Soniox vs Cartesia speech-to-text
Compare the Soniox and Cartesia speech-to-text APIs on your own audio — accuracy, languages, real-time streaming, built-in translation, and pricing.
Soniox vs Cartesia pricing, side by side
Cartesia and most speech-to-text APIs charge extra for diarization, translation, and multilingual support, so the headline rate hides the real bill. Soniox is one flat rate with all of it included. Set your monthly hours below to calculate your all-in cost per hour and see how Soniox compares to Cartesia, side by side.
Pricing calculator
Stop overpaying for speech AI
1,000 hours of audio / month
Pricing assumptions
Based on public pay-as-you-go pricing. Enterprise discounts and committed-use contracts may differ. Some providers charge separately for certain features. The calculator uses the public price for the provider configuration that most closely matches Soniox.
Why teams choose Soniox over Cartesia
Built for every language, not just English.
Soniox delivers production-grade accuracy across 60+ languages in one streaming model. It understands fast, informal, accented speech, and handles mixed-language phrases, spoken codes, and alphanumerics with precision.
“It just gets the words right, any language, any accent, any context. That’s what accuracy is supposed to look like.”
Cartesia’s Ink 2 streaming model supports English only. Other languages need the separate ink-whisper model, which streams in real time but drops Ink 2’s built-in turn detection.
Real-time translation built in.
Soniox returns transcription and any-to-any translation from a single stream, in 60+ target languages, so your app works for 8 billion people without bolting on extra services.
“It’s so fast, captions appear before people even finish talking. Zero lag. No buffering. Nothing.”
Cartesia provides transcription only, with no translation in or out of the stream.
Know who’s speaking, live.
Soniox knows when someone’s speaking, when they’ve stopped, and who’s talking, with built-in real-time speaker separation, sentence boundary detection, and turn-taking awareness.
“Soniox knows who’s speaking and when each thought ends. The real-time transcripts read like true dialogue, not data dumps.”
Cartesia has strong built-in turn detection, but does not offer speaker diarization.
Instant domain intelligence.
Soniox catches product names, acronyms, technical terms, and can be guided with your terminology — so output fits your users, product, and industry.
“Soniox captures complex medical terminology with high accuracy, helping physicians finalize notes faster and focus on patient care.”
Cartesia doesn’t offer keyterms or custom vocabulary, so domain customization isn’t available.
One API. Everything built in.
Transcription, any-to-any translation, speaker separation, mixed-language support — all from a single model, endpoint, and call. Production-ready from day one.
Cartesia is built for low-latency English voice agents, but multilingual support, translation, diarization, and customization aren’t available in one stream.
Trusted by teams building global voice products
Developers choose Soniox for accurate, global-ready speech
Cartesia Ink 2 is fast and accurate for English voice agents, with built-in turn detection. But it transcribes English only in real time, has no translation, and lacks diarization and customization today. With Soniox, one API works for 8 billion people across 60+ languages — delivering transcription and translation with high accuracy and smooth real-time performance. It's built for production apps that need to work worldwide.
Trusted accuracy
Soniox outperforms Cartesia on real-world speech, with fewer errors to fix. Soniox hits 1.25% WER vs 1.47% for Cartesia Ink 2.
Every language, one model
Soniox streams 60+ languages with automatic language identification and mid-sentence switching. Cartesia Ink 2 streams English only.
Translation built in
One API delivers transcription and two-way translation across 60+ languages. Cartesia provides transcription only, with no translation.
Soniox surpasses Cartesia in any language
Get the most accurate, real-time speech-to-text transcription and translation in 60+ languages
Frequently asked questions about Soniox vs Cartesia
Is Soniox cheaper than Cartesia?
Does Cartesia support multiple languages?
Does Cartesia support translation?
Does Cartesia support speaker diarization?
How does turn detection compare?
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