How much does ElevenLabs cost?
ElevenLabs pricing explained: every plan, the credit system, API rates and the billing traps.
Short answer: ElevenLabs has a free plan with 10,000 credits a month (about 10 minutes of speech) and no commercial rights. Starter at $6/month unlocks the commercial license and instant voice cloning. Regular creators usually land on Creator at $22; studios, developers and voice agents on Pro at $99. All prices are in US dollars before tax. The real bill depends on how you spend credits, and that is where most people overpay.
Some links to ElevenLabs and its rivals are affiliate links: using them doesn't change the price you pay. The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its entry, and no affiliate link changes a score.
ElevenLabs pricing, plan by plan
The full self-serve lineup from the official pricing page. Yearly billing charges 10 months for 12, and the monthly equivalent is shown under each price. Minutes are an estimate for text-to-speech (around 1,000 characters per spoken minute, 1 credit per character on standard models).
US dollars before tax, billed monthly.
Free
Hear the quality first
Non-commercial, attribution required
- 10,000 credits a month (about 10 min)
- 128 kbps audio
- 2 concurrent requests
- 15 agent minutes
Starter
The minimum to publish
$5/mo yearly · first month $1
- 30,000 credits a month (about 30 min)
- Commercial license
- Instant voice cloning
- 3 concurrent requests
Creator
For regular creators
$18.33/mo yearly · first month $11
- 121,000 credits a month (about 121 min)
- 1 professional voice clone
- 192 kbps audio
- 5 concurrent requests
Pro
Volume and API work
$82.50/mo yearly ($990 a year)
- 600,000 credits a month (about 600 min)
- 44.1 kHz PCM output via API
- 1,238 agent minutes included
- 10 concurrent requests
Scale
Small teams
$249.17/mo yearly
- 1.8M credits a month (about 1,800 min)
- 3 workspace seats
- 3 professional voice clones
- 15 concurrent requests
Business
Voice at production scale
$825/mo yearly
- 6M credits a month (about 6,000 min)
- 10 workspace seats
- 10 professional voice clones
- 25 concurrent requests
Official ElevenLabs pricing in 2026, US dollars before tax. Enterprise adds DPA, SLA, SSO, a HIPAA BAA and priority support on custom terms. The commercial license covers every paid plan, beta features excluded. Pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
What actually burns your credits
A plan price means little until you know what it buys. ElevenLabs sells a monthly credit quota and every feature spends it at a different rate. Four rules to know before you choose.
Speech: 1 credit per character
Text-to-speech costs 1 credit per character on standard models and 0.5 to 1 on some Flash and Turbo models. A spoken minute is roughly 1,000 characters, so a 10-minute script eats about 10,000 credits, the whole free plan. Spaces and punctuation count, so clean scripts are cheaper scripts.
Everything else costs more
Speech-to-text is 330 credits per minute, music 900, voice changer and voice isolator 1,000, and a sound effect 200 per generation. Dubbing is the heavy one at 2,000 to 10,000 credits per minute: ten minutes of dubbing can drain a whole Creator plan. Budget dubbing separately.
Every generation is billed
Credits go on generation, not download. A bad take, a discarded variant, a voice experiment: all billed. On v3, each click returns two variants and both count. That is why users say credits melt; in practice, keep a buffer for retakes.
Rollover, top-ups and hard stops
Unused credits roll over for two months at most, capped at twice your monthly quota, and only while you stay subscribed without downgrading. When the balance hits zero, generation stops: no surprise invoice. To keep going, upgrade (credits carry over) or top up with Pay As You Go.
- Measure your real monthly character count before you choose a plan.
- Keep a buffer for retakes and variants.
- Price dubbing and music separately: they cost far more than speech.
- Watch your balance: rollover does not survive a downgrade.
How we work out the real cost
We compared the public pricing page, the billing help center and the API pricing guide, then the recurring billing complaints from users. To price a project, we convert the job into credits with the official rates below, add a buffer for retakes, then look for the cheapest plan that covers it, top-ups included. Rates change by model and feature, which is why two people on the same plan get very different mileage.
