Extremely natural and expressive voices with low latency.
Supports over 70 languages and 5 000+ voice options.
Voice cloning and voice design enable personalised or brand‑aligned voices.
Wide range of features beyond TTS: transcription, dubbing, music, sound effects, voice changer and voice isolation.
Robust API and SDKs with pre‑built integrations into CRMs, support tools, payments and telephony.
Multi‑seat Workspaces with shared resources and billing for teams.
GDPR and SOC II compliance with optional Zero Retention Mode and HIPAA‑eligible services.
Mobile apps for on‑the‑go voice generation.
Cons
Free plan has limited credits (10 k per month) and requires attribution; no commercial licence.
Advanced features like commercial voice cloning, higher audio quality and workspace seats require paid plans.
Multi‑seat collaboration is only available on Scale and higher plans.
Usage‑based pricing can become expensive for high‑volume audio production.
Zero Retention Mode is restricted to enterprise customers.
Some models and features (e.g., Eleven v3, voice design) are in alpha/beta and subject to change.
What to Watch Out For
Aug 2024 pricing update: Turbo 50% cheaper, new plan tier
In Aug 2024, ElevenLabs cut Turbo model rates by 50%, introduced a new Business plan, and referenced self‑serve pricing starting at $50 per million characters. This was announced via the official pricing update post and is echoed in third‑party pricing analyses.
Why it Matters
If you modeled costs earlier in 2024, your unit economics for high‑volume TTS may now be lower, and the added Business tier can change which plan fits team needs and procurement rules.
Credit-to-minutes reality check on the Free plan
Third‑party breakdowns note that the Free plan’s 10,000 monthly credits equate to roughly 10 minutes of text‑to‑speech output (May 2025). This gives a practical ceiling for trial use before needing a paid tier.
Why it Matters
Credit units can be abstract; mapping them to minutes helps budget pilots and avoid under‑estimating usage for short videos or prototypes.
These insights are drawn from publicly available reviews and user feedback to highlight potential issues real users have reported.
Honest ElevenLabs Review – What You Need to Know Before You Start
ElevenLabs is an AI audio platform that turns written and spoken words into natural‑sounding speech, music and conversation. It offers a suite of creative tools – text‑to‑speech, speech‑to‑text, voice cloning, dubbing, sound effects, music generation and a voice isolator – so creators, developers and enterprises can generate expressive audio in minutes. The platform’s proprietary models (Eleven v3 for expressive delivery, Multilingual v2 for lifelike narration and Flash v2.5 for low‑latency output) support over seventy languages and dozens of accents, giving users a huge palette of voices. The Voice Library houses more than 5 000 community‑shared voices and lets you share or monetize your own voice clones. For completely unique voices, users can design a voice by describing age, gender, tone and accent.
Beyond content creation, ElevenLabs’ Agents platform powers real‑time AI voice agents for customer support, scheduling, sales and other workflows, delivering sub‑100 ms latency and integration with CRMs, payment systems and telephones. Scale and Business plans provide multi‑seat Workspaces for teams, enabling shared billing, resource sharing and API key management. GDPR‑ and SOC II‑compliant privacy controls, data retention settings and an optional Zero Retention Mode (for enterprise customers) ensure sensitive data is protected. Pricing is credit‑based: a free tier offers 10 k credits per month for basic use, while paid subscriptions start at $5 per month and scale up with higher credit allowances and features like commercial licensing and professional voice cloning. Mobile apps for iOS and Android allow users to create voiceovers on the go.
ElevenLabs Pricing Details
Pricing Details
Free plan – $0/month: 10 k credits per month (about 10 minutes of TTS or 15 minutes of Agents), includes text‑to‑speech, speech‑to‑text, music, agents, studio, automated dubbing and API access; requires attribution and non‑commercial use.
Starter – $5/month: 30 k credits/month, commercial licence, instant voice cloning, 20 studio projects and access to Dubbing Studio; supports 30 minutes of high‑quality TTS or 50 minutes of agents.
