ElevenLabs Alternatives: 8 Free and Paid AI Voice Tools Compared

Why look for an ElevenLabs alternative?

People look for an ElevenLabs alternative when its plan structure, licensing or focus does not match how they produce audio. ElevenLabs' own pricing page sets the baseline (ElevenLabs pricing):

• Free plan: $0 with 10,000 credits a month. The commercial license, instant voice cloning and Dubbing Studio are listed as Starter additions, so plan to pay before you publish client or ad work.
• Paid plans: Starter $6/month (30,000 credits), Creator $22/month (121,000 credits, adds professional voice cloning), Pro $99/month (600,000 credits), then Scale and Business for teams. Annual billing costs ten times the monthly price.
• One shared credit pool: text to speech, dubbing, music, sound effects and the other tools all draw on the same credits. Text to speech on the V2 Multilingual model uses 1 credit per character; dubbing uses 2,000 to 10,000 credits per minute.
• Rollover: on paid plans, unused credits roll over for up to two months; the Free plan has no rollover.
• Languages: 74 for text to speech.

None of this is a flaw. It is simply a credit-based model built around a wide audio platform. If you only need English narration billed by the minute, a free monthly character allowance from a cloud provider, or a model you can run on your own servers, another tool may fit better.

ElevenLabs alternatives at a glance

This table summarizes what each official page or model card listed on October 18, 2026. "Commercial use" refers to the cheapest option where the page states commercial rights.

How we chose and compared these tools

We picked tools that match the main reasons people leave ElevenLabs: a different pricing model, a stronger free tier, English studio voiceover, or open-source self-hosting. Every fact comes from the vendor's pricing page, the model card on Hugging Face or the GitHub repository, all opened on October 18, 2026.

• What we compared: free option, entry price, how usage is metered, commercial rights, languages where stated, and anything that limits real use.
• What we did not do: we did not run blind listening tests, so this page makes no claims about which voice sounds most natural. Try your own script in two or three tools.
• What we left out: Murf's Studio plan prices did not load in the version of its pricing page we could verify, so we cover only Murf's published API pricing. Resemble AI's pricing page now lists deepfake detection plans, so we include its open-source Chatterbox model instead. Introductory discounts are not quoted.
• Our own product: Deepege is built by us. We placed it last and describe only the job it is designed for.

1. Murf AI

Murf AI is the ElevenLabs alternative to look at if you want simple per-character API pricing. Its pricing page lists a free API trial with $10 of credit and no credit card, 150+ voices in 35+ languages and styles, and pay-as-you-go rates of $0.01 per 1,000 characters for its Falcon text-to-speech model and $0.03 per 1,000 characters for Gen2. Translation costs $0.02 per 1,000 characters and the voice changer $0.10 per minute (Murf pricing).

• What stands out: purchased credit never expires, and Murf lists HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II on the same page.
• Keep in mind: Murf also sells a Studio editor for voiceovers. Check its current plans on Murf's site; we could not verify those prices.

2. WellSaid

WellSaid is a strong ElevenLabs alternative for English voiceover in training, product and marketing videos. Its free plan includes 3 download minutes a month without commercial rights. Starter costs $10/month billed annually ($120/year for 240 downloaded minutes) or $19/month billed monthly for 20 minutes; Pro costs $33/month billed annually ($396/year for 2,160 minutes) or $49/month for 180 minutes (WellSaid pricing).

• What stands out: generation is unlimited on paid plans, because you pay only for finished audio you download. WellSaid says customer data is never used to train its models, and paid plans include full commercial rights and caption files.
• Keep in mind: self-serve plans include English voices. Other languages and translation sit on the Enterprise plan, and unused download minutes do not roll over.

3. Speechify Studio

Speechify Studio is a budget-friendly ElevenLabs alternative for creators who prefer one yearly price. The free plan gives 600 Studio credits and access to 1,000+ voices, without commercial usage rights. Studio Starter costs $100/year for 86,400 credits with commercial rights, and Studio Creator $300/year for 345,600 credits (Speechify Studio pricing).