- Text-to-speech0.5 to 1 on some Flash and Turbo models. About 1,000 characters per minute.1 credit/char
- Speech-to-textTranscription and subtitles from a recording.330 credits/min
- MusicTracks up to 5 minutes, commercial license from Starter.900 credits/min
- Voice changer and isolatorTransform a recorded voice or clean up audio.1,000 credits/min
- Sound effectsPer generation, whatever the length.200 credits
- DubbingThe fastest way to empty a quota.2,000 to 10,000 credits/min
Minutes are estimates: real mileage depends on model, language and the number of retakes.
What you really pay, project by project
Three typical jobs, priced with the official rates. For each one, the cheapest plan and the trap to avoid. Amounts are in US dollars before tax.
Estimates in US dollars before tax, monthly billing.
One YouTube video a week
Four 10-minute scripts a month
or $22 on Creator with headroom
- About 40,000 characters a month, retakes included
- Starter (30,000 credits) plus a $5 top-up
- Commercial license from Starter
- Trap: Free does not allow monetization
A 5-hour audiobook
About 300,000 characters in one go
instead of $99 on Pro
- Creator (121,000 credits) for $22
- About 180 extra minutes at $0.18, so $32
- Or three months of Creator banked through rollover
- Trap: split the text into chunks to keep the voice consistent
A voice agent, 1,000 minutes
Phone reception or support
$0.08 a minute via API
- Pro: 1,238 agent minutes included for $99
- Or API Pay As You Go: 1,000 × $0.08 = $80
- LLM and telephony billed on top
- Trap: burst minutes billed at $0.16
Based on official rates: about 1,000 characters per spoken minute, extra minutes around $0.20 on Starter, $0.18 on Creator and $0.17 from Pro up. Pay As You Go credits stay valid for 12 months. Agent cost excludes the language model and phone numbers.
9 ways to cut your ElevenLabs bill
The settings and billing rules most pricing guides skip. None of them needs a workaround: you just need to know the rule before you click.
Run a real project on the $1 first month
Up to 83% offStarter is listed at $1 for the first month and Creator at $11. Use it for real work, not a demo: a full episode, a client video, a training module. By the end of the month you know your actual credit burn, and you can pick a plan on data rather than on a guess.
- Starter
- $1, then $6
- Creator
- $11, then $22
Only go yearly once your usage is stable
2 months freeYearly billing means paying 10 months out of 12: Pro drops to $82.50 a month and Scale to $249.17. But a yearly plan locks you in, and downgrading mid-way wipes your banked credits. Wait for two or three steady months first, and set a reminder before renewal: an annual plan renewed and then used is not refundable.
- Pro yearly
- $990 a year
- Saving
- 2 months out of 12
Use the two free regenerations
Little knownOn the web app you get two free regenerations of the same passage, for text-to-speech and voice changer. The conditions are strict: same text, same voice, same model, within two hours, without refreshing or leaving the page. You can still move the voice sliders (stability, similarity). Studio follows the same rule if text and voice are unchanged. The API never gives free retakes.
- Free retakes
- 2 per passage
- Window
- under 2 hours
Pick v4 Turbo or Flash for volume
Half priceThrough the API, Eleven v4 costs $0.08 per 1,000 characters and v4 Turbo or Flash $0.04. For notifications, voicemail, read-aloud articles or agents, the quality gap is small and the price is halved. Keep v4 or Multilingual v2 for narration where emotion matters: audiobooks, ads, brand voice.
- v4
- $0.08 / 1,000 chars
- v4 Turbo
- $0.04 / 1,000 chars
Move bulk jobs to the API
DevelopersOn Pay As You Go, API usage costs less than the same usage in the web app. If you generate hundreds of files (product pages, notifications, articles), a small script or a Make or n8n scenario calling the API is cheaper and saves you the clicking. The trade-off: no free regenerations through the API, so proof your text before you run a batch.
