ElevenLabs vs ElevenReader (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick ElevenLabs: it is first in our ranking of AI voice generators (ElevenReader is second), and it grades higher too, 3.0 against 2.8.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
ElevenLabs grades higher on features and ease of use. ElevenReader grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
ElevenLabs
AI voice platform for speech, voice cloning, dubbing and voice agents
ElevenReader
Reader app that reads your files and audiobooks aloud in AI voices
Which one is for you
Pick ElevenLabs if
- Fits if you voice videos, podcasts or audiobooks and will pay for a commercial license
- Works for apps that need an API and voice agents on the same account
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you're staying free, since the free plan carries no commercial license or cloning
- Tight if you dub a lot, as dubbing costs 2,000 to 10,000 credits a minute from the same pool as speech
- Not for you if you need a professional clone of a voice that isn't yours
- Pricey if you need more than 30 minutes a month: Creator is $22 monthly for about 121 minutes, Pro $99 for about 600
- Watch out: downgrading or cancelling forfeits rolled-over credits, and there's no desktop app
Pick ElevenReader if
- Fits if you want PDFs and articles read to you in a natural voice on your phone
- Works for readers who might stay inside 10 hours a month
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you read a lot: free stops at 10 hours of text-to-audio a month
- Pricey if you want offline listening or custom voices, because both need Ultra at $8.25 a month
- Watch out: premium audiobooks are capped at 20 hours a month even on Ultra
- Watch out: the Ultra trial is 3 days, which is short, and the Black Friday offer on the site shows no end date
How we grade them
| 3.0GPAElevenLabsVery good | 2.8GPAElevenReaderGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CAn hour of voiceover a month means Creator: $18.33 a month billed yearly ($22 monthly) for 121,000 credits, about 121 minutes of speech. Starter at $5 covers only about 30 minutes. That's the middle of what this category charges, and dubbing and music eat the same credits. | CUltra is $8.25 a month billed yearly ($11 monthly). The middle for voice tools is about $10, so this is ordinary. A Black Friday offer is shown but not counted. |
| Free plan and trial | C10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of speech, and 3 Studio projects. There's no commercial license and no cloning, so nothing you make on it can go in a video you publish. Enough to hear the voices, not to do the job. | BFree plan: 10 hours of text-to-audio a month, about one 400-page book, with 1,000+ voices and sync. One person can live on that, but it stops mid-book for heavy readers. |
| Features | AText to speech in 70+ languages, instant and professional cloning, voices designed from a prompt, dubbing, a long-form Studio, transcription, music, sound effects and voice agents. That covers more than any other tool here, and the listing shows no gap. | BUploads PDF, DOCX, EPUB, Markdown and text, 1,000+ voices in 90+ languages, a catalog of audiobooks and playback controls. Offline downloads and custom voices need Ultra. |
| Ease of use | A4.84 from 22,674 App Store ratings, the highest in this category. Paste text, pick a voice, press play. Working out what each product costs in credits is the fiddly part. | BNo store rating on record. Upload a file and press play, with nothing to set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with an API and SDKs, and Zapier, Make, n8n, Salesforce and Zendesk connections. No desktop app, which an A needs. | BWeb, iOS, Android and a browser extension, synced across them. No desktop app and no integrations are listed. |
| Best for | AI voiceovers, dubbing and voice cloning | listening to your own files with AI voices |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: ElevenLabs and ElevenReader. How we grade
Price against what you get
ElevenLabs starts at $5 a month and scores 3.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. ElevenReader starts at $8.25 a month and scores 3.0.
ElevenLabs scores higher and starts $3.25 a month lower. Of the other AI voice generators on the chart, none scores higher than ElevenLabs for less, and 1 scores higher than ElevenReader for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- ElevenLabs also covers transcription, video generation and voice cloning.
- ElevenReader also covers read later.
At a glance
| ElevenLabs | ElevenReader | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly) | $8.25 per month, billed annually ($11 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | 10,000 credits a month (about 10 minutes of text to speech) and 3 Studio projects. No commercial license and no voice cloning. | 10 hours of text-to-audio each month, 1,000+ voices, free audiobooks, sync between web and mobile, up to 4x speed, sleep timer and bookmarks. |
| Free trial | None listed | 3-day free trial of Ultra |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Eleven Labs Inc. | ElevenLabs |
| Price read from | elevenlabs.io | elevenreader.io |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
ElevenLabs
- The Free plan has no commercial license or voice cloning; both start on Starter, and Professional Voice Cloning starts on Creator.
- One credit pool covers every product: text to speech costs about 1 credit per character, and dubbing 2,000 to 10,000 credits per minute.
- Professional Voice Clones are limited to your own voice and need a voice check; for instant clones you must confirm you have the right and consent.
- Unused credits roll over for up to two months on paid plans, but downgrading or cancelling forfeits them at the end of the cycle.
