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Van Data Team
Current modelCartesia

Sonic 3.6 benchmarks, pricing and specs

Sonic 3.6 is a Cartesia model released on August 27, 2026 that takes text input and produces audio. It costs $0.000065 per character. It scores 1286 Elo on Artificial Analysis Speech Arena, #3 of 11 current models (Artificial Analysis, measured October 13, 2026).

Per character
$0.000065
Artificial Analysis Speech Arena
1286 Elo · #3/11

Data verified October 13, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-13

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Key facts

Provider
Cartesia
Model family
Sonic
Release date
August 27, 2026
Status
Current
Access
API only
API model id
sonic-3.6
Context window
Not reported
Max output
Not reported
Input
text
Output
audio
Task families
audio
Declared capabilities
text to speech

Sonic 3.6 pricing

It is the #4 cheapest of 7 current audio models priced per character.

UnitPrice (USD)TierAppliesSource
1M input tokensNot reportedstandardCurrent
1M output tokensNot reportedstandardCurrent
1M input tokensNot reportedcachedCurrent
character$0.000065pro plan overageCurrent
character$0.000038scale plan overageCurrent

Independent benchmark results

Scores come from independent evaluators that ran the model themselves, pinned to a dated snapshot. Rank is among current models in the same snapshot. Cartesia's own launch figures are listed under strengths with the publisher named, because they are not measured the same way.

BenchmarkScoreRankMeasuredSource
Artificial Analysis Speech Arena1286 Elo#3 of 11October 13, 2026Artificial Analysis · 2026-10-13

Strengths, cautions and best uses

Strengths

  • Cartesia reports 44 languages across 61 locales, adding Odia and Urdu with instant voice cloning
  • Backwards compatible with Sonic 3.5: existing voice clones keep their ids
  • A dated snapshot, sonic-3.6-2026-08-27, that Cartesia says never changes

Cautions

  • 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

Best for

  • Multilingual speech for voice agents
  • Indian-language and Hinglish speech

Alternatives to Sonic 3.6

The closest current audiomodels by price. The cheapest model that scores as well or better is listed first; failing that, the cheapest one within 3% of the benchmark's scale.

Compare Sonic 3.6 with

Sonic 3.6 FAQ

How much does Sonic 3.6 cost?

Sonic 3.6 costs $0.000065 per character at the standard tier. It is the #4 cheapest of 7 current audio models priced per character. Source: Cartesia, verified October 13, 2026.

How does Sonic 3.6 score on independent benchmarks?

Sonic 3.6 scores 1286 Elo on Artificial Analysis Speech Arena, #3 of 11 current models (Artificial Analysis, measured October 13, 2026). These are independent evaluations, not Cartesia's own launch figures.

Is Sonic 3.6 open source or API only?

Sonic 3.6 is available through Cartesia's API only; its weights are not published.

What are the best alternatives to Sonic 3.6?

The closest current alternatives by price and measured performance are Eleven v4 Turbo (38% cheaper per character, $0.00004 vs $0.000065), Eleven Multilingual v2 (23% more per character, $0.00008 vs $0.000065), TTS-1 (77% cheaper per character, $0.000015 vs $0.000065) and Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS (12 points lower on Artificial Analysis Speech Arena, 1274 vs 1286).

Sources

Cite this page

Van Data Team. "Sonic 3.6 Benchmarks, Pricing and Specs." AI Model Benchmark Dataset 2026-10-13. https://vandatateam.com/ai-model-benchmarks/sonic-3-6

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