India's Murf AI introduces Falcon 2 to compete with voice AI frontrunners.

      Murf AI, based in Bangalore, is set to launch its Falcon 2 voice model on August 20, priced at $0.01 per generated minute, which is one-fifth the cost of ElevenLabs' offerings. The company claims that Falcon 2 performs better than some OpenAI models on the independent Artificial Analysis leaderboard.

      This Bangalore firm is providing synthetic speech at a significantly lower price compared to Europe’s leading voice AI startup. The Falcon 2 model will be available on August 20 for $0.01 per generated minute.

      When considering volume, the argument is compelling: generating a million minutes of speech will cost $10,000 with Falcon 2, versus $50,000 with ElevenLabs' Turbo and Flash products.

      The interesting aspect of the pricing is related to performance claims. Murf asserts that Falcon 2 scores higher than certain OpenAI models, including its Realtime API, on the independent Artificial Analysis leaderboard, with a response time of under 100 milliseconds.

      However, this claim should be approached with caution, as the model will not be publicly accessible until Thursday, and the comparison relies on a third-party leaderboard rather than direct testing in real-world applications.

      This is also the second release in less than a year; Murf introduced the original Falcon in November 2025, claiming it outperformed ElevenLabs with a latency of 55 milliseconds.

      The company, founded in 2020 by three IIT Kharagpur engineers and supported by Matrix Partners and Elevation Capital, reports 10 million users and 300 corporate clients, which include Cisco, Pfizer, Nestlé, and Air France-KLM.

      This is significant in Europe due to the target audience. ElevenLabs represents the continent’s premier AI firm, discussing a valuation of $22 billion, and promoting its voices as the best available.

      Murf is also competing on the basis of trust, not just price. Chief Operating Officer Sneha Roy emphasizes that the company collaborates with real voice actors who consent to their voice usage, with transparent contracts, ongoing royalties, and a commitment to data protection.

      European institutions have shown preference through financial commitments; Poland invested $11 million in ElevenLabs, and the UK government has entered an agreement to utilize its voice AI in public services.

      The rest of the Falcon 2 model focuses on enterprise functionality, offering data residency across 11 countries, deployment within a customer's own cloud, support for up to 10,000 concurrent calls, and training based on live customer interactions and booking processes rather than scripted narration.

      Europe has been prioritizing quality and trust, assuming that price would follow suit. A model that claims similar performance benchmarks at a fifth of the cost presents the first substantial challenge to this expectation.