If you generate voiceovers programmatically, "which plan?" is really a capacity-planning question. Here's how I size ElevenLabs plans, using the official pricing page (checked October 20, 2026).
Units
- 1 character ≈ 1 credit (standard multilingual TTS). Flash/Turbo models are discounted for API use (0.5–1 credit/char).
- ~1,000 characters ≈ 1 minute of narration.
- One credit pool is shared by TTS, STT (≈330 credits/min), sound effects (≈200/generation), voice changer and isolator (≈1,000/min) and dubbing (2,000–10,000/min, depending on mode).
Quick estimator
// rough monthly credit estimate
const est = ({ videosPerMonth, minutesPerVideo, retakeFactor = 1.3, sfxPerVideo = 0 }) =>
Math.ceil(videosPerMonth * (minutesPerVideo * 1000 * retakeFactor + sfxPerVideo * 200));
est({ videosPerMonth: 4, minutesPerVideo: 10, sfxPerVideo: 5 }); // ≈ 56,000 → Creator (121k)
est({ videosPerMonth: 20, minutesPerVideo: 1 }); // ≈ 26,000 → Starter (30k)
Plans (monthly / annual-equivalent)
| Plan | Monthly | Annual/mo | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $6 | $5 | 30k |
| Creator | $22 (first month $11) | $18.33 | 121k |
| Pro | $99 | $82.50 | 600k |
| Scale | $299 | $249.17 | 1.8M |
Things that affect your bill
- Rollover: unused credits on paid plans roll over for up to 2 months (max balance 3× quota). Downgrading or cancelling forfeits them, so drain the balance before you switch plans.
- Per-generation charging: you pay per request, not per download, so cache aggressively and regenerate only changed chunks.
- Commercial licence: the Free tier is non-commercial. Any monetized output needs Starter or above.
- Audio format: 44.1 kHz PCM via the API starts on Pro. If your pipeline needs uncompressed output, factor that in.
Recommendation
Prototype on Free, run production on Starter or Creator depending on your estimator output, and switch to annual billing once your usage has been stable for 2–3 months.
Full plan-by-plan breakdown: ElevenLabs Pricing Explained (2026).
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