ElevenLabs vs Vapi (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, ElevenLabs grades higher than Vapi: 3.0 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
ElevenLabs grades higher on features and ease of use. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan 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
Vapi
Developer platform for building and running voice AI 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 Vapi if
- Fits if you are a developer who wants to choose each voice and model provider
- Makes sense if you want to pay for minutes as you use them
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you want one price, as model, voice and call charges sit on top of the $0.05 hosting
- Watch out: HIPAA-eligible handling is a $2,000 a month add-on
- Pricey if you grow, since Pro has a $999 a month minimum
- Watch out: extra lines cost $10 each and extra organisations $20 each a month
How we grade them
| 3.0GPAElevenLabsVery good | 2.2GPAVapiFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CCore is $29 a month and hosting is $0.05 a minute, but the page's own 1,000-minute estimate is $82 to $129 a month, and Pro starts at $999. |
| 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. | C$5 in free credits to start. The page does not say whether a card is needed. |
| 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. | BOrchestration, a choice of providers, testing and simulation, and telephony options. The core job of a voice agent is covered. |
| 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. | DNo store rating, and the platform is built around API calls and provider settings. |
| 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 Twilio, Vonage, Telnyx, Deepgram, OpenAI, ElevenLabs and Daily listed. |
| Best for | AI voiceovers, dubbing and voice cloning | developers building voice agents on their own stack |
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 Vapi. How we grade
Where they differ
- ElevenLabs also covers transcription, video generation, text to speech and voice cloning.
- Vapi also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| ElevenLabs | Vapi | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly) | $29 per month (Core); usage-only starts at $0.05 per minute hosting |
| 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 | $5 in free credits to start; usage-only accounts then pre-pay for minutes. |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Eleven Labs Inc. | Vapi, Inc. |
| Price read from | elevenlabs.io | vapi.ai |
| 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.
Vapi
- Without a success package, hosting is $0.05 per minute, pre-paid, and Deepgram, model and voice costs are added on top; the page's 1,000-minute estimate is $82 to $129 a month.
- HIPAA-eligible data handling is a $2,000 per month add-on.
- Extra concurrent lines cost $10 per line per month and extra organizations $20 per organization per month.
- Twilio, Vonage and Telnyx call charges are billed by those providers, such as $0.008 per minute for Twilio inbound.
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.
Vapi
- Voice agent orchestration
- Configure voice, conversation flow, telephony and integrations for an agent, then deploy it behind a phone number or an API.
- Choice of providers
- The pricing calculator lets you pick the transcriber, language model and voice, for example Deepgram, OpenAI and ElevenLabs. Models are passed through at cost.
- Testing and simulation
- Calls can be simulated before they reach customers, and monitoring flags issues in live calls.
- Telephony options
- Vapi telephony and SIP, WebSockets and Daily WebRTC are listed as free transport; Twilio, Vonage and Telnyx are charged by those providers.
- Enterprise controls
- The site lists SSO, OAuth, RBAC and AI guardrails, and says SOC 2, HIPAA and PCI compliance are supported.
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.
Vapi
Core$29
per month, pre-paid, auto-renew
2 organizations, 5 included phone numbers, 10 concurrent calls, 30 days of raw data retention and email support.
Pro$999
per month minimum, 10% of the hosting fee
10 organizations, 30 concurrent calls, 180 days retention, RBAC, a dedicated Slack channel and a 99% uptime SLA.
PremierCustom
Direct sales only: higher limits, named support team, 99.9% uptime SLA, SSO and dedicated SIP.
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.
Vapi
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, ElevenLabs or Vapi?
As of Nov 12, 2026, ElevenLabs is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against $29 a month for Vapi. ElevenLabs starts at $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly), and Vapi starts at $29 per month (Core); usage-only starts at $0.05 per minute hosting.
Which has a free plan, ElevenLabs or Vapi?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only ElevenLabs has a free plan. Vapi does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do ElevenLabs and Vapi 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.