ElevenLabs Pricing: Plans, Credit Math, and the True Cost of Audio

ElevenLabs looks cheap until you check what a credit buys.

ElevenLabs pricing runs from $0 to $990 a month. Starter costs $6, Creator $22, Pro $99, Scale $299 and Business $990. Yearly billing charges you for 10 months, not 12.

But a credit isn’t a minute. Every product spends the same pool, and dubbing can burn credits 10 times faster than narration.

We read the ElevenLabs pricing pages and help center, plus seven top-ranking guides, and did the credit math.

Here’s what each plan includes, what the extras cost, and which one fits your workload.

Key Points

• ElevenLabs costs $0 (Free), $6 (Starter), $22 (Creator), $99 (Pro), $299 (Scale) or $990 (Business) a month. Yearly billing costs 10 times the monthly price, so $5 to $825 a month.
• Pick a plan by credits, not by price. A minute of text to speech uses about 1,000 credits, while Dubbing Studio can use 10,000.
• Commercial use starts on Starter. Professional Voice Cloning starts on Creator, and extra Full seats start on Scale (3) and Business (10).
• Voice agents and the API bill on their own terms. Extra call minutes cost $0.08 each, and LLM and phone fees come on top.

What Does ElevenLabs Pricing Look Like for Each Plan?

ElevenLabs sells six self-serve plans and a custom Enterprise tier. Each plan sets a price, a pool of monthly credits and a seat count.

Prices are in US dollars and leave out taxes. ElevenLabs also runs first-month deals now and then, such as Creator at $11 for the first month. Check the ElevenLabs pricing page before you buy, since offers change.

How Do ElevenLabs Credits Work?

ElevenLabs credits are one shared balance that every product draws from. Narration, transcripts, music, sound effects and dubbing all spend the same pool. The catch is that each product spends it at its own rate, so the same plan lasts much longer for some jobs than for others.

Each Product Burns Credits at Its Own Rate

Text to speech uses 1 credit per character on the v2 Multilingual model. Through the API, the Flash and Turbo models cost 0.5 to 1 credit per character. One minute of speech uses about 1,000 credits, which is how the pricing page counts minutes.

Other tools cost more. Speech to Text uses 330 credits a minute and Music uses 900. Voice Changer and Voice Isolator use 1,000 a minute. Sound Effects use 200 per generation.

Dubbing is the big one. It costs 2,000 to 10,000 credits a minute, based on the mode and the watermark.

Example: Creator’s 121,000 credits cover about 121 minutes of narration. The same credits cover about 40 minutes of automatic dubbing without a watermark (121,000 ÷ 3,000). In Dubbing Studio without a watermark, you get about 12 minutes (121,000 ÷ 10,000).

Unused Credits Roll Over for Two Months

Credits reset at the start of each billing cycle, on the day you subscribed. Unused credits roll over for up to two months. So your balance can reach 3 times your monthly quota.

Example: On Creator, the cap is 121,000 × 3 = 363,000 credits.

The rule has limits. Rollover needs an active paid plan, and the Free plan gets none. If you downgrade or cancel, unused paid credits expire at the end of the cycle. Pay As You Go credits sit outside this cap.

Top Tip: Spend your rolled-over credits before you downgrade. The new plan won’t keep them, and the help center confirms they expire at the end of the cycle.

What Does the ElevenLabs Free Plan Include?

The ElevenLabs Free plan costs $0 and grants 10,000 credits a month. It covers text to speech, speech to text, sound effects, Voice Design, music and images. You also get 3 projects in Studio.

Here’s the catch. Free has no commercial license, so the audio is for testing, not for a client video. The pricing page lists Free minutes as “Limited use”, and Free credits don’t roll over.

Say you want to hear a sales script in three voices before you pitch it. Free covers that. It also includes 15 call minutes for voice agents and 10,000 characters on the API.

The Free plan also caps custom voices at 3 slots. That’s enough to compare a few designed voices, not to build a library. When you need more, Starter is the next step at $6.

