1
ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs specializes in highly realistic AI voice generation, text-to-speech, and voice cloning with exceptional emotional depth and naturalness.
AI Tool
Hume AI Review
Hume AI is an advanced platform that enables the creation of AI agents capable of engaging in natural, emotionally intelligent conversations, understanding context, and adapting to user sentiment.
shipped May 31, 2026aifreemium
1Hume AI offers a freemium pricing model, including a Basic Free tier.
2The platform provides an API for developers, with rate limits scaling from 15 RPM on the Free plan to 225 RPM on the Business plan.
3Hume AI's Octave 2 multilingual voice AI, released in October 2025, offers a 50% cost reduction compared to its predecessor.
4The company raised $50 million in Series B funding in 2024, bringing its total funding to $80.7 million.
Hume AI at a Glance
About Hume AI
Pricing Plans
Basic
Free / monthly
- • Access to basic features
- • Limited API calls
Pro
$29/mo / monthly
- • Access to all features
- • Increased API calls
- • Priority support
Enterprise
Custom / annual
- • Custom solutions
- • Dedicated support
- • Scalability options
Leadership
Investors
EQT Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Metaplanet, Northwell Holdings, Comcast Ventures, LG Technology Ventures
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Affectiva (SmartEye)
Affectiva, now part of SmartEye, is a leader in multimodal emotion AI, analyzing human emotions and cognitive states from facial expressions and voice.
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Imentiv AI
Imentiv AI provides comprehensive emotion detection by combining insights from video, audio, and text to create real-time emotional snapshots and identify emotional triggers.
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LOVO AI
LOVO AI offers an award-winning AI voice generator and text-to-speech software with a vast library of realistic voices, multi-language support, and voice cloning capabilities.
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overview
What is Hume AI?
Hume AI is an emotional intelligence AI tool developed by Hume AI (company) that enables developers, researchers, and businesses to build AI agents that engage in natural, emotionally intelligent conversations. It aims to create more natural and empathetic communication between users and systems by integrating emotional intelligence into AI technologies. The platform's core mission is to optimize AI for human well-being, moving beyond mere word processing to interpret and generate emotionally nuanced speech. Hume AI offers several key products and APIs, including the Empathic Voice Interface (EVI), Octave Text-to-Speech (TTS), and the Expression Measurement API. EVI 3 and EVI 4 mini are speech-to-speech foundation models that analyze tone, prosody, and language with sub-250ms latency, supporting WebSocket streaming and external LLM integration. Octave 2 generates expressive, emotionally nuanced speech from text, allowing voice design with natural language descriptions, voice cloning from audio samples (as little as 10 seconds), and consistent voice identity across 11+ languages. The Expression Measurement API detects over 600 emotion and voice characteristic tags from multimodal inputs including face, voice, and text, supporting analysis of video with audio, audio-only, video-only, images, and text-only inputs.
quick facts
Quick Facts
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Hume AI |
| Business Model | Freemium |
| Pricing | Freemium starting at $0/mo |
| Platforms | Web, API |
| API Available | Yes |
| Integrations | Slack, Zapier, Google Cloud |
| Founded | 2021 |
| HQ | New York, USA |
| Funding | Series B ($80.7 million total) |
features
Key Features of Hume AI
Hume AI provides a comprehensive suite of tools designed to imbue AI with emotional intelligence, facilitating more natural and empathetic human-machine interactions. Its offerings include advanced voice models, multimodal emotion detection, and robust developer APIs.
- 1Empathic Voice Interface (EVI): Real-time, emotionally aware speech-to-speech conversations with sub-250ms latency.
- 2Octave Text-to-Speech (TTS): Generates expressive, emotionally nuanced speech from text, supporting 11+ languages.
- 3Custom Voice Models: Ability to design voices with natural language descriptions and clone voices from short audio samples (e.g., 10 seconds).
- 4Expression Measurement API: Detects over 600 emotion and voice characteristic tags from face, voice, and text inputs.
- 5Multimodal Analysis: Supports analysis of video with audio, audio-only, video-only, images, and text-only inputs.
- 6API Access for Developers: Robust APIs/SDKs for integration into various applications and platforms.
- 7Cross-Language Capabilities: Octave 2 supports languages including English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian, Hindi, and Arabic.
- 8Deep LLM Integrations: Designed for integration with external Large Language Models for enhanced conversational AI.
- 9Flexible Pricing Plans: Includes a free tier and tiered subscription models for varying usage needs.
use cases
Who Should Use Hume AI?
Hume AI is primarily targeted at developers, researchers, and businesses seeking to integrate advanced emotional intelligence into their AI applications. Its capabilities are particularly beneficial for creating more human-like and responsive AI systems across various sectors.
- 1Developers and Tech Companies: For building empathic voice and chat agents/assistants, leveraging API access and deep LLM integrations.
