QuantumThought
Join Newsletter

Decision snapshot

Fast-read signals for fit, pricing, and trust.

Category
Video & Audio Production
Best for
ai voice generator
Pricing
Freemium
Access
Free plan available

What is this tool?

ElevenLabs is the pick for a creator or localisation team that needs natural speech and voice clones in many languages, and for a developer who wants the same models behind an API. Budget around the credit pool rather than the plan price: credits are charged per generation, so takes you discard still cost, and free-plan output is non-commercial and must carry attribution.

By QT Desk
Read full overview

Pick a stock voice, design one or clone your own, then generate speech, dub a video, transcribe audio or make music and effects in the web app or Studio, iterate on takes and export. The same models are reachable through the REST API and the Python and TypeScript SDKs, and on iOS and Android. The Eleven v3 model covers 70+ languages for text to speech, speech to text covers 90+, and older models cover 29 or 32.

Credits reset each billing cycle. On paid self-serve plans unused credits roll over up to twice the monthly quota, giving a maximum balance of three times the quota, but not on Free; downgrading or cancelling forfeits unused subscription credits at the end of the cycle, and a cancelled plan stays active until then and drops to Free. Annual billing charges ten months for twelve. Customers in India are offered INR at checkout on the same plans; everyone else pays in USD.

On data, ElevenLabs may use non-Enterprise users' data to improve its models unless the 'Improve the models for everyone' toggle is switched off, which applies to new data; Enterprise data is excluded by default. The terms grant ElevenLabs a licence to user content, including voice, to provide and improve its services, and say it will not commercialise a user's voice on a standalone basis without permission.

Is this right for you?

Quick fit check against how you actually work.

ai voice generatorai voice cloningai video translatorai transcription tool
Choose this if
  • You narrate or dub regularly in several languages and want speech, cloning, transcription and dubbing on one plan
  • You are building voice into an app and want an API with official SDKs behind the same models
  • A paid plan's commercial licence and rollover of unused credits fit how you publish
Consider alternatives if
  • You iterate heavily on takes and need predictable cost, since discarded generations still spend credits
  • You need speech-to-speech that converts your accent to the target voice's; users report Voice Changer and Actor Mode keeping the speaker's own accent
  • You need free-tier output for commercial use, which the free plan does not allow
  • You require that your data is never used for training unless you act; outside Enterprise, that use is on until you switch it off

What people say

Aggregate community sentiment, summarized — not native reviews.

Mixed signals

Fourteen independent accounts across six YouTube videos between January 2024 and May 2026 describe three things. The most repeated, from five accounts on three videos, is cost: generations that came out wrong still consumed credits, so iterating on a take gets expensive, which matches ElevenLabs' own per-generation charging (a limited number of free regenerations may now apply when nothing changes). Six accounts on three videos, four of them under the Actor Mode launch video, report that Voice Changer or Actor Mode kept the speaker's own accent instead of taking on the target voice's. On the positive side, three accounts on two tutorials describe voice clones that satisfied them, one saying an instant clone made from a modest amount of audio sounded like the speaker.

Key features

What you can actually do with this tool.

One credit pool across every product

Text to speech costs about one credit per character on the V2 Multilingual model, speech to text 330 credits a minute, music 900 a minute, sound effects 200 a generation and dubbing 2,000 to 10,000 a minute depending on mode and watermark. A month heavy on dubbing draws down the same pool as narration.

Instant and professional voice cloning

Instant voice cloning sits alongside professional cloning and voice design. Three users describe clones they were happy with; for one of them, an instant clone from a short recording sounded like the speaker.

Credits charged per generation, not per download

Every generation is charged whether or not you keep it, with a limited number of free regenerations possible when nothing changes. Once the quota runs out, pay-as-you-go credits valid for twelve months can be bought.

Commercial licence from Starter up

Every paid plan includes a commercial licence, except for Beta Services, and content generated while subscribed may be used commercially indefinitely under the service terms.

Plans & pricing

Pricing tiers and what's included in each.

Free

$0
  • 10,000 credits a month and 3 Studio projects
  • No commercial licence: output may be used only non-commercially and must carry attribution when shared
  • 3 custom voice slots
  • Credits do not roll over

Starter

$6 /month on monthly billing; $5 a month equivalent on annual billing
  • 30,000 credits a month
  • Commercial licence
  • 10 custom voice slots
  • Unused credits roll over up to twice the monthly quota

Creator

$22 /month on monthly billing (first month shown at 50% off, $11); $18.33 a month equivalent on annual billing
  • 121,000 credits a month
  • 30 custom voice slots

Pro

$99 /month on monthly billing; $82.50 a month equivalent on annual billing
  • 600,000 credits a month
  • 160 custom voice slots

Scale

$299 /month on monthly billing; $249.17 a month equivalent on annual billing
  • 1.8 million credits a month
  • 660 custom voice slots

Business

$990 /month on monthly billing; $825 a month equivalent on annual billing
  • 6 million credits a month
  • Custom voice slot count is printed differently on the pricing table and in the help centre; confirm with ElevenLabs

Enterprise

Custom pricing
  • Usage-based billing
  • Data not used for training by default
Official pricing pagePricing may have changed. Always verify before purchasing.

Frequently asked

Common questions about this tool, answered.

Do failed generations cost credits?

Yes. Credits are spent on every generation, kept or not; ElevenLabs says a limited number of free regenerations may be available when the content and settings are unchanged. Users describe paying for attempts they could not use, which is why heavy iteration is the thing to budget for.

Can I sell what I make on the free plan?

No. Free-plan output may be used only non-commercially and must carry attribution when shared; the commercial licence starts at Starter. Output from Beta Services may not be used commercially on any plan.

How many custom voices can I keep on the Business plan?

ElevenLabs' pricing table and its help centre disagree on the Business voice-slot count, so there is no single Business figure. The other tiers agree on both: 3 on Free, 10 on Starter, 30 on Creator, 160 on Pro and 660 on Scale.