ElevenReader
- The free plan caps text-to-audio at 10 hours a month; unlimited listening to your own imports needs Ultra.
- Premium audiobooks are limited to 20 hours a month on Ultra.
- Offline downloads and custom voices are Ultra-only.
- The site shows a Black Friday offer of 30% off the first year with no end date; it is listed under offers, not in the plan price.
Key features
ElevenLabs
- Text to speech
- Generate speech from text in more than 70 languages with Eleven v3 and other models, using stock voices, the shared voice library or voices you design from a prompt.
- Instant and Professional Voice Cloning
- Instant clones are made from a short sample and start on Starter. Professional clones are trained on longer recordings, start on Creator and must be of your own voice.
- Dubbing
- Translate a video's speech into another language automatically, or edit the result line by line in Dubbing Studio, which starts on the Starter plan.
- Studio editor
- A long-form editor for audiobooks, podcasts and voiceovers. The Free plan allows 3 Studio projects and Starter allows 20.
- Speech to text, music and sound effects
- Transcribe audio, generate music and sound effects, isolate voices from noise and change one voice into another, all paid from the same credit pool.
- ElevenAgents and API
- Build voice and chat agents for phone, chat and WhatsApp, or call the speech, transcription and dubbing models from your own app through the API and SDKs.
ElevenReader
- Read your own files aloud
- Upload PDFs, DOCX, EPUB, Markdown or TXT files and listen to them. Ultra skips headers, footers and filler text on import.
- Voice choice
- The site lists 1,000+ voices and narrators in 90+ languages, and Ultra can create custom voices.
- Audiobook catalog
- A catalog of 200,000+ audiobooks; the free plan has a selection of free titles and Ultra includes 20 hours of premium titles a month.
- Playback controls
- Speed up to 4x, a sleep timer and bookmarks on every plan, with sync between web and mobile.
- Offline listening
- Ultra can download books and articles for listening without a connection.
Plans
ElevenLabs
Free$0
10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of text to speech, and 3 Studio projects. Not licensed for commercial use.
Starter$5
per month for 30,000 credits, billed annually ($6 billed monthly)
About 30 minutes of speech a month, a commercial license, Instant Voice Cloning, Dubbing Studio and 20 Studio projects.
Creator$18.33
per month for 121,000 credits, billed annually ($22 monthly)
About 121 minutes of speech a month, 1 Professional Voice Clone and the option to buy more credits. The first month is $11 on monthly billing.
Pro$82.50
per month for 600,000 credits, billed annually ($99 monthly)
About 600 minutes of speech a month, 192 kbps audio and 44.1 kHz PCM output through the API.
Scale$249.17
per month for 1.8M credits, billed annually ($299 monthly)
About 1,800 minutes of speech a month, 3 workspace seats, team collaboration and 3 Professional Voice Clones.
Business$825
per month for 6M credits, billed annually ($990 monthly)
About 6,000 minutes of speech a month, 10 seats and 10 Professional Voice Clones. Enterprise above it is custom-priced, with SSO and BAAs.
ElevenReader
Free$0
10 hours of text-to-audio per month, about one 400-page book, with 1,000+ voices and free audiobooks.
Ultra$8.25
per month, billed annually ($11 billed monthly)
Unlimited text-to-audio for imports, 20 hours of premium audiobooks a month, offline downloads, custom voices and priority support.
Ways to pay less
ElevenLabs
- Annual discount
Two months free with annual billing
ElevenLabs prices a year at ten times the monthly price: Starter works out to $5 a month instead of $6, and Creator to $18.33 instead of $22.
- Other savings
First month of Creator for $11
The pricing page shows Creator at 50% off for the first month on monthly billing.
- Startups
Startup Grants: 12 months free
Startups building conversational AI agents can apply for a grant of 33 million characters, valid for 12 months.
- Nonprofit
Impact Program for nonprofits
The Impact Program gives free access to nonprofits in healthcare, education and culture, and to people with accessibility needs or permanent voice loss.
- Education
Impact Program for professors and students
Professors and their students can apply to the Impact Program for free access to ElevenLabs.
ElevenReader
- Annual discount
Save 25% with annual billing
The pricing page shows Ultra at $8.25 a month billed annually against $11 billed monthly, a saving of $33 a year.
- Other savings
Black Friday: 30% off the first year
A banner on the site offers 30% off the first year of a plan. No end date is shown.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, ElevenLabs or ElevenReader?
As of Nov 13, 2026, ElevenLabs is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against $8.25 a month for ElevenReader. ElevenLabs starts at $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly), and ElevenReader starts at $8.25 per month, billed annually ($11 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, ElevenLabs or ElevenReader?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both ElevenLabs and ElevenReader have a free plan.
Which platforms do ElevenLabs and ElevenReader run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only ElevenReader lists a browser extension. Both list a web app and iOS and Android apps. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.