What Is ElevenLabs? Voice Cloning, Studio, Dubbing and Agents
By Joris van Huët · ElevenLabs's own site
The short answer: if a marketing team needs about two hours of narration a month plus the odd jingle or dub, ElevenLabs Creator at $22 a month billed monthly carries it, with 121,000 credits and roughly 121 minutes of text to speech in the app (pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026). ElevenLabs is an AI audio company with two platforms on one research base: ElevenCreative for speech, voice cloning, dubbing, music and video, and ElevenAgents for voice and chat agents, plus an API under both.
Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.
What decides the plan:
- Characters, then everything else. Speech costs 1 credit per character on the V2 Multilingual model, and every other product draws on the same monthly pool, a minute of generated music at 900 credits for instance (pricing FAQ). For example, four newsletter issues of 8,000 characters are 32,000 credits, already past Starter's 30,000.
- The voice you already have. Instant Voice Cloning, from Starter, works from 1 to 2 minutes of clean audio (cloning guide), so a podcast intro or a recorded keynote may be enough.
- A listening number. Audio Native, the embeddable web player on Creator and above, comes with a listener dashboard (Audio Native guide). Decide which page's listens you will watch.
What ElevenLabs makes
The homepage splits the company into ElevenCreative, ElevenAgents and ElevenAPI. On the creative side sit speech in 90+ languages, voice cloning and design, Dubbing Studio, music, sound effects and an editor called Studio for podcasts, audiobooks and voiceovers, where a built-in Studio Agent drafts a project from a prompt (Studio guide). Audio Native voices the articles on your own site. ElevenAgents runs voice and chat agents.
Who it fits
Teams that make audio as a product: podcasts, narrated articles, audio ads, multilingual voiceovers, an inbound voice line.
It fits less well a team whose job is a person speaking on camera. ElevenLabs' own help centre says its dubbing does not lip-sync, with lip sync offered elsewhere through third-party models (dubbing help).
Cloning a real person's voice needs that person's explicit and informed consent under ElevenLabs' Prohibited Use Policy. From 2 August 2026, Article 50(4) of the EU AI Act also requires whoever publishes deep-fake audio, content that resembles an existing person and would falsely appear authentic, to disclose that it is artificially generated (consolidated AI Act).
Plans and what they cost
Checked on 26 October 2026 on the ElevenLabs pricing page, in USD a month billed monthly: Free $0 with 10,000 credits; Starter $6 with 30,000 and Instant Voice Cloning; Creator $22 with 121,000 and Professional Voice Cloning; Pro $99 with 600,000; Scale $299 with 1.8 million and 3 seats; Business $990 with 6 million and 10 seats. Yearly billing charges ten months for twelve.
Unused credits roll over while you keep the same plan (rollover article). Mind the clone you train, though. A Professional Voice Clone, from Creator up, stays in the account after a downgrade but cannot be used below Creator (downgrade article), so once hours of the founder's audio are in it, the voice itself renews the subscription. Check whether an Instant clone on Starter sounds good enough before you train one.
How it compares
Fish Audio sells more generation per dollar: Plus is $15 a month billed monthly for 250,000 credits, up to about 200 minutes (Fish Audio plans, checked on 26 October 2026). For volume of plain speech it wins; when agents, dubbing, music or Audio Native belong in one account, ElevenLabs does.
HeyGen starts at $29 a month for 600 credits (HeyGen pricing, checked on 26 October 2026) and moves a speaker's lips in translated video. A face on screen points to HeyGen; sound alone points here.
Murf AI keeps cloning for Enterprise and sells Studio time in hours, from $29 a month (Murf pricing). Murf suits timed narration over screen recordings; ElevenLabs, a cloned voice on a self-serve plan.
Getting started
How to use ElevenLabs publishes a newsletter's audio edition in a cloned voice, with the consent record and the AI disclosure in place.
FAQ
Is there a discount for paying yearly?
Yes: a year costs ten months, so Creator works out at $18.33 a month (pricing FAQ).
How long does a Professional Voice Clone take?
It trains on 30 to 180 minutes of clean audio, and fine-tuning usually takes 3 to 6 hours depending on the queue, with an email when it is ready (cloning guide).
Can anyone clone any voice?
No. The clone dialog asks you to confirm you have the right and consent to clone the voice (cloning guide), and the voice owner can file an Unauthorized Use of Voice report (policy).