Sonic 3.6 text-to-speech model
CartesiaReleased Aug 2026.
Sonic 3.6 is a text-to-speech (TTS) model from Cartesia. It ranks #4 of 98 on the Artificial Analysis TTS arena with Elo 1292 (95% CI ±14, 2,842 samples). List price is about $49 per 1M characters. Released Aug 2026.
Key facts
- Provider
- Cartesia
- AA rank
- #4 / 98
- AA Elo (95% CI)
- 1292 ±14
- AA samples
- 2,842
- TTS Arena Elo (uncertainty)
- –
- TTS Arena votes
- –
- TTS Arena win rate
- –
- Price (per 1M chars)
- $49
- Released
- Aug 2026
- Open weights
- –
- License
- –
- Voices tested by AA
- 8
- Languages
- –
- Voice cloning
- –
"–" means the upstream sources do not provide this value; we do not guess.
Nearby models
By AA Elo; this model highlighted| # | Model | AA Elo | Arena Elo | Price $/1M chars | Open weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Eleven v4 Turbo ElevenLabs | 1336 | – | $40 | – |
| 2 | Eleven v4 ElevenLabs | 1332 | – | $80 | – |
| 3 |  Qwen-Audio-3.1-TTS-Plus Alibaba | 1307 | – | $19.3 | – |
| 4 | CSonic 3.6 Cartesia | 1292 | – | $49 | – |
| 5 |  Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS Google | 1280 | – | $16.5 | – |
| 6 | IRealtime TTS-2 Inworld | 1270 | – | $20.8 | – |
| 7 | Qwen-Audio-3.0-TTS-Plus Alibaba | 1266 | – | $19.3 | – |
Alternatives · Cheaper with AA Elo ≥ 1262
| # | Model | AA Elo | Arena Elo | Price $/1M chars | Open weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eleven v4 Turbo ElevenLabs | 1336 | – | $40 | – |
| 3 | Qwen-Audio-3.1-TTS-Plus Alibaba | 1307 | – | $19.3 | – |
| 5 | Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS Google | 1280 | – | $16.5 | – |
| 6 | IRealtime TTS-2 Inworld | 1270 | – | $20.8 | – |
| 7 | Qwen-Audio-3.0-TTS-Plus Alibaba | 1266 | – | $19.3 | – |
Alternatives · More from Cartesia
| # | Model | AA Elo | Arena Elo | Price $/1M chars | Open weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | CCartesia Sonic 2 Cartesia | – | 1505 | – | – |
| 18 | CSonic 3.5 Cartesia | 1192 | – | $49 | – |
| 61 | CSonic 3 Cartesia | 1058 | – | $49 | – |
Alternatives · Top 5 open-weight by AA Elo
| # | Model | AA Elo | Arena Elo | Price $/1M chars | Open weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 |  Fish Audio Drama 3 Preview Fish Audio | 1248 | – | $15 | Open |
| 11 | BBreeze TTS 2 BreezeBlue | 1230 | – | $34 | Open |
| 19 |  Ming-3.0-tts Ant Group | 1191 | – | – | Open |
| 38 | Fish Audio S2 Pro Fish Audio | 1110 | – | $15 | Open |
| 41 |  Step Audio EditX (Mar 2026) StepFun | 1100 | – | – | Open |
FAQ
Where does Sonic 3.6 rank among TTS models?
As of Oct 25, 2026, Sonic 3.6 ranks #4 of 98 on the Artificial Analysis TTS leaderboard with Elo 1292 (±14).
Is Sonic 3.6 open source?
The sources do not list Sonic 3.6 as open-weight; it is generally used through the Cartesia API.
What is the best Chinese TTS model?
By AA Elo, the top model from a Chinese provider is Qwen-Audio-3.1-TTS-Plus by Alibaba (Elo 1307, #3 overall).
Which top-10 TTS model is cheapest?
Among the AA top 10, the lowest list price is Simba 3.2 (SpeechifyAI) at $6.6 per 1M characters, Elo 1246.
What is the best open-source TTS model?
By AA Elo, the top open-weight model is Fish Audio Drama 3 Preview by Fish Audio (Elo 1248, #9 overall); 18 open-weight models have an AA score.
Sources
"–" means the upstream sources do not provide this value; we do not guess.