AIDealsPro is reader-supported. Some links on this page are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes our verdicts.
ElevenLabs Starter costs $6/mo on monthly billing ($5/mo billed yearly) for 30,000 credits — about 30 minutes of AI-generated speech. Creator is $22/mo for 121,000 credits, and Pro $99/mo for 600,000. New subscribers get the first month for $1 on Starter or $11 on Creator (checked 18 Oct 2026). A free plan with 10,000 credits covers short tests.
Best for: Podcasters, audiobook producers, YouTubers and developers who need natural AI voices on a regular schedule — Creator’s 121,000 credits cover about two hours of speech a month.
Not for: Anyone who needs talking-head video rather than voice — Synthesia or HeyGen add avatars on top of narration — or occasional users who will not use 30,000 characters a month.
Starting price: $6/mo for Starter on monthly billing ($5/mo billed yearly), checked 18 Oct 2026. The first month is $1, and a free plan with 10,000 credits exists.
ElevenLabs pricing at a glance
ElevenLabs sells AI voice by the credit: one credit buys one generated text character, and every plan includes a monthly credit pool. Six paid tiers plus a free plan and custom Enterprise cover everyone from curious individuals to large teams.
| Fact | Detail (checked 18 Oct 2026) |
|---|---|
| Starting price | $6/mo monthly (Starter); $5/mo billed yearly |
| Cheapest way in | Free plan, $0 — 10,000 credits/mo, 3 Studio projects |
| Plans | Free, Starter, Creator, Pro, Scale, Business, Enterprise (custom) |
| Credit rate | 1 credit per text character (TTS); Flash/Turbo models 0.5–1 credit/char via API |
| Starter allowance | 30,000 credits/month — about 30 min of speech |
| Creator allowance | 121,000 credits/month — about 2 hours of speech |
| Pro allowance | 600,000 credits/month — about 10 hours of speech |
| Team plans | Scale $299/mo (3 seats); Business $990/mo (10 seats) |
| Credit rollover | Up to 2x monthly quota (max 3x balance); forfeited on downgrade or cancel |
| Live offers | First month $1 on Starter (83% off); first month $11 on Creator (50% off) |
How much does ElevenLabs cost? Every plan in 2026
Every price below was read directly from the official pricing page on 18 Oct 2026, in USD. Annual billing is simple: you pay for 10 months, so the monthly-equivalent price is the monthly price times 10 divided by 12. Note that the page states prices exclude taxes.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Yearly billing (per month) | Credits/month | Approx. speech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 10,000 | About 10 min |
| Starter | $6/mo (first month $1) | $5/mo | 30,000 | About 30 min |
| Creator | $22/mo (first month $11) | $18.33/mo | 121,000 | About 2 hours |
| Pro | $99/mo | $82.50/mo | 600,000 | About 10 hours |
| Scale | $299/mo | $249.17/mo | 1,800,000 (3 seats) | About 30 hours |
| Business | $990/mo | $825/mo | 6,000,000 (10 seats) | About 100 hours |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Free is genuinely usable for testing: 10,000 credits a month — about 10 minutes of speech — plus 3 Studio projects. The allowance is small and usage is restricted, but it is enough to judge voice quality before paying anything.
Starter is the entry point for regular use at $6/mo monthly or $5/mo billed yearly ($60 a year), with 30,000 credits a month — roughly 30 minutes of narration. The first month costs $1, an 83% discount shown on the pricing page on 18 Oct 2026.
Creator costs $22/mo monthly or $18.33/mo billed yearly ($220 a year) for 121,000 credits — about two hours of speech. The first month is $11 (50% off), with no end date shown. This is the tier for YouTubers, course creators and audiobook producers with a steady publishing rhythm.
Pro is $99/mo monthly or $82.50/mo billed yearly ($990 a year) for 600,000 credits — about 10 hours of speech — aimed at heavy producers and developers with meaningful API volume.
