{"jtbd":{"id":"realtime-tts","slug":"realtime-tts","name":"Ultra-low-latency text-to-speech","shortName":"Ultra-low-latency text-to-speech"},"recommended":{"role":"depot_pick","id":"cartesia","slug":"cartesia","name":"Cartesia","website":"https://cartesia.ai","editorialOverall":7.85,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","price":{"available":false,"unavailableReason":"no_sourced_price","skus":[],"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price"}},"priceComparison":{"skuKind":"speech_synthesis","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","comparison":"min sourced speech-synthesis SKU among candidates; usd_per_1k_characters only; not a chat $/1M rate; not quality-adjusted","amountLabel":"USD per 1k characters","reportsUsdPerMillion":false,"matchedCandidates":2},"cheapestInput":{"providerId":"deepgram","slug":"deepgram","name":"Deepgram","skuId":"deepgram-aura-2-payg","item":"Aura-2","plan":"Aura-2 — Pay As You Go","isFloorPrice":true,"floorWarning":"Provider-wide floor SKU; may not be the flagship model scored for this JTBD.","skuKind":"speech_synthesis","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","comparison":"min sourced speech-synthesis SKU among candidates; usd_per_1k_characters only; not a chat $/1M rate; not quality-adjusted","amountUsd":0.03,"usdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"sku":{"id":"deepgram-aura-2-payg","providerId":"deepgram","sku":"Aura-2","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","amountUsd":0.03,"currency":"USD","sourceUrl":"https://deepgram.com/pricing","asOf":"2026-10-03","normalizationStatus":"unit_mismatch","normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationReason":"unit_mismatch_per_1k_characters","priceSortEligible":false,"qualifier":"Pay As You Go","verifiedAsOf":"2026-10-27","sourceCheck":"reconfirmed","ageDays":0,"stale":false,"firstSeen":"2026-10-03","lastChanged":null,"frequentlyChanging":false},"tiedWith":[]},"cheapest":{"providerId":"deepgram","slug":"deepgram","name":"Deepgram","skuId":"deepgram-aura-2-payg","item":"Aura-2","plan":"Aura-2 — Pay As You Go","isFloorPrice":true,"floorWarning":"Provider-wide floor SKU; may not be the flagship model scored for this JTBD.","skuKind":"speech_synthesis","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","comparison":"min sourced speech-synthesis SKU among candidates; usd_per_1k_characters only; not a chat $/1M rate; not quality-adjusted","amountUsd":0.03,"usdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"sku":{"id":"deepgram-aura-2-payg","providerId":"deepgram","sku":"Aura-2","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","amountUsd":0.03,"currency":"USD","sourceUrl":"https://deepgram.com/pricing","asOf":"2026-10-03","normalizationStatus":"unit_mismatch","normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationReason":"unit_mismatch_per_1k_characters","priceSortEligible":false,"qualifier":"Pay As You Go","verifiedAsOf":"2026-10-27","sourceCheck":"reconfirmed","ageDays":0,"stale":false,"firstSeen":"2026-10-03","lastChanged":null,"frequentlyChanging":false},"tiedWith":[]},"recommendedWorkloadQuote":null,"representativeQuote":null,"estimatedTaskCost":null,"cheapestGoodEnough":{"band":{"rule":"editorial overall >= Depot Pick overall - 0.5","minOverall":7.35,"pickOverall":7.85,"points":0.5},"pick":{"providerId":"deepgram","slug":"deepgram","name":"Deepgram","skuId":"deepgram-aura-2-payg","item":"Aura-2","plan":"Aura-2 — Pay As You Go","isFloorPrice":true,"floorWarning":"Provider-wide floor SKU; may not be the flagship model scored for this JTBD.","skuKind":"speech_synthesis","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","comparison":"min sourced speech-synthesis SKU among candidates; usd_per_1k_characters only; not a chat $/1M rate; not