Creator – $11/month (first month half price): 100 k credits/month with usage‑based overage billing; adds professional voice cloning and higher audio quality (192 kbps).
Pro – $99/month: 500 k credits/month and 44.1 kHz PCM audio via API; ideal for larger productions.
Scale – $330/month: 2 million credits/month and 3 seats; includes multi‑seat Workspaces.
Business – $1 320/month: 11 million credits/month and 5 seats; adds low‑latency TTS pricing (as low as $0.05/min) and three professional voice clones.
Enterprise – Custom pricing: Tailored number of credits and seats, custom terms, BAAs for HIPAA, SSO, elevated concurrency limits, ElevenStudios managed dubbing, significant discounts and priority support.
ElevenLabs Features & Capabilities
Text to Speech
Convert text into expressive, natural‑sounding speech in 70+ languages, with adjustable tone and pacing.
Speech to Text
Accurate transcription with speaker diarization and character‑level timestamps.
Voice Cloning
Instant Voice Cloning replicates a voice from short samples, while Professional Voice Cloning creates high‑fidelity custom voices from longer recordings.
Voice Design
Create brand‑new voices by specifying age, gender, accent and tone; the tool generates three options per prompt.
Voice Library
Access over 5 000 community‑shared voices; share your own clones and earn revenue.
Dubbing Studio
Translate videos into 30+ languages while preserving the speaker’s vocal identity.
Voice Changer & Remixing
Modify timing, inflection and emotion; remix voices to suit different contexts.
Voice Isolator & Sound Effects
Isolate voices from noisy recordings and generate AI sound effects to enhance productions.
Music Generation
Produce studio‑quality tracks across genres using simple text prompts.
Agents Platform
Build conversational voice and chat agents with sub‑100 ms latency, tool‑calling, knowledge grounding and multi‑language support.
Integrations & API
Connect to thousands of apps through Zapier and other integrations, or use Python/TypeScript SDKs and REST/WebSocket APIs.
Workspaces
Shared billing, shared resources and role‑based access for teams on Scale and Business plans.
GDPR & HIPAA Compliance
Built‑in privacy controls, retention settings and Zero Retention Mode for enterprise, with optional HIPAA‑eligible services.
Mobile Apps
iOS and Android apps let users create voiceovers on their phones and export directly to editing tools.
Latency
Flash v2.5 model delivers speech in under 75 ms, suitable for real‑time applications.
Languages
74 languages supported by Eleven v3; 29 languages by Multilingual v2; 32 languages by Flash v2.5.
Voice Library
Over 5 000 community‑shared voices across numerous accents and styles.
Audio quality
Outputs up to 192 kbps at 44.1 kHz on Creator and higher plans.
Credits
1 character consumes 1 credit on most models; Flash and Turbo models are discounted to 0.5 credits per character.
Workspaces
Multi‑seat Workspaces include shared billing, resource sharing and API key management.
Privacy & compliance
GDPR & SOC II compliant; optional Zero Retention Mode for enterprise; HIPAA‑eligible services with BAAs.
Mobile apps
Official app available on iOS and Android for creating voiceovers on the go.
Final Verdict, ElevenLabs Review
ElevenLabs stands out as one of the most polished AI audio platforms available today. The speech quality is uncannily human, with natural intonation and a broad emotional range. I was impressed by how quickly scripts are converted into clear, expressive narration and how easy it is to tweak voices or design entirely new ones. The Voice Library’s huge catalogue and the ability to clone your own voice make it ideal for content creators who need consistency across projects. For developers and businesses, the Agents platform unlocks powerful voice‑enabled automation with a dizzying number of integrations. Privacy controls are robust, though the strongest protections are reserved for enterprise customers. Overall, ElevenLabs offers unmatched versatility for anyone looking to add realistic voice to their creative work, customer support or product experience.
Parinaz Kallick is the founder of ToolHatch.ai. With a background in data engineering and analytics delivering projects for Fortune 500 companies—and firsthand experience as a solo founder—she helps creators and small businesses cut through the AI noise and execute with confidence.