ElevenLabs is an AI voice synthesis and audio platform founded in 2022 by Piotr Dąbkowski and Mati Staniszewski, headquartered in New York. The company is widely regarded as producing the most natural, expressive text-to-speech voices available and has become the industry standard for AI audio production. Products include text-to-speech, instant and professional voice cloning, AI dubbing (video translation with preserved lip sync), sound effects generation, music generation, and a conversational AI agent platform. In 2024–2026, ElevenLabs expanded beyond TTS into a full audio infrastructure platform.
Pricing is credit-based, with 1 credit equaling approximately 1 character of text using Multilingual v2 or 0.5 credits for Flash models. Plans: Free at $0/month includes 10,000 credits (~10 minutes of audio), basic TTS and sound effects, 3 Studio projects, and no commercial license — generated content must attribute ElevenLabs. Starter at $5/month includes 30,000 credits (~30 minutes), commercial license, and API access. Creator at $22/month includes 100,000 credits (~100 minutes), Professional Voice Cloning (PVC) for high-fidelity custom voice training, 192kbps audio output, and higher API limits. Pro at $99/month includes 500,000 credits (~500 minutes), 44.1kHz PCM audio output via API, production-scale conversational AI, and is the entry point for agencies and app developers. Scale at $330/month provides 2,000,000 credits (~2,000 minutes). Business at $990/month provides 11,000,000 credits with multi-seat workspaces. Enterprise is custom-priced. Annual billing saves approximately 17% (2 months free) across all paid tiers.
Unused credits roll over for up to 2 months on paid plans as long as the subscription remains active. Downgrading or cancelling causes unused paid credits to expire.
The Conversational AI Agents product is priced separately from TTS character credits — billed per minute of conversation at $0.08/minute (Standard), $0.10/minute (Turbo), or $0.12/minute (Premium). A low-volume IVR system taking 50 calls/month averaging 3 minutes costs $12–$18/month. A 24/7 AI receptionist averaging 8,000 minutes/month costs $640–$960/month.
The free plan has no commercial license — any business use requires at minimum the $5/month Starter tier. Professional Voice Cloning for high-fidelity custom voice training requires the Creator tier ($22/month).