quality-adjusted","amountUsd":0.03,"usdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"sku":{"id":"deepgram-aura-2-payg","providerId":"deepgram","sku":"Aura-2","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","amountUsd":0.03,"currency":"USD","sourceUrl":"https://deepgram.com/pricing","asOf":"2026-10-03","normalizationStatus":"unit_mismatch","normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationReason":"unit_mismatch_per_1k_characters","priceSortEligible":false,"qualifier":"Pay As You Go","verifiedAsOf":"2026-10-27","sourceCheck":"reconfirmed","ageDays":0,"stale":false,"firstSeen":"2026-10-03","lastChanged":null,"frequentlyChanging":false},"tiedWith":[],"overall":8.54},"reason":null,"cheaperButBelowBand":[]},"dates":{"scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","scoreKind":"curated_estimate","priceVerifiedAsOf":null,"note":"scoreAsOf is when the editorial score was last set; priceVerifiedAsOf is the newest fact-check of the pick's price rows. They are separate: a fresh price check does not re-score."},"sourcedInputs":[{"providerId":"deepgram","slug":"deepgram","name":"Deepgram","skuId":"deepgram-aura-2-payg","item":"Aura-2","plan":"Aura-2 — Pay As You Go","isFloorPrice":true,"floorWarning":"Provider-wide floor SKU; may not be the flagship model scored for this JTBD.","skuKind":"speech_synthesis","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","amountUsd":0.03,"usdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"sku":{"id":"deepgram-aura-2-payg","providerId":"deepgram","sku":"Aura-2","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","amountUsd":0.03,"currency":"USD","sourceUrl":"https://deepgram.com/pricing","asOf":"2026-10-03","normalizationStatus":"unit_mismatch","normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationReason":"unit_mismatch_per_1k_characters","priceSortEligible":false,"qualifier":"Pay As You Go","verifiedAsOf":"2026-10-27","sourceCheck":"reconfirmed","ageDays":0,"stale":false,"firstSeen":"2026-10-03","lastChanged":null,"frequentlyChanging":false},"isDepotPick":false},{"providerId":"elevenlabs","slug":"elevenlabs","name":"ElevenLabs","skuId":"elevenlabs-tts-flash-turbo","item":"Flash / Turbo Text to Speech","plan":"Flash / Turbo Text to Speech — Price per 1K characters","isFloorPrice":true,"floorWarning":"Provider-wide floor SKU; may not be the flagship model scored for this JTBD.","skuKind":"speech_synthesis","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","amountUsd":0.04,"usdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"sku":{"id":"elevenlabs-tts-flash-turbo","providerId":"elevenlabs","sku":"Flash / Turbo Text to Speech","unit":"usd_per_1k_characters","amountUsd":0.04,"currency":"USD","sourceUrl":"https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/api","asOf":"2026-10-03","normalizationStatus":"unit_mismatch","normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationReason":"unit_mismatch_per_1k_characters","priceSortEligible":false,"qualifier":"Price per 1K characters.","verifiedAsOf":"2026-10-27","sourceCheck":"reconfirmed","ageDays":0,"stale":false,"firstSeen":"2026-10-03","lastChanged":null,"frequentlyChanging":false},"isDepotPick":false}],"pickIsPriceWinner":false,"priceWinnerReason":"pick_has_no_matching_sourced_price","priceWinnerNote":"Pick is not a price winner. Cheapest matching USD per 1k characters among candidates is deepgram at 0.03. The pick has no matching sourced price. Chat input $/1M was not borrowed.","excluded":4,"coverage":{"candidates":6,"withAnySourcedRow":2,"withSourcedInputUsdPerMillion":0,"withMatchingPrice":2,"excludedNoSourcedPrice":4,"excludedFromCheapestInput":4},"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationReason":"input_and_output_are_not_blended","seo":{"published":false,"reason":"Only 2 candidate(s) have a matching USD per 1k characters (speech_synthesis). Need 3 before a crawlable price section. Quote JSON is still returned."