# Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design vs Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone (slim)

> Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design scores 60.8 (C) to Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone's 58 (C) for voice cloning. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gradium-voice-cloning-vs-smallest-voice-clone.md (~4,500 tokens) · this version ~2,080 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gradium-voice-cloning-vs-smallest-voice-clone.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gradium-voice-cloning-vs-smallest-voice-clone
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design scores 60.8 (C) on agent readiness against Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone's 58 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone leads on transparency & trust. Both do voice cloning.

- Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design: C 60.8, rank #640 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gradium-voice-cloning.min.md
- Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone: C 58, rank #772 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-voice-clone.min.md
- Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design, good for Builders on Gradium's TTS who want instant clones and designed voices in five European languages with EU residency. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 83 against 70; Agent ergonomics, 67 against 62; Payments & pricing, 30 against 20. Also Free to start without a card.
- Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone, good for Teams already on Smallest's Lightning TTS or voice agents who want a clone from a short clip in one call. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 72 against 63.

| Category | Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design | Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 63 | 65 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 83 | 70 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 67 | 62 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 48 | 48 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 70 | 72 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 72 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design | Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Gradium SAS | Smallest, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.gradium.ai/api/voices/` | `https://api.smallest.ai/waves/v1/voice-cloning` |
| Transports | HTTP, websocket | HTTP |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for voice cloning | not published | $17.50 per 1M characters |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Gradium's Terms of Service (version of 19 October 2026). The `gradium` Python SDK is on PyPI | Proprietary service under Smallest's Terms of Service. The `smallestai` Python SDK is on PyPI |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-10-29 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design +13: Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design 83 (Public OpenAPI 3.1 file at docs.gradium.ai/api-reference/openapi.json (25). llms.txt and Markdown pages (10). The guides say when to clone, design, enhance or localise a voice, and the custom-voice page explains the enhancement default and how to opt out (14 of 20). The clone body has `audio_file`, `name` and `language` required, a five-value language enum and typed defaults for `start_s`, `enhance` and `timeout_s` (14 of 15). curl and Python examples. The create call documents only 201 and 422, and the errors page covers synthesis, with plain-text 500 bodies (9 of 15). Routes carry no version, the OpenAPI file is 0.1.0, and release notes are dated per entry, newest 6 November 2026 (11 of 15). The API reference FAQ gives a 300-second session where the limits page says 3,000. 25+10+14+14+9+11 = 83.); Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone 70 (The API reference pages are generated with typed fields, enums and error schemas, but no OpenAPI file was found linked from the docs or llms.txt (5 of 25). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). The guide says when to use the Pro pool, how to check `modelIds` before synthesis and why a mismatched clone returns empty audio, while the reference still names the retiring default (14 of 20). `model` and `language` are enums validated by the server, with required `displayName` and `file`, a 5 MB limit and MIME types listed, and `tags` as a comma-separated string (12 of 15). Examples in curl, Python and Node.js and a table of seven error cases with causes (14 of 15). Paths under `/v1`, a deprecation page with dated statuses and a models changelog with entries on 21, 24, 26, 28 and 29 October 2026 (15). 5+10+14+12+14+15 = 70.)
- Payments & pricing, Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design +10: Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices and credits are public, 1 credit a character for speech, with no dollar price per unit, as cartesia-voice-cloning is read. Creating a clone uses no credits in the docs (10). The free plan has 45,000 credits a month, 5 custom voices and Voice Design, and the site says no credit card is required. Commercial use starts on the $12 plan (20). Signup is a browser flow in Gradium Studio (0). 0+10+20+0 = 30.); Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-character TTS prices are public, about $0.175 per 10,000 characters on Lightning v3.1, but no price per clone is published and the models pricing table marks voice cloning No on pay as you go, against the docs (10). The agents pricing page states $10 in free credits, and whether a card is needed wasn't established (10 of 20). A person signs up in a browser and creates the key in the dashboard (0). 0+10+10+0 = 20.)
- Transparency & trust, Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone +9: Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design 63 (Closed service with clear terms, version of 19 October 2026, naming Gradium SAS with its Paris registration (15 of 30). The Terms allow training on Client Data, zero data retention excludes voice samples, the privacy policy gives retention criteria without periods, and a DPA is published as an exhibit. The statements agree but give no retention period for samples (15 of 30). Deprecations appear in dated release notes, with no written notice policy (10 of 20). EU and US residency is documented and selectable from the XS plan. Sub-processors sit in the trust centre, not read (12 of 20). 15+15+10+12 = 52.); Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone 72 (Closed service with clear terms naming Smallest, Inc. under California law, effective 21 October 2026 (15 of 30). The Terms rule out training on customer content, the Privacy Policy (18 September 2026) gives retention criteria but no periods, and the Zero Data Retention page is specific about Enterprise options, with nothing on how long cloning samples are kept (16 of 30). A deprecation page with dated statuses (deprecated, rejects, removed, scheduled, retiring) and migration targets (16 of 20). Two regions named with locations. No sub-processor list was found and a DPA page exists unread (10 of 20). 15+16+16+10 = 57.)
- Agent ergonomics, Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design +5: Gradium Voice Cloning and Voice Design 67 (Voice objects are compact metadata (20 of 25). `GET /voices/` takes `skip` and `limit` (default 100) and since 23 October filters by `locale`, `gender` and `use_case` (20). Validation errors are structured 422 bodies, while synthesis errors arrive as plain-text HTTP 500 with a numeric code to parse (12 of 20). No idempotency key. Saving a design candidate twice answers 409, and the clone call has none (5 of 20). Three required fields with sensible defaults, and one official SDK, in Python (10 of 15). 20+20+12+5+10 = 67.); Smallest.ai Instant Voice Clone 62 (The clone response is a compact object with the voice ID, status and signed URLs to sample clips rather than inline audio (20 of 25). The list call returns every clone on the organisation with no pagination or filter found (10 of 20). Errors carry a message and, on 500, an `error_code` enum with a stated fix, such as retrying `voice_clone_timeout` (16 of 20). No idempotency key, and retrying a timeout can leave a duplicate clone, with deletion through an oddly named route (4 of 20). Two required fields. The Python SDK `smallestai` 5.14.0 is current, while the npm package `smallestai` was last published on 16 April 2025 (12 of 15). 20+10+16+4+12 = 62.)