Cartesia Ink Whisper API: Endpoint & Pricing
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.
Can you self-host Cartesia Ink Whisper?
No. We found no public weights for Cartesia Ink Whisper on Hugging Face, so there is nothing to download, quantize or serve on your own GPUs: no VRAM budget, no vLLM or GGUF build to plan for. The only way to run it is over an API.
Skip the deploy — use LLM.API as your endpoint
No GPUs, no quantization trade-offs. Same model, OpenAI-compatible, up to 30% below list price.
Providers
LLM.API routes Cartesia Ink Whisper to the providers below, with discounted effective rates versus list price.
List price by provider
InputOutputProvider list prices; the LLM.API discount applies on top.
| Provider | Pricing | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|
| in $0; out — per minute of audio | — | — |
Prices and availability from the LLMAPI catalogue, updated nightly. Last updated 8 Oct 2026.
Try this model
Test Cartesia Ink Whisper right here — free to start.
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).
Switching from OpenAI? Change 2 lines.
- base_url="https://api.openai.com/v1"
- api_key="YOUR_OPENAI_KEY"
+ base_url="https://api.llmapi.ai/v1"
+ api_key="YOUR_LLMAPI_KEY"Everything else stays the same — SDK, message format, tools, streaming. Set model to ink-whisper and the call runs unchanged.
curl https://api.llmapi.ai/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LLMAPI_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "ink-whisper",
"messages": [
{"role": "user", "content": "Give me three crisp launch checklist items."}
]
}'from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
api_key="YOUR_LLMAPI_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)import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI({
apiKey: process.env.LLMAPI_KEY,
baseURL: "https://api.llmapi.ai/v1",
});
const resp = await client.chat.completions.create({
model: "ink-whisper",
messages: [
{ role: "user", content: "Give me three crisp launch checklist items." },
],
});
console.log(resp.choices[0].message.content);stream = client.chat.completions.create(
model="ink-whisper",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about latency."}],
stream=True,
)
for chunk in stream:
delta = chunk.choices[0].delta.content
if delta:
print(delta, end="", flush=True){
"model": "ink-whisper",
"messages": [
{"role": "system", "content": "You are a precise product assistant."},
{"role": "user", "content": "Give me three crisp launch checklist items."}
]
}ENDPOINTS
Supported endpoints & features
Base URL https://api.llmapi.ai/v1 · model ID ink-whisper · OpenAI-compatible.
POST /v1/chat/completionsChat Completions — supported
| Feature | Status | How to set it |
|---|---|---|
| Function calling (tools) | Not supported | tools, tool_choice |
| Parallel tool calls | Not supported | parallel_tool_calls |
| JSON mode | Not supported | response_format: {"type": "json_object"} |
| Structured outputs | Not supported | response_format: {"type": "json_schema", …} |
| Streaming | Not supported | stream: true |
| Vision (image input) | Not supported | image_url content parts |
| Web search | Not supported | web_search |
ERRORS
Errors & fallback routing
| Code | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
401 | Missing or invalid API key. | Send Authorization: Bearer YOUR_LLMAPI_KEY and check the key is active. |
429 | Rate limited, or the upstream provider is throttling the request. | Back off and retry with jitter; the gateway also retries the request on another provider where one is available. |
5xx | Upstream provider error or timeout. | Retry; fallback routing sends the retry to the next healthy provider for this model. |
When a provider fails or throttles, the request is routed to the next provider serving this model — the ones listed in the providers table above.
Cartesia Ink Whisper in production
What the model is good at.
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.
What you get when you call Cartesia Ink Whisper through LLM.API.
Unified AI Routing
Production: Reach Cartesia Ink Whisper and sibling models through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
One endpoint, every model.Cost Control
Compare provider price points and keep spend visible as you scale Cartesia Ink Whisper.
More performance, less spend.Reliability Layer
Practical: Retry and route across configured providers when a single upstream blips.
Never go dark on users.Observability
Production: Trace prompts, tokens, and errors for Cartesia Ink Whisper alongside the rest of your stack.
See every token, everywhere.Drop-in SDKs
Production: Keep using familiar OpenAI client patterns with base URL https://api.llmapi.ai/v1.
Think tasks, not models.Model Breadth
Practical: Swap Cartesia Ink Whisper for chat, media, or embedding alternatives without rewriting auth.
Scale from 1 to millions.
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
COMMUNITY
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.
SOURCES
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.
COMPARE
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