ElevenLabs vs Speechify Studio
ElevenLabs is the better buy for the lowest commercial price and for cloning: Starter is $5 a month billed annually ($6 monthly) with a commercial licence, instant voice cloning and 30,000 credits a month, and Creator at $18.33 billed annually adds professional cloning. Speechify Studio is the better buy for hours of finished audio: Studio Starter is $100 a year for 86,400 credits at one credit per second, which is 24 hours of voiceover, with voice cloning, 1,000+ voices and commercial rights; Studio Creator is $300 a year for 96 hours. Both entry tiers state commercial use; neither free plan does.
Side by side, from the two pricing pages
| Feature | ElevenLabs | Speechify Studio |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 10k credits/mo, all features; no commercial licence listed | 600 credits (10 min); no cloning; no commercial rights; no mp3 download per FAQ |
| Cheapest paid tier | Starter $5/mo annual ($60/yr), $6 monthly | Studio Starter $100/yr |
| Output on that tier | 30k credits/mo (1 credit = 1 character, V2 Multilingual) | 86,400 credits/yr at 1 credit per second (24 hrs derived) |
| Next tier | Creator $18.33/mo annual ($22 monthly): 121k credits, professional cloning | Studio Creator $300/yr: 345,600 credits (96 hrs derived) |
| Billing | Monthly or annual (ten monthly payments) | Annual only |
| Commercial use | Commercial License from Starter | Commercial usage rights from Studio Starter |
| Voice cloning | Instant from Starter; Professional from Creator | Studio Starter and up |
| Voices stated | Not stated | 1,000+ |
$60 a year against $100, and what each buys
ElevenLabs Starter is the lower number: $6 on monthly billing, $5 on annual, which the FAQ defines as ten monthly payments, so $60 a year for 30,000 credits a month, a commercial licence, instant voice cloning, 20 Studio projects and Dubbing Studio. Speechify Studio Starter is $100 a year with no monthly option shown, for 86,400 credits, 1,000+ voices, voice cloning, stock music, video, images and sound effects, and commercial usage rights. The $40 difference buys a stated 24 hours of voiceover a year and a stock media library; what it costs is the monthly option and, on the entry tier, the professional-grade cloning ElevenLabs sells one step up on Creator.
Credits per character against credits per second
Both vendors sell credits, and both define them. ElevenLabs: one text character is one credit on the V2 Multilingual models, with the Flash and Turbo models at 0.5 to 1 credit per character over the API. Speechify Studio: one credit per second of voiceover, three per second of dubbing, thirty per second of avatar video, and re-exporting unchanged speech is free. So ElevenLabs Starter is a budget of about 30,000 characters a month and Speechify Studio Starter is a budget of 24 hours of audio a year. Neither page states a characters-per-minute rate, so the honest comparison is by what you know about your own work: script length points to ElevenLabs, running time points to Speechify Studio.
Cloning on both, at different tiers
Speechify Studio includes voice cloning on Studio Starter, its cheapest paid plan, and states that you own the audio output and commercial rights in perpetuity. ElevenLabs splits cloning in two: Instant Voice Cloning on Starter and Professional Voice Cloning on Creator ($18.33 a month billed annually, $22 monthly, first month promoted at $11). Speechify's page does not distinguish grades of cloning, so a reader who needs a particular fidelity should test both free plans before paying.
The free plans
ElevenLabs Free is 10,000 credits a month with every product feature and three Studio projects; the commercial licence is listed as a Starter addition. Speechify Studio Free is 600 credits, ten minutes at the stated rate, with the full voice library and studios but no voice cloning, no commercial usage rights, and, per the FAQ, no mp3 download until you pay. Both are for evaluation; ElevenLabs Free is the larger sandbox.
ElevenLabs
✓ Pros
- Lowest commercial price here: $5 a month billed annually
- Monthly billing available at $6
- Instant cloning on Starter, professional on Creator
- Free plan has 10,000 credits a month and every feature
✗ Cons
- Credits are characters and are not converted to minutes on the plan cards
- Professional cloning starts at $18.33 a month billed annually
- No voice count stated
- Commercial licence not listed on Free
Speechify Studio
✓ Pros
- 24 hours of voiceover a year for $100, at the stated rate
- Voice cloning and commercial rights on the cheapest paid tier
- 1,000+ voices stated
- Re-exporting unchanged speech costs no credits
✗ Cons
- Annual billing only; no monthly plan shown
- Free plan has no commercial rights, no cloning and no mp3 download
- Cloning grade is not described
- Easily confused with the separate $29 a month reader app
Verdict
Take ElevenLabs if you want the cheapest commercial licence, a monthly option, or professional voice cloning. Take Speechify Studio if you produce hours of narration and want the most audio for $100 a year with cloning already in. If your scripts are short and frequent, ElevenLabs' character budget fits; if they are long and occasional, Speechify Studio's hour budget fits.