Scale costs $299/mo ($249.17 yearly, 3 seats, 1.8M credits, about 30 hours); Business is $990/mo ($825 yearly, 10 seats, 6M credits, about 100 hours). Both target teams and organisations with large, ongoing voice needs. Enterprise is custom-priced with custom credits and seats, for companies needing dedicated support and procurement-friendly terms.
What do ElevenLabs credits actually buy? The character maths
Credits are ElevenLabs’ single currency: with the standard V2 Multilingual model, one character costs one credit, so your allowance is also your character allowance. (Flash/Turbo models cost 0.5–1 credit per character via API.) ElevenLabs publishes no characters-per-minute figure; at roughly 1,000 characters per minute of speech, the allowances mean:
| Plan | Credits = characters | Approx. speech | Cost per 1,000 characters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 10,000 | About 10 min | $0 |
| Starter | 30,000 | About 30 min | $0.20 ($6 ÷ 30) |
| Creator | 121,000 | About 2 hours | About $0.18 ($22 ÷ 121) |
| Pro | 600,000 | About 10 hours | About $0.17 ($99 ÷ 600) |
| Scale | 1,800,000 | About 30 hours | About $0.17 ($299 ÷ 1,800) |
| Business | 6,000,000 | About 100 hours | About $0.17 ($990 ÷ 6,000) |
Put plainly: Starter covers about 30 minutes of narration a month — enough for two or three short podcast episodes. Creator’s roughly two hours suits a weekly YouTube channel with voiceovers. And the per-character cost barely moves above Creator: you are paying for volume, not a discount.
Other products draw from the same pool and cost more per minute: speech-to-text 330/min, AI music 900/min, sound effects 200 per generation, Voice Changer and Isolator 1,000/min, dubbing 2,000–10,000/min by mode. Ten minutes of Dubbing Studio without watermark costs 100,000 credits — over three Starter months — so dubbing exhausts a plan fast.
Monthly vs yearly billing: the maths
Annual billing is simple: pay for 10 months, get 12 — two months free. Equivalents: $5 (Starter), $18.33 (Creator), $82.50 (Pro), $249.17 (Scale), $825 (Business). Starter drops $72 to $60 a year (save $12, about 17%); Creator $264 to $220 (save $44); Pro $1,188 to $990 (save $198). You pay the full year up front, so switch only once usage is steady.
The cheapest sensible plan for 3 types of buyer
Match the plan to your output. Unused credits roll over for up to two months here, so overbuying hurts less than with video tools — but do not pay for hours you will not use.
| If you… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Only want to test voice quality | Free ($0) | 10,000 credits (about 10 min) is enough to compare voices; no card needed |
| Narrate a podcast or a few videos a month | Starter, monthly ($6/mo; first month $1) | About 30 min of speech covers it, and you stay flexible while you learn the workflow |
| Publish voiceovers weekly or make audiobooks | Creator, yearly ($18.33/mo) | About 2 hours a month, and yearly billing is about 17% cheaper once usage is steady |
| Produce 8+ hours a month or run a team | Pro ($99/mo) or Scale ($299/mo, 3 seats) | 600k–1.8M credits a month and room to grow |
Hidden limits and catches
Nothing here is dishonest — it is all stated on the pricing page — but these are the details buyers miss.
1. Rollover has a ceiling: unused credits roll over for up to two months (up to 2x your monthly quota), so your balance can never exceed 3x the allowance. Downgrading or cancelling forfeits unused credits, and rollover does not apply to the Free plan.
2. The first-month prices apply once: Starter’s $1 and Creator’s $11 renew at $6 and $22 afterwards. The Starter offer showed an end date of 18 Oct 2026 at research time, so it may already have expired — confirm on the pricing page.
3. Prices exclude taxes, so the checkout total can exceed the advertised price depending on your location.
4. Character costs vary by model: 1 credit per character is the V2 Multilingual rate; Flash/Turbo cost 0.5–1 credit per character via API, which changes the maths for developers.
