Is ElevenLabs Free in 2026? Free Plan Limits and Cheapest Paid Tier
Short answer: yes, the free plan costs $0, but its audio cannot be used commercially. It gives 10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of speech, and no commercial license. The cheapest tier that licenses commercial use is Starter at $6 a month, or $60 billed yearly. Prices were read on ElevenLabs' own pricing page on October 10, 2026.
Toolradar data: of the 125 AI voice tools we track (October 2026), 70% are free, freemium or open source. A free tier is normal in this category, so the more useful question is what a free account is allowed to produce.
What does the ElevenLabs free plan include?
The free plan is an account at $0 with 10,000 credits a month, and every ElevenLabs product draws from that same pool. ElevenLabs lists text to speech, speech to text, sound effects, voice design, music and image tools on the plan, along with 3 projects in Studio. Its comparison table turns the allowance into about 10 minutes of text to speech, with 3 custom voice slots and 2 concurrent requests.
Because one pool pays for everything, the per-product rates decide what the allowance buys. Text to speech costs 1 credit per character on the Multilingual v2 models, so the allowance covers roughly 10,000 characters of narration. Speech to text costs 330 credits a minute, which leaves about 30 minutes of transcription. Music costs 900 credits a minute, so the same pool buys about 11 minutes of Eleven Music, and the best free AI music generators compares the other options. A sound effect costs 200 credits, which means about 50 of them.
ElevenLabs' pricing FAQ adds one nuance for developers. Its Flash and Turbo models cost between 0.5 and 1 credit per character through the API, so the same allowance stretches further in code than in the studio.
How do the ElevenLabs plans compare?
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | Credits a month | Text to speech minutes (approx.) | Commercial license | Extra minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | n/a | 10,000 | 10 | No | $0.36 |
| Starter | $6 | $60 ($5 a month) | 30,000 | 30 | Yes | $0.20 |
| Creator | $22 | $220 ($18.33 a month) | 121,000 | 121 | Yes | $0.18 |
| Pro | $99 | $990 ($82.50 a month) | 600,000 | 600 | Yes | $0.17 |
| Scale | $299 | $2,990 ($249.17 a month) | 1,800,000 | 1,800 | Yes | $0.17 |
| Business | $990 | $9,900 ($825 a month) | 6,000,000 | 6,000 | Yes | $0.17 |
Monthly prices are on monthly billing. ElevenLabs sets its yearly price at the monthly price times 10, which is where the "a month" equivalents come from. Enterprise is custom. The "extra minute" column is the rate the comparison table gives for text to speech, and ElevenLabs' pricing page does not describe how top-ups are bought.
Starter is the row that matters for anyone publishing work. Free is the only plan without a commercial license. ElevenLabs' rules say every paid plan includes one, except for Beta services.
Can you use free ElevenLabs audio commercially?
No. ElevenLabs' publishing rules say the free plan has no commercial license and cannot be used for any commercial purpose. That rules out a client video, a paid ad, a sponsored podcast or a monetized channel.
Starter changes the answer, but only for audio you generate while the plan is active. According to the same rules, content made during a paid subscription can be used commercially, indefinitely, subject to the service-specific terms. Content made outside a paid subscription, whether before you subscribed or after you cancel, cannot be used commercially at all. If you subscribe for one project, generate the audio while that subscription is running.
Free output also carries a credit requirement. If you publish free-plan output, the rules ask you to put "elevenlabs.io" or "11.ai" in the title. Music from Eleven Music on the free plan takes the credit "Eleven Music" instead. How strictly this applies also depends on your agreement with ElevenLabs, so read your plan terms before you rely on a free credit line.
When do the free credits run out?
Credits are charged per generation request, not per download. ElevenLabs says some regenerations are free, and the product shows that before you generate. Every other regeneration spends credits. The plan table implies about 1,000 credits a minute of speech, so a free month holds roughly ten complete retakes of a one-minute clip.
Free credits do not roll over. Paid plans carry unused credits forward for up to two months, capped at twice the monthly quota, so a Starter account can hold at most 90,000 credits (three times 30,000). If you downgrade to Free or cancel, unused paid credits expire at the end of the billing cycle.
What is the cheapest paid plan that allows commercial use?
Starter is the answer for commercial work. It costs $6 a month, or $5 a month on the yearly plan, and includes 30,000 credits, about 30 minutes of speech. It adds the commercial license, Instant Voice Cloning, 20 projects in Studio, music commercial use and Dubbing Studio.
The plan card also shows a first-month Starter price of $1, labeled as a promotion that runs until October 18. That is the day this article goes live, so check ElevenLabs' pricing page before you buy. The regular price is the one to budget around.