Pricing: $0 a month, with 10,000 credits.

Best For

• Testing voices and scripts before you pay.
• Hobby projects with no commercial use.

Pros

• Most ElevenCreative tools are open to try.
• 15 call minutes let you test a voice agent.
• Pay As You Go top-ups work on Free too.

Cons

• No commercial license.
• Credits don’t roll over.
• No Instant Voice Cloning, which starts on Starter.
• Only 3 custom voice slots.

What Does the ElevenLabs Starter Plan Include?

The ElevenLabs Starter plan costs $6 a month, or $5 a month billed yearly. It grants 30,000 credits, which is about 30 minutes of text to speech.

Starter is where the commercial license begins. It also adds Instant Voice Cloning, 20 Studio projects, Dubbing Studio, and image and video tools. Music becomes usable for commercial work, too.

Say you voice a five-minute explainer each week. That’s about 20,000 credits a month (4 × 5 × 1,000), so Starter covers it with room to spare.

On the agents side, Starter includes 75 call minutes and 6 calls at once. The API side includes 75,000 characters on the v4 model.

One caveat worth being honest about: 30 minutes goes fast once you redo takes. Each generation spends credits, so budget for a few retries per script. Some redos are free, and the app tells you before you click.

Pricing: $6 a month, or $60 a year.

Best For

• Solo creators who publish short voiceovers.
• Freelancers who need a commercial license on a tight budget.

Pros

• Commercial license for $6 a month.
• Instant Voice Cloning from a short sample.
• 10 custom voice slots.
• Commercial rights for music, too.

Cons

• About 30 minutes of speech a month fills up fast.
• No Professional Voice Cloning.
• Audio tops out at 128 kbps.

What Does the ElevenLabs Creator Plan Include?

The ElevenLabs Creator plan costs $22 a month, or $18.33 a month billed yearly. It grants 121,000 credits, which is about 121 minutes of text to speech.

Creator adds Professional Voice Cloning, with one clone. Audio goes up to 192 kbps, and you get 30 custom voice slots. The pricing page lists an extra minute at about $0.20 on Starter, $0.18 on Creator and $0.17 on Pro and up.

Say you narrate a 25-minute podcast every week. That’s about 100,000 credits a month, which fits inside Creator.

Voice agents get 275 call minutes and 10 calls at once. Past that, extra minutes cost $0.08 each. The API side includes 275,000 characters on v4.

Creator is where most solo creators land. It’s the cheapest plan with a trained voice clone and enough credits for weekly work.

Pricing: $22 a month, or $220 a year.

Best For

• Podcasters and YouTubers who narrate every week.
• Creators who want one Professional Voice Clone.

Pros

• Four times the credits of Starter for less than four times the price.
• One Professional Voice Clone included.
• 192 kbps audio output.
• 30 custom voice slots.

Cons

• Only one Full seat.
• One Professional Voice Clone only.
• About 12 minutes of studio dubbing uses the whole month.

What Does the ElevenLabs Pro Plan Include?

The ElevenLabs Pro plan costs $99 a month, or $82.50 a month billed yearly. It grants 600,000 credits, which is about 600 minutes, or 10 hours, of speech.

Pro adds 44.1 kHz PCM audio output through the API. It also raises the limits. You get 160 custom voice slots and 10 requests at once.

Say your agency turns course scripts into audio, two hours a week. That’s about 480 minutes a month, so Pro covers it.

Voice agents get 1,238 call minutes and 20 calls at once. The API side includes 1,238,000 characters on v4.

Pro also lowers the cost per minute. At $99 for about 600 minutes, each minute costs about $0.17, against about $0.18 on Creator. The gap is small, so pick Pro for the volume, not the rate.

Pricing: $99 a month, or $990 a year.

Best For

• Agencies and course makers with hours of audio each month.
• Developers who need high-quality PCM output.

Pros

• About 10 hours of speech a month.
• 44.1 kHz PCM through the API.
• 160 custom voice slots.
• 20 agent calls at once.

