ElevenLabs vs Fish Audio: Breadth vs Price per Minute
Updated October 2, 2026
Short version: ElevenLabs is the broader platform and the reference for expressive speech; Fish Audio is the value buy, with the cheapest minutes, a pay-as-you-go API with no minimum and an enormous community voice library. Pick ElevenLabs for emotional range, dubbing and the widest product set. Pick Fish Audio when price per minute or an API decides.
About ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs is the broadest voice platform on the market: text to speech, instant and professional voice cloning, a Studio editor, dubbing into 90+ languages, sound effects, a voice isolator and a conversational-agent stack, drawing on one credit balance. Its Eleven v4 models list 90+ languages. Plans run from a free tier of 10,000 credits a month to Starter at $6, Creator at $22, Pro at $99 and Scale at $299, with a commercial license from Starter, professional cloning from Creator, and unused credits rolling over for up to two months.
About Fish Audio
Fish Audio is a voice platform built around its own models, led by S2.1 Pro, with a community voice library its home page puts at more than two million voices, instant cloning from about 10 seconds of audio, free-form bracketed direction tags, and published model weights under a research license. Plus is $15 a month for up to 200 minutes, or $11 billed yearly; Pro is $100 for up to 1,620 minutes. The API is pay-as-you-go at $15 per million UTF-8 bytes with no monthly minimum. The free plan is personal and non-commercial.
Feature comparison
| Feature | ElevenLabs | Fish Audio |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Expressive speech across many products | Developers and creators; API, agents, games and content |
| Voice library | 10,000+ voices | 2,000,000+ voices, mostly community-made |
| Languages | 90+ on Eleven v4; 70+ on Eleven v3 | 83 on S2.1 Pro in the docs; 30+ on the home page; 13 for zero-shot cloning |
| Voice cloning | Instant from Starter; professional from Creator | Instant from about 10 seconds; private slots from Plus; professional slots 1 on Plus, 5 on Pro |
| Delivery control | Inline audio tags; emotion read from the text | Free-form bracketed tags in natural language on S2 models |
| Per-generation limit | Not stated on the pricing page | 500 characters on Free, 15,000 on Plus, 30,000 on Pro |
| API pricing | Per 1,000 characters by model; $0.08 on v4 and v3, $0.04 on Turbo and Flash | $15 per million UTF-8 bytes on S2.1 Pro, about $0.015 per 1,000 English characters; no minimum |
| Rollover | Up to two months on paid plans | None |
| Free plan | 10,000 credits a month, non-commercial | 8,000 credits, up to 7 minutes, non-commercial |
| Open source | No | Fish Speech weights under a research license |
| Dubbing, sound effects, agents | Yes | Not on the pages we read |
ElevenLabs figures are as shown on elevenlabs.io/pricing, elevenlabs.io/docs and elevenlabs.io/terms-of-use and Fish Audio figures on fish.audio/plan, fish.audio/terms and docs.fish.audio, both read on October 2, 2026, and may have changed. Promotional first-month prices are left out. LeapFun figures are on the pricing page.
Pricing per minute
| Plan | Billed monthly | Audio per month | Cost per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs Starter | $6 | about 30 minutes | $0.20 |
| ElevenLabs Creator | $22 | about 121 minutes | $0.18 |
| ElevenLabs Pro | $99 | about 600 minutes | $0.17 |
| Fish Audio Plus | $15 ($11 billed yearly) | up to 200 minutes | $0.075 ($0.055 yearly) |
| Fish Audio Pro | $100 ($75 billed yearly) | up to 1,620 minutes | $0.06 ($0.046 yearly) |
ElevenLabs minutes follow its statement that a minute of audio costs approximately 1,000 characters; Fish Audio minutes are its stated allowances. Fish Audio is roughly a third of the price per minute. ElevenLabs' entry plan is cheaper and its free tier larger.
Which should you choose?
Choose ElevenLabs if:
- Emotional range for fiction, characters or ads is the job.
- You need dubbing, sound effects or voice agents in the same account.
- You want credits that roll over.
Choose Fish Audio if:
- You generate hundreds of minutes a month and price decides.
- You need an API with no monthly minimum, or open model weights.
- You want a specific community voice.
A third option for long-form creators
Both are voice platforms first. If the job is a finished book, series or channel with chapters, re-takes and subtitles, that workflow is the missing piece. LeapFun is built for that: a chapter-based Studio with paragraph re-takes, loudness-mastered exports with subtitle files, voices in 130+ languages on Leap Ultra, self-serve cloning with consent recorded, and commercial rights from $6 a month. It has a REST API, but no video dubbing or streaming endpoint, and its voice library is smaller. The previews below are unedited LeapFun output.
Previews above are real LeapFun output. Hit Generate to hear your script — 3,000 free credits on sign-up, no card required.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fish Audio cheaper than ElevenLabs?
Yes, per minute: Fish Audio Plus is about $0.075 a minute against about $0.18 on ElevenLabs Creator. ElevenLabs' $6 Starter is the cheaper entry, and its free tier is larger.
Which has better voice quality, ElevenLabs or Fish Audio?
We make a competing product and do not host other vendors' audio, so we do not rank them on quality. Test the same script on both free plans and judge by ear.
Which has more languages?
ElevenLabs lists 90+ on Eleven v4. Fish Audio's documentation lists 83 for S2.1 Pro, while its home page says 30+ and its cloning page 13.
Which is better for an API?
Both publish documented APIs. Fish Audio bills pay-as-you-go with no minimum at $15 per million UTF-8 bytes; ElevenLabs prices per 1,000 characters by model, $0.04 to $0.08.
Is there a better option for audiobooks?
For workflow, LeapFun: a chapter-based Studio, paragraph re-takes, pronunciation rules and mastered exports with subtitles, from $6 a month. It has a REST API but no dubbing.
Try it on your script
3,000 free credits on sign-up, no card — generate a first take in seconds.
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