# Cartesia Ink vs ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API

> ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text scores 68.9 (B) to Cartesia Ink's 67.9 (B) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API scores 68.9 (B) on agent readiness against Cartesia Ink's 67.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Cartesia Ink leads on maintenance & community. Both do speech-to-text.

- Cartesia Ink: grade B, 67.9/100, rank #238 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cartesia-ink-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cartesia-ink-stt.json
- ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API: grade B, 68.9/100, rank #200 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.json
- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md
- All 91 stt comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/speech-to-text/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Cartesia Ink (B)

Good for: Suited to voice agents that need turn detection and transcription from one model in English, French, Hindi, Japanese or Spanish, and to teams already using Cartesia text-to-speech.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 75

Watch for: The terms let Cartesia train models on inputs and outputs unless otherwise agreed. Opting out is a form in the Playground's data controls

### ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API (B)

Good for: Batch transcription where diarisation, entity detection and keyterms matter, and for teams already on ElevenLabs for speech.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 95 against 89
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Audio may be used for training unless the account opts out, and the opt-out isn't retroactive


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cartesia Ink | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 73 | 70 | Cartesia Ink +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 95 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 75 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 52 | 55 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 75 | Cartesia Ink +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 70 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.9 · B** | **68.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cartesia Ink | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Cartesia | ElevenLabs |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cartesia.ai` | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, websocket, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service under the Cartesia Terms of Service. The Python and JavaScript SDKs are Apache-2.0 | MIT (SDKs) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-28 |
| Terms last updated | 2024-06-14 | 2026-03-31 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-06-14 | 2026-05-20 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 134 stars | 3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Cartesia Ink.** Ink 2 streams transcripts with turn detection built into the model, documented by an AsyncAPI file with typed ranges and structured errors. The terms, last revised 14 June 2024, let Cartesia train on inputs and outputs unless the customer opts out, and zero data retention is an Enterprise setting. Ink 2 has no batch endpoint and no diarisation.

**ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API.** $0.22 an hour for batch with 90+ languages and diarisation to 32 speakers. Audio may be used for training unless the account opts out, and the opt-out isn't retroactive.

## Before you call either

### Cartesia Ink

1. Use `wss://api.cartesia.ai/stt/turns/websocket` with `model=ink-2`, `encoding`, `sample_rate` and `cartesia_version=2026-08-14`. All four are required.
2. Send raw mono audio in chunks of about 100 ms at the speed it was spoken. Pushing a whole file into the socket can return an internal server error.
3. Read the final text from `turn.end` only. `transcript` is cumulative within a turn, so joining `turn.update` events duplicates text.
4. Send `{"type": "close"}` after the last audio and keep reading until the server closes the socket, or the buffered tail is lost.
5. Check `encoding` and `sample_rate` against the source before sending. The docs say the server might not return an error when they are wrong.

### ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API

1. Create a key restricted to speech-to-text with a credit quota and an expiry
2. Use `source_url` for hosted files instead of downloading and re-uploading
3. Set `webhook=true` for long files so the call doesn't block
4. Back off exponentially on any of the three 429 codes
5. Opt out under Data use before sending customer audio. It only covers later uploads

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cartesia Ink or ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API?

ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API scores 68.9 (B) on agent readiness against Cartesia Ink's 67.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Cartesia Ink leads on maintenance & community.

### Do Cartesia Ink and ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Cartesia Ink and ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API without installing anything?

Yes. Cartesia Ink has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cartesia.ai and ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API at https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cartesia-ink-stt", "b": "elevenlabs-scribe"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cartesia-ink-stt elevenlabs-scribe`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cartesia-ink-stt.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.json

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