Mistral AICartesiaAudio matchupSpeech to text
Voxtral Mini Transcribe Realtimevs.Cartesia Ink-2
Which model is better?
Cartesia Ink-2 is slightly ahead in independent tests, but the lead is not certain.
Pick Voxtral Mini Transcribe Realtime for
Pick Cartesia Ink-2 for
Shared tests
Independent evaluators and leaderboards only, the newest shared snapshot per evaluator. With 95 % ranges a lead counts when they do not overlap; for hit rates, when it holds in a 95 % test. Without any uncertainty figure at most “slightly ahead”.
Coval
Cartesia Ink-2 slightly aheadCartesia Ink-2 is clearly ahead in 0 of 16 subtests and slightly in 11, Voxtral Mini Transcribe Realtime in 0 clearly and slightly in 2. 3 are level.
Coval RTF maximum
lower is better, as of November 5, 2026
Coval Time to Final Segment (TTFS) mean
lower is better, as of November 5, 2026
Coval Word Error Rate (WER) per-sample maximum
lower is better, as of November 5, 2026
Show all 16 subtests
| Subtest | Voxtral Mini Transcribe Realtime | Cartesia Ink-2 | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coval RTF maximum (lower is better) | 15.59 | 4.71 | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval Time to Final Segment (TTFS) mean (lower is better) | 444 ms | 145 ms | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval Word Error Rate (WER) per-sample maximum (lower is better) | 191.7 % | 69.0 % | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval Time to Final Segment (TTFS) p50 (lower is better) | 339 ms | 139 ms | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval Time to First Token (TTFT) maximum (lower is better) | 40,858 ms | 25,200 ms | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval pooled corpus Word Error Rate (WER) (lower is better) | 5.4 % | 3.4 % | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval Word Error Rate (WER) per-sample mean (lower is better) | 5.7 % | 3.9 % | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval Time to Final Segment (TTFS) maximum (lower is better) | 35,330 ms | 31,136 ms | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval Time to First Token (TTFT) p50 (lower is better) | 1,846 ms | 2,017 ms | Voxtral Mini Transcribe Realtime slightly ahead |
| Coval AudioToFinal maximum (lower is better) | 43.02 s | 39.52 s | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval Time to First Token (TTFT) mean (lower is better) | 1,872 ms | 2,033 ms | Voxtral Mini Transcribe Realtime slightly ahead |
| Coval RTF mean (lower is better) | 1.07 | 1.02 | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval AudioToFinal mean (lower is better) | 8.38 s | 8.09 s | Cartesia Ink-2 slightly ahead |
| Coval RTF p50 (lower is better) | 1.05 | 1.02 | level |
| Coval AudioToFinal p50 (lower is better) | 8.70 s | 8.46 s | level |
| Coval Word Error Rate (WER) per-sample p50 (lower is better) | 0.0 % | 0.0 % | level |
Source · latest November 5, 2026
Vals AI
Cartesia Ink-2 slightly aheadCartesia Ink-2 is clearly ahead in 0 of 3 subtests and slightly in 2, Voxtral Mini Transcribe Realtime in 0 clearly and slightly in 1.
VoiceCodeBench · WER
lower is better, as of October 31, 2026
VoiceCodeBench · Overall
as of October 31, 2026
VoiceCodeBench · CTEM
as of October 31, 2026
Source · latest October 31, 2026
All data side by side
Prices are verbatim from the provider, because audio models bill per minute, character or token.
| Voxtral Mini Transcribe Realtime | Cartesia Ink-2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Task | Speech to text | Speech to text |
| Developer | Mistral AI | Cartesia |
| Status | Active | Active |
| Released | n/a | July 9, 2026 |
| Weights | open | proprietary |
| Runs locally | yes | no |
| Price | n/a | 3 credits per second of audio; the dollar price and overage charges depend on the plan |
| Popularity (out of 100) | 18 | 0 |