ElevenLabs
- Free plan Yes: $0, 10k credits per month, Text to Speech, Speech to Text, Sound Effects, Voice Design, Music, Productions, Image, 3 Projects in Studio. Commercial License is not listed on Free; it appears under Starter as an addition to Free
- Starter $6 per month on monthly billing, $5 per month on annual billing (the FAQ states annual price = monthly price x 10): 30k credits per month, Commercial License, Instant Voice Cloning, 20 Projects in Studio, Music commercial use, Dubbing Studio
- Creator $22 per month on monthly billing with "First month 50% off" ($11 shown), $18.33 per month on annual billing: 121k credits per month, Professional Voice Cloning, Additional Credits
- Pro $99 per month on monthly billing, $82.50 per month on annual billing: 600k credits per month, 44.1kHz PCM audio output via API, 192kbps audio
- Scale and Business Scale $299 per month ($249.17 annual): 1.8M credits, 3 seats, 3 Professional Voice Clones. Business $990 per month ($825 annual): 6M credits, 10 seats, 10 Professional Voice Clones. Enterprise is custom pricing
- Credits FAQ: "For V2 Multilingual models, 1 text character equals 1 credit"; Flash/Turbo models cost 0.5 to 1 credit per character on API usage
- Voice cloning Instant Voice Cloning from Starter; Professional Voice Cloning from Creator
- Number of voices Not stated on the pricing page (the plan cards list custom voice slots, not a library count)
Facts from ElevenLabs' pricing page, checked 2026-09-05.
Speechify Studio
- Free plan Yes: $0, 600 Studio credits, access to 1,000+ realistic voices, Voiceover Studio, Dubbing Studio, Voice Changer, "No Voice Cloning", "No commercial usage rights". FAQ: the free plan lasts as long as you want; downloading to mp3 requires a paid plan
- Studio Starter $100 per year, no monthly option shown: 86,400 Studio credits, access to 1,000+ realistic voices, Voice Cloning, stock music, video, images and sound effects, "Commercial usage rights"
- Studio Creator $300 per year, labelled Best Value: 345,600 Studio credits, everything in Studio Starter
- Credits FAQ: "Voiceover 1 credit per second, Dubbing 3 credits per second, Avatar 30 credits per second"; re-exporting unchanged speech is free. Derived: 86,400 credits is 24 hours of voiceover a year, 345,600 is 96 hours, 600 is 10 minutes
- Voice cloning Included on Studio Starter and Studio Creator; not on Free
- Commercial rights FAQ: "With Studio you own the audio output and commercial rights in perpetuity"; the Free card states no commercial usage rights
- Separate product The Speechify Text to Speech Reader app is a different subscription (Premium $29 per month on monthly billing on speechify.com/pricing); it is a reading app, not the voiceover studio
Facts from Speechify Studio's pricing page, checked 2026-09-05.
Frequently Asked Questions
They win in different situations. ElevenLabs Starter is cheaper at $5 a month billed annually ($60 a year) and includes a commercial licence and instant voice cloning, with 30,000 credits a month where one credit is one character. Speechify Studio Starter is $100 a year, annual only, for 86,400 credits at one credit per second of voiceover, which is 24 hours of audio, with voice cloning and commercial rights. Pick ElevenLabs for the lowest price and professional cloning on Creator; pick Speechify Studio for long-form volume.
Speechify Studio states its rate: one credit per second of voiceover, so Studio Starter's 86,400 credits is 24 hours a year for $100 and Studio Creator's 345,600 is 96 hours for $300. ElevenLabs states one credit per text character on its V2 Multilingual models, 30,000 a month on Starter for $60 a year, and does not convert characters to minutes on the plan cards, so the two cannot be put on one scale from the pricing pages alone.
ElevenLabs Free has 10,000 credits a month and every product feature, but no commercial licence is listed for it. Speechify Studio Free has 600 credits, ten minutes at its stated rate, with 1,000+ voices, no voice cloning, no commercial usage rights, and the FAQ says downloading to mp3 needs a paid plan. ElevenLabs Free is the more useful of the two for testing.
Not on its pricing page as read: Studio Starter is listed at $100 per year and Studio Creator at $300 per year with no monthly option shown. ElevenLabs offers monthly billing ($6 for Starter) and annual billing at ten monthly payments ($5 a month).
No. Speechify's FAQ states that Studio and the Text to Speech Reader are two different subscriptions. The reader app's Premium plan is $29 a month on monthly billing on speechify.com/pricing and is for listening to text; Studio is the voiceover and dubbing product compared here.