---
title: "Cartesia API | Ethical Stack"
url: https://ethicalstack.ai/providers/cartesia-api/
catalog_version: f6baff2119d0e9158520da7fbe4232011dac79f25bd08757436d7a1dbd593db2
---

# Cartesia API

Hosted and enterprise routes for streaming speech synthesis, transcription and voice agents.

Canonical profile: https://ethicalstack.ai/providers/cartesia-api/

Scope: First-party Cartesia APIs; deployment options vary by model and agreement.

Published overall: 3.4; 5/6 dimensions rated.

Round the equal-weight mean of available numerical ratings to one decimal; require at least four of six for an overall score. BDS status stays outside the mean; for eligible profiles, a boycott target caps the final score at 2/10 and a pressure target subtracts one point (minimum 1). Not listed and not checked do not adjust the score.

## Energy practices

Finding: 2/10

Assessment: https://ethicalstack.ai/providers/cartesia-api/#energy

The public service documents a hosted route, but no comparable energy or clean-electricity report was found.

Reason: 1 + 1 reporting + 0 electricity + 0 controls = 2/10. This grades documented practices and transparency.

Argument: This hosted audio service profile scores disclosed deployment choices and operating controls, not measured energy savings. The reviewed product and company materials do not publish request-level electricity, an attributable data-center energy mix, or verified clean-power procurement for this service.

Type: argument; confidence: medium

Scope (dimension): Cartesia API

Research reviewed: not recorded; evidence date: not recorded

Unknowns: Comparable per-minute or per-generation electricity, water use, lifecycle emissions and independently verified clean-power sourcing are not published in these sources.

```json
{
  "method": "practices-transparency-v1",
  "scope": "Cartesia API",
  "components": {
    "disclosure": {
      "score": 1,
      "reason": "The official documentation identifies the hosted runtime boundary. It does not quantify electricity or lifecycle impact for this route.",
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://docs.cartesia.ai/"
      ]
    },
    "electricity": {
      "score": 0,
      "reason": "No attributable clean-electricity procurement or hourly matching evidence was found in the cited primary material.",
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://www.cartesia.ai/careers"
      ]
    },
    "demand": {
      "score": 0,
      "reason": "No documented user controls for reducing energy demand were found in these product sources.",
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://docs.cartesia.ai/"
      ]
    }
  },
  "actualImpactMeasured": false
}
```

- [Cartesia developer documentation overview](https://docs.cartesia.ai/) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

- [Cartesia official company, product or policy source](https://www.cartesia.ai/careers) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

## Training data

Finding: Depends on the model

Assessment: https://ethicalstack.ai/providers/cartesia-api/#training-rights

The selected route can include several models, and the vendor has not published a complete audio-training rights audit here.

Reason: Choose and verify the named audio model and release used by Cartesia API before evaluating pretraining rights.

Argument: This assessment covers Cartesia API rather than claiming permission for an unnamed or changing model. The vendor’s terms explain how it may handle user-submitted prompts, recordings and outputs; those input rules do not establish rights to the original model training recordings, compositions, lyrics or performer voices.

Type: argument; confidence: medium

Scope (profile): First-party Cartesia APIs; deployment options vary by model and agreement.

Research reviewed: not recorded; evidence date: not recorded

Unknowns: The serving model and release, training source ledger, composition and sound-recording permissions, performer consent or compensation, and removal outcomes remain unclear.

```json
{
  "method": "training-rights-evidence-v1",
  "scope": "The stated training release or selected model",
  "components": null,
  "routeDependency": "Choose and verify the named audio model and release used by Cartesia API before evaluating pretraining rights.",
  "modelReference": null
}
```

- [Cartesia official company, product or policy source](https://www.cartesia.ai/legal/privacy) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

- [Cartesia official company, product or policy source](https://www.cartesia.ai/legal/terms) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

## Your data & privacy

Finding: 5/10

Assessment: https://ethicalstack.ai/providers/cartesia-api/#privacy

Cartesia offers enterprise Zero Data Retention for selected TTS and STT routes; cloning is excluded.

Reason: Cartesia’s enterprise ZDR documentation covers TTS and STT audio/text payloads and says customer content is not stored for those eligible routes. It does not cover voice cloning or voice creation; operational metadata is retained, and Playground history may be unavailable. Do not apply this control to Managed Agents or other product paths without confirming eligibility. The linked Terms and Privacy pages were last revised in June 2024.