Creator is the next step up. It costs $22 a month, or $220 billed yearly, and includes 121,000 credits, about 121 minutes, and Professional Voice Cloning.
What does a year of commercial narration cost?
Take a solo creator who records narration for a weekly newsletter and needs about 10 minutes a month. Starter's 30 minutes covers that with room to spare, so one yearly Starter subscription is enough. Free costs nothing, but it cannot be used for commercial work, so it is not an option here.
Now double the volume to 60 minutes a month. Starter still covers 30 minutes, and the other 30 come from extra minutes at the table's rate of $0.20 each. Those extra minutes add $72 a year on top of the subscription, for $132 a year in total. Creator also covers all 60 minutes, but it costs more than the $132 total, so Starter with extra minutes wins at that volume.
The ranking flips near 97 minutes a month. Starter's yearly-billed equivalent is $5 a month, and each minute beyond 30 adds $0.20, so Starter overtakes Creator's $18.33 a month at about 97 minutes. Above that point Creator is the cheaper commercial plan. This arithmetic assumes the extra minutes can be bought at the table's rate, which ElevenLabs lists but does not explain in detail.
What does the free plan leave out?
- Voice slots: 3 custom voice slots on Free, against 10 on Starter and 30 on Creator.
- Concurrent requests: 2 on Free, 3 on Starter and 5 on Creator. A team generating several clips at once will feel the two-request cap.
- Voice cloning: Free has no Instant Voice Cloning. Starter adds it, and Creator adds Professional Voice Cloning.
Which ElevenLabs plan should you pick?
- Trying voices for a personal project: Free. If you publish the result, put "elevenlabs.io" or "11.ai" in the title.
- Commercial narration under 30 minutes a month: Starter, on the yearly plan.
- 30 to about 97 minutes a month: Starter, with extra minutes bought at the table's rate.
- More than about 97 minutes a month, or you need Professional Voice Cloning: Creator, at $220 a year.
- Steady high volume: Pro, at $990 a year, covers about 600 minutes a month.
If the free allowance does not suit you, compare the wider field before you commit. ElevenLabs alternatives covers the switches to other voice tools, and best free AI voice generators lists other free starting points. Each has its own licensing rules, so check them as carefully as this one.
Frequently asked questions
Is ElevenLabs free?
Yes. The free plan costs $0 and gives 10,000 credits a month, with 3 projects in Studio. It has no commercial license, so its output cannot be used for paid work.
How many characters can you generate for free on ElevenLabs?
About 10,000 a month on the Multilingual v2 models, where one character costs one credit. That is roughly 10 minutes of text to speech, according to the plan table. Flash and Turbo models cost 0.5 to 1 credit per character through the API.
Can you use free ElevenLabs voices in a monetized video?
No. The free plan cannot be used for any commercial purpose. Starter adds a commercial license, but only for audio generated while that subscription is active.
Do unused free credits roll over?
No. Rollover does not apply to the Free plan. Paid plans carry unused credits forward for up to two months, capped at twice the monthly quota.
What is the cheapest ElevenLabs plan with a commercial license?
Starter. It costs $6 a month, or $60 billed yearly ($5 a month), and includes 30,000 credits and a commercial license.
Do you have to credit ElevenLabs on free output?
Yes, when you publish it. Put "elevenlabs.io" or "11.ai" in the title. For Eleven Music output made on the free plan, reference "Eleven Music" instead. How strictly this applies depends on your agreement with ElevenLabs.
How much does ElevenLabs Creator cost?
$22 a month, or $220 billed yearly ($18.33 a month). It includes 121,000 credits and Professional Voice Cloning.
Cite this: Dupple, "Is ElevenLabs Free in 2026? Free Plan Limits and Cheapest Paid Tier", October 2026.
Methodology
We read ElevenLabs' pricing page on October 10, 2026, including the plan card, the comparison table and the billing FAQ. The commercial-use and attribution rules come from ElevenLabs' help-center article on publishing generated content, read the same day. The category figures come from Toolradar's AI voice tools page, updated October 2026. Prices are in US dollars on monthly billing unless a line says yearly. We re-check every price every 60 days, so confirm the figures on ElevenLabs' pricing page before you buy.
If you want the short version of the licensing rules, generate commercial audio while a paid plan is active, and budget $60 a year for Starter. The free plan is enough to hear whether a voice works. It is not enough to ship one. Want more pricing pages like this one? Start a Dupple X trial.
Related
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Across our whole catalogue the median is $24 a month and 33% of tools advertise a free tier. Figures are the lowest recurring monthly price quoted in our own review of each tool, read on 2026-08-19. Full method and every category.
