ElevenLabs free vs paid: plans, prices and which to pick

ElevenLabs' free plan is worth it for testing and occasional personal use: it gives you 10,000 credits a month, roughly ten minutes of speech, but only for non-commercial use and with attribution to ElevenLabs. If you publish the audio commercially, want to clone a voice, or need more than a few minutes a month, a paid plan is what you need. It starts at $6 a month, and Creator at $22 is the usual pick for regular creators.

Updated: November 2026

What ElevenLabs is, and how you pay for it

ElevenLabs is an AI audio platform. According to Flexprice's pricing breakdown, it covers text-to-speech (turning written text into spoken audio), voice cloning (creating a synthetic copy of a voice from recordings), dubbing, transcription and conversational voice agents. All of these draw on one shared monthly allowance of credits.

A credit is a unit that only ElevenLabs issues, so the useful question is what it buys. According to Cartesia's analysis of ElevenLabs' pricing, plain text-to-speech costs about one credit per character, which works out to roughly 1,000 characters per minute of audio. Other tools cost far more per minute: voice changing and voice isolation about 1,000 credits per minute, music about 900, and dubbing between 2,000 and 10,000.

One caveat on sources. The prices in this guide come from independent write-ups that say they read ElevenLabs' own pricing page, and I cite each one where I use it. ElevenLabs runs frequent promotions and changes plans, so treat the numbers as a guide and confirm them on the official page before paying. Cartesia also sells a competing speech product and says so openly; its ElevenLabs figures are reported from ElevenLabs' pages.

What the free plan includes

The Free plan costs $0 and, according to Gradually's pricing guide, includes 10,000 credits a month. That is about ten minutes of generated speech, enough to judge the voice quality and try expressive features such as audio tags like [whispers] or [laughs]. Cartesia lists text-to-speech, speech-to-text, sound effects and voice design as available on Free.

The limits matter more than the features:

• Non-commercial use only, with attribution. Gradually says you must credit ElevenLabs as the source. Flexprice's table likewise lists commercial use as restricted, with attribution required.
• No voice cloning, neither instant nor professional.
• One seat (Flexprice) and low concurrency: Cartesia reports that simultaneous text-to-speech requests start at 2 on Free.

In practice, ten minutes a month is a taster. It suits a short personal project, a school presentation you will not monetise, or a test before you decide. It does not suit a weekly podcast, a YouTube channel or anything a client pays for.

What each paid plan adds

Gradually lists seven plans in total, six with public prices and an Enterprise tier negotiated case by case. The monthly list prices, in US dollars, are Free $0, Starter $6, Creator $22, Pro $99, Scale $299 and Business $990. Flexprice reports the same figures. Annual billing, according to both Gradually and Cartesia, works out to two months free.

Starter: $6 a month

Starter gives 30,000 credits a month, about 30 minutes of narration. Gradually says it is the cheapest way into commercial use of generated files, subject to ElevenLabs' service terms and your rights to the inputs you supply. Attribution is not required on this paid plan. It also unlocks Instant Voice Cloning, which clones a voice from a short recording.

Creator: $22 a month

Creator gives 121,000 credits, which Cartesia puts at about two hours of text-to-speech. Its headline addition is Professional Voice Cloning, which needs more training material than an instant clone. Gradually adds that Creator unlocks Audio Native (an embeddable audio player for a website) and calls it the sweet spot for most content creators.

Pro: $99 a month

Pro gives 600,000 credits. Cartesia lists 44.1kHz PCM output via the API and 192 kbps audio as additions, and Gradually says higher-quality Studio export starts here. It makes sense, says Gradually, for heavy and productive use such as many audiobook chapters or regular dubbing.

Scale: $299 and Business: $990

Scale gives 1,800,000 credits, three workspace seats and three professional voice clones. Business gives 6,000,000 credits, ten seats and ten professional clones; Cartesia also mentions low-latency text-to-speech on this tier. Enterprise has no list price. Cartesia says it adds data-processing agreements, service-level agreements, HIPAA-related agreements, single sign-on and higher concurrency.

Plans side by side

Prices checked in November 2026 on the pages cited; they change often, check the provider's page before you pay.

