What Is ElevenLabs + How To Use It [2026 Tutorial]

You might have seen headlines about the Biden robocall or celebrity voice clones taking drive-through orders and wondered how they do it.

The secret lies in Elevenlabs. Whether you're curious about making voice clones, fascinated by deepfake audio, or want to create an AI voice customer service chatbot, this article is for you.

What is ElevenLabs (Elevenlabs.io)?

“We’re building cutting-edge technology to make content accessible across languages — and voices — to enable everyone to connect with information and stories that matter.” — Mateusz Staniszewski, CEO of Elevenlabs

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Founded in 2022 by childhood best friends Piotr Dąbkowski and Mateusz Staniszewski, ElevenLabs has quickly gained over a million users. The company is known for its text-to-speech (TTS) technology that instantly converts text to natural AI voices in 29 languages. Elevenlabs’s unique features include:

• Movie Dubbing Tool: This lets you dub entire movies, and edit transcripts, translations, and timing.
• Voice Library Marketplace: Create and share AI versions of your voice. Earn money when others use your voice, with full control over its use.
• Mobile App Reader: Turns text and web pages into audio so you can listen on the go.
• Expanded AI Dubbing: Automatically translates videos into 29 languages, keeping the original voice and emotions.
• Voice Transformation: Changes one voice to another while keeping its unique traits.

How Does ElevenLabs Work?

ElevenLabs uses machine learning techniques to create high-quality synthetic voices. At the core of their technology are deep learning models like Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and Transformer architectures. These models are trained on extensive datasets of human speech, learning the nuances of intonation, pitch, and rhythm to produce natural-sounding audio.

When you use ElevenLabs, the system converts your textual input into realistic spoken language through techniques like feature extraction and neural vocoding, which help capture the unique characteristics of human speech.

The model's architecture includes multiple layers of neural networks. This allows it to understand and replicate the complex patterns found in natural speech, ensuring that the voices you hear are “indistinguishable” from human voices.

ElevenLabs Pricing

ElevenLabs offers six pricing tiers, including a free plan. If you want to use ElevenLabs for free, you can generate up to 10,000 characters per month, create up to 3 custom voices, and access shared voices in the Voice Library. However, this plan does not include a commercial license.

The table below dives into each of the six pricing tiers and features in detail:

ElevenLabs API

Whether you’re working on a game, virtual assistant, or any project needing natural-sounding speech, the ElevenLabs API makes it easy to integrate text-to-speech (TTS) and voice generation. ElevenLabs API’s key features include:

• Access thousands of realistic voices in 29 languages.
• Enjoy fast response times around 400ms.
• The API delivers natural intonations and emotions based on your text’s context.
• Create unique voices or clone existing ones.
• Friendly for developers and supports multiple programming languages like Python, JavaScript, and PHP.

Here’s how to use the ElevenLabs API:

1. Get your API key by signing up and heading to profile settings.
2. Use a simple POST request to send your text and voice settings to the API.
3. That’s it! You can get back a high-quality audio file to use in your application.

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ElevenLabs Alternatives

If you're looking for alternatives to ElevenLabs for text-to-speech and voice generation, options like Murf AI, Play.ht, and Descript offer extensive voice libraries and customization features, while tools like LOVO and Speechify excel in emotional expressiveness and high-quality voiceovers.

How to Build a Voice Chatbot using ElevenLabs API?

To build a voice chatbot using the ElevenLabs API, first, sign up on ElevenLabs, get your API key, and set up your development environment.

Next, integrate the text-to-speech functionality by using the ElevenLabs API to convert text to speech, handling user input with a speech-to-text API, and converting responses back to speech.

Finally, implement the conversational logic using natural language processing tools if needed, test thoroughly, and deploy your chatbot on your chosen platform.

Building a voice chatbot using the ElevenLabs API is a highly technical process that requires extensive coding skills. For an easier alternative, use Voiceflow to create voice assistants—it’s the best platform used by 250,000+ teams to design and deploy AI voice agents. You can also follow our YouTube tutorial to learn how to convert text to audio with custom voices effortlessly. Get started today! It’s free.

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Frequently Asked Questions

ElevenLabs Funding

ElevenLabs has raised a total of $101 million since its inception in 2022. Its latest Series B funding round secured $80 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, Smash Capital, BroadLight Capital, and Credo Ventures, achieving unicorn status with a valuation exceeding $1 billion. This follows a previous Series A round in June 2023, where the company raised $19 million at a $99 million post-money valuation.

Is ElevenLabs free?

ElevenLabs offers a free plan with limited features, including up to 10,000 characters per month. For more advanced features, you can choose from their paid plans.

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How to cancel an ElevenLabs subscription?

To cancel your ElevenLabs subscription, log into your account and go to the billing section. There, you can manage your subscription and follow the prompts to cancel it.

How to add pauses in ElevenLabs?

You can add pauses in ElevenLabs by using the SSML <break> tag within your text. Simply insert the tag where you want the pause to occur, specifying the duration if needed.