ElevenLabs vs Synthesys (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick ElevenLabs: it is first in our ranking of AI voice generators, and it grades higher too, 3.0 against 1.8.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
ElevenLabs grades higher on the free plan, features and ease of use. 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
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 Synthesys if
- Fits if you make voiceovers and video ads for marketing
- Makes sense if you want a few seats and scheduled posting on one bill
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want to try it first, because there is no free plan or trial
- Skip it if you only need voiceover, since the focus has moved toward video ads
- Watch out: refunds end after 3 days and need 25% or less of credits used
- Pricey if you add seats: Agency is $83 a month for 3 seats
How we grade them
| 3.0GPAElevenLabsVery good | 1.8GPASynthesysWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CStarter is $20 a month yearly ($29 monthly) for 3,500 credits and one seat. That is in the dearer quarter of the category, and Pro is $41 and Agency $83. |
| 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. | FNothing free. The pricing page lists no plan or trial, and refunds apply only within 3 days and if you used no more than 25% of your credits. |
| 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. | CVoiceover and music cost no credits, while video and image generation spend them, with brand kits, autopilot workers and social publishing on higher plans. A marketing job more than a voice job. |
| 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. | CNo store rating on record. Credits and autopilot workers mean there is something to learn. |
| 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, with TikTok, Instagram and Facebook publishing listed. No apps. |
| Best for | AI voiceovers, dubbing and voice cloning | voiceovers and video ads from one subscription |
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 Synthesys. 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. Synthesys starts at $20 a month and scores 2.3.
ElevenLabs scores higher and starts $15 a month lower. Of the other AI voice generators on the chart, none scores higher than ElevenLabs for less, and 6 score higher than Synthesys 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.
- Synthesys also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| ElevenLabs | Synthesys | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly) | $20 per month, billed annually ($29 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. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Eleven Labs Inc. | Nouveau Media Ltd |
| Price read from | elevenlabs.io | synthesys.io |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 12, 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.
Synthesys
- The pricing page lists no free plan or trial; plans are paid from the start.
- Refunds are limited to 3 days after purchase and to accounts that used no more than 25% of their credits.
- Plans are measured in credits that video and image generation spend; the page says voiceover and music never cost credits.
- The product's focus has moved toward video ads, so voice-only buyers pay for tools they may not use.
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.
Synthesys
- Text to speech library
- The voice generator page lists 400+ voices in 140+ languages, with a voiceover studio of 20 narrators.
- Voice design and cloning
- Describe a voice to generate it from scratch, or clone one from about 10 seconds of audio.
- Speech to speech
- Converts a recording into another voice while keeping the original emotion, and lets you remix the style of generated audio.
- Video agent
- Takes a brief or product URL and produces a finished video in 11 formats, from UGC ads to TV commercials.
- Brand Kit and publishing
- Pro adds a Brand Kit; Agency adds a winning-ads library and scheduled publishing to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
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.
Synthesys
Starter$20
per month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly)
3,500 credits a month, 1 seat and 1 autopilot worker, with full commercial rights. Billed $240 a year.
Pro$41
per month, billed annually ($59 billed monthly)
8,000 credits, 2 seats, 3 autopilot workers and a Brand Kit. Billed $492 a year.
Agency$83
per month, billed annually ($119 billed monthly)
17,000 credits, 3 seats, 10 autopilot workers, ads library and social publishing. Billed $996 a year.
Max$139
per month and up, billed annually ($199 billed monthly)
From 30,000 credits and 5 seats; steps up to 250,000+ credits and 15 seats, with an account manager.
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.
Synthesys
- Annual discount
Yearly billing saves 30%
Yearly billing is shown at $20, $41, $83 and $139 a month on Starter, Pro, Agency and Max, against $29, $59, $119 and $199 billed monthly.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, ElevenLabs or Synthesys?
As of Nov 12, 2026, ElevenLabs is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against $20 a month for Synthesys. ElevenLabs starts at $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly), and Synthesys starts at $20 per month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, ElevenLabs or Synthesys?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only ElevenLabs has a free plan. Synthesys does not.
Which platforms do ElevenLabs and Synthesys run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only ElevenLabs lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. 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.