• What stands out: voiceover uses 1 credit per second, so Studio Starter covers about 24 hours of generated voiceover a year. Dubbing uses 3 credits per second.
• Keep in mind: Studio is a separate subscription from Speechify's text-to-speech reader app. Its FAQ lists about 20 voiceover languages, compared with 74 for ElevenLabs text to speech.

4. Fish Audio

Fish Audio is a low-cost ElevenLabs alternative for voice generation and voice cloning. Its free tier has 8,000 credits a month, up to about 7 minutes of generation and 500 characters per generation, with no card required. Plus costs $11/month billed annually ($132/year) or $15 month to month for 250,000 credits, which Fish Audio says covers up to 200 minutes; Pro costs $75/month billed annually or $100 monthly for 2,000,000 credits and 3 seats (Fish Audio pricing).

• What stands out: Fish Audio estimates each minute of speech at roughly 600 to 625 credits, which makes it easy to budget. Plus lists commercial use, voice design and private voice slots.
• Keep in mind: monthly quotas reset each billing cycle, and unused minutes do not roll over.

5. Google Cloud Text-to-Speech

Google Cloud Text-to-Speech is the ElevenLabs alternative for developers who want a large free monthly allowance inside an existing cloud account. Chirp 3: HD voices include the first 1 million characters each month at no charge and then cost $30 per 1 million characters; Standard voices include 4 million free characters and then cost $4 per million (Google Cloud Text-to-Speech pricing).

• What stands out: pricing is per character with no subscription, and Instant custom voice is available at $60 per 1 million characters.
• Keep in mind: you must enable billing, and Google charges automatically once you pass the free limit. It is an API, so you build the workflow yourself.

6. Kokoro-82M (open source)

Kokoro-82M is the lightest free ElevenLabs alternative on this list. It is an open-weight text-to-speech model with 82 million parameters, and its weights are released under the Apache 2.0 license. The model card notes it has been deployed in numerous projects and commercial APIs (Kokoro-82M on Hugging Face).

• What stands out: no usage fees and a permissive license, and the model card describes it as faster and more cost-efficient than larger models.
• Keep in mind: you install, host and maintain it yourself, and there is no studio editor or support desk.

7. Chatterbox (open source)

Chatterbox is a free, open-source ElevenLabs alternative from Resemble AI for teams that want multilingual voice cloning on their own servers. The repository is MIT-licensed, and its latest Chatterbox Multilingual V3 model has 500 million parameters and lists 23 languages, from Arabic to Chinese (Chatterbox on GitHub).

• What stands out: cross-language voice cloning, and every generated file carries Resemble's imperceptible PerTh watermark, which the repository shows how to detect later.
• Keep in mind: like any self-hosted model, it needs your own hardware and engineering time. Clone only voices you have permission to use.

8. Deepege (our product)

Deepege (引擎AI) is the AI content marketing platform we build, so treat this entry as a disclosure, not a ranking. It suits Chinese-speaking business teams who make marketing videos and need the voiceover as part of that job rather than as a standalone audio file.

In our free AI voiceover generator, you paste a script into Deepege chat, describe the voice, pace and language, and refine the take by asking. You can also translate the script and create voiceovers for other markets in the same conversation. New users get free credits after signing up, and there is no public price list; see Deepege pricing. If you need a pure audio tool, API or self-hosted model, the options above are a better fit.

Is there a free ElevenLabs alternative?

Yes. Every tool on this list has a free route, but the limits differ, and commercial rights are often the catch.

• Free, with licenses that permit commercial use: Kokoro (Apache 2.0) and Chatterbox (MIT), as long as you can host them. Read the license of any other open model first. XTTS-v2, for example, lists the Coqui Public Model License on its model card rather than MIT or Apache 2.0 (XTTS-v2 model card).
• Free monthly allowance on an API: Google Cloud Text-to-Speech, with 1 million Chirp 3: HD characters a month once billing is on.
• Free trials and tiers for testing: Murf's $10 API credit, Fish Audio's 8,000 monthly credits, WellSaid's 3 download minutes and Speechify Studio's 600 credits. WellSaid and Speechify say their free plans carry no commercial rights.

