The ElevenLabs Insider’s Guide

Everything we know about ElevenLabs in one document: what it costs, its grades, getting a refund, getting help and what else to look at. Read it here, or keep a copy.

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ToolGPAOctober 2026

ElevenLabs

The Insider’s Guide

AI voice platform for speech, voice cloning, dubbing and voice agents

ElevenLabs, as pictured on elevenlabs.io

Every plan, grade, refund rule and rival among AI voice generators, read from ElevenLabs’s own pages.

Made by Eleven Labs Inc. · checked Oct 18, 2026 · toolgpa.com

3.0GPA

01WelcomeWhat it is, who it suits, its grades and the ten things to know first
02What it costsEvery plan, the free plan, ways to pay less and how prices have moved
03What it doesIts main features, where it runs, what it works with and who makes it
04Where it standsIts grades against its category, and whether to keep it or make your own
05The alternativesThe tools it is most often weighed against, side by side
06Quick answersThe questions people ask about it, each answered in a line or two
07About ToolGPAWho made this guide, what else is on the site, and how to cite it

ToolGPA put this guide together from ElevenLabs’s own pages, its app-store listings and our grades. Every fact in it is on ElevenLabs’s page too, where it is kept up to date. Checked Oct 18, 2026.

Part 01 · Overview

Welcome

What it is, who it suits, its grades and the ten things to know first

3.0

GPA, above 9 of the 9 other AI voice generators we grade

ElevenLabs is an AI audio platform for creators and developers. It turns text into speech with stock, designed or cloned voices, dubs video into other languages, transcribes audio and builds conversational voice agents through ElevenAgents and its API. Every product draws on one pool of monthly credits, and a free plan gives 10,000 credits a month without a commercial license.

To get you started, here are 9 things to know about ElevenLabs, taken from its own pages and our grades.

The catch is that pot: every product drains it, and the free plan can't be used for anything you publish.

From our report card of ElevenLabs

1
Best for AI voiceovers that sound like people
ElevenLabs is the one the rest of this list gets measured against.
2
Paid plans start at $5 a month
As its pricing page puts it: $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly).
3
There is a 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.
4
It runs on 3 platforms
Web, iOS and Android.
5
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.
6
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.
7
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.
8
A 3.0 GPA, above 9 of 9
That is against the other AI voice generators we grade, on value, the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
9
Keep it
To replace ElevenLabs you would be making a voice model, which you can rent by the minute but not make. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.

ElevenLabs at a glance

Pricing: Free plan, from $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly)
Free plan: Yes
Free trial: None stated
Runs on: Web, iOS, Android
Made by: Eleven Labs Inc.
Category: AI Voices & Text to Speech
Our grade: 3.0 GPA, very good
Store rating: 4.8 on the App Store, 22,674 ratings

The report card

Best for AI voiceovers that sound like people

Need a voice that doesn't sound like a robot? ElevenLabs is the one the rest of this list gets measured against. It reads text in 70+ languages, clones voices, dubs video and runs voice agents, all from one pot of credits. The catch is that pot: every product drains it, and the free plan can't be used for anything you publish.

ToolGPA report cardElevenLabsGraded Oct 18, 2026

Subject	Grade	Comment
Value for money	C	An 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.
Free plan and trial	C	10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of speech, and 3 Studio projects. But there's no commercial license and no cloning, so nothing you make on it can go in a video you publish. Fine for hearing the voices, not for the job.
Features	A	Text 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. Nothing else here covers as much, and nothing in the listing shows a gap.
Ease of use	A	4.84 from 22,674 App Store ratings, the best in this category. Paste text, pick a voice, press play. Working out what each product costs in credits is the only fiddly part.
Platforms and integrations	B	Web, iPhone and Android, with an API and SDKs, and Zapier, Make, n8n, Salesforce and Zendesk connections. No desktop app, which an A needs.

Grade point averageVery good, out of 4.03.0

An A is worth 4 points, a B 3, a C 2, a D 1 and an F nothing. The GPA is the average of the five.

Who ElevenLabs is for

Great if you voice videos, podcasts or audiobooks and want it to sound human
Handy when one video has to go out in several languages
A treat if you build apps, with an API and voice agents on the same account

Who it is not for

Skip it if you're staying free, since the free plan carries no commercial license
Tight if you dub a lot, as dubbing costs 2,000 to 10,000 credits a minute
Not for you if you need a professional clone of a voice that isn't yours

Good to know

Good for

Creators voicing videos, podcasts and audiobooks
Dubbing existing videos into other languages
Developers adding speech or voice agents to their own product

Worth knowing

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.

