Voice layer · secondary to AI receptionists
Best AI Voices for Business Phone Calls & Voice Agents
Cartesia Pro ($5/mo) is the cheapest plan with a published commercial license, and Cartesia's $0.06/min agent rate is the lowest published agent rate on this page. On a live call the voice has to answer fast and be priced per minute. Below are the per-minute prices and the compliance claims each vendor publishes, read 2026-10-28.
How do these voices compare on price and phone features?
Tools whose published plan includes a commercial license come first, by lowest published price; then the rest, by price. Affiliate status never changes the order. Not published means the vendor does not publish it, or we have not yet read it with a date.
Ordered by: commercial license published first, then lowest published price.
| # | Tool | Monthly price from (USD/mo) | Free tier | Commercial use | API | μ-law output | SOC 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cartesia | $5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| 2 | ElevenLabs | $6 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published |
| 3 | Deepgram | Not published | Yes | Not published | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| 4 | Murf | Not published | Yes | Not published | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Prices, sources and check dates for every value are in the full table.
See all fields (16 columns with sources and dates)
Ordered by: commercial license published first, then lowest published price.
| # | Tool | Monthly price from (USD/mo) | Annual billing (USD/mo equivalent) | Free tier | Included audio (minutes/mo) | Overage (USD per minute) | Price per 1,000 characters (USD) | Price per minute of audio (USD) | Commercial use | Voice cloning | API | μ-law output | 8 kHz output | Languages (count) | Voices (count) | SOC 2 | HIPAA BAA | Price source and date checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cartesia | $5 | Not published | Yes | — | Not published | Not published | Not published | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published | Not published | — | — | Yes | Enterprise only | cartesia.ai/pricing, checked |
| 2 | ElevenLabs | $6 | $5 | Yes | — | Not published | Not published | Not published | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published | 74 | — | Not published | Enterprise only | elevenlabs.io/pricing, checked |
| 3 | Deepgram | Not published | Not published | Yes | — | Not published | $0.015 | Not published | Not published | Not published | Yes | Not published | Not published | — | — | Yes | Enterprise only | deepgram.com/pricing, checked |
| 4 | Murf | Not published | Not published | Yes | — | Not published | $0.01 | Not published | Not published | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published | — | — | Yes | Not published | murf.ai/pricing, checked |
Telephony formats: 8 kHz is narrowband phone audio; μ-law (G.711) is the encoding most US phone lines use. A voice needs one of these to play on a phone line without resampling.
Audio samples coming
Top pick per use case
Prices come from each vendor pricing page, checked 2026-10-28. No partners in voice yet, so vendor names are plain text.
Chosen only on free tier, commercial rights, price, published phone formats and compliance claims.
| Use case | Top pick | Why (published facts) |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest published agent rate | Cartesia | Agents $0.06/min; SOC 2 Type II |
| Broadest published compliance | Deepgram | SOC 2 Type 1 & 2 and PCI compliant (its pricing page); HIPAA BAA on Enterprise only |
| Used by receptionists we list | ElevenLabs | Named as the voice engine on HireJosie's own site (see the voice powers page) |
Per-minute prices and compliance
| Vendor | Published price | Billed per | Compliance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cartesia | Agents $0.06; phone number $0.014 | Minute | SOC 2 Type II; BAAs on Enterprise only |
| Deepgram | Voice Agent API Standard $0.075 | Minute (websocket connection time) | SOC 2 Type 1 & 2; PCI compliant; HIPAA BAA on Enterprise only |
| ElevenLabs | Agent rate not verified | Not verified | BAAs for HIPAA on Enterprise only |
| Murf | Falcon $0.01 | 1,000 characters (a per-character price, not per minute) | States HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II |
Cartesia
- Agents $0.06/min; phone number $0.014/min
- BAAs are listed under Enterprise only
Deepgram
- Voice Agent API Standard $0.075/min (Pay As You Go, billed on connection time)
- PCI compliance is stated on its pricing page; its HIPAA BAA is for Enterprise customers only
ElevenLabs
- See which receptionists name ElevenLabs on our voice powers page.
Murf
- Falcon $0.01 per 1,000 characters (per character, not per minute)
What do people ask most?
These are the questions we get most, answered from published vendor data.
Do I need to build my own voice agent?
Most local businesses don't. A ready-made AI receptionist bundles the voice, the phone number and booking.