Key takeaways
- Cartesia launched Managed Agents on October 29, 2026, a hosted platform that answers and places phone calls with an AI voice agent built on the model you choose.
- Its pricing page lists $0.03 per agent minute plus $0.014 per minute on a Cartesia phone number, and you can keep your own number through Twilio or SIP.
- Cartesia says it ranks first on two independent voice-agent benchmarks; Artificial Analysis confirmed an Elo of 1115 and a 91.7% task success rate on its arena.
- Agents can call new leads within minutes, book appointments and run outbound lists of up to 5,000 numbers, which fits realtors and service businesses.
- Consent rules such as the US TCPA still apply, so test with practice calls and keep a person on anything that commits money or a contract.
An AI phone agent that answers your business line, books appointments and calls back new leads just got easier to switch on. On October 29, 2026, voice AI company Cartesia launched Managed Agents, which it calls an "end-to-end voice agent platform for enterprise conversations" (Cartesia). The launch post on X passed 709,000 impressions and 1,100 likes within a day (X), and our count of X posts mentioning Cartesia's agents went from fewer than 40 a day to 735 on October 29 (UTC), with 515 more before 09:40 UTC on October 30. It is also a trending story on X.
The pitch says "enterprise", but the product page reads like a list of small-business chores: support calls, scheduling, sales follow-up, collections and recruiting (Cartesia). Here is what launched, what it costs, and how a small business or real estate team should test it before a customer hears it.
What Cartesia launched on October 29
One hosted system instead of a pile of parts
Most voice agents are stitched together from separate speech-to-text, language model and text-to-speech services plus a phone provider. Cartesia says it designed its own voice models and the "harness" around them together, so listening, turn-taking, reasoning, tool calls and speech are tuned as one system, with telephony, knowledge bases and tool integrations on the same platform (Cartesia). You still pick the AI model that decides each reply, from a list Cartesia offers, and you can change it later (Cartesia FAQ).
Features that matter on a real call
According to the launch post, agents can be built in 44 languages and can switch between English, Spanish, Hindi, French and Japanese mid-conversation, with the rest "coming soon". They can call your back-end systems or CRM during a call, answer from knowledge bases of hundreds of documents, and run personalised outbound call batches (Cartesia). The product page adds inbound calls on your number, outbound lists of up to 5,000 numbers, a recording and transcript for every call, and browser test calls you can score with your own metrics (Cartesia).
Not brand new under the hood
Cartesia's documentation already listed Managed Agents in its August 2026 changelog, and the September entries added call personalisation with variables, transfers, inactivity check-ins, five starter templates and a way to review a new version before you publish it (Cartesia Docs). The company says the system has already handled "tens of millions of conversations in finance, retail, hospitality, and healthcare" (Cartesia).
How good is it? The benchmark claims
Speech Agent Arena
Cartesia says Managed Agents ranks first of 30 agents on Artificial Analysis's Speech Agent Arena, an independent leaderboard built from listener preferences (Cartesia). Artificial Analysis itself reported an Elo of 1115, 98 points above Cartesia's older Line product, and a task success rate of 91.7%, up from 77.5% (Artificial Analysis). It tested the system with GPT-5.5 as the model.
EVA-Bench and interruptions
On ServiceNow's EVA-Bench for enterprise voice agents, Cartesia reports 87.4% accuracy and 90.7% experience, the top pair in its own chart. It also says callers reported no turn-taking problems in 85% of its internal test conversations, against 67% for other agents (Cartesia). That last number comes from Cartesia's own evaluation, not an independent one.
AI phone agent pricing
| Item | Price listed |
|---|---|
| Agent time | $0.03 per minute |
| Calls on a Cartesia phone number | adds $0.014 per minute |
| Your own number (Twilio or SIP) | supported; your carrier bills you |
Source: Cartesia FAQ, which says the rate "is the same for every agent".
At those list prices, 500 minutes of calls a month on a Cartesia number would be about $22 ($0.044 × 500). One caution: on October 27 Artificial Analysis described the price as $0.06 per minute, "with LLM usage billed separately based on the model" (Artificial Analysis). Confirm on Cartesia's pricing screen whether model usage is included before you budget.
What we did not verify or test
We did not build or call a Cartesia agent, and we did not check the benchmark results ourselves. The EVA-Bench scores and the 85% turn-taking figure are Cartesia's own reporting. We could not reconcile the $0.03 and $0.06 per-minute figures from the sources above. Security and compliance claims (HIPAA, SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR) are listed on the product page and were not independently checked.
What this means for small businesses
Missed calls are lost jobs, and a phone agent at cents per minute is now within reach of a one-person office. For a real estate team, the product page's "call new leads within minutes, qualify them on your criteria, and book meetings with your reps" is close to a speed-to-lead playbook (Cartesia).
- Write the rules first. Before any setup, write the greeting, intake questions and hand-off rules with our AI receptionist call script prompt.
- Give it one fact sheet. Agents answer from what you upload. Build a one-page fact sheet and a never-say list, and for listings never let it guess price, HOA or availability.
- Test with practice calls. Cartesia lets you score browser test calls (Cartesia). Run 25 tricky practice calls, then mystery-shop your own line after launch.
- Get consent before outbound calls. Cartesia's FAQ points US users to the TCPA: get consent, honour opt-outs and check your industry's rules (Cartesia FAQ). Do not load a cold list into a 5,000-number batch.
- Keep follow-up human-approved. Pair calls with a text or email you review, using the open house follow-up generator or a missed-call text-back flow.
- Do the maths. Plug your monthly call minutes and the hours your team spends on the phone into the AI time savings calculator, and check your agent instructions with the prompt grader.
Frequently asked questions
Can AI answer phone calls for my business?
Yes. With Cartesia you assign a phone number to an agent and inbound calls on that number go to it. One number serves one agent at a time, but one agent can hold several numbers (Cartesia FAQ).
How much does an AI phone agent cost?
Cartesia lists $0.03 per agent minute, plus $0.014 per minute when the call uses a Cartesia number (Cartesia FAQ). Artificial Analysis earlier reported $0.06 per minute with model usage billed separately (Artificial Analysis), so check the current terms.
Can I keep my existing business phone number?
Yes. Cartesia says you can use a Cartesia number or connect your own provider, including Twilio or SIP, and route numbers you already have to the agent (Cartesia FAQ).
Are AI phone calls legal?
Cartesia's answer is yes if you follow the laws that cover your calls. In the US that includes the TCPA: get consent before calling, honour opt-outs and check industry and local rules. Cartesia notes this is not legal advice (Cartesia FAQ).
Can an AI phone agent call new real estate leads?
The product lists outbound sales calls that reach new leads within minutes, qualify them and book meetings, plus batches of up to 5,000 numbers (Cartesia). Only call leads who have agreed to be contacted.
Sources
- Cartesia: Introducing Managed Agents
- Cartesia: Create AI voice agents for phone calls (product page and FAQ)
- Cartesia Docs: Changelog 2026
- Artificial Analysis on X: Cartesia Managed Agents Speech Agent Arena results
- Artificial Analysis on X: Cartesia Managed Agents pricing
- Cartesia on X: launch post
- X trending: Cartesia Launches Managed Agents for Quick AI Phone Builds
How we report: every fact, number and quote above comes from the linked sources, which we read before publishing. Product details can change quickly during previews, so check the vendor page before you buy. Spotted an error? Tell us via the link on our home page.