Tool profile
ElevenLabs: cost, fit and limits
ElevenLabs is an audio AI company, operated by Eleven Labs Inc., whose platform sells speech to text alongside other audio products from one shared monthly credit pool. Plans run from a free tier to Business and Enterprise.
What to know first
ElevenLabs lists Speech to Text at 330 credits per minute, drawn from a credit pool shared with its other products. Free gives 10,000 credits a month, about 30 minutes of transcription, and Pro gives 600,000. The page states annual billing as two months free. Retention, training policy and hosting region are not stated on the pricing page. Business gives 6,000,000 credits for $990 a month.
ElevenLabs at a glance
| Maker | Eleven Labs Inc., United States |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Entry price | $6 per month (Starter) |
| API access | Yes |
| Category | Best AI Speech to Text APIs in 2026, rank 1 of 12 |
| Website | elevenlabs.io |
Who ElevenLabs is best for
Creators already on ElevenLabs
A team that already pays for voice products can add transcription without a new vendor, since it draws on the same monthly credits.
Occasional transcription users
The Free plan's 10,000 monthly credits cover roughly 30 minutes of speech to text, enough for light use at no cost.
Mid-sized teams buying credits in bulk
Pro and Business print credit counts of 600,000 and 6,000,000 a month, which lets a team estimate how many audio hours the allowance covers.
ElevenLabs plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 per month | 10,000 credits per month with no rollover, shared across ElevenLabs products. Speech to Text and every other product draw from the same allowance. |
| Starter | $6 per month after a $1 first month | 30,000 credits per month. The first month is an introductory price before the regular rate applies. |
| Pro | $99 per month | 600,000 credits per month, which at 330 credits a minute covers roughly 30 hours of speech to text. |
| Business | $990 per month | 6,000,000 credits per month for higher volume. Annual billing is stated as two months free. |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Custom credit volumes. The terms are not stated on the pricing page. Buyers needing a negotiated credit volume must contact the vendor for figures. |
Checked October 2026.
What ElevenLabs does
- Metered speech to text
- Speech to Text is listed on the pricing page at 330 credits per minute, so transcription is one metered product among several. That makes cost per hour easy to compute from the page, since the credit rate and plan prices are printed.
- Shared credit pool
- One monthly pool covers every ElevenLabs product, so heavy use of one feature leaves fewer credits for the others. A team that uses voice synthesis heavily may find little room left in the plan for transcription.
- Annual discount
- Annual billing is stated as two months free, meaning twelve months cost the price of ten. That brings an effective discount for committed buyers, though the page frames it as a billing choice.
- Introductory pricing
- Starter shows a first-month price before the regular rate, so the first invoice differs from the following ones. Starter and Creator both show this pattern, so budget on the regular monthly rate, not the first month.
How ElevenLabs handles your data
The ElevenLabs pricing page does not state whether customer audio is used for training, how long it is retained, where it is hosted or which certifications apply, so none of those claims appear here. The terms of use give a New York address for the company but no separate country line. Because speech to text shares a credit pool and account with other products, review the privacy policy, which was not opened for this entry, before uploading recordings with personal data.
Where ElevenLabs falls short in practice
- Credits drain quickly. At 330 credits a minute, the Free plan's 10,000 credits cover about 30 minutes, and the pool is shared with every other ElevenLabs product. Heavy transcription users should compute spend at the regular credit rate, not the plan price.
- No rollover on Free. The page says rollover does not apply to the Free plan, so unused credits vanish each month. A team with uneven demand therefore wastes allowance in quiet months and may run short in busy ones.
- Enterprise terms unpublished. Enterprise lists custom credits and no stated terms, so large buyers cannot price volume transcription from the page. Without a visible rate, a buyer cannot tell whether volume brings the price below the per-credit plan rates.
- Integrations unchecked. Supported formats, speaker labels and API details for speech to text were not captured, so capabilities need to be confirmed in documentation. Check the developer documentation and a test file before building a product on the service.
Works with
Alternatives to ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs: common questions
How many minutes of transcription does ElevenLabs Free include?
Speech to Text is listed at 330 credits per minute and the Free plan includes 10,000 credits per month, which comes to roughly 30 minutes. The credits are shared with other ElevenLabs products and do not roll over, so any other use reduces the total.
How many hours does ElevenLabs Pro cover?
Pro includes 600,000 credits per month at $99. At the listed 330 credits per minute, that is about 1,800 minutes, or roughly 30 hours, if nothing else draws on the pool. Business at 6,000,000 credits covers roughly ten times that.
Do ElevenLabs credits roll over?
The Free plan states that rollover does not apply, so unused credits disappear at month end. The pricing page text we captured does not describe rollover rules for paid plans, so check the plan details if you expect uneven monthly use.
Is ElevenLabs cheap for high-volume transcription?
Not by the page's numbers. At Pro, $99 buys 600,000 credits, about 30 hours of transcription, a cost above usage-billed APIs listed elsewhere in this category. The credit pool pays off when you also use the vendor's other audio products.
Where is ElevenLabs based?
The terms of use list a New York, NY address for Eleven Labs Inc. but give no separate country line. This entry records the United States on that basis. Hosting region for audio is not stated on the pricing page, so ask about it separately.