Hume AI
Voice-AI evaluation and expression measurement
Overview
Hume AI, a New York emotion-science lab, is retiring its Empathic Voice Interface (EVI) and Octave text-to-speech APIs on 13 November 2026 and now sells evaluation infrastructure for voice AI: the VoiceEQ testing platform, Expression APIs that score vocal and facial expression in 50+ languages, and human-rater feedback. Founder Alan Cowen joined Google DeepMind in January 2026 under a licensing deal; Andrew Ettinger is chief executive.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 12 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
Use cases
What you can produce with Hume AI
- Voice agents and voice models evaluated on the VoiceEQ platform: test cases from your conversation data, stress tests, failure diagnosis and fix validation
- Vocal and facial expression, speaking style and vocal qualities scored in 50+ languages with the Expression APIs
- Structured evaluations by trained, vetted human raters through the Human Feedback API
- Unstructured audio prepared for evaluation or training with the Prism Pipeline, labelled with tone, timing and emphasis
- Public Real-World VoiceEQ, voice-replication and voice-controllability leaderboards for comparing voice models
- For existing EVI or TTS customers, a deadline to export data and move to another voice API before 13 November 2026
Hume AI built the Empathic Voice Interface and Octave text-to-speech, and is now shutting both: the APIs stop working on 13 November 2026 and account data is deleted afterwards, so existing builders should migrate now. The company, which lost founder Alan Cowen and several engineers to Google DeepMind in January 2026 under a licensing deal, has repositioned as evaluation infrastructure for voice AI, selling the VoiceEQ testing platform, Expression APIs and human-rater feedback, all on quote.
That makes Hume a supplier to voice-AI labs and enterprise teams rather than a voice API for app developers. Expression scores are probabilistic estimates of how people perceive a voice or face, not measurements of feeling, so treat them with care in high-stakes settings.
What we found
Hume AI is winding down the voice products this page used to describe. A notice dated 2 October 2026 in Hume's developer changelog says the company is sunsetting its text-to-speech and Empathic Voice Interface APIs: access ends at 12:01 a.m. US Eastern time on 13 November 2026, and data in customer accounts is permanently deleted after that date. The public pricing page, which listed plans up to $500 a month in late September, now redirects to the homepage. Anyone building on EVI or Octave needs a replacement before then.
The change follows a leadership shift. In January 2026 TechCrunch, citing Wired, reported that founder and chief executive Alan Cowen and about seven engineers were joining Google DeepMind to work on Gemini's voice features under a licensing agreement. Andrew Ettinger, an investor and executive who had joined Hume the week before, became chief executive and described Google's rights as non-exclusive. The New York company had raised a $50 million Series B led by EQT Ventures in 2024.
Hume now presents itself as measurement infrastructure for other companies' voice AI. Its VoiceEQ platform generates test cases from conversation data and stress-tests voice agents and models using automated and human raters. A public Real-World VoiceEQ leaderboard compares voice models; in September Hume reported that Google's Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS had taken the top spot. Expression APIs, introduced on 6 October 2026, score vocal and facial expression in more than 50 languages, including Indonesian. None carries a published price; each product page asks buyers to talk to Hume.
Hume describes its expression scores as estimates of how people are likely to perceive a voice or face, not readings of what the speaker feels, and they should not be treated as ground truth in hiring, health or other high-stakes settings. It now suits voice-AI labs and enterprise teams that want evaluation data; developers who need a voice API for the long term should look elsewhere.
Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Hume AI's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Hume AI unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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