Start ElevenLabs on the right plan, with a voice clone that sounds like you
Which plan fits what you make, Creator or Pro, monthly or annual, how to record a clean sample for your voice clone, and the beginner mistakes that burn credits. Free to read. Start through my link and I also answer your questions by email for 30 days.
- 121,000 credits a month, about 121 minutes of voice
- Professional voice cloning
- Commercial use of what you make
- $11 for the first month, until 16 November
From ElevenLabs' pricing page. From 16 November the annual plan is $99 for the year.
The guide
Four things to settle before you pay for a single credit
Most people who quit ElevenLabs in the first month bought the wrong plan or cloned their voice from a bad recording. Both are easy to get right on day one.
1. Which plan
Pick by how many minutes of voice you publish a month
ElevenLabs counts everything in credits. For speech, one character of your script is one credit, and ElevenLabs' own table puts 1,000 credits at about one minute of voice. So the question is simple: how many finished minutes do you need each month?
Free
10,000 credits, about 10 minutes
- Hear the voices and test a script
- No commercial use
For: hearing the voices and testing a script. Not for a video you will monetise.
Starter
$1 for the first month until 16 November, or $5 a month billed yearly
- 30,000 credits, about 30 minutes
- Commercial licence
- Instant voice cloning
For: two or three short videos a month, or a podcast intro, in a clone of your own voice.
Creator
$11 for the first month until 16 November, or $18.33 a month billed yearly
- 121,000 credits, about 121 minutes
- Professional voice cloning
- Extra credits when you run out
For: a weekly channel, courses or client voice-overs. This is the plan I pay for.
Pro
$82.50 a month billed yearly
- 600,000 credits, about 600 minutes
- 44.1 kHz audio through the API
For: audiobooks, a daily show, or an agency voicing for several clients.
Prices and credits from ElevenLabs' pricing page, read on 12 November. Scale ($299 a month, 3 seats) and Business ($990 a month, 10 seats) are for teams. ElevenLabs can change its prices: the pricing page is always the final word.
2. Creator or Pro
Creator covers two hours of voice a month. Pro is for five times that.
Pro costs four and a half times as much as Creator for about five times the credits, plus higher-quality audio files through the API. Pay for Pro only when you have measured that you need it.
Creator is enough if
You publish up to about two hours of finished voice a month: a weekly 10 to 20 minute video, a course module a week, or a handful of client jobs.
You want a Professional Voice Clone, the closer copy of your voice that is trained on 30 minutes or more of your recordings. It starts on Creator.
Move up to Pro when
You run out of Creator credits two months in a row, even after the habits in the credits section below.
You build on the API and need the higher-quality 44.1 kHz audio files, or you voice long books and daily shows.
| Creator | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $22 ($11 the first month until 16 November) | $99 |
| Credits a month | 121,000 | 600,000 |
| About this much voice | 121 minutes | 600 minutes |
| Professional voice cloning | Yes | Yes |
| 44.1 kHz PCM audio through the API | No | Yes |
3. Monthly or annual
Annual is ten months' price for twelve. Take it once you know your number.
An annual plan costs the monthly price times ten, so you get two months free. That only pays off if you keep using it, so the order I suggest is: one or two months on monthly billing, then annual once you know how many minutes a month you really publish.
Creator, annual, normal price
Against $264 for twelve monthly payments of $22. That is $18.33 a month.
Unused credits roll over
On a paid plan, credits you do not use carry over for up to two months, so a quiet month is not money lost. That makes monthly billing safer to start on.
A minute of voice at the Black Friday price
From 16 November Creator annual is $99. With about 121 minutes a month that is 1,452 minutes a year, about 7 cents a minute. At the normal $220 it is 15 cents.
4. Your clone sample
Your clone can only be as clean as the recording you give it
ElevenLabs offers two kinds of clone. An Instant Voice Clone is ready in seconds from a short sample and comes with Starter. A Professional Voice Clone is trained on your recordings, takes longer, sounds closer to you in more styles, and needs the Creator plan or above.
| Instant Voice Clone | Professional Voice Clone | |
|---|---|---|
| How much audio | 1 to 2 minutes of consistent speech | At least 30 minutes, ideally 2 hours or more |
| Plan | Starter and above | Creator and above |
| Ready | At once | After a training run |
| Best at | The style you recorded | A wider range of styles and emotion |
Sample lengths from ElevenLabs' own documentation on voice cloning.
Recording the sample, step by step
Pick the quietest, softest room
Curtains, a sofa, a bed or a wardrobe full of clothes soak up echo. A bare room with hard walls makes every take sound like a bathroom, and the clone learns the echo too.
Only your voice on the track
No music, no fan, no traffic, no second speaker. Switch off notifications. Background noise and sudden pops make the clone less stable.
Keep the same distance
Sit in one position and keep the microphone the same distance from your mouth for the whole recording. Moving closer and away changes the volume and the tone the clone learns.
Talk the way your videos will sound
An instant clone copies the style it hears. Record calm narration and it narrates calmly; it may sound different if you later ask it for strong emotion. So read in the voice you will publish in.
Set the level once, then leave it
Loud enough that the meter moves well, never so loud that it hits the top and distorts. Do not whisper and do not shout: an even level gives an even clone.
Clone only voices you have the right to
Your own, or a voice you have written permission to use. A Professional Voice Clone asks you to confirm it is your voice before it trains.