Argument: Cartesia’s enterprise ZDR documentation covers TTS and STT audio/text payloads and says customer content is not stored for those eligible routes. It does not cover voice cloning or voice creation; operational metadata is retained, and Playground history may be unavailable. Do not apply this control to Managed Agents or other product paths without confirming eligibility. The linked Terms and Privacy pages were last revised in June 2024.

Type: argument; confidence: medium

Scope (profile): First-party Cartesia APIs; deployment options vary by model and agreement.

Research reviewed: not recorded; evidence date: not recorded

Unknowns: The default retention period and post-2024 policy changes are not established here; ZDR does not protect cloning samples, and selected routes retain operational metadata.

- [Cartesia official company, product or policy source](https://www.cartesia.ai/legal/privacy) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

- [Cartesia official company, product or policy source](https://www.cartesia.ai/legal/terms) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

- [Cartesia official documentation](https://www.cartesia.ai/legal/dpa) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

- [Cartesia enterprise Zero Data Retention route eligibility](https://docs.cartesia.ai/enterprise/zero-data-retention) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

## Openness

Finding: 2/10

Assessment: https://ethicalstack.ai/providers/cartesia-api/#openness

The application, hosted API and model serving are proprietary; public technical docs cover integration and selection.

Reason: Official materials describe Cartesia API and how to use its hosted features, but do not publish its complete application or serving implementation under an open-source license. Public API documentation does not make the hosted model weights or full production stack inspectable.

Argument: Official materials describe Cartesia API and how to use its hosted features, but do not publish its complete application or serving implementation under an open-source license. Public API documentation does not make the hosted model weights or full production stack inspectable.

Type: argument; confidence: medium

Scope (profile): First-party Cartesia APIs; deployment options vary by model and agreement.

Research reviewed: not recorded; evidence date: not recorded

Unknowns: Complete source code, model weights, training recipe and independent reproduction are unavailable for this hosted service.

- [Cartesia developer documentation overview](https://docs.cartesia.ai/) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

- [Cartesia enterprise Zero Data Retention route eligibility](https://docs.cartesia.ai/enterprise/zero-data-retention) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

- [Cartesia Sonic 3.6 text-to-speech model](https://docs.cartesia.ai/build-with-cartesia/tts-models/latest) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

- [Cartesia Ink speech-to-text models](https://docs.cartesia.ai/build-with-cartesia/stt-models/latest) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

## Worker protections

Finding: 1/10

Assessment: https://ethicalstack.ai/providers/cartesia-api/#labour

Cartesia publishes public company and careers information, but the reviewed pages do not establish worker protections across its AI supply chain.

Reason: 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 1/10. Documented worker protections; missing disclosure is an evidence gap.

Argument: The reviewed company and product material provides some public visibility into the organization, but not independently verified evidence on annotation, moderation, contractor pay, worker representation, grievance handling or remedies. This score reflects what the vendor documents, not a finding that workers are mistreated. This entry carries the same developer/operator finding to Cartesia API; it does not establish that this product was deployed under every cited relationship.

Type: argument; confidence: medium

Scope (dimension): Cartesia: the documented developer/operator record, not proof of deployment of Cartesia API.

Research reviewed: not recorded; evidence date: not recorded

Unknowns: Contractor conditions, worker voice and remedy, supply-chain coverage and independent worker-level assurance are not established in these sources.

```json
{
  "method": "worker-safeguards-evidence-v1",
  "entity": "cartesia",
  "company": "Cartesia",
  "scope": "Cartesia employees and AI supply-chain workers",
  "components": {
    "conditions": {
      "score": 0,
      "reason": "No clear public evidence on pay or working conditions across employees and contractors was found in the reviewed company and product pages.",
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://www.cartesia.ai/careers"
      ]
    },
    "voice": {
      "score": 0,
      "reason": "No worker grievance, representation or remedy process was found in the reviewed public pages.",
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://www.cartesia.ai/careers"
      ]
    },
    "assurance": {
      "score": 0,
      "reason": "No independent worker-level implementation audit was found in the reviewed public pages.",
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://www.cartesia.ai/careers"
      ]
    }
  },
  "disclosureLimited": true
}
```

- [Cartesia official company, product or policy source](https://www.cartesia.ai/careers) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

## Military ties

Finding: 7/10

Assessment: https://ethicalstack.ai/providers/cartesia-api/#military-contracts

No military customer, contract or operational defense offering was established in the official sources reviewed for Cartesia.

