ElevenLabs Alternatives in 2026: 6 AI Voice Tools Compared
Speechify Studio, WellSaid, Fish Audio, Murf, Async and Descript vs. ElevenLabs: cost per minute of voice, free plans and commercial rights, checked Oct. 2026.
Contents
- Which ElevenLabs alternative should you choose?
- How much does a minute of AI voice cost?
- The six alternatives, one by one
- Which tools allow commercial use, free or paid?
- Which tools work in Spanish and other languages?
- PlayHT has shut down: don’t pick it
- How this comparison was made
- Frequently asked questions
At a glance: the 6 tools
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Regular voice-overs and dubbing on a yearly budget
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English narration for training teams, with unlimited retakes
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A low monthly entry price, 80+ languages and a pay-as-you-go API
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Business voice-overs from slides, plus dubbing billed per minute
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Podcasters who want recording, editing and text-to-speech in one plan
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Editing video by editing text, with AI voices built on ElevenLabs models
Six active tools can replace ElevenLabs for text-to-speech in October 2026: Speechify Studio, WellSaid, Fish Audio, Murf, Async (formerly Podcastle) and Descript. Each one beats ElevenLabs on a specific point, such as yearly price per minute, unlimited retakes or editing, but outside promotions, none sells a plan with commercial rights for less than ElevenLabs Starter’s $6 a month. Calculated from the official pricing pages on Oct. 7, 2026, Starter works out to about $0.20 per minute of speech, versus roughly $0.05 to $0.07 on Speechify Studio’s yearly plans and $0.08 on Fish Audio Plus.
Voice quality isn’t scored here. PlayHT, which has shut down, is covered separately.
Which ElevenLabs alternative should you choose?
- Regular voice-overs, paid once a year: Speechify Studio, about 24 hours for $100 a year by calculation, with commercial rights.
- English narration with many script revisions: WellSaid, which only counts downloaded minutes.
- The lowest monthly entry after ElevenLabs, many languages, or an API: Fish Audio Plus, at $15 a month.
- Narrated slides or dubbing of existing recordings: Murf (Canva, PowerPoint, Dub billed per minute).
- Recording and editing a podcast: Async, text-to-speech included.
- Editing a video by editing its transcript: Descript.
When ElevenLabs is still the better fit
It’s the right choice for (pricing and models, checked Oct. 7, 2026):
- Commercial rights at the lowest monthly price: Starter is $6 a month before tax ($5 billed yearly), with Instant Voice Cloning.
- Voice, dubbing, music, voice agents and an API on one account, sharing one credit balance.
- A long language list: 90+ languages for the Eleven v4 family, including French and Latin American Spanish, per the model documentation, but 74 for text to speech in the app per the pricing page’s table.
More in the ElevenLabs guide (plans and credit costs), what Eleven v4 changes and the guide to creating realistic AI voices.
Try ElevenLabs commission.
How much does a minute of AI voice cost?
This table is a calculation, not a quote from the providers: plan price ÷ minutes of speech included, using the whole allowance once, with no retakes and before sales tax. U.S.-dollar prices from the official pages on Oct. 7, 2026, excluding first-month discounts and countdown promotions.
| Tool and plan | Price: monthly / billed yearly | Speech included | What counts | Cost per minute: monthly / yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs Starter (baseline) | $6 / $5 a month | ~30 min a month (30,000 credits) | 1 credit per character; ~1,000 characters ≈ 1 minute, per the provider | $0.20 / $0.17 |
| ElevenLabs Creator | $22 / $18.33 a month | ~121 min a month | Same | $0.18 / $0.15 |
| Speechify Studio Starter | Only yearly shown: $100 a year | 86,400 credits a year, or 24 h at 1 credit per second | Each new generation; re-exports are free | — / $0.07 |
| Speechify Studio Creator | Only yearly shown: $300 a year | 345,600 credits a year, or 96 h | Same | — / $0.05 |
| WellSaid Starter | $19 / $10 a month ($120 a year) | 20 downloaded min a month (240 a year) | Downloads only; generation is unlimited | $0.95 / $0.50 |
| WellSaid Pro | $49 / $33 a month ($396 a year) | 180 min a month (2,160 a year) | Same | $0.27 / $0.18 |
| Fish Audio Plus | $15 a month | “Up to 200 minutes” (250,000 credits) | Credits; the FAQ says 600 to 625 per minute | $0.08 (about $0.04 at the FAQ rate) / — |
| Murf Creator | $29 / $19 a month ($228 a year) | 2 h a month (24 h a year) | Generation time; text edits count again | $0.24 / $0.16 |
| Murf Business | $99 / $66 a month ($792 a year) | 8 h a month (96 h a year) | Same | $0.21 / $0.14 |
| Async Essentials | $19.99 / $11.99 a month ($143.90 a year) | ~2 h (120,000 characters) | Characters | $0.17 / $0.10 |
| Async Pro | $39.99 / $23.99 a month ($287.90 a year) | ~10 h (500,000 characters) | Characters | $0.07 / $0.04 |
| Descript Hobbyist | $24 / $16 a month | 400 AI credits a month | AI credits; rate for speech not published | Not calculable |
Sources: ElevenLabs, Speechify Studio, WellSaid, Fish Audio, Murf, Async and Descript, all checked Oct. 7, 2026. Rounded to the nearest cent.