Which ElevenLabs alternative should you choose?

Choose by the job, then confirm with a short test using your real script.

1. Narration for training or product videos in English: start with WellSaid; you pay only for downloaded minutes.
2. A yearly flat price for creator content: Speechify Studio, or Fish Audio Plus if you prefer monthly billing.
3. Voice inside your own app or pipeline: Google Cloud Text-to-Speech or Murf's API, both priced per character.
4. No licensing fees and full control: Kokoro for a lightweight model, Chatterbox for multilingual cloning.
5. Voiceover as part of marketing videos for Chinese platforms and TikTok: Deepege, our own product.

For narration in another language, translating the script is only half the work: slogans, hooks and jokes often need transcreation rather than a literal translation. Our guide to transcreation explains when that matters, and the video localization guide covers subtitles, voiceover and dubbing.

What should you check before switching?

Check rights and file formats before you move a production workflow off ElevenLabs.

1. Commercial rights: confirm the plan you will actually pay for covers ads, client work or resale.
2. Voice clone consent: recreate custom voices only with the speaker's written permission, and check each vendor's cloning rules.
3. Metering: convert your monthly script length into the new unit (credits, characters, seconds or downloaded minutes).
4. Languages and accents: test your top market language with a native reviewer.
5. Exports: confirm the audio formats, sample rate and caption files your editor needs.
6. Credits you leave behind: on ElevenLabs, cancelling or downgrading forfeits unused paid credits at the end of the cycle, so time the switch.

If you are also replacing an avatar video tool, see our Synthesia alternatives and HeyGen alternatives guides.

Conclusion

There is no single best ElevenLabs alternative. WellSaid and Murf suit professional narration and APIs, Speechify Studio and Fish Audio suit budget creator work, Google Cloud suits developers, and Kokoro and Chatterbox suit teams that can host open models. Check commercial rights first, then compare cost at your own volume.

FAQ

What is the best free alternative to ElevenLabs?

It depends on how you will use the audio. Kokoro (Apache 2.0) and Chatterbox (MIT) are free open-source models with licenses that permit commercial use, but you host them yourself. Google Cloud Text-to-Speech includes 1 million Chirp 3: HD characters a month once billing is enabled. Fish Audio, Murf, WellSaid and Speechify Studio offer free tiers or trial credit for testing.

Is there an ElevenLabs alternative that is free for commercial use?

Yes, if you can self-host. Kokoro-82M is released under the Apache 2.0 license and Chatterbox under the MIT license, and both allow commercial use. WellSaid and Speechify Studio say their free plans carry no commercial rights, so check the terms of any free plan before publishing.

Is there a cheaper alternative to ElevenLabs?

It depends on volume. ElevenLabs Starter is $6/month for 30,000 credits. Speechify Studio Starter is $100/year for 86,400 credits (about 24 hours of voiceover at 1 credit per second), and Fish Audio Plus is $11/month billed annually. Google Cloud and Murf charge per character with no subscription.

Does ElevenLabs have a free plan?

Yes. ElevenLabs' Free plan includes 10,000 credits a month. Its commercial license, instant voice cloning and Dubbing Studio are listed as additions on the Starter plan ($6/month), as checked on October 18, 2026.

Which ElevenLabs alternative is best for English training videos?

WellSaid is a strong fit. Its self-serve plans include all English voices, unlimited generation and full commercial rights, and you pay only for downloaded minutes: Starter is $10/month billed annually for 240 minutes a year.

Further Reading

• free AI voiceover generator
• guide to transcreation
• video localization guide
• Synthesia alternatives
• HeyGen alternatives

References

• ElevenLabs pricing
• Murf pricing
• WellSaid pricing
• Speechify Studio pricing
• Fish Audio pricing
• Google Cloud Text-to-Speech pricing
• Kokoro-82M on Hugging Face
• Chatterbox on GitHub
• XTTS-v2 model card