Is ElevenLabs Free? Free Plan Limits Explained

Yes, ElevenLabs has a free plan — with one major catch

ElevenLabs offers a genuine $0 free plan with 10,000 credits per month, no credit card required to start. The catch that trips people up isn’t the credit limit — it’s licensing: per ElevenLabs’ own Terms of Use, Free Users may only use the Services for non-commercial purposes. Paid Users, on any paid tier, may use the Services commercially. That’s a Terms-of-Use restriction, not just a pricing-page suggestion, so it’s worth taking seriously before you build a workflow around the free tier.

What the free plan includes

Based on ElevenLabs’ pricing page, the Free plan includes:

• 10,000 credits/month (roughly enough for around 10,000 characters of text-to-speech, at 1 credit per character)
• Access to text-to-speech, speech-to-text, sound effects, voice design, music, and Studio (limited to 3 projects)
• Instant Voice Cloning — though ElevenLabs’ own pages present this point slightly inconsistently: the pricing page’s plan comparison lists Instant Voice Cloning as a Starter-tier addition, while ElevenLabs’ dedicated voice cloning page states Free and Starter both support it. We’re flagging that discrepancy rather than picking one and asserting it as certain — confirm directly on ElevenLabs’ site if this specific detail matters for your decision.

What it doesn’t include

• Commercial use. This is the big one — see above.
• Professional Voice Cloning, which requires Creator tier and above.
• Meaningful dubbing minutes — the free tier’s credit allowance covers only a fraction of a minute of Dubbing v2 per month, per ElevenLabs’ pricing page.

Who the free plan is actually fine for

• Testing whether ElevenLabs’ voice quality works for your use case before paying anything
• Personal, non-commercial projects — a gift, a hobby project, something you won’t publish for money
• Getting familiar with the editor and voice library before committing to a paid tier

Who should skip straight to a paid plan

• Anyone building content for a monetized YouTube channel — see ElevenLabs Commercial Use: Can You Use It for YouTube? for the full picture
• Anyone who needs to clone a specific voice with high fidelity (Professional Voice Cloning) — see ElevenLabs Voice Cloning
• Anyone planning regular dubbing or translation work at more than a token volume

If you’ve decided you need a paid plan, see ElevenLabs Pricing: Plans, Credits, and Which One to Choose for how to pick a tier, or jump straight to Starter if you just need the commercial license unlocked.

Try ElevenLabs Free

FAQ

Can I use ElevenLabs’ free plan to make money on YouTube? No. Per ElevenLabs’ Terms of Use, Free Users may only use the Services for non-commercial purposes — Paid Users (any paid plan) may use the Services commercially. A monetized YouTube channel counts as commercial use, so you’d need at least the Starter plan.