Cons

• Still one Full seat, so teams share a login or step up.
• Still one Professional Voice Clone.
• Over four times the price of Creator.

What Does the ElevenLabs Scale Plan Include?

The ElevenLabs Scale plan costs $299 a month, or $249.17 a month billed yearly. It grants 1,800,000 credits, about 1,800 minutes of speech.

Scale is the first plan built for a team. It includes 3 Full seats and team tools, plus 3 Professional Voice Clones. You also get 660 custom voice slots and 15 requests at once.

Say three editors share one workspace for client voiceovers. Each gets a seat, and they all draw on the same 1.8 million credits.

Voice agents get 3,738 call minutes and 30 calls at once. The API side includes 3,738,000 characters on v4.

If only two people need full access, compare Scale with Pro first. Every plan also adds Basic Seats for people who mostly use agents or the API. Those seats can’t replace a Full seat for studio work.

Pricing: $299 a month, or $2,990 a year.

Best For

• Small teams of up to three people.
• Studios that run several client voices at once.

Pros

• 3 Full seats in one workspace.
• 3 Professional Voice Clones.
• 1.8 million monthly credits.
• 660 custom voice slots.

Cons

• A fourth Full seat means Business or Enterprise.
• About three times the price of Pro.
• The credits are shared, so one heavy user drains the pool.

What Does the ElevenLabs Business Plan Include?

The ElevenLabs Business plan costs $990 a month, or $825 a month billed yearly. It grants 6,000,000 credits, about 6,000 minutes of speech.

Business adds 10 Full seats and 10 Professional Voice Clones. It also offers low-latency text to speech from as low as 5 cents a minute. Custom voice slots rise to 2,200, with 25 requests at once.

Voice agents get 12,375 call minutes and 40 calls at once. That’s the plan for a support line that runs all day.

For a team of 10, Business works out to $99 per Full seat a month. That’s the same as one Pro plan per person, with a shared pool and 10 clones. And you manage one bill instead of ten.

Need more? Enterprise adds custom terms, SSO, BAAs for HIPAA, and more seats and voices, on a custom quote.

Pricing: $990 a month, or $9,900 a year.

Best For

• Teams of up to 10 with heavy daily audio.
• Companies running voice agents at volume.

Pros

• 10 Full seats and 10 Professional Voice Clones.
• 6 million monthly credits.
• 40 agent calls at once.
• 2,200 custom voice slots.

Cons

• $990 a month is a big step from $299.
• SSO and HIPAA terms need Enterprise.
• Unused paid credits still expire if you downgrade.

How Much Does Annual ElevenLabs Pricing Save?

Annual ElevenLabs pricing charges 10 times the monthly price for 12 months. That’s two months free on every paid plan.

Example: Pro billed monthly costs $99 × 12 = $1,188 a year. Annual billing costs $990, so you keep $198.

A yearly plan only pays off if your usage holds steady. If your volume swings, start monthly for a cycle or two, then switch.

What Do ElevenLabs Voice Agents and the API Cost?

ElevenLabs voice agents and the ElevenAPI share the plan names but bill in their own units. Agents bill by call minutes. The API bills per 1,000 characters for speech, and per minute or hour for other tools.

Voice Agents Bill by Call Minutes

Each plan includes call minutes: 15 on Free, 75 on Starter, 275 on Creator and 1,238 on Pro. Scale includes 3,738 and Business 12,375.

Extra minutes cost $0.08 each from Creator up. Text messages cost $0.003 each, and burst calls above your concurrency limit cost $0.16 a minute.

The LLM that powers the agent costs extra and varies by model. Phone lines are charged at cost by your telephony provider.

Example: 500 call minutes on Creator means 225 extra minutes × $0.08 = $18. So you pay about $40 a month, before LLM and phone fees.

The API Bills per 1,000 Characters

API pricing for speech depends on the model. Eleven v4, v3 and v2 Multilingual cost $0.08 per 1,000 characters. The faster models (v4 Turbo, v3 Conversational, Flash and Turbo) cost $0.04.