Beginner mistakes
Six mistakes I see new users make in the first month
Cloning from a phone voice note
A laptop or phone mic in a hard room gives the clone echo and hiss, and every video you make inherits it. Do instead: record the sample once, properly, with the steps above.
Publishing from the Free plan
The Free plan has no commercial licence. Do instead: test on Free, then publish from Starter or above.
Generating a whole script in one go
One very long generation can drift in volume and tone, and one wrong word means paying for the whole take again. Do instead: generate paragraph by paragraph, as ElevenLabs' own guide suggests.
Letting the voice guess numbers and names
"$5k", "v2", a product name or an abbreviation can come out wrong. Do instead: write them the way they should be said before you generate, and listen to the first take of any new term.
Buying Pro or annual on day one
Big plans feel safe and often go half used. Do instead: start monthly on the plan that covers your minutes, and upgrade when the numbers tell you to.
Asking an instant clone for a voice it never heard
Recorded calm, asked to sound excited, an instant clone can lose your sound. Do instead: record your sample in the style you publish, or train a Professional clone on Creator for more range.
Make credits last
Every retake costs the same as the first take. Spend credits on takes you keep.
Before a new voice gets the full script
Generate one or two sentences and listen. If the voice is wrong, you lose a hundred credits, not ten thousand.
Edit before you press generate
Read your script once out loud. Typos, numbers and names fixed in the text cost nothing; fixed in a retake, they cost the whole paragraph again.
A retake costs only the part
Work in paragraphs. When one sentence comes out wrong, you regenerate that paragraph, not the whole video.
Know what the extras cost
A minute of music costs 900 credits and a sound effect 200 a generation, so one minute of music costs about as much as a minute of voice. Budget for them.
Let quiet months roll over
Unused credits carry over for up to two months on a paid plan. One busy month is not a reason to move up a plan.
Run out once before upgrading
On Creator you can buy extra credits. Running out once is a top-up; running out every month is the signal to change plans.
Free for readers
30 days of help by email, from someone who uses ElevenLabs every day
If you start ElevenLabs through my link, write to me with your questions for your first 30 days. I answer general questions within about a day, for example:
- Which plan fits what you make, and when to change it
- Whether your sample room and microphone will give a clean clone
- Why a take sounds off, and what to try in the text first
- How to plan your first video or course so the credits last
Black Friday
From 16 November: the year of Creator for $99
ElevenLabs' Black Friday sale runs from 16 November to 1 December: 55% off a year of Creator or Pro. If you were going to take an annual plan anyway, this is the time to do it. I update this section the day the sale goes live.
Creator, one year
55% off. $8.25 a month for about 121 minutes of voice a month and Professional Voice Cloning.
Pro, one year, new subscribers
55% off by my sums. $37.13 a month for about 600 minutes of voice a month.
What you get for the money
| Creator, one year | Pro, one year | |
|---|---|---|
| Normal price for the year | $220 | $990 |
| Black Friday price | $99 | $445.50 |
| You keep | $121 | $544.50 |
| Works out a month | $8.25 | $37.13 |
| Credits every month | 121,000 | 600,000 |
| Voice in a year, about | 1,452 minutes | 7,200 minutes |
| A minute of voice costs about | 7 cents | 6 cents |
| Voice cloning | Instant and Professional | Instant and Professional |
| Commercial licence | Yes | Yes |
| Also in the plan | Studio projects, dubbing, music for commercial use, extra credits when you run out | Everything in Creator, plus 44.1 kHz PCM and 192 kbps audio through the API |
Already on Pro monthly? ElevenLabs announced 50% off when you move to annual, which is $495 for the year. The Pro figures above are 55% off the normal $990, worked out by me; the checkout shows the final price.
Until the sale starts, the link opens the normal prices.
Questions
Before you start
Which ElevenLabs plan should a beginner choose?
Starter if you publish under about 30 minutes of voice a month, Creator if you publish more or want a Professional Voice Clone. Start monthly and switch to annual once you know your monthly number.
Is the Creator plan worth it?
For a weekly channel, yes. It gives about 121 minutes of voice a month, professional cloning and commercial use for $22 a month, and you can buy extra credits in a busy month instead of moving to Pro.
How many minutes of audio do I need to clone my voice?
For an Instant Voice Clone, 1 to 2 minutes of clean, consistent speech. For a Professional Voice Clone, at least 30 minutes, ideally 2 hours or more, and the Creator plan or above.
Can I use ElevenLabs voices on YouTube?
Yes, on any paid plan, which includes a commercial licence. The Free plan does not allow commercial use.
How much is ElevenLabs on Black Friday?
From 16 November to 1 December a year of Creator is $99 instead of $220, and a year of Pro is 55% off for new subscribers, $445.50 instead of $990 by my sums. Both are 55% off the yearly price.
Do unused credits expire?
On a paid plan they roll over for up to two months, then they expire.
Is the guide really free?
The whole guide is on this page, free to read. ElevenLabs pays me a commission when you buy a paid plan through my link, and that pays for the 30 days of email help. Your price is the same as on elevenlabs.io.
Are you part of ElevenLabs?
No. I am a paying ElevenLabs customer and a member of its affiliate program. ElevenLabs did not write or review this page.
Start on the right plan today
Read the guide, pick your plan, record your sample once and properly. Questions for 30 days go to help@thatmy.com.
Affiliate link: ElevenLabs pays thatmy.com a commission on paid plans bought through it, at no extra cost to you. thatmy.com is not affiliated with or endorsed by ElevenLabs. Full disclosure.
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