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Cartesia vs LiveKit

A side-by-side comparison of Cartesia and LiveKit, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.

Compared from listings verified as of

Cartesia

Voice

Low-latency streaming text-to-speech for real-time voice.

View Cartesia

LiveKit

Infra

Open-source framework and cloud for realtime voice, video, and physical AI agents.

View LiveKit

At a glance

Feature comparison of Cartesia and LiveKit
AttributeCartesiaLiveKit
Category (differs)VoiceInfra
PricingFREEMIUMFREEMIUM
License (differs)ProprietaryOpen core
Deployment (differs)CloudHybrid
Platforms (differs)APIWeb, API, CLI
Model support (differs)Single model (proprietary)Model-agnostic
Vendor (differs)CartesiaLiveKit, Inc.
Capabilities (differs)
  • Voice agent
  • Speech synthesis (TTS)
  • Transcription (STT)
  • Voice cloning
  • Voice agent
  • Tool / function calling
  • App / agent deployment
  • Transcription (STT)
  • Speech synthesis (TTS)

The honest brief

Cartesia

State-space Sonic models hit sub-100ms first audio — the latency floor for real-time voice agent loops.

  • Streaming over WebSocket for fast first audio
  • State-space architecture, not transformer
  • Streaming-first WebSocket protocol depth
  • Cost-competitive at scale
  • Long-form expressive texture trails ElevenLabs
  • Fewer voices than ElevenLabs catalog
  • API-only, no end-user app

LiveKit

The open-source realtime layer most voice-agent stacks run on — sub-second STT-LLM-TTS with turn detection, interruptions, and telephony, BYO models.

  • Powers ChatGPT Advanced Voice in production
  • Self-hostable, with telephony built in
  • BYO STT/LLM/TTS — no model lock-in
  • Reliable turn detection and interruptions
  • Managed cloud option alongside the OSS
  • Developer infrastructure, not a no-code product
  • You assemble and pay for STT/LLM/TTS separately
  • Realtime media ops add operational complexity

When to pick which

Both cover Voice agent, Speech synthesis (TTS), and Transcription (STT).

Pick Cartesia if you need Voice cloning.

  • Voice cloning (secondary capability)

Pick LiveKit if you need Tool / function calling and App / agent deployment.

  • Tool / function calling (secondary capability)
  • App / agent deployment (secondary capability)

They share capabilities, but each leads with different ones as a headline job:

Cartesia is built around Speech synthesis (TTS).

  • Speech synthesis (TTS) (primary capability)

LiveKit is built around Voice agent.

  • Voice agent (primary capability)

They also differ on:

License
Proprietary · Open core
Deployment
Cloud · Hybrid
Platforms
API · Web, API, CLI
Cartesia detailsLiveKit details