ElevenLabs pricing explained: what each plan gets a Shorts creator (2026)
ElevenLabs prices everything in credits, which makes it hard to tell what a plan actually gets you. This guide translates the official pricing page (checked October 9, 2026) into the numbers a Shorts or faceless-video creator cares about.
The plans at a glance
| Plan | Monthly price | Credits / month | Approx. TTS minutes* | Notable additions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 10,000 | ~10 | Text to speech, speech to text, sound effects, voice design, music, 3 Studio projects |
| Starter | $6 | 30,000 | ~30 | Commercial license, instant voice cloning, 20 Studio projects, dubbing studio |
| Creator | $22 | 121,000 | ~121 | Professional voice cloning, additional credits |
| Pro | $99 | 600,000 | ~600 | 44.1kHz PCM via API, 192kbps audio |
| Scale | $299 | 1,800,000 | ~1,800 | 3 seats, 3 professional voice clones |
| Business | $990 | 6,000,000 | ~6,000 | 10 seats, 10 professional voice clones |
*“Minutes included” figures from ElevenLabs’ plan comparison table. Prices exclude taxes.
Promotions at the time of checking: the page showed Starter’s first month at $1 “until Oct 18” and Creator’s first month at $11 (50% off). Promotions change, so check the page.
Annual billing: ElevenLabs says annual billing equals 10 months’ price for 12 months, e.g. $5/month equivalent for Starter and $18.33 for Creator.
How credits turn into voiceovers
According to the FAQ, text to speech costs about 1 credit per character (some faster models are discounted to 0.5–1 credit per character for API use). (ElevenLabs: “Each text character you generate consumes credits.”)
A 40-second Short at a normal speaking pace is roughly 100 words, or about 600 characters. That’s our estimate; your scripts will vary. With that estimate:
| Plan | Credits | ≈ 600-character voiceovers per month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 10,000 | ~16 |
| Starter | 30,000 | ~50 |
| Creator | 121,000 | ~200 |
Two things shrink those numbers:
- Regenerations. Credits are charged per generation. ElevenLabs says a limited number of free regenerations may be available if content and settings don’t change, and that this is shown before generating.
- Shared pool. All products draw from one pool. The FAQ lists sound effects at ~200 credits per generation, speech to text at 330 credits per minute, and music at 900 credits per minute. A sound effect per Short adds up.
The detail most people miss: commercial use
On the pricing page, “Commercial License” appears as a Starter feature (“Everything in free, plus: Commercial License…”). If you plan to monetize videos, read ElevenLabs’ terms on what the Free plan allows before you publish Free-plan audio. For a channel you intend to earn from, Starter is the realistic floor.
Rollover and cancelling
- Unused credits on paid plans roll over for up to two months (balance capped at 3× your monthly quota) as long as you keep an active subscription and don’t downgrade or cancel.
- Free plan credits don’t roll over.
- Downgrading or cancelling forfeits unused paid credits at the end of the cycle.
Which plan for which creator?
- Testing the idea: Free. Enough for experiments, but check commercial-use terms before publishing.
- 1 Short a day: Starter’s ~50 voiceovers of ~600 characters covers ~30 Shorts plus regenerations.
- 2+ Shorts a day or long-form narration: Creator, mainly for the credit count. Professional voice cloning is the other reason.
Disclosure: we are an independent affiliate of ElevenLabs and may receive compensation for referrals made through this link.
Sources
- ElevenLabs pricing page and FAQ: https://elevenlabs.io/pricing (checked Oct 9, 2026)