Part 02 · Pricing

What it costs

Every plan, the free plan, ways to pay less and how prices have moved

A month to start. There is a free plan too

ElevenLabs has a free plan. Paid plans start at $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly).

That's the middle of what this category charges, and dubbing and music eat the same credits.

From our grade for value for money

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.

The 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.

Read from elevenlabs.io on Oct 18, 2026.

Ways to pay less

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.
Stated on elevenlabs.io
Other savings
First month of Creator for $11
The pricing page shows Creator at 50% off for the first month on monthly billing.
Stated on elevenlabs.io
Startups
Startup Grants: 12 months free
Startups building conversational AI agents can apply for a grant of 33 million characters, valid for 12 months.
Stated on elevenlabs.io
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.
Stated on elevenlabs.io
Education
Impact Program for professors and students
Professors and their students can apply to the Impact Program for free access to ElevenLabs.
Stated on elevenlabs.io

Part 03 · Features

What it does

Its main features, where it runs, what it works with and who makes it

Places it runs: Web, iOS and Android

AI voice platform for speech, voice cloning, dubbing and voice agents. Here is what it does, as its own site describes it, and what it covers: public API, transcription, video generation, text to speech, voice cloning.

Nothing else here covers as much, and nothing in the listing shows a gap.

From our grade for features

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.

Where it runs

Web
iOS
Android

What it works with

Zapier
Make
n8n
Salesforce
Zendesk
Pipedrive
Airtable
ServiceNow

ElevenLabs is made by Eleven Labs Inc.

Part 04 · Standing

Where it stands

Its grades against its category, and whether to keep it or make your own

9/9

Other AI voice generators it is graded above

ElevenLabs's GPA of 3.0 is higher than 9 of the 9 other AI voice generators we grade.

It stands best on features (A, above 9 of 9) and worst on free plan and trial (C, above 0).

Its paid plans start at $5 a month, against a middle price of $14 for the category: 0 of the 9 others that charge start lower.

On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.7 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more.

Each grade against the category

Every bar is all 10 AI voice generators we grade, cut by the letter each got. ElevenLabs’s own letter is outlined.

CValue for money
Above 1 of 9
CFree plan and trial
Above 0 of 9
AFeatures
Above 9 of 9
AEase of use
Above 9 of 9
BPlatforms and integrations
Above 2 of 9

Price against what you get

Each dot is one of 10 AI voice generators. Further left costs less; higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. ElevenLabs is the marked dot.

What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →

Keep it, or make your own?

Whether this is something you could build for yourself with an AI app builder, and what you would give up.

Keep it

To replace ElevenLabs you would be making a voice model, which you can rent by the minute but not make. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.

It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.0 is higher than 9 of the 9 other AI voice generators we grade. It costs $60 a year.

What you could not

A voice model, which you can rent by the minute but not make.
A voice model trained on your recordings.
A video model, which you can rent by the second but not make.
Speech turned into text you can trust.
A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
It plugs into other products, Zapier, Make and n8n among them, and has an API.
The depth: we grade its features A, which means it covers the whole job.

What this rests on. ElevenLabs’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.

Part 05 · Alternatives

The alternatives

The tools it is most often weighed against, side by side

Murf, WellSaid, Respeecher, Cartesia and Typecast

The 5 tools ElevenLabs is most often weighed against, with where each one differs from it.

2.2GPA
Murf
Free trial · from $19/mo
AI voiceover studio with dubbing, translation and a speech API.
- ElevenLabs has a free plan. Murf does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only ElevenLabs lists iOS and Android apps.
- ElevenLabs also covers video generation.
ElevenLabs and Murf compared in full
2.0GPA
WellSaid
Free plan · from $10/mo
AI voiceover studio with voices licensed from paid voice actors.
- Only ElevenLabs lists iOS and Android apps.
- ElevenLabs also covers transcription, video generation and voice cloning.
ElevenLabs and WellSaid compared in full
2.0GPA
Respeecher
Free trial · from $18/mo
Voice cloning and speech-to-speech for film, TV, games and developers.
- ElevenLabs has a free plan. Respeecher does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only ElevenLabs lists iOS and Android apps.
- ElevenLabs also covers transcription and video generation.
ElevenLabs and Respeecher compared in full
2.4GPA
Cartesia
Free plan · from $5/mo
Low-latency speech models and voice agents for developers.
- Only ElevenLabs lists iOS and Android apps.
- ElevenLabs also covers video generation.
ElevenLabs and Cartesia compared in full
2.4GPA
Typecast
Free trial · from $5/mo
AI voice generator with emotion controls, voice cloning and video.
- ElevenLabs has a free plan. Typecast does not, though it has a free trial.
- ElevenLabs also covers transcription and video generation.
- Typecast also covers video editing.
ElevenLabs and Typecast compared in full

Part 06 · Questions

Quick answers

The questions people ask about it, each answered in a line or two

Questions, each answered in a line or two

The short version of everything above, for when you only need the answer. Each one is told in full in its part of the guide.

