audio model comparison
Eleven v4 Turbo vs Sonic 3.6
Eleven v4 Turbo and Sonic 3.6 are both current audio models, from ElevenLabs and Cartesia. Eleven v4 Turbo is 38% cheaper per character than Sonic 3.6, $0.00004 vs $0.000065. On Artificial Analysis Speech Arena, Eleven v4 Turbo scores 1330 Elo and Sonic 3.6 1286 Elo (Artificial Analysis, measured October 13, 2026).
Data verified October 13, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-13
Side by side
Standard-tier prices in effect today. The better value in each row is highlighted.
| Fact | Eleven v4 Turbo | Sonic 3.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Price per character | $0.00004 (better) | $0.000065 |
| Artificial Analysis Speech Arena | 1330 Elo (#1 of 11) (better) | 1286 Elo (#3 of 11) |
| Provider | ElevenLabs | Cartesia |
| Release date | September 28, 2026 | August 27, 2026 |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | Not reported | Not reported |
| Max output | Not reported | Not reported |
| Input | text | text |
| Output | audio | audio |
When to choose each
Eleven v4 Turbo
Best for
- Realtime voice agents
- Low-latency streaming speech
Watch out for
- ElevenLabs' latency figures exclude application and network latency
Sonic 3.6
Best for
- Multilingual speech for voice agents
- Indian-language and Hinglish speech
Watch out for
- Credit-based plans only (1 credit per character); the recorded rate is the Pro plan overage of $65 per 1M characters, falling to $38 on the Scale plan
- Cartesia does not state latency figures for this version
Eleven v4 Turbo vs Sonic 3.6 FAQ
Which is cheaper, Eleven v4 Turbo or Sonic 3.6?
Eleven v4 Turbo is 38% cheaper per character than Sonic 3.6, $0.00004 vs $0.000065.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Eleven v4 Turbo or Sonic 3.6?
Eleven v4 Turbo leads on Artificial Analysis Speech Arena, 1330 Elo to 1286 Elo. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Related comparisons
- Eleven Flash v2.5 vs Eleven v4 Turbo
- Eleven Flash v2.5 vs Sonic 3.6
- Eleven Multilingual v2 vs Eleven v4 Turbo
- Eleven Multilingual v2 vs Sonic 3.6
- Eleven v3 vs Eleven v4 Turbo
- Eleven v3 vs Sonic 3.6
- Eleven v4 Turbo vs Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS
- Eleven v4 Turbo vs TTS-1
- Eleven v4 vs Eleven v4 Turbo
- Eleven v4 vs Sonic 3.6
Production evaluation
Choosing between Eleven v4 Turbo and Sonic 3.6?
Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.
- A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
- Routing between models by cost and difficulty