- Fish Audio contradicts itself: “up to 200 minutes” for 250,000 credits on the plan card, about 1,250 credits a minute, but 600 to 625 credits a minute in the FAQ, about 400 minutes. Its yearly price, shown only with a countdown discount, is left out.
- Async showed euros from Europe on Oct. 7, so its dollar amounts come from its pricing data as archived by the Wayback Machine on Oct. 7, 2026. Its speech allowance has no labeled period and is treated here as monthly, like the AI credits (the free allowance is marked “lifetime”).
Example: 60 finished minutes a month
For 60 minutes of narration a month with 20% retakes (72 minutes generated, 60 downloaded), here’s the cheapest plan that covers it on each tool (calculation, same sources):
| Tool | Plan that covers it | Monthly cost | Yearly billing, per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | Creator (~121 min) | $22 | $18.33 |
| Speechify Studio | Starter (24 h a year, about 2 h a month on average) | — | $8.33 ($100 a year) |
| WellSaid | Pro (only the 60 downloaded minutes count) | $49 | $33 |
| Fish Audio | Plus (up to 200 min) | $15 | — |
| Murf | Creator (2 h) | $29 | $19 |
| Async | Essentials (~2 h) | $19.99 | $11.99 |
This budget says nothing about how the voices sound: before committing to a year, run the same short passage (a brand name, a number, a long sentence) through each free plan you shortlist.
The six alternatives, one by one
1. Speechify Studio – voice-overs and dubbing on a yearly budget
Speechify Studio (voice-overs, dubbing, voice changing) is a separate subscription from the Speechify reading app, according to the Studio pricing FAQ (the app’s Premium plan is $29 a month on Speechify’s pricing page, checked Oct. 7, 2026).
Voices and languages. 1,000+ voices and about 20 voice-over languages, including Spanish and French (FAQ). Voice cloning is no longer listed in Studio Starter as of Oct. 8, 2026 (Studio pricing).
Free plan. 600 credits, or 10 minutes of voice-over, with no cloning and no commercial rights; per the FAQ, downloading an MP3 requires a paid plan.
Entry price. Studio Starter at $100 a year, about 24 hours of voice-over by calculation; Studio Creator at $300 a year, about 96 hours (Speechify Studio pricing, checked Oct. 7, 2026).
What counts. 1 credit per second of voice-over, 3 for dubbing, 30 for an avatar. Every new generation costs credits, even a change of pitch, speed or emotion; a volume tweak or a re-export of unchanged speech is free.
Limit. You pay for the year up front, and the page doesn’t say whether credits arrive all at once or month by month, or whether they carry over.
2. WellSaid – English narration, billed by downloaded minute
WellSaid (wellsaidlabs.com now redirects to wellsaid.io) sells studio-style voice-overs to training, marketing and video teams.
Voices and languages. “All English voices” on Starter and Pro; Spanish, French, the other “global languages” and translation are Enterprise-only.
Free plan. A trial with 10 minutes of generation and 3 download minutes a month, with no commercial rights.
Entry price. Starter at $19 a month ($10 billed yearly), Pro at $49 ($33 billed yearly), Business at $160 per user a month, billed yearly (WellSaid pricing, checked Oct. 7, 2026).
What counts. Only downloaded audio: generation and retakes are unlimited on paid plans. Yearly plans get the full allocation up front, with no rollover.