Reason: 7 base + 0 safeguard adjustment = 7/10 (1 of 9 safeguard points; every 3 adds 1). No military relationship was established in the cited sources. This ranks above known defense ties without claiming a verified clean record.

Argument: The reviewed official company and product materials establish an audio product business but do not identify a military customer, defense contract, operational defense offering or military-use restriction. This is a bounded finding about sources checked, not proof that no relationship exists. No identity, location or supplier assumptions are used. This entry carries the same developer/operator finding to Cartesia API; it does not establish that this product was deployed under every cited relationship.

Type: argument; confidence: medium

Scope (dimension): Cartesia: the documented developer/operator record, not proof of deployment of Cartesia API.

Research reviewed: not recorded; evidence date: not recorded

Unknowns: Named customers, contract scopes, downstream deployments, customer-screening practices and independent military-use oversight may not be disclosed in the reviewed material.

```json
{
  "method": "military-ties-priority-v2",
  "entity": "cartesia",
  "company": "Cartesia",
  "scope": "Publicly disclosed Cartesia products and business; no deployment inferred",
  "components": {
    "restrictions": {
      "score": 1,
      "reason": "General service terms provide baseline restrictions, but no clear blanket prohibition on military use was found.",
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://www.cartesia.ai/legal/terms"
      ]
    },
    "oversight": {
      "score": 0,
      "reason": "No public military customer review or independent defense-use oversight was found in these sources.",
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://www.cartesia.ai/careers"
      ]
    },
    "transparency": {
      "score": 0,
      "reason": "The reviewed pages do not name a military customer, contract scope or deployment.",
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://www.cartesia.ai/careers"
      ]
    }
  },
  "disclosureLimited": true,
  "relationship": "not-established",
  "relationshipReason": "No direct military or defense relationship was established in the reviewed official product, company and terms pages. This is a source-limited finding and does not certify that no relationship exists.",
  "score": 7,
  "baseScore": 7,
  "safeguardPoints": 1,
  "safeguardAdjustment": 0,
  "rawScore": 7,
  "cap": null
}
```

- [Cartesia official company, product or policy source](https://www.cartesia.ai/careers) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

- [Cartesia official company, product or policy source](https://www.cartesia.ai/legal/terms) (primary; checked 2026-10-28)

## BDS targets

Finding: Not listed

Assessment: https://ethicalstack.ai/providers/cartesia-api/#israel-palestine

Cartesia was not named in the two official BNC technology and corporate target lists checked.

Reason: Campaign category, excluded from numerical scoring.

Argument: The official BNC corporate boycott and pressure guide and its No Tech campaign page do not name Cartesia among the current targets listed there. BDS uses selective, campaign-based targets; absence from these two lists is neither approval nor a broad assessment of company relationships. This entry carries the same developer/operator finding to Cartesia API; it does not establish that this product was deployed under every cited relationship.

Type: argument; confidence: medium

Scope (dimension): Cartesia: the documented developer/operator record, not proof of deployment of Cartesia API.

Research reviewed: not recorded; evidence date: not recorded

Unknowns: This categorical check covers only the two linked BNC lists as reviewed on the date shown; local campaigns and future list updates may differ.

- [BNC guide to boycott and pressure targets](https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott) (campaign; checked 2026-10-28)

- [BNC No Tech campaign](https://bdsmovement.net/no-tech-oppression-apartheid-or-genocide) (campaign; checked 2026-10-28)

## Reading the evidence

- Assessments are provisional editorial judgments. Cite the profile and the underlying sources, and retain confidence, scope and unknowns.

- Unknown, not-applicable and model-dependent are different states. Missing evidence does not establish good or bad conduct.

- Company-level evidence does not establish use of a particular product or model. Account plan, model, host and route can change an assessment.

- Energy scores describe documented practices and transparency, not measured request emissions. Zero component points can mean an evidence gap.

- Published overall scores require at least four of six numerical dimensions. Preserve coverage and BDS adjustments; BDS itself is categorical.

- No named BDS target found is limited to the reviewed campaign sources and is not approval. Personalized priorities do not change the published overall score.

- Review and source-check dates describe the research, not this deployment. Fetch current primary sources when the decision requires current verification.

Methodology: https://ethicalstack.ai/methodology/