Credits, rollover and hidden costs

Credits are shared across every tool, so the same allowance covers very different amounts of audio. Cartesia's example: Creator's 121,000 credits buy about two hours of text-to-speech or about two hours of voice-changer audio, but not both. Dubbing burns credits fastest; at 10,000 credits a minute, that plan covers only about 12 minutes of video.

Cartesia also reports that unused credits on paid plans roll over for up to two months, with the balance capped at three times the monthly quota, and that downgrading or cancelling forfeits them at the end of the cycle. Gradually's tests differ slightly from the published rates in places: it measured about 985 credits a minute for voice changing, where the pricing page says 1,000. Expect small differences.

Other costs to keep in mind:

• Taxes. Gradually says list prices are in US dollars and the final amount depends on country, tax status and billing.
• Introductory offers. Both Gradually and Cartesia mention first-month discounts for new customers on Starter and Creator. They end, so do not use them to plan a yearly budget.
• Overages. Flexprice reports that usage beyond your allowance is billed per model, and suggests upgrading when overage spend reaches roughly 30 to 50% of the next tier's price. That rule of thumb is Flexprice's, not ElevenLabs'.

Limits and risks to weigh

Plans are not only about minutes. Gradually points out that some features are tied to tiers, so check the feature you actually need rather than choosing only by credits. Concurrency also rises with the plan, and Cartesia notes that for a live application it often forces an upgrade before credits do.

Commercial rights come with conditions. Gradually repeatedly stresses that commercial use depends on the applicable service terms and on you having the rights to whatever you feed in, such as a voice sample or script. Cloning a voice that is not yours, or without consent, is an ethical and potentially legal problem that no plan solves. Read the terms before publishing, especially for client work.

Finally, cost versus alternatives. Flexprice notes that open-weight models such as F5-TTS and Kokoro now undercut ElevenLabs on cost, so the reasons to pay are quality, language coverage and support. Those are Flexprice's claims; if budget is your main constraint, compare alternatives with your own script. For another comparison of paid creative AI tools, see our guide to Synthesia vs HeyGen.

How to choose a plan

1. Estimate your monthly characters. A 10-minute narration is about 10,000 characters, according to the roughly 1,000-characters-per-minute conversion above.
2. Decide whether the output is commercial. If yes, Free is out.
3. Decide whether you need your own voice cloned. Instant cloning starts at Starter; professional cloning at Creator.
4. Check non-speech tools. Dubbing, music and voice changing consume credits much faster than narration.
5. Start low. Gradually notes you can move between plans, so begin with the smallest plan that covers your needs and upgrade when you run out.

Our verdict by use case

These are my recommendations, based only on the facts above.

• Occasional personal use: stay on Free. Ten minutes a month is enough to try it, as long as you accept attribution and no commercial use.
• First paid or small commercial projects: Starter at $6 is the cheapest legal route to commercial use and adds instant cloning, but 30 minutes a month goes quickly.
• Content creators, podcasters and YouTubers: Creator at $22 looks like the best fit: about two hours of speech, professional cloning and Audio Native.
• Studios and heavy production: Pro at $99 if you keep exhausting Creator's credits or need higher-quality export.
• Agencies and companies: Scale or Business for seats, more clone slots and volume; Enterprise if you need contracts, single sign-on or compliance agreements.

Frequently asked questions

Is ElevenLabs really free?

Yes, the Free plan costs $0 with no time limit according to Gradually, but it is capped at 10,000 credits a month and limited to non-commercial use with attribution.

Can I use free-plan audio on YouTube or in a podcast?

Only if the use is non-commercial and you credit ElevenLabs. If the channel or podcast earns money or promotes a business, the sources point to Starter as the minimum plan for commercial use, subject to the service terms.

Do unused credits carry over?

According to Cartesia, on paid plans they roll over for up to two months, capped at three times the monthly quota, and are lost if you downgrade or cancel at the end of the cycle.

Is annual billing cheaper?

Gradually and Cartesia both say annual billing gives two months free, meaning you pay ten times the monthly price. Introductory first-month discounts are for new subscribers only.