ElevenLabs Pricing Explained (2026)
Updated October 2, 2026
Short version: ElevenLabs sells monthly credits, and on its standard models one credit is one character. Its pricing page says one minute of audio costs approximately 1,000 characters, which works out to roughly $0.17–$0.20 a minute on the self-serve plans. Commercial rights start at the $6 Starter plan, unused credits roll over for up to two months on paid plans, and professional voice cloning starts at Creator.
ElevenLabs plans at a glance
| Plan | Monthly price | Billed yearly, per month | Credits per month | Minutes of audio | Cost per minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | — | 10,000 | about 10 | — |
| Starter | $6 | $5 | 30,000 | about 30 | $0.20 |
| Creator | $22 | $18.33 | 121,000 | about 121 | $0.18 |
| Pro | $99 | $82.50 | 600,000 | about 600 | $0.17 |
| Scale | $299 | $249.17 | 1,800,000 | about 1,800 | $0.17 |
| Business | $990 | $825 | 6,000,000 | about 6,000 | $0.17 |
Minutes and cost per minute are our arithmetic, from ElevenLabs' statement that one minute of audio costs approximately 1,000 characters. Yearly billing is ten months for twelve. An Enterprise tier is priced on request.
ElevenLabs figures are as shown on elevenlabs.io/pricing, elevenlabs.io/docs and elevenlabs.io/terms-of-use on October 2, 2026 and may have changed; promotional first-month prices are left out. LeapFun figures are on the pricing page.
How ElevenLabs credits work
- One credit per character on the standard models. The pricing page states that on the v2 Multilingual models one text character equals one credit. Flash and Turbo models cost between 0.5 and 1 credit per character for API usage.
- Other tools draw from the same balance. Speech to text is listed at 330 credits per minute, sound effects at 200 per generation, the voice changer and voice isolator at 1,000 per minute, and dubbing at 2,000 to 10,000 per minute depending on the mode.
- Rollover exists, with limits. Unused credits roll over for up to two months on paid plans, so a balance can reach three times the monthly quota. Rollover does not apply to the Free plan, and unused paid credits expire if you cancel or downgrade to Free.
- Regenerations cost credits. A re-take of a paragraph is a new generation, so heavy revision of a long project uses more than the script length suggests.
What each tier unlocks
| Feature | Where it starts |
|---|---|
| Commercial license | Starter. The terms limit free use to non-commercial purposes. |
| Professional voice cloning | Creator; three clones on Scale, ten on Business. |
| Studio projects | 3 on Free, 20 from Starter. |
| Higher audio quality | 192 kbps from Pro; 128 kbps below it. |
| Workspace seats | 3 on Scale, 10 on Business. |
What a real workload costs
A 10-minute YouTube script is about 1,500 words, roughly 8,500 characters. An 80,000-word book is roughly 450,000 characters. On ElevenLabs' standard models that is 8,500 and 450,000 credits.
| Workload | ElevenLabs | LeapFun, standard-rate voices |
|---|---|---|
| One 10-minute video | 8,500 credits. About $1.55 of a Creator month. | 8,500 credits. About $0.81 of a Creator month. |
| Twenty 10-minute videos a month | 170,000 credits. More than Creator's 121,000, so the Pro plan at $99. | 170,000 credits. Inside Creator's 200,000 at $19. |
| One 80,000-word book | 450,000 credits. Inside one Pro month at $99. | 450,000 credits. Two to three Creator months, or one Pro month at $59. |
Two things work against LeapFun in this comparison and you should weigh them. LeapFun's top voice tier, Leap Ultra, bills 1.5 credits per UTF-8 byte, so the same 10-minute English script costs about 12,750 credits there. And LeapFun plan credits reset each billing cycle with no rollover, while ElevenLabs carries unused credits forward for up to two months.
Check the cost of your own script
The estimate under the box follows the voice you pick. Generating opens the app with your script filled in.
Previews above are real LeapFun output. Hit Generate to hear your script — 3,000 free credits on sign-up, no card required.
ElevenLabs and LeapFun plans side by side
| Tier | ElevenLabs | LeapFun |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 · 10,000 credits a month · non-commercial | $0 · 3,000 credits on sign-up + 1,000 each active month · personal and evaluation use |
| Entry paid | Starter $6 · 30,000 credits · commercial license | Starter $6 · 40,000 credits · commercial rights · 1 cloned voice |
| Creator | Creator $22 · 121,000 credits · professional voice cloning | Creator $19 · 200,000 credits · 10 cloned voices · unlimited Studio projects · 8-language project translation |
| Pro | Pro $99 · 600,000 credits · 192 kbps audio | Pro $59 · 650,000 credits · 30 cloned voices |
| Scale / Team | Scale $299 · 1,800,000 credits · 3 seats | Team $129 · 1,800,000 shared credits · 3 seats |
ElevenLabs' free tier is larger than LeapFun's, and its plans include tools LeapFun does not offer: video dubbing, sound effects, a voice isolator and a streaming API. If you need those, the price difference is beside the point. The full feature comparison is on LeapFun vs ElevenLabs.
Frequently asked questions
How much does ElevenLabs cost per month?
Self-serve plans are $6 (Starter), $22 (Creator), $99 (Pro), $299 (Scale) and $990 (Business) a month, with a free plan of 10,000 credits. Yearly billing charges ten months for twelve. Figures are from elevenlabs.io/pricing on October 2, 2026.
How many minutes of audio is an ElevenLabs credit?
On the standard models one credit is one character, and ElevenLabs says one minute of audio costs approximately 1,000 characters. That is about 30 minutes on Starter, 121 on Creator and 600 on Pro.
Do ElevenLabs credits roll over?
On paid plans, unused credits roll over for up to two months, so a balance can reach three times the monthly quota. Rollover does not apply to the Free plan, and unused paid credits expire when you cancel or downgrade.
Can I use the ElevenLabs free plan commercially?
No. ElevenLabs' terms limit free use to non-commercial purposes. The commercial license starts on the $6 Starter plan.
Is LeapFun cheaper than ElevenLabs?
On standard-rate voices, yes at the paid tiers: Creator is $19 for 200,000 credits against $22 for 121,000. On Leap Ultra voices the gap narrows, because Ultra bills 1.5 credits per UTF-8 byte. ElevenLabs' free tier is larger and its credits roll over.
Does ElevenLabs give refunds?
The terms say all sales are final and refunds are at ElevenLabs' discretion. Its billing documentation describes a refund when a request is filed within 14 days of payment and no credits from that period were used. Read both before relying on either.
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