform for speech generation, transcription, and voice agents
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Poolside
AI Tools
Open-weight foundation models built for agentic software engineering
- From
- $0.06/month
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Cartesia has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Cartesia instant and professional voice cloning are gated behind paid Pro and Startup tiers, unavailable on the free plan.; Poolside no self-serve public application; access is largely through enterprise sales or third-party model gateways
- They diverge on capability: Cartesia covers Sonic text-to-speech, Poolside covers Laguna S 2.1.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cartesia and Poolside actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (AI Tools).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Cartesia
- Sonic text-to-speech
- Ink speech-to-text
- Line voice agent platform
- Instant and professional voice cloning
- Flexible deployment
- Telephony integration
Only in Poolside
- Laguna S 2.1
- Laguna XS 2.1
- Desktop and CLI tools
- Open-weight models
- Third-party gateway access
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Cartesia
- Building low-latency voice agents for customer supportnot Poolside
- Real-time transcription for conversational applicationsnot Poolside
- Voice cloning for branded synthetic voicesnot Poolside
- On-device or on-premise voice AI for regulated industriesnot Poolside
Poolside
- Enterprises deploying AI coding assistance across large developer organizationsnot Cartesia
- Government and defense agencies needing on-premise or sovereign coding modelsnot Cartesia
- Teams building custom coding agents on open-weight foundation modelsnot Cartesia
- Organizations wanting on-device lightweight coding modelsnot Cartesia
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Cartesia
- Instant and professional voice cloning are gated behind paid Pro and Startup tiers, unavailable on the free plan.
- Voice agent calls carry a separate per-minute usage fee ($0.06/minute) on top of subscription credits.
- Enterprise features like SSO and BAAs require a custom sales conversation rather than self-serve upgrade.
- Free tier concurrency limits (2 TTS, 8 STT concurrent requests) may be restrictive for testing production-like load.
Poolside
- No self-serve public application; access is largely through enterprise sales or third-party model gateways
- Pricing for the flagship enterprise and government offering is not public and requires a sales conversation
- Targets organizations with large (5,000+) developer headcounts, making it a poor fit for individuals or small teams
- Documentation and product surface area are thin compared to consumer-facing coding assistants
Pricing, plan by plan
Cartesia
Free- FreeFree
- 20,000 credits/month
- TTS and STT included
- 2 concurrent TTS requests, 8 concurrent STT requests
- Pro$4/month
- 100,000 credits/month
- Commercial use license
- Instant voice cloning
- Startup$39/month
- 1.25M credits/month
- Professional voice cloning
- Organizations support
- Scale$239/month
- 8M credits/month
- Priority support
- High concurrency limits
Poolside
$0.06/month- Laguna XS 2.1$undefined/month
- $0.06 per 1M input tokens
- $0.12 per 1M output tokens
- Available via OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway
- Laguna S 2.1$undefined/month
- $0.10 per 1M input tokens
- $0.20 per 1M output tokens
- 1M token context window
- Enterprise / Government$undefined/month
- Custom contracts for large engineering organizations
- Sales-quoted pricing
- On-premise or dedicated deployment options
Which should you pick?
Choose Cartesia if
- You need sonic text-to-speech.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on web, api.
- You also want ink speech-to-text.
Choose Poolside if
- You need laguna s 2.1.
- You work on web, api, mac, windows, linux.
- You also want laguna xs 2.1.
Questions people ask
- Is Cartesia or Poolside better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cartesia starts at Free and Poolside at $0.06/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cartesia or Poolside?
- Cartesia has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Cartesia and $0.06/month for Poolside.
- Does Cartesia or Poolside run on more platforms?
- Cartesia runs on web, api. Poolside runs on web, api, mac, windows, linux.
- Can I use Cartesia for free?
- Yes. Cartesia has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Poolside starts at $0.06/month.
- What is Cartesia best used for?
- Cartesia is most often used for building low-latency voice agents for customer support, real-time transcription for conversational applications, voice cloning for branded synthetic voices, on-device or on-premise voice ai for regulated industries. Of those, building low-latency voice agents for customer support and real-time transcription for conversational applications are not what Poolside is typically brought in for.
- What can Cartesia do that Poolside cannot?
- Cartesia covers Sonic text-to-speech, Ink speech-to-text, Line voice agent platform, Instant and professional voice cloning. Poolside covers Laguna S 2.1, Laguna XS 2.1, Desktop and CLI tools, Open-weight models.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Cartesia: What does Cartesia cost?
Cartesia offers a free plan, Pro at $4/month, Startup at $39/month, Scale at $239/month, and custom Enterprise pricing, each including a monthly credit allotment, with annual billing saving 20%.
SourcePoolside: How is Poolside's Laguna model usage priced?
Laguna XS 2.1 is priced at $0.06 per 1M input tokens and $0.12 per 1M output tokens; Laguna S 2.1 is $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.20 per 1M output tokens.
SourceCartesia: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?
The Free plan includes 20,000 credits per month, both TTS (Sonic) and STT (Ink), 2 concurrent TTS requests, 8 concurrent STT requests, and 1 voice agent slot.
SourcePoolside: Where can I access Poolside's models?
Laguna models are available through third-party gateways OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway, as well as via Poolside's own desktop and CLI tools.
SourceCartesia: How is usage metered?
Usage draws down a monthly credit allotment, with voice agent calls additionally billed at $0.06/minute and telephony via Cartesia phone numbers at $0.014/minute.
SourcePoolside: Does Poolside offer enterprise or government pricing?
Yes, Poolside offers custom, sales-quoted contracts for large enterprises and government/defense customers, including on-premise or dedicated deployment options.
SourcePoolside: How do I get started building with Poolside's models?
Poolside's documentation provides a quickstart guide for installing the `pool` CLI and running an agent task, alongside API documentation for custom integrations.
SourceRelated pages
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