Is ElevenLabs free?
Yes, ElevenLabs has a free plan: 10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of audio, with access to text-to-speech and many tools. But the free tier bans commercial use, requires you to credit ElevenLabs, and excludes voice cloning. For paid work you need a plan starting at $6/month (as of 2026-07).
Why — the first-principles explanation
The free plan is a loss leader. Running the AI costs ElevenLabs real GPU money, so they can't give it away without limits. Instead they hand out a small monthly allowance, 10,000 credits (~10 minutes), to let you feel the quality, then rely on the missing features to push serious users to pay.
The restrictions are chosen deliberately to target professionals. Free output carries an attribution requirement (you must credit ElevenLabs) and no commercial license, so anyone trying to earn money from the audio has a reason to upgrade. Free users also can't use voice cloning, one of the platform's marquee features. None of these limits matter for hobby projects, which is exactly the point: casuals stay free, earners pay.
So 'free' is genuinely free in dollars, but not in rights. If your use is personal, learning, or experimenting, the free tier is a real, usable product. The moment your audio touches something you sell, publish for profit, or put on a monetized channel, you cross the line the free plan draws, and the honest answer becomes: you need a paid plan.
An example that makes it click
It's like the free sample counter at a bakery. You can walk up, taste a cube of cake, and enjoy it for nothing, that's the 10 minutes of free audio. But you can't box up the samples and sell them at your own stand; for that you have to actually buy a cake. The bakery gives away tastes because it hopes you'll come back as a paying customer. ElevenLabs' free plan is the taste; the $6 plan is buying the cake, with the receipt (the commercial license) that lets you sell what you make.
How to do it
- Sign up at elevenlabs.io to get the free plan automatically, no payment needed.
- Use your 10,000 monthly credits (~10 minutes) for text-to-speech and testing.
- Keep the attribution credit to ElevenLabs on any free-plan output you share.
- Stay on free for personal or learning projects only, not anything you sell.
- Upgrade to Starter ($6/month) when you need commercial rights or voice cloning.
Key facts
- The free plan gives 10,000 credits (~10 minutes of audio) per month.
- Free output requires attribution to ElevenLabs.
- Commercial use is not allowed on the free plan.
- Voice cloning is not available for free; it starts on the Starter plan.
- Paid plans begin at $6/month (Starter) as of 2026-07.
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Is ElevenLabs free? Yes and no. There is a genuine free plan, and it costs nothing. You get 10,000 credits a month, which is about ten minutes of audio, plus access to text-to-speech and a bunch of tools. That's plenty for testing the quality or doing personal projects. But the free tier comes with strings. You have to credit ElevenLabs on anything you share, you can't use the audio commercially, and you don't get voice cloning. Those limits are aimed squarely at professionals, to nudge them to pay. So the honest rule is this: if you're just experimenting or making something for yourself, free works great. The moment you want to sell your audio, put it on a monetized channel, or clone a voice, you'll need a paid plan, which starts at six dollars a month.
What authoritative sources say
People also ask
How much can I do on the free plan?
About 10 minutes of audio a month from 10,000 credits, enough for testing and small personal projects.
Can I use free ElevenLabs audio for my business?
No. The free plan bans commercial use and requires attribution. You need a paid plan from $6/month to monetize.
Is voice cloning free?
No. Cloning is a paid feature. Instant voice cloning starts on the Starter plan at $6/month.
Does the free plan expire?
No. It's ongoing, and your 10,000 credits refresh each month. You just can't use the output commercially.