ElevenLabs pricing in 2026: what each plan actually gives you
Disclosure first
This page contains an affiliate link. If you subscribe through it, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We read ElevenLabs' own pricing page on 1 November 2026; we have not run a paid plan or measured voice quality ourselves, and we say so rather than pretend otherwise.
The short answer
If you only need voice for personal projects, the free plan is fine. The moment you publish audio commercially, you need Starter at $6 a month, because the commercial licence is the line, not the credits. Creator at $22 is the plan most people actually want: instant voice cloning and 121,000 credits a month is enough for a weekly video or a small podcast.
Every plan, as listed on 1 November 2026
| Plan | Price | Credits per month | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 10,000 | Testing voices, personal projects, no commercial use |
| Starter | $6/mo | 30,000 | Commercial licence and instant voice cloning |
| Creator | $22/mo | 121,000 | Professional voice cloning, regular publishing |
| Pro | $99/mo | 600,000 | High-quality audio output and API work |
| Scale | $299/mo | 1,800,000 | 3 seats, teams sharing one workspace |
| Business | $990/mo | 6,000,000 | 10 seats, low-latency pricing for volume |
ElevenLabs was running a first-month discount when we checked: Starter at $1 and Creator at $11 for the first month. Treat that as a promotion, not the price.
What a credit actually buys
Credits are the unit you spend every time the model speaks. A rough working figure: about 1,000 credits per minute of generated speech, so the free 10,000 credits is roughly ten minutes of audio a month.
That is the number to plan around. Ten minutes is enough to test a voice; it is not enough to publish a weekly show. If your script runs 1,500 words, you are already past the free tier in one episode.
Why Starter at $6 is the real entry point
The free plan does not include a commercial licence. If the audio ends up in a YouTube video with ads, a client project, or a product, you are outside the terms at $0. Starter at $6 adds the commercial licence and instant voice cloning, which is why it is the plan worth paying for even if you barely use the credits.
Creator at $22: the plan most creators land on
Creator adds professional voice cloning, more projects, and 121,000 credits a month. In practical terms that is roughly two hours of finished speech, or a weekly ten-minute video with room to re-record lines that came out wrong.
The re-record room matters. Anyone who has cut a voiceover knows the first take is rarely the one used, and a plan that only covers the final runtime will run out halfway through editing.
Pro at $99 and above: it is an output-quality decision
Pro raises the audio output quality (44.1kHz PCM over the API, 192kbps files) and lifts the credit ceiling to 600,000. Scale and Business add seats and lower per-minute costs for high volume.
Above Pro you are buying production quality and seats, not features a solo creator needs. If you are one person publishing weekly, the $99 tier is the ceiling worth considering.
Where the cost actually escapes
Two things push the bill up: re-recording, and long scripts. Both burn credits you already paid for, and neither shows up in the headline price. Budget for roughly twice your finished runtime during editing, and the plan tier stops looking generous.
Extra credits are purchasable on paid plans, which softens a bad month, but the per-credit price at that point is worse than simply being on the next tier up.
What we did not test
We did not buy a plan, run a voice test, or compare output against other engines. Every price and credit figure above comes from ElevenLabs' pricing page on 1 November 2026, and prices change without notice. If voice quality is the deciding factor for you, generate the same paragraph on the free tier and listen before you pay.
Affiliate link. Price and plans as listed on 1 November 2026.