- API billing
- in dollars
- Free retakes
- none
Never downgrade with a big balance
Top complaintDowngrading or cancelling wipes unused credits at the end of the cycle. Users describe balances of tens of thousands of credits dropping back to 10,000 at the end of the billing cycle. The fix: spend your balance first, or schedule the change right after a big project. Upgrading, on the other hand, keeps your credits.
- Downgrade
- credits lost at cycle end
- Upgrade
- credits kept
Turn off auto top-up if you want a hard cap
BudgetPay As You Go reloads $20 by default whenever your balance drops below $10. Handy for an agent in production, risky on a tight budget, so switch it off if you need a hard ceiling. Without two-factor authentication, credit purchases are capped at $100 on Free, Starter and Creator, $200 on Pro, $600 on Scale and $2,000 on Business. Turn on 2FA only if you need to go past that.
- Minimum top-up
- $5
- Validity
- 12 months
Apply for a Startup Grant
12 monthsStartups accepted into the ElevenLabs Startup Grants program get 12 months free and 33 million characters. For a product with voice built in, that is more than two years of Pro-level usage. You apply from the API pricing page. If you are building a voice agent or an app, apply before you buy any plan.
- Length
- 12 months
- Volume
- 33M characters
Generate nothing while you are still deciding
14 daysRefunds are only accepted within 14 days of payment and only if no credits were used. If you subscribed on impulse or by mistake, do not run a single generation and email support@elevenlabs.io from the account address. User reviews are clear: after that window, refund requests rarely succeed.
- Window
- 14 days
- Condition
- zero credits used
ElevenLabs pricing vs the alternatives
Entry prices and scores come from our review pages. The pricing models differ: ElevenLabs sells monthly credits, Murf sells generation hours per year, Descript sells an audio and video editing subscription. For developers, OpenAI's gpt-4o-mini-tts API is billed per token: $0.60 per million text tokens and $12 per million audio tokens, with no monthly plan.
| Best for | Pricing model | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  ElevenLabs | Best voice quality | Monthly credits | 4.2/5 | $6/mo | ✓ | Solo to studio | Visit → |
| 2 | Murf AI | Training narration | Hours per year | 3.6/5 | $19/mo (yearly) | ✓ | L&D and marketing teams | Visit → |
| 3 | Descript | Audio and video editing | Editing subscription | 3.4/5 | $16/mo (yearly) | ✓ | Podcasters and video creators | Visit → |
Scores and entry prices from our review pages, US dollars before tax. Play.ht is no longer listed: the platform shut down after its acquisition by Meta.
Do you make a tool in this category? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
So, is ElevenLabs expensive?
Our take after comparing the price list, the billing docs and user feedback: cheap to start, expensive if you do not manage credits. Here is who it pays off for, and who should look elsewhere.
A good deal if…
You produce spoken audio at a steady, moderate volume: videos, podcasts, training modules, ads. At $6 for a commercial license and $22 for a professional clone of your own voice, the output quality is hard to beat at the price. With steady usage, yearly billing and rollover remove most of the waste.
A bad deal if…
Your usage swings between empty and packed months: you lose credits one way and buy top-ups the other. Same caution if you mostly dub, which is credit-hungry, or switch plans often. For voice agents, the listed rate is only part of the bill: the LLM and telephony come on top.
Its real weakness
Predictability. A credit is worth a different amount depending on feature, model and channel (web app or API), and the rollover, top-up and refund rules are spread across the help center. That is why our review gives it 3.9 out of 5 for value: the tool is not expensive, it is hard to budget.
- Start with the $1 or $11 first month on a real project.
- Size your plan on real character counts, retake buffer included.
- Go yearly after two or three stable months, never before.
- Spend your balance before downgrading.
- Turn off auto top-up if you need a capped budget.
- For voice agents, add the LLM and telephony to the math.
