ElevenLabs Studio Tutorial: 4.0 Walkthrough (2026)

ElevenLabs Studio 4.0 is an AI audio editor for narrating, scoring, and mixing spoken-audio projects on a timeline: voiceover at 1 credit per character, music at 900 credits per minute, sound effects at 200 credits each. All plans include Studio — Free gets 5 projects, Starter 20, Creator 1,000, Pro 3,000. Checked 4 Nov 2026.

What is ElevenLabs Studio?

Studio 4.0 is ElevenLabs’ AI audio editor, presented on the official Studio page as the home for video creators, podcasters, and audiobook authors. Instead of generating one clip at a time, you build a whole project on a timeline: voiceover, music, sound effects, captions, and video, all in one place. The feature list is long: text to speech, Eleven Music, AI sound effects, captions, voice changer, transcription, voice isolator, speech correction, video support for MP4 and MOV files, public project URLs for review, and support for 32+ languages.

The headline addition is Studio Agent, an AI co-editor that drafts scripts, selects voices, and creates projects from a prompt. Under it sits the timeline editor: drag clips, trim, and arrange; fix a misread by editing the text with Speech Correction instead of re-recording; and share a public project URL so collaborators can comment at exact timestamps. There is a “Try Studio for free” entry point, and no separate Studio subscription — it is included with every ElevenLabs plan.

Which plans include Studio?

Every plan includes Studio. What changes is how many projects you can keep, how many credits you get, and what you can export. From the Studio plan comparison, checked 4 Nov 2026:

Two upgrade triggers matter. Creator is the first plan with watermark-free video export and 1,000 projects — the practical minimum for a video or podcast series. Pro adds 192 kbps MP3 and 44.1 kHz WAV export plus 600,000 credits, which is the tier for finished, master-quality work. The $1 first-month Starter offer (shown until Nov 8 when checked on 4 Nov 2026) is a cheap way to learn the editor before committing.

The Studio workflow, step by step

Here is the full Studio workflow on one worked example: a 5-minute narrated promo video. Credit costs are per step, from the official per-product rates:

1. Create the Studio project — 0 credits. One project of your allowance: 1 of 5 on Free, 1 of 20 on Starter, 1 of 1,000 on Creator, or 1 of 3,000 on Pro. Name it after the deliverable, not the draft — “promo-video-final” beats “untitled-7”.
2. Draft or import the script — 0 credits. Type it, paste it, or let Studio Agent draft it from a prompt and then edit. Script work is free; only generated media bills credits.
3. Generate the voiceover — about 4,500 credits. Five minutes of narration is roughly 4,500 characters; at 1 credit per character that is about 4,500 credits. Pick the voice before generating — the timeline keeps whatever you render.
4. Generate background music — 900 credits. Eleven Music costs 900 credits per minute, so one minute of underscore looped under the narration is 900 credits. Duck it under the voiceover on the timeline so the words stay intelligible.
5. Add sound effects — 400 credits. AI sound effects cost 200 credits per generation. Two effects — say, a whoosh under the title card and a soft click on the call-to-action — total 400 credits.
6. Generate captions — 1,650 credits. Transcription runs on the Speech to Text rate of 330 credits per minute: 5 minutes is 1,650 credits. Review the caption timing on the timeline before export.
7. Correct mistakes with Speech Correction — about 300 credits. Fix a misread by editing the text and regenerating just that line: roughly 300 characters, roughly 300 credits. This is Studio’s best trick — text edits instead of re-takes.
8. Review with collaborators — 0 credits. Share the public project URL; reviewers comment at exact timestamps and you fix from the comments. Review rounds cost nothing until you regenerate audio.
9. Export — 0 extra credits. Download the mix: watermark-free video export needs Creator or higher, and 192 kbps MP3 plus 44.1 kHz WAV need Pro. Export itself bills no additional credits.

Total for the example project: about 4,500 (voiceover) + 900 (music) + 400 (effects) + 1,650 (captions) + 300 (corrections) = roughly 7,750 credits — comfortably inside even the Free plan’s 10,000, though Free cannot export watermark-free video or use the audio commercially.

How many Studio projects does each plan produce?

For the 7,750-credit example project above:

Credits, not the project allowance, are the real limit on every tier — even Free’s 5-project allowance exceeds what its 10,000 credits can fill. Our main ElevenLabs walkthrough covers the wider app if you are deciding between Studio and the standard tools.

Studio tutorial: pros and cons

Who should NOT use Studio

Skip Studio if you only need raw text-to-speech: pasting text into the TTS page and downloading the clip is faster, and Studio’s timeline adds nothing for single clips. Skip it too if your project is mostly music production — Eleven Music generates the bed, but Studio is not a DAW and will not replace one. And if you need watermark-free video on a Free or Starter budget, know the limit before you build: that export unlocks at Creator. Our ElevenLabs for podcasts episode guide covers a podcast-first workflow if that is your actual project.

Frequently asked questions

Is ElevenLabs Studio free?

Studio itself has no separate price — it is included with every plan, and the Free plan ($0, 10,000 credits, 5 projects) runs the full editor. The limits are what cost money: watermark-free video export needs Creator ($22/month), master-quality audio export needs Pro ($99/month), and commercial use needs any paid plan. The example 5-minute project in this tutorial costs about 7,750 credits.

Which ElevenLabs plan is best for Studio?

Creator ($22/month, 121,000 credits, 1,000 projects) is the sweet spot for series work: watermark-free video export, a commercial license, and room for about 15 of the example 5-minute projects per month. Choose Pro ($99/month, 600,000 credits) when you need 192 kbps MP3 or 44.1 kHz WAV masters, or Free when you are only learning the editor.

Does Studio cost extra credits beyond generation?

No. Studio bills nothing for the editor itself — projects, the timeline, captions display, collaboration, and export are all free. You pay only the standard per-product generation rates: 1 credit per character for voiceover, 900 per minute for music, 200 per sound effect, 330 per minute for transcription, 1,000 per minute for voice isolation.

Can Studio replace my video editor?

For narrated, captioned videos with generated music and effects — yes, many creators finish entirely in Studio. For complex editing (multi-camera, heavy color, motion graphics), no: Studio supports MP4/MOV on a single timeline with captions and audio tools, not a full NLE feature set. Use it for the audio-first cut, and a real video editor for the rest.

What languages does Studio support?

The Studio page lists 32+ languages for the editor, and the underlying voices cover 74 languages on Free, 77 on Starter, 78 on Creator, and 80+ on Pro. Voice quality varies by language — audition the actual voice in your target language before committing a project to it, since demos in English do not predict performance elsewhere.

Can I collaborate with a team in Studio?

Yes — share a public project URL and collaborators can review and leave time-stamped comments without an ElevenLabs account, and every plan includes 1 editor seat. Review rounds are free; only regenerated audio bills credits. For client work, note that watermark-free video export requires Creator or higher.

Sources checked

The Studio 4.0 feature list, Studio Agent description, and “Try Studio for free” entry point are from the official ElevenLabs Studio page, checked 4 Nov 2026. Per-plan project counts, credit quotas, export quality, watermark rules, and per-product credit rates (voiceover, music, effects, transcription, isolation) are from the official ElevenLabs pricing page, checked 4 Nov 2026.