Other tools bill by time. Scribe v2 speech to text costs $0.22 an hour, music costs $0.15 a minute, and dubbing runs $0.33 to $2.20 a minute.

Example: One million characters on v4 cost 1,000 × $0.08 = $80. Pro already includes 1,238,000 characters, so that job fits inside the plan.

What Hidden Costs Come With an ElevenLabs Plan?

The hidden costs in ElevenLabs pricing come from top-ups, seats and agent extras. None show up in the plan price, so check these five:

• Pay As You Go top-ups: Extra credits start at a $5 top-up and last 12 months. They’re used only after your plan credits run out.
• Purchase caps: Without two-factor sign-in, top-ups are capped at $100 a month on Free to Creator. The cap is $200 on Pro and $600 on Scale.
• Seats: Full seats are fixed by plan. Every plan adds 20 Basic Seats, and each can use up to 50,000 ElevenCreative credits a month from your shared pool.
• Regenerations: Credits are charged per generation, not per download. Some redos are free, and the app shows which before you generate.
• Agent extras: LLM fees come out of your credits, and phone fees come from your telephony provider.

Older Creator to Business plans can still use usage-based billing. New self-serve plans use Pay As You Go instead. Either way, the credit system bills the extra use on top of your plan price, so watch the balance in your subscription page.

Top Tip: Turn on two-factor sign-in before a big project. It lifts the monthly cap on top-ups, so a deadline doesn’t stall at $100.

Which ElevenLabs Plan Fits Your Workload?

The right ElevenLabs plan follows your monthly minutes and your headcount, not the features list. Start from the job, then check the price.

These fit labels are ours, built from the plan limits above. If voice is one step in a video workflow, compare Descript pricing and Synthesia pricing too. For avatar videos, see HeyGen pricing.

When several people produce audio for clients, track scripts, reviews and credit use on one shared project board. A tool like Onethread keeps who-recorded-what in one place.

Sources: ElevenLabs pricing, ElevenLabs API pricing, ElevenAgents pricing, ElevenLabs help center.

What Should You Do Next With Your ElevenLabs Plan?

ElevenLabs pricing is simple on the surface and tricky in the credits. The plan price matters less than how you spend the shared pool. Narration stretches it, and dubbing drains it fast. Once you know your real workload, the right plan is usually obvious.

So count your minutes first. Write down how much narration, dubbing and agent time you expect this month, then multiply by the credit rates above. Pick the smallest plan that covers it, and pay monthly until your volume settles. Then switch to annual billing and keep the two free months.

FAQs

Can You Use ElevenLabs Commercially on the Free Plan?

No. The Free plan has no commercial license, so its audio is for personal tests only. The commercial license starts on Starter at $6 a month, which also adds Instant Voice Cloning. ElevenLabs pricing puts music for commercial work on Starter and up as well.

Can You Get a Refund From ElevenLabs?

Yes, in a narrow case. ElevenLabs grants a refund if you ask within 14 days of payment and haven’t used any credits in that period. Once you generate audio, the refund window is closed. So test on the Free plan first, then pay.

Does ElevenLabs Offer Discounts for Nonprofits or Schools?

Yes, through its Impact Program. Nonprofits and education groups apply with a form on the ElevenLabs site, and the help center doesn’t publish a fixed discount. Startups can apply for a grant of 12 months free with 33 million characters. ElevenLabs pricing also shows first-month deals now and then.

Can You Cancel ElevenLabs at Any Time?

Yes. You can cancel whenever you like, and the plan stays active until the end of the billing cycle. After that, the account drops to the Free plan. Any unused paid credits expire at that point, so spend them before the cycle ends.

Do ElevenLabs Pay As You Go Credits Expire?

Yes, after 12 months. Pay As You Go credits last a year from purchase, and your plan credits are always used first. They also sit outside the rollover cap, so they won’t push your balance past the 3 times limit.