Pricing sorted. What now?
Voice quality, cloning, integrations and limits, criterion by criterion.
You are torn between ElevenLabs and MurfElevenLabs vs MurfHead to head, with the right pick for each profile.
The price does not work for youElevenLabs alternativesOther voice generators, sorted by what you need.
You want the best AI voice tool overallBest AI voice generatorsOur full ranking of text-to-speech tools.
You want ElevenLabs set up for youElevenLabs agencyWhat we build on ElevenLabs, how long it takes, where budgets start.
You would rather learn it in-houseElevenLabs trainingOne-to-one training built around your own use case.
ElevenLabs pricing FAQ
How much does ElevenLabs cost per month?
ElevenLabs costs $0 to $990 a month before tax: Free $0, Starter $6, Creator $22, Pro $99, Scale $299 and Business $990, with custom Enterprise pricing above that. Most people should look at Starter first, because it is the cheapest plan that lets you use the audio commercially. Tip: the first month of Starter is listed at $1 and Creator at $11, so run a real project on it before you pick a long-term plan.Is ElevenLabs worth it?
Yes, if you generate voice regularly and at a moderate volume: for $22 you get about two hours of narration and a professional clone of your own voice. It is a worse deal if your usage is spiky, because unused credits expire when you downgrade and you end up buying top-ups in busy months. Before committing yearly, track two or three months of real character usage and size the plan on that number.Can I use the free plan for commercial projects?
No. Audio made on the Free plan is for non-commercial use only and needs attribution if you share it. A monetized YouTube channel, a client job, an ad or an app needs at least Starter at $6. Generate your final files once you are subscribed, since anything made on the free tier stays under the non-commercial terms.Does ElevenLabs charge overages?
Not on current plans: when your credits hit zero, generation simply stops and nothing is billed automatically. You can wait for the renewal, upgrade (your remaining credits carry over) or buy Pay As You Go credits, with a $5 minimum top-up valid for 12 months. The old usage-based billing, charged at the end of the cycle, now only applies to legacy Creator-and-up plans and Enterprise contracts.Do unused ElevenLabs credits roll over?
Yes, with limits. Unused credits roll over for up to two months, capped at twice your monthly quota (so a maximum balance of three months), and only while you keep an active paid plan. Downgrade or cancel and the unused credits are gone at the end of the billing cycle. That rule drives most of the angry billing reviews, so spend your balance before you move down a tier.How much does the ElevenLabs API cost?
The API is billed in dollars per 1,000 characters: $0.08 for Eleven v4, v3 and Multilingual v2, and $0.04 for v4 Turbo, Flash and Turbo. Scribe v2 speech-to-text costs $0.22 per hour, or $0.39 per hour in realtime. Your subscription converts into API budget: Starter is worth about 75,000 v4 characters a month, Creator 275,000 and Pro 1,238,000, twice that on v4 Turbo.How much do ElevenLabs voice agents cost?
Voice agents cost $0.08 per minute, or $0.16 per minute for burst capacity above your concurrency limit, and the language model is billed on top. Plans include agent minutes: 15 on Free, 75 on Starter, 275 on Creator, 1,238 on Pro, 3,738 on Scale and 12,375 on Business. Telephony is extra as well, so price the LLM and phone numbers before comparing ElevenLabs with an all-in voice agent platform.How much does voice cloning cost on ElevenLabs?
Instant voice cloning is included from Starter at $6, and Creator at $22 adds one professional voice clone, the higher-fidelity version trained on more audio. Scale includes three professional clones and Business ten. There is no per-clone fee inside those limits. If you only need one signature voice for a channel or a brand, Creator covers it.Can I get a refund from ElevenLabs?
Only within 14 days of the payment and only if you have not used any credits in that period. Email support@elevenlabs.io from the address on the account. One generation is enough to lose the right, which is why forgotten annual renewals are the classic refund dispute in user reviews. Set a calendar reminder two weeks before your renewal date.
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