},"cite":"Depot Pick for realtime-tts: cartesia (asOf 2026-09-14). See GET /api/jtbds/realtime-tts + GET /api/methodology.","asOf":"2026-10-27","honesty":["Recommended provider is the current Depot Pick from GET /api/decide. This quote does not change scores.","SKU rows are copied from data/pricing-rows.json via GET /api/pricing. No new pages were scraped for this response.","normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens on this quote is always null. Input and output stay on separate rows.","cheapestInput compares one native unit that matches this job. Chat and coding jobs use priceSortEligible input $/1M. Embedding jobs use embedding SKUs only. Speech-to-text uses a stored speech unit only (per minute when that unit exists; a voice-agent hosting minute and a speech-engine minute are not speech-to-text). Speech synthesis uses one stored TTS unit in preference order (per minute, then per 1k characters, then per million characters) and does not mix those units or a speech-engine minute. Hosted-browser jobs compare usd_per_browser_hour only (lowest tier per provider, not quality-adjusted); proxy per GB, CAPTCHA solves, monthly plans, and chat tokens are not included. Sandbox, code-interpreter, ephemeral CI, and persistent dev env compare usd_per_vcpu_hour only, and only when the Depot Pick has that row; GPU-hour, GiB-hour, and vCPU-second are not converted. Secret jobs compare identity-month or user-month, never both; if both are stored, cheapestInput is null (mixed_secret_units). Voice-agent platform jobs compare a voice-agent hosting minute only. Transactional email compares usd_per_1k_emails only. Marketing email compares usd_per_1k_emails when a non-transactional per-1k SKU exists; otherwise it ranks a marketing-labeled usd_per_email and does not convert that rate to per 1k or mix it with per-1k. Monthly plans are not a unit price (plan_not_a_unit_price). Outbound and inbound webhook jobs compare usd_per_message only. Queue jobs compare usd_per_100k_messages or usd_per_million_events, never both (mixed_units). Push does not rank MAU or monthly plans. Error observability ranks a unit only when every candidate shares it; per-error fractions are not ranked against monthly plans. MotherDuck CU-hours and flight hours are not vCPU-hours. Composio's unsplit sandbox token rate is not chat $/1M. CAPTCHA SKUs are not ranked. Other non-token jobs do not borrow a chat $/1M rate. If nothing matches, cheapestInput is null.","excluded counts candidates with zero sourced pricing rows. excludedFromCheapestInput also counts candidates whose rows are a different unit than this job.","A Depot Pick is not a price winner unless its matching sourced price is the lowest among candidates. The comparison is not quality-adjusted. pickIsPriceWinner is null (not false) when nothing was compared."],"links":{"decide":"/api/decide?jtbd=realtime-tts","quote":"/api/quote?jtbd=realtime-tts","pricing":"/api/pricing?provider=cartesia","leaderboardPrice":"/api/leaderboards?jtbd=realtime-tts&sort=price","humanPage":"/jtbds/realtime-tts#quote","methodology":"/api/methodology"},"sourceConflicts":[{"providerId":"elevenlabs","field":"ElevenAgents Free and Starter additional call minutes","sourceUrl":"https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/agents","asOf":"2026-10-23","quotes":["Creator Popular $22 First month 50% off $11 per month Choose Creator Everything in Starter, plus 275 minutes of calls included 10 Concurrent Calls Additional Minutes","Free / Pay as you go Starter Creator Pro Scale Business … Additional Call (per minute) … 15 min $0.080 $0.003 $0.160 4 75 min $0.080 $0.003 $0.160 6"],"safeAssumption":"Free and Starter are not costed above their included 15 and 75 call minutes; budget additional minutes on Creator or higher."}],"volumeEstimateHint":"Add &volume=<number> for a plan-level monthly cost (GET /api/estimate?jtbd=realtime-tts&workload=...)"}