Is ElevenLabs free?

ElevenLabs has a free plan. 10,000 credits a month (about 10 minutes of text to speech) and 3 Studio projects.

How much does ElevenLabs cost?

ElevenLabs lists 6 plans. Free: $0.

What platforms does ElevenLabs work on?

ElevenLabs is available on Web, iOS and Android.

Does ElevenLabs offer any discounts?

ElevenLabs publicly lists the following: Two months free with annual billing; First month of Creator for $11; Startup Grants: 12 months free; Impact Program for nonprofits; Impact Program for professors and students.

How is ElevenLabs rated?

ElevenLabs's iPhone and iPad app averages 4.8 out of 5 from 22,674 ratings on the App Store in the United States, as read on Oct 18, 2026.

Does ElevenLabs have a Windows app?

No Windows app was listed when its pages were read on Oct 18, 2026. ElevenLabs is listed for Web, iOS and Android.

Does ElevenLabs have a macOS app?

No macOS app was listed when its pages were read on Oct 18, 2026. ElevenLabs is listed for Web, iOS and Android.

Is ElevenLabs open source?

ElevenLabs is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Oct 18, 2026.

Does ElevenLabs have an API?

Yes. ElevenLabs offers a public API, according to its own site.

What does ElevenLabs integrate with?

ElevenLabs's listing names Zapier, Make, n8n, Salesforce, Zendesk, Pipedrive, Airtable and ServiceNow.

Does ElevenLabs have a student discount?

Impact Program for professors and students. Professors and their students can apply to the Impact Program for free access to ElevenLabs.

Who makes ElevenLabs?

ElevenLabs is made by Eleven Labs Inc.

What are the alternatives to ElevenLabs?

The closest alternatives to ElevenLabs in our directory are Murf, WellSaid, Respeecher, Cartesia and Typecast.

How does ElevenLabs compare with other AI voice generators?

ElevenLabs's GPA of 3.0 is higher than 9 of the 9 other AI voice generators we grade.

Is ElevenLabs good value for money?

ToolGPA grades ElevenLabs C for value for money. Its paid plans start at $5 a month, against a middle price of $14 for the category: 0 of the 9 others that charge start lower.

Could I make my own version of ElevenLabs?

To replace ElevenLabs you would be making a voice model, which you can rent by the minute but not make.

Where this guide comes from

The prices, plans, platforms and features were read from ElevenLabs’s own pages on Oct 18, 2026, and the grades were given on Oct 18, 2026. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from ElevenLabs's own pages on 18 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

Every tool we list gets five grades, A to F, each with its reason, and a GPA that averages them. How each is decided is at toolgpa.com/grades. This guide is ToolGPA’s own work; it is not made, paid for or approved by Eleven Labs Inc. Prices change, so check elevenlabs.io before you buy.

Part 07 · About

About ToolGPA

Who made this guide, what else is on the site, and how to cite it

2,281

Tools graded, in 73 categories

ToolGPA grades software the way a school report grades a pupil: five subjects, a letter for each with the reason written beside it, and a GPA that averages them. Prices, plans and platforms are read from each maker’s own pages and dated, so you always know how fresh a figure is.

ToolGPA is free to read. It may earn a commission from affiliate links and it works with sponsors, but anything paid for is labelled and no one can pay for a grade. Every tool on the site has a guide like this one, free to download and pass on. It all lives at toolgpa.com.

2,281
tools graded
73
categories
426
price changes on record
579
apps priced in 12 countries

What else is on toolgpa.com

Scan for the live page

Prices and grades as they are today

Quoting this guide?

Please name ToolGPA and link to the live page, so readers can check the figures for themselves:

ToolGPA, "ElevenLabs: The Insider's Guide", checked Oct 18, 2026. https://toolgpa.com/tools/elevenlabs

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The best-graded AI voice generators after ElevenLabs, each with an Insider's Guide of its own.

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Compare tools at toolgpa.com ›

Everything in this guide is ToolGPA’s own summary of what ElevenLabs’s pages, its app-store listings and public reviews said on the dates shown. Grades are our judgement under the rules at toolgpa.com/grades. ToolGPA uses affiliate links and may earn a commission from them, and it works with sponsors; anything paid for is labelled, and no one can pay for a grade. ElevenLabs is a trademark of its owner, and this guide is not made, paid for or approved by Eleven Labs Inc. Prices and plans change: check elevenlabs.io before you buy.