πΊπΈ USA Β· ElevenLabs
Status: π© COMPLETE π¦ LIVING Last updated: 2026-06-26 Plain-English tagline: The leading AI voice generation company. Text-to-speech, voice cloning, dubbing, podcast / audiobook generation, real-time voice agents. The voice your favourite AI-narrated YouTube channel probably uses.
Front-matter facts
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Vendor | ElevenLabs Inc (New York + London) β founded 2022 by Piotr DΔ bkowski and Mati Staniszewski |
| Country / origin | πΊπΈ USA (with π¬π§ UK / π΅π± Polish co-founder heritage) |
| Recommended for Australian users? | β Yes β fully accessible from AUS |
| Privacy summary | Free / Starter: limited training; Creator+: no training on uploaded voices without consent; Enterprise: contractual no-train + dedicated infrastructure options |
| Free tier | Yes β 10,000 characters/month free, basic voices |
| Paid tiers | Starter US22/mo Β· Pro US330/mo Β· Business US$1,320/mo Β· Enterprise quoted |
| First released | January 2023 (broader public availability) |
| Last reviewed | 2026-06-26 |
| Official site | https://elevenlabs.io |
What it is
ElevenLabs is the leading AI voice generation company β widely considered the highest-quality text-to-speech (TTS) and voice-cloning product available. Founded in 2022, it became dominant in 2023-24 for AI narration, audiobook generation, dubbing, and increasingly real-time voice agents.
Product suite:
- Text to Speech β generate speech from text using thousands of pre-made voices or your own clones
- Voice Cloning β clone any voice from a 1-minute sample (Professional Voice Cloning needs more, ~30 minutes for highest quality)
- Voice Library β community-shared voices (with consent)
- Dubbing β translate + dub video into other languages preserving voice characteristics
- Sound Effects β text-to-SFX
- Music β ElevenLabs Music (text-to-music)
- Conversational AI β voice agents (phone-bot-style, real-time)
- Speech to Text (Scribe) β transcription
- Audio Native β embed an βAI narratorβ reader on any website
- Studio β long-form audio (audiobooks, podcasts) production
ElevenLabs voices are uncannily natural β much better than legacy TTS (Google TTS, Amazon Polly, Microsoft TTS) and competitive with or better than OpenAI Voice Engine.
What youβd use it for
Personal
- Listen to articles read in pleasant voices (Speechify alternative)
- Generate audio for personal projects β videos, podcasts, audiobooks
- Accessibility β text-to-speech for reading aids
Creator / professional
- Voiceover for YouTube / TikTok / Reels β saves studio time
- Audiobook narration β author tools
- Documentary / explainer video narration
- Game voice acting (with cloned voices or library)
- Podcast generation β turn written content into audio
- Multilingual dubbing of your content
Business / developer
- Voice agents β customer-support phone bots
- IVR / phone systems with natural voices
- App narration β accessibility / language learning / education
- Real-time voice for AI products via API
What itβs NOT for:
- Live voice acting where actor expression is the artistic point
- Cases requiring impersonation consent that isnβt given (illegal in many jurisdictions including AUS)
How to sign up + first 5 minutes from Australia
- Go to
elevenlabs.io. Sign up with email / Google. - Free tier active immediately β 10,000 characters/month
- Try it:
- Pick a voice from the library
- Type text
- Generate β listen
- Try voice cloning (Creator+ tier): upload a 1-minute clean voice sample, generate
- For dubbing: upload a video, pick target language, ElevenLabs dubs preserving voice
What it costs
Free
- 10,000 characters/month (~10 minutes of speech)
- 3 cloned voices
- Limited features
Starter β US$5/month
- 30,000 characters/month
- 10 cloned voices
- Basic Studio
Creator β US$22/month
- 100,000 characters/month
- 30 cloned voices
- Professional Voice Cloning
- Full Studio
Pro β US$99/month
- 500,000 characters
- Higher-quality output
- Dubbing minutes
Scale β US$330/month
- 2,000,000 characters
- For heavy commercial creators
Business β US$1,320/month
- 11,000,000 characters
- Team workspace
Enterprise β quoted
- Custom limits
- Dedicated infrastructure
- No-train commitments
- SLA
Hidden costs to know about
- Character limits are the cost unit β high-volume narration burns through quickly
- Conversational AI (real-time voice) priced separately by usage
- Professional Voice Cloning (highest quality) requires ~30-min clean sample β recording session if you want a personal one
How it compares to alternatives
| Capability | ElevenLabs | OpenAI Voice Engine | OpenAI TTS API | PlayAI | WellSaid | Murf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voice quality | Best in class | Excellent | Strong | Strong | Strong | Good |
| Voice cloning | Best (lowest sample needs) | Limited access (waitlist) | No | Strong | Strong | Limited |
| Multilingual dubbing | Best | Limited | Limited | Some | Limited | Limited |
| Real-time conversational voice | Yes (Conversational AI) | Yes (Realtime API) | No | Some | No | No |
| Pricing (low-volume) | Free β US$5+ | API metered | API metered | US$30+ | US$50+ | US$30+ |
| Best for | Voice quality + features | OpenAI ecosystem integration | API-only TTS | Commercial dubbing | Enterprise narration | Marketing voiceover |
For voice quality, voice cloning, and feature breadth, ElevenLabs leads. OpenAI Voice Engine is competitive when itβs accessible (limited).
Privacy / data handling
- Free / Starter: standard ElevenLabs terms; voices not used to train without consent
- Creator+: explicit no-training-on-your-content commitments
- Enterprise: dedicated tenant; contractual; SOC 2 audited
- Voice cloning requires verification: ElevenLabs has consent flows + audio verification to prevent cloning someone without permission
- Watermarking β ElevenLabs embeds audio watermarks for traceability (helps detect deepfake misuse)
Recent changes
- 2026: Conversational AI matured; voice agents widely deployed
- 2025: ElevenLabs Music + expanded multilingual dubbing
- 2024: Real-time voice generation matured
- 2023: Quality breakthrough; viral adoption among YouTubers / podcasters
- 2022: Company founded
Gotchas
- Voice cloning legality: cloning someoneβs voice without their consent is illegal in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, and most jurisdictions for commercial use; can constitute harassment / fraud / defamation; ElevenLabs has consent flows but YOU are responsible for legal compliance
- Character limits are the real cost β a 30-minute audiobook section can burn 30,000+ characters
- Free tier daily limits can be hit by long generations
- AI-narrated YouTube videos / podcasts sometimes get demonetised on platforms that crack down β verify per-platform policy
- Dubbing quality varies by language β best on European languages, improving on others
- Real-time voice latency is good but not instant β design for ~500-800ms latency in voice-agent apps
- Pre-2023 ElevenLabs audio was lower quality β modern output is much better; check sample dates
- For Australian English voices specifically β limited Aussie-accent library; voice cloning of an AUS voice may produce more natural output
See also
- OpenAI Voice Engine π₯
- OpenAI TTS API π₯
- Whisper (speech-to-text) π₯
- PlayAI π₯
- WellSaid π₯
- Murf π₯
- Resemble AI π₯
- HeyGen π₯
- Synthesia π₯
- Descript π₯
- Multimodal (vision, audio) π© π¦
- which-ai-for-which-job.md π© π¦
- Glossary β E (ElevenLabs) π©