- 2Customer Service Managers: To enhance customer service interactions with emotionally intelligent AI that can de-escalate tension and respond with empathy.
- 3Healthcare Providers and Mental Health Support: For creating AI companions that respond to tone of voice, offering genuine emotional support and emotional analysis in healthcare.
- 4Content Creators: For generating dynamic, emotionally rich voiceovers for audiobooks, podcasts, video games, and advertisements using Octave TTS.
- 5Educators and UX Designers: For developing interactive learning tools and personalized digital assistants optimized for user well-being and emotionally responsive educational aids.
pricing
Hume AI Pricing & Plans
Hume AI operates on a freemium business model, offering various tiers to accommodate different user needs, from individual developers to large enterprises. The pricing structure includes a free basic plan, a Pro subscription, and custom enterprise solutions, with usage-based costs for API interactions. The Text-to-Speech API has a maximum text length of 5,000 characters per utterance and a maximum of 5 generations per request. The per-token out cost for 1,000 tokens is $0.05.
- 1Basic: Free (monthly) - Includes limited API access and features.
- 2Pro: $29/mo (monthly) - Offers expanded API rate limits and additional capabilities.
- 3Enterprise: Custom (annual) - Provides tailored solutions, custom rate limits, and dedicated support for large-scale deployments.
competitors
Hume AI vs Competitors
Hume AI operates within a competitive landscape of AI voice generation and emotion detection platforms. Its primary differentiation lies in its comprehensive focus on 'empathic AI' and multimodal emotional intelligence for human-machine interaction.
1
ElevenLabs specializes in highly realistic AI voice generation, text-to-speech, and voice cloning with exceptional emotional depth and naturalness.
Similar to Hume AI's Empathic Voice Interface and expressive Text-to-Speech, ElevenLabs focuses heavily on generating emotionally nuanced speech. It offers a free tier for experimentation, making it directly competitive in the freemium voice AI market.
2
Affectiva (SmartEye)↗
Affectiva, now part of SmartEye, is a leader in multimodal emotion AI, analyzing human emotions and cognitive states from facial expressions and voice.
Affectiva directly competes with Hume AI's Expression Measurement API by offering robust emotion detection from video and voice. While Hume AI emphasizes 'empathic AI' for human well-being, Affectiva has a strong presence in automotive, media testing, and research applications.
3
Imentiv AI↗
Imentiv AI provides comprehensive emotion detection by combining insights from video, audio, and text to create real-time emotional snapshots and identify emotional triggers.
Imentiv AI's multimodal approach to emotion analysis, integrating facial expressions, vocal tones, and linguistic patterns, directly rivals Hume AI's Expression Measurement API. It offers an API for integration, similar to Hume AI's developer-focused tools.
4
LOVO AI offers an award-winning AI voice generator and text-to-speech software with a vast library of realistic voices, multi-language support, and voice cloning capabilities.
LOVO AI competes with Hume AI's expressive Text-to-Speech by providing a wide range of emotionally capable AI voices and voice cloning for various content creation needs. It offers a free allowance, aligning with Hume AI's freemium model.
❓
Frequently Asked Questions
+What is Hume AI?
Hume AI is an emotional intelligence AI tool developed by Hume AI (company) that enables developers, researchers, and businesses to build AI agents that engage in natural, emotionally intelligent conversations. It aims to create more natural and empathetic communication between users and systems by integrating emotional intelligence into AI technologies.
+Is Hume AI free?
Yes, Hume AI offers a freemium model which includes a Basic Free tier. This tier provides limited API access and features. Paid plans, such as the Pro plan at $29/month and custom Enterprise plans, offer expanded capabilities and higher API rate limits.
+What are the main features of Hume AI?
Hume AI's main features include the Empathic Voice Interface (EVI) for real-time emotionally aware voice conversations, Octave Text-to-Speech (TTS) for generating expressive, multilingual speech, and the Expression Measurement API for detecting over 600 emotion and voice characteristic tags from multimodal inputs. It also offers custom voice model creation and robust API access for developers.
+Who should use Hume AI?
Hume AI is designed for developers, researchers, and businesses looking to integrate emotional intelligence into their AI applications. This includes tech companies building empathic AI agents, customer service managers enhancing interactions, healthcare providers for mental health support, content creators for expressive voiceovers, and educators developing interactive learning tools.
+How does Hume AI compare to alternatives?
Hume AI differentiates itself by focusing on a comprehensive 'empathic AI' framework and multimodal emotional intelligence. While competitors like ElevenLabs specialize in highly realistic voice generation, and Affectiva focuses on multimodal emotion detection for specific industries, Hume AI integrates these capabilities to create emotionally intelligent conversational AI for broader human-machine interaction. Imentiv AI also offers multimodal emotion analysis, and LOVO AI competes in expressive text-to-speech generation.
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