5. Dubbing and music drain the pool fast: ten minutes of Dubbing Studio without watermark costs 100,000 credits — over three months of Starter. And the cheapest plans restrict voice cloning slots, commercial terms and API access, so check the feature list if cloning or building a product is the point.
ElevenLabs pricing: pros and cons
Pros
- Simple 1-credit-per-character maths makes budgeting exact.
- Generous rollover: unused credits carry over for up to two months.
- Cheap entry: $6/mo Starter (first month $1) plus a usable free plan.
- Annual billing is transparent — pay for 10 months, get 12.
Cons
- Prices exclude taxes, so checkout costs more than advertised.
- The free plan’s 10,000 credits run out fast, with no rollover.
- Dubbing, music and voice isolation burn credits far faster than narration.
- First-month discounts apply once; the $1 offer may have expired.
Who should NOT buy ElevenLabs
If your project is video-first, an avatar tool serves you better: Synthesia and HeyGen pair narration with talking heads and build dubbing for video. If you need under 10 minutes of voice a month, the free plan is enough — do not pay for Starter. And self-serve plans will not fit on-premise or strict data-control needs; talk to Enterprise sales instead.
Alternatives to ElevenLabs
1. Synthesia — if the end product is video, not audio. Its dubbing re-voices video in 140+ languages, and Starter includes 1,250 credits a month. See the Synthesia pricing breakdown.
2. HeyGen — the closest rival for avatar-led video with voice cloning built in; Creator is $29/mo. Read our HeyGen pricing guide.
3. More voice options — browse our AI voice tools hub and our full ElevenLabs review to compare voice generators across budgets.
Frequently asked questions
How much does ElevenLabs cost per month?
Starter costs $6 per month on monthly billing, or $5 per month billed yearly. Creator is $22 monthly ($18.33 yearly), Pro $99 ($82.50), Scale $299 ($249.17) and Business $990 ($825). A free plan with 10,000 credits exists, and Enterprise is custom-priced. All prices were checked on 18 Oct 2026 and exclude taxes.
What does the $1 first-month offer get me?
New subscribers pay $1 for the first month of Starter instead of $6, an 83% discount. You still get the full 30,000-credit allowance for that month. The plan then renews at $6/mo. At research time the offer showed an end date of 18 Oct 2026, so confirm it is still live on the pricing page before subscribing.
How many minutes of audio is 30,000 credits?
About 30 minutes. One credit buys one text character with the standard model, so 30,000 credits = 30,000 characters. At roughly 1,000 characters per minute of spoken audio — a common estimate, since ElevenLabs does not publish its own figure — that is about half an hour of narration. Creator’s 121,000 credits work out to roughly two hours.
Do unused ElevenLabs credits roll over?
Yes, with limits. Unused credits roll over for up to two months — up to twice your monthly quota — so your balance can reach at most three times the monthly allowance. Downgrading or cancelling forfeits unused credits at the end of the cycle, and rollover does not apply to the Free plan.
Is annual billing worth it for ElevenLabs?
It saves two months a year: you pay for 10 months. Starter drops from $72 to $60 a year, saving $12; Creator from $264 to $220, saving $44; Pro from $1,188 to $990, saving $198. You pay the full year up front, so it suits buyers with steady, predictable usage rather than one-off projects.
Is the ElevenLabs free plan actually useful?
For testing, yes. The free plan includes 10,000 credits a month — about 10 minutes of speech — plus 3 Studio projects, which is enough to compare voices and judge quality. It is too small for regular publishing, carries usage restrictions, and unused credits do not roll over, so treat it as a trial, not a tier.
Sources checked
- ElevenLabs official pricing page — https://elevenlabs.io/pricing (checked 18 Oct 2026; all plan prices, credit amounts, rollover rules, annual prices and first-month offers)
Last updated 18 Oct 2026. Prices checked on elevenlabs.io/pricing on that date; confirm at checkout.
