# Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP vs ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API

> ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API has a score of 73.8 (BB) against Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP's 59.8 (C). Both do voice clone. The largest gap is security & auth, 36 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-04

ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API has a score of 73.8 (BB) against Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP's 59.8 (C). Both do voice clone. The largest gap is security & auth, 36 points.

- Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP: grade C, 59.8/100, rank #257 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cartesia-voice-cloning.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cartesia-voice-cloning.json
- ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API: grade BB, 73.8/100, rank #53 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-voice-cloning.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-voice-cloning.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API for agent ergonomics (+20), security & auth (+36), payments & pricing (+20), maintenance & community (+5), transparency & trust (+13).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP | ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 63 | 63 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 87 | ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 85 | ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 48 | 84 | ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API +36 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 30 | ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 85 | ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 84 | ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59.8 · C** | **73.8 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP | ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Cartesia | ElevenLabs |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cartesia.ai` | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) | MIT (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 19 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-28 |
| Popularity | 133 stars, 166k npm/wk, 177k PyPI/wk | 3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP.** Instant clones from 10 seconds of audio, up to 60 seconds used on Sonic 3.6. No consent or speaker verification in the clone API.

**ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API.** Instant clones from 1 to 2 minutes of audio on the $6 Starter plan. Instant clones rely on an attestation, not a check.

## Before you call either

### Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP

1. Send `Cartesia-Version` on every call. The clone endpoint lists it as a required header
2. Pass the speaker's recorded `language`. A clone is built from one language, add others with the accents API
3. Keep IVC uploads under 16 MB
4. Don't blind-retry `POST /voices/clone`. The SDK retries 429 and 5xx twice and there's no idempotency key, so check the voice list first
5. Poll a Pro clone fine-tune until it finishes before using the voice ID

### ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API

1. Keep the source samples. A clone can't be downloaded and re-cloning sounds slightly different
2. Check `requires_verification` in the create response before using the voice ID
3. List your own clones with `GET /v2/voices?category=cloned` instead of paging the whole library
4. On `system_busy` retry with backoff. On `too_many_concurrent_requests` queue instead, the plan cap won't lift
5. PVC is asynchronous. Create, add samples, verify, train, then poll `fine_tuning_state`

## Other comparisons with Cartesia Voice Cloning API + MCP or ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API

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- [ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API vs Murf Voice Cloning API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-voice-cloning-vs-murf-voice-cloning.md)
- [ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API vs PlayHT Voice Cloning API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-voice-cloning-vs-playht-voice-cloning.md)
- [ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API vs Resemble AI Voice Cloning API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-voice-cloning-vs-resemble-ai-voice-cloning.md)
- [ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API vs Soniox Voice Cloning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-voice-cloning-vs-soniox-voice-cloning.md)
- [ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API vs Speechify API Voice Cloning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-voice-cloning-vs-speechify-voice-cloning.md)
- [ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and Voice Design API vs Ultravox Voice Cloning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-voice-cloning-vs-ultravox-voice-cloning.md)