TL;DR / Key Takeaways
- The Free plan costs $0 and gives 10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of text to speech.
- Free-plan audio cannot be used commercially, and shared content must credit ElevenLabs.
- Voice cloning is not on Free: Instant cloning starts on Starter, Professional on Creator.
- Starter at $6 a month ($5 billed yearly) is the cheapest plan with a commercial license.
Short answer: yes, ElevenLabs has a permanent Free plan at $0. It gives 10,000 credits a month, which ElevenLabs puts at about 10 minutes of text to speech, plus access to speech to text, sound effects, voice design and music. What you cannot do on Free: use the audio commercially, publish it without crediting ElevenLabs, or clone a voice. The cheapest upgrade is Starter at $6 a month.
How we checked: plan limits and licensing rules were checked on elevenlabs.io on November 1, 2026, on the pricing page, the API pricing page and ElevenLabs' help article on publishing generated content. Some links are affiliate links: if you sign up, ElevenLabs may pay us a commission at no cost to you.
What the ElevenLabs Free plan includes
| Item | Free plan |
|---|---|
| Price | $0 |
| Credits | 10,000 a month (no rollover) |
| Text to speech in the app | about 10 minutes a month |
| Speech to text in the app | 12 minutes a month (as listed on the speech-to-text page) |
| Products | Text to speech, speech to text, sound effects, voice design, music, image |
| Studio projects | 3 |
| Custom voice slots | 3 |
| Voice cloning | No |
| Commercial license | No |
| Audio quality | 128 kbps, 44.1kHz |
| Concurrent requests | 2 |
| Languages (text to speech) | 74 listed in the plan comparison |
The 10,000 credits are one pool for every product. Text to speech uses about 1 credit per character on Multilingual v2, so 10,000 characters is roughly a 1,500-word script. Other tools spend the pool faster: speech to text costs 330 credits a minute, music 900 a minute, sound effects 200 per generation and Voice Changer or Voice Isolator 1,000 a minute. Unlike paid plans, unused Free credits do not roll over to the next month.
What is locked on the Free plan
- Commercial use. ElevenLabs states that the free plan has no commercial license and cannot be used for any commercial purpose: no monetised videos, ads or client work.
- Voice cloning. Instant Voice Cloning starts on Starter; Professional Voice Cloning starts on Creator.
- Dubbing Studio and commercial use of music, both of which start on Starter.
- Credit rollover, which only applies to active paid plans.
- Higher audio quality, such as 192kbps and 44.1kHz PCM via the API, which ElevenLabs lists on Pro.
The attribution rule
If you publish anything made on the Free plan, or made without being signed in, you must credit ElevenLabs by putting "elevenlabs.io" or "11.ai" in the title. Music made with Eleven Music on Free must reference "Eleven Music" instead. The rule follows the content: ElevenLabs says content created outside a paid subscription, before or after one, cannot be used commercially and always needs attribution when shared. Upgrading next month does not license what you made this month.
Is the ElevenLabs API free?
Yes, within limits. The API works on the Free plan, and ElevenLabs' API pricing page lists the Free tier as including 10,000 characters of Eleven v4 speech (20,000 on the half-price Turbo and Flash models) and about 4.5 hours of Scribe v2 transcription. The Free plan's concurrency limit is 2 text to speech requests at a time. Free API keys are also bound by the same non-commercial license. If you want to keep going past the allowance without subscribing, Pay As You Go top-ups start at $5 and are available on Free, but they do not unlock the commercial license or voice cloning.
The cheapest paid upgrade: Starter
| Free | Starter | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $6 a month, or $5 a month billed yearly |
| Credits | 10,000 | 30,000 |
| Text to speech in the app | about 10 minutes | about 30 minutes |
| Commercial license | No | Yes |
| Instant Voice Cloning | No | Yes |
| Custom voice slots | 3 | 10 |
| Studio projects | 3 | 20 |
| Dubbing Studio | No | Yes |
| Concurrent requests | 2 | 3 |
At check time the pricing page also advertised Starter at $1 for the first month, next to a promotional banner whose countdown had already run out. It may or may not still apply when you sign up; the regular price is $6.
If you need a clone of your own voice trained on long recordings, the next step is Creator at $22 a month ($11 for the first month at check time), which adds Professional Voice Cloning. Full details are in our ElevenLabs pricing guide.
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Who the Free plan is enough for
- Hearing how different voices and models handle your script before paying.
- Personal, non-commercial projects you are happy to credit to ElevenLabs.
- Developers testing the API with a few thousand characters or short transcription jobs.
It is not enough for a monetised channel, client voiceovers or anything with your own cloned voice. For those, Starter is the cheapest legal route on ElevenLabs. If you are still shopping, our free ElevenLabs alternatives roundup covers other free tiers, and Murf and Descript both offer voice features of their own.
Frequently asked questions
Is ElevenLabs completely free?
There is a permanent Free plan at $0 with 10,000 credits a month. It is free to use, but limited: no commercial license, no voice cloning, and no credit rollover.
How many minutes do you get free on ElevenLabs?
ElevenLabs estimates about 10 minutes of text to speech a month in the app, since speech costs about 1 credit per character on Multilingual v2. Other products use credits faster, for example 1,000 credits a minute for Voice Changer.
Can I use ElevenLabs free audio on YouTube?
Not for monetised or other commercial use. Free-plan content cannot be used commercially, and if you share it non-commercially you must include "elevenlabs.io" or "11.ai" in the title. For a monetised channel you need a paid plan from $6 a month.
Can I clone my voice for free on ElevenLabs?
No. The Free plan includes voice design and 3 custom voice slots, but Instant Voice Cloning starts on Starter ($6) and Professional Voice Cloning on Creator ($22).
Is the ElevenLabs API free?
You can use the API on the Free plan. ElevenLabs lists 10,000 v4 characters (or 20,000 on Flash and Turbo models) and about 4.5 hours of Scribe transcription as included for Free API usage. The same non-commercial rules apply.
Does free content become commercial if I upgrade later?
No. ElevenLabs says content created outside a paid subscription, before or after, cannot be used commercially and always needs attribution when shared.