Cartesia Sonic 2 and Turbo stop October 20: Sume model ids
Cartesia retires sonic-2 and sonic-turbo on October 20, 2026. Sume's TTS Router lists sonic-3.6, 3.5, 3, latest and preview; here is what to send instead.

Cartesia's older-models page says sonic-2 (every sonic-2-* snapshot) and sonic-turbo stop working on October 20, 2026, and that the sonic-3-2025-10-27 snapshot sunsets the same day. Cartesia names Sonic 3.6 as the replacement. Sume's TTS Router does not list sonic-2 or sonic-turbo; its model values are sonic-3.6, sonic-3.5, sonic-3, sonic-latest and sonic-preview.
Cartesia facts are from its docs, read 2026-10-01. Sume facts are from the TTS Router in the Sume API reference and its catalog code. If you call Cartesia directly with a retiring id, change it before the date; on Sume there is nothing to migrate for these two ids.
What exactly stops working on October 20?
Three things, per Cartesia's page. Cartesia also lists the ids that stay active.
| Cartesia id | What the page says | Date |
|---|---|---|
sonic-2 and all sonic-2-* snapshots | Stop working; replaced by Sonic 3.6 | October 20, 2026 |
sonic-turbo | Stops working; replaced by Sonic 3.6 | October 20, 2026 |
sonic-3-2025-10-27 | Snapshot sunsets | October 20, 2026 |
Sonic 3.6, sonic-3.5-2026-05-04, sonic-3-2026-01-12 | Listed as active | No date given |
Which Sume model id replaces each one?
Sume's router uses family ids with no dates. There is no sonic-2 or sonic-turbo row in its catalog, so the only change a retiring id needs is a move to a Sonic 3 id. A dated snapshot such as sonic-3-2025-10-27 cannot be pinned on Sume at all, because the model enum has no dated values.
| If you used | Send on Sume | Note |
|---|---|---|
sonic-2, sonic-2-* | sonic-3.6 | Cartesia's named replacement |
sonic-turbo | sonic-3.6 | Cartesia's named replacement |
sonic-3-2025-10-27 | sonic-3 or sonic-3.6 | No dated ids on Sume |
| Tracking the newest stable | sonic-latest | Alias for sonic-3.6, never the beta |
How do I call Sonic 3.6 on Sume?
POST /v1/tts-router/generate takes a model, a transcript and a voice. The result is a job; the audio is a Sume-hosted file when it completes. For non-English scripts add a language.
curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/tts-router/generate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Idempotency-Key: sonic-migrate-001" \
-d '{
"model": "sonic-3.6",
"transcript": "Your order ships tomorrow.",
"avatar_handle": "my-avatar",
"language": "en"
}'What does the move cost and limit?
The router charges on the same character book as TTS 1.0: $0.0475 per 1,000 characters, plus a 5.5% agent fee by default. The request schema caps transcript at 20,000 characters. sonic-preview is a beta channel and fails with voice_model_mismatch for pro voice clones, so keep it out of production. See Cartesia Sonic 3.6 API ids for the full id table.
Sources
Related posts
More in Models
- Sonic 3.6 written disfluencies: pacing and Sume's emotion guide
Sonic 3.6 shifts pacing for written hesitations like uh. How to write a natural-sounding transcript, and what Sume's optional emotion guide adds.
- Cartesia STT keyterms for brand names, and Sume STT without keyterms
Cartesia STT adds keyterm prompting for brand names and invented words. Sume STT has no keyterm field, so here is how to fix brand names after transcription.
- Creatify Aurora 2.0 max audio length: 59.7 s, and how to split
Creatify Aurora 2.0 takes up to 59.7 s of audio; Aurora v1 takes 5 minutes. Sume Avatar Video accepts 4-60 s per job, so split longer scripts across jobs.
- Creatify Boreal talking clips vs Sume's still-plus-audio route
Creatify says Boreal's gains are smallest on single-person talking clips. Sume makes every speaking shot from an accepted still plus TTS audio via Fabric.
Written by Sume