ElevenLabs Pricing (2026): Plans, Credits, Commercial Rights, and API Costs

Free Plan

ElevenLabs' free tier provides 10,000 credits per month, which translates to roughly 10 minutes of high-quality text-to-speech using the Multilingual v2 model, or approximately 15 minutes of Conversational AI agent time. The free plan does not include commercial usage rights — you must attribute ElevenLabs in any public content. You cannot legally monetize content created on the free plan. Instant voice cloning is not available, and you're limited to the stock voice library.

Starter Plan ($5/month)

Starter is the entry point for commercial use. It provides 30,000 credits per month (~30 minutes of TTS), commercial licensing rights, and access to instant voice cloning. This is the minimum tier for YouTubers, podcasters, or marketers who want to use ElevenLabs output in monetized content. Studio and Dubbing API access is included.

Creator Plan ($22/month)

Creator includes 100,000 credits (~100 minutes of TTS), professional voice cloning (PVC) for higher-quality custom voices, and 192 kbps audio output. This tier targets podcasters, audiobook narrators, and content creators who need premium voice quality. ElevenLabs occasionally offers a 50% discount on the first month for new subscribers.

Pro Plan ($99/month)

Pro provides 500,000 credits (~500 minutes of TTS), 44.1 kHz PCM audio via API for production-quality output, and production-scale conversational AI capabilities. This is the entry point for agencies, production studios, and app developers who need API access with reasonable concurrency limits.

Scale Plan ($330/month)

Scale includes 2,000,000 credits (~2,000 minutes of TTS), multi-seat workspaces, and low-latency TTS optimized for real-time applications. Designed for product teams building voice features into their applications.

Business Plan ($1,320/month)

Business provides 11,000,000 credits (~11,000 minutes of TTS), multi-seat workspaces, and professional voice clone capability across the organization. Enterprise-level features with standard billing.

Enterprise (Custom Pricing)

Custom SLAs, SSO, HIPAA/BAA compliance, dedicated support, and volume discounts. Contact ElevenLabs for pricing.

Annual Billing

All paid plans offer annual billing with approximately 17% savings (equivalent to 2 free months). Unused credits roll over for up to 2 months on paid plans — they do not accumulate indefinitely.

Credit-to-Character Mapping

ElevenLabs credits map directly to characters of text processed. Using the standard Multilingual v2 model, 1 credit equals 1 character. The Flash and Turbo models are more efficient at 0.5 credits per character, effectively doubling your output for the same credit allocation. Conversational AI agents consume credits at a different rate — roughly 10,000 credits per 10 minutes of high-quality conversation or 15 minutes of agent interaction time.

Credits reset monthly on all plans. Paid plans allow rollover of unused credits for up to 2 months. On Creator plans and above, usage-based billing kicks in if you exceed your allocation, so monitor usage to avoid surprise charges.

Commercial Rights: The Critical Detail

This is the most important pricing consideration for professional users: the free plan has no commercial usage rights. Any content you create must include ElevenLabs attribution. For commercial use — YouTube monetization, client work, advertising, app integration — you need at minimum the Starter plan at $5/month. Professional Voice Cloning, which creates higher-quality custom voices from training samples, requires Creator ($22/month) or above.

API Pricing Is Separate

ElevenLabs maintains separate API subscription tiers that are independent from the standard UI plans. The API Free tier includes 10 credits per month. API Pro costs $99/month with 100 credits. API Scale is $330/month with 660 credits. If you're a developer building voice features into an application, you need an API subscription in addition to (or instead of) a standard plan. Speech-to-text via the UI costs more credits than through the API. Plan carefully based on whether you'll use the web interface, the API, or both.

Matching Plans to Use Cases

Hobbyist or experimenter: Free plan. Test voices, explore the interface, generate samples for personal projects. Remember: no commercial use.

Monetizing creator (YouTube, podcast): Starter ($5/month). The cheapest path to commercial rights and instant voice cloning. Adequate for creators producing a few episodes per month.

Podcaster or audiobook narrator: Creator ($22/month). Professional voice cloning and higher audio bitrate matter when voice quality is the product.

Agency or production studio: Pro ($99/month). API access with production-grade audio quality and enough credits for multi-client workloads.

Product company building voice features: Scale ($330/month) or Business ($1,320/month). Multi-seat workspaces, low-latency TTS, and volume that supports application-level usage.

When BIGVU's Built-In Voice Is Enough

For video creators who need voiceover as part of a video workflow — not as a standalone audio product — BIGVU includes AI text-to-speech voices across 30+ languages as part of the video creation platform. The voiceover is integrated directly into the video editor alongside teleprompter recording, AI subtitles, brand kits, and video landing pages.

If your primary need is adding a voiceover to a marketing video, a property tour, or a social media clip, BIGVU's built-in TTS eliminates the need for a separate ElevenLabs subscription. The AI Pro plan at $39/month includes voiceover capability plus 3,000 credits for OmniHuman AI talking photo, AI image generation, and Auto-Shorts.

ElevenLabs remains the specialist tool for advanced voice cloning, multilingual dubbing at scale, conversational AI agents, and production-quality audio output where voice fidelity is the primary deliverable. For video creators who need a good voiceover as one part of a larger production workflow, BIGVU's all-in-one approach is more practical and cost-effective.