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Cartesia Ink Whisper

Up to 30%

Transcribe speech with Cartesia Ink Whisper on LLM.API—batch or streaming audio to text with the same developer surface as your other models.

What is Cartesia Ink Whisper?

Cartesia Ink Whisper is a speech-to-text model on LLM.API (`ink-whisper`). Speech-to-text model by Cartesia. Feed audio and receive text transcripts for captions, agents, and searchable archives.


Providers

LLM.API routes Cartesia Ink Whisper to the providers below, with discounted effective rates versus list price.

ProviderPricingContextCapabilities
cartesia30% offin $0.0022; out — per minute of audio

Prices and availability from the LLMAPI catalogue, updated nightly. Last updated 21 Sept 2026.

Try this model

Test Cartesia Ink Whisper right here — free to start.

Cartesia Ink Whisper
Hi! Want to test the model?

Suggestions for your first prompt

Code snippet

Call Cartesia Ink Whisper through the OpenAI-compatible API — STT via LLM.API (see docs for audio endpoints).

python
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key="YOUR_LLMAP_KEY",
    base_url="https://api.llmapi.ai/v1",
)

resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="ink-whisper",
    messages=[
        {"role": "system", "content": "You are a precise product assistant."},
        {"role": "user", "content": "Give me three crisp launch checklist items."},
    ],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)
{
  "model": "ink-whisper",
  "messages": [
    {"role": "system", "content": "You are a precise product assistant."},
    {"role": "user", "content": "Give me three crisp launch checklist items."}
  ]
}

5 Core Capabilities

  • Voice UX input

    Powers voice-driven product interfaces and IVR handoffs.

  • Downstream LLM prep

    Feeds transcripts into summarization and action-item extractors. Tuned to how teams typically call Cartesia Ink Whisper.

  • Streaming recognition

    Supports low-latency partial transcripts when the provider offers streaming STT.

  • Compliance archives

    Creates text records of spoken interactions for audit trails. Tuned to how teams typically call Cartesia Ink Whisper.

  • Meeting capture

    Fits voice notes, calls, and meeting recording pipelines. Relevant for `ink-whisper` workloads on LLM.API.

6 Most Valuable Use Cases

  • Feeding voice input into LLM agents with Cartesia Ink Whisper
  • Clinical or field note dictation workflows
  • Meeting notes and searchable recordings with Cartesia Ink Whisper
  • Call-center transcription and QA
  • Live captioning prototypes with Cartesia Ink Whisper
  • Voice command capture in mobile apps

Why Build on LLM.API?

One unified API. Every major model. Built-in reliability, cost control, and observability.

  • Intelligent AI Routing

    Automatically route each request to the best model across providers based on latency, cost, and quality—without changing your integration or redeploying code.

    One endpoint, every model.
  • Cost-Aware Execution

    Control spend with per-request cost estimation, smart model selection, and centralized quotas so teams can experiment fast without runaway bills or manual tracking.

    More performance, less spend.
  • Resilient Fallback Flows

    Define automatic, provider-agnostic fallbacks to keep your app up during outages, rate limits, or timeouts—no brittle failover logic scattered through your codebase.

    Never go dark on users.
  • Deep LLM Observability

    Trace every call across providers with logs, metrics, and request replay so you can debug, tune prompts, and optimize model choices from one unified dashboard.

    See every token, everywhere.
  • Task-Level Orchestration

    Describe tasks, not models. LLM.API maps them to the right tools, models, and prompts so you ship complex AI workflows with minimal glue code.

    Think tasks, not models.
  • High-Throughput Batch APIs

    Process millions of inferences efficiently with optimized batch pipelines, concurrency controls, and retry logic—all behind the same simple interface you use for single calls.

    Scale from 1 to millions.

Why run Cartesia Ink Whisper on LLM.API?

  • Unified AI Routing

    Production: Reach Cartesia Ink Whisper and sibling models through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

  • Cost Control

    Compare provider price points and keep spend visible as you scale Cartesia Ink Whisper.

  • Reliability Layer

    Practical: Retry and route across configured providers when a single upstream blips.

  • Observability

    Production: Trace prompts, tokens, and errors for Cartesia Ink Whisper alongside the rest of your stack.

  • Drop-in SDKs

    Production: Keep using familiar OpenAI client patterns with base URL https://api.llmapi.ai/v1.

  • Model Breadth

    Practical: Swap Cartesia Ink Whisper for chat, media, or embedding alternatives without rewriting auth.

When to Use — When NOT to Use

Use it if...

  • You need speech-to-text for batch or streaming audio (Cartesia Ink Whisper)
  • You will pipe transcripts into search or LLM summarization (Cartesia Ink Whisper)
  • Voice is a primary input modality in your product (Cartesia Ink Whisper)

Avoid if...

  • You need text-to-speech or chat generation instead of transcription
  • Your audio cannot leave your compliance boundary and you lack an approved provider path
  • You require guaranteed perfect transcripts for every accent without evaluation

What developers say about speech-to-text models

Summarised from publicly published developer and community reviews of this model family. Opinions are the sources’, not LLM.API’s, and may not be specific to Cartesia Ink Whisper.

  • Head-to-head tests of the leading APIs land within a point or two of each other; the choice usually comes down to language coverage, streaming latency and batch pricing.
  • Voice-agent developers report streaming latency and endpointing quality matter more in production than headline word-error rates.
  • Whisper-family models remain the default open baseline, with hosted providers winning on real-time features and diarization.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can I use tools or structured outputs with Cartesia Ink Whisper?

    Tooling support varies; for pure stt models, prefer the modalities listed rather than assuming chat tools.

  • What are limitations of Cartesia Ink Whisper?

    Like other API models, Cartesia Ink Whisper can be wrong, incomplete, or uneven on edge cases. Validate outputs for high-stakes use. Media/OCR/STT models additionally depend on input quality.

  • When should I choose Cartesia Ink Whisper?

    Voice is a primary input modality in your product — especially when you specifically need Cartesia Ink Whisper.

  • Does Cartesia Ink Whisper translate speech?

    Primary behavior is transcription to text. Translation—if needed—should be a separate step with a chat model unless the provider explicitly offers it.

  • How is Cartesia Ink Whisper priced on LLM.API?

    Listed pricing metadata shows: In $2.17 / 1M tokens. LLM.API may offer discounted effective rates (illustrative ~30% callout vs list when available).. Confirm live rates in the LLM.API dashboard or docs before production budgeting.

  • Which providers serve Cartesia Ink Whisper?

    LLM.API currently lists: cartesia. Availability can vary by region and account.

  • How do I call Cartesia Ink Whisper via API?

    Send OpenAI-compatible requests to https://api.llmapi.ai/v1 with model "ink-whisper" and your LLM.API key. See the code snippet on this page.

  • What modalities does Cartesia Ink Whisper support?

    Cartesia Ink Whisper accepts audio and produces text according to its architecture metadata on LLM.API.

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