Limits. MP3 only on Starter and Pro (WAV and OGG from Business); voice cloning isn’t listed on the pricing page.
WellSaid’s individual plans on its pricing page, billed monthly, screenshot taken Oct. 7, 2026. The “downloaded audio” line: on paid plans, only downloads use up the allowance.
3. Fish Audio – low entry price, many languages and an API
Fish Audio offers a voice library, voice cloning and its own S2 models, in an app and through a pay-as-you-go API.
Voices and languages. 83 languages for S2.1-Pro, 80+ for S2 Pro (models). Spanish and French are “Tier 2” languages (S2 page, checked Oct. 7, 2026).
Free plan. 8,000 credits a month (“up to 7 minutes”), 500 characters per generation and 3 public voice slots; “Enhanced voice cloning” and “Commercial use” are struck through.
Entry price. Plus at $15 a month, with 15,000 characters per generation, one professional voice slot and commercial use; Pro at $100 a month for 2 million credits, up to 1,620 minutes and three seats (Fish Audio pricing, checked Oct. 7, 2026, monthly billing).
What counts. Credits that reset every month without rollover, with an inconsistent minute conversion (see below the cost table).
API. $15 per million UTF-8 bytes (s2.1-pro, s2-pro and s1), which Fish Audio equates to about 12 hours of speech: roughly $0.02 a minute, by calculation. A s2.1-pro-free model costs $0 under “fair-use limits” (API pricing, checked Oct. 7, 2026).
Limits
- The FAQ limits commercial use to “verified voices (that you own)”: check a public library voice’s status before using it in an ad.
- S2 Pro’s open weights are under a research, non-commercial license; self-hosting for business needs a separate license.
Fish Audio’s Free Tier and Plus plan on its pricing page, monthly billing in U.S. dollars, screenshot taken Oct. 7, 2026, promotional banner hidden. Struck-through lines are not included.
4. Murf – business voice-overs and per-minute dubbing
Murf sells Studio (voice-overs from a script), Dub (translation of an existing recording) and an API.
Voices and languages. 200+ voices and 30+ languages and accents on the pricing page, including Spanish and French (300+ voices according to the help center).
Free plan. 10 minutes of voice generation, no downloads and no commercial rights. The pricing page shows it as “$0 / month,” but the help center says the trial ends once those 10 minutes are used.
Entry price. Creator at $29 a month ($19 billed yearly), with Canva; Business at $99 ($66 billed yearly), adding PowerPoint (Murf pricing, Studio tab, checked Oct. 7, 2026).
What counts. Generated speech time: editing the text regenerates the whole sub-block, but changing the voice, style, pitch, speed, pauses or pronunciation of the same text is free (voice generation time).
Dubbing. Murf Dub, billed separately, starts at $0.25 a credit and uses 2 credits per minute per target language: about $0.50 per minute per language, by calculation. The free Dub trial has 100 credits. To dub an existing video rather than generate a voiceover, see the AI dubbing software comparison.
Limit. Custom voice cloning is an Enterprise add-on.
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5. Async (formerly Podcastle) – a podcast suite with text-to-speech hours
Async, Podcastle’s new name, combines remote recording, audio cleanup, transcript-based editing, text-to-speech and AI video and image generation paid with credits. See the Async podcast tutorial.
Voices and languages. “1000+ AI voices” in “15+ languages,” per the pricing page. The documentation lists the highest-quality model as English-only, while Flash v1.5 covers six languages, including Spanish and French (models, checked Oct. 7, 2026).
Free plan. About 15 minutes of text-to-speech for the life of the account, a single export, a watermark, 160 kbps MP3 audio and 720p video. Free users’ content is deleted after 30 days, under the terms.
Entry price. Essentials at $19.99 a month or $143.90 a year, without voice cloning; Pro at $39.99 a month or $287.90 a year, with cloning (Async pricing, checked Oct. 7, 2026; dollar amounts archived the same day). AI dubbing and lip sync start with Teams.
6. Descript – AI voices inside a text-based video editor
Descript edits audio and video by editing the transcript; its AI Speech reads a script with a stock voice or your own voice clone.
Voices and engine. AI Speech runs on three ElevenLabs models, Multilingual v2, v3 and v4, with v4 selected automatically once available (AI speech, checked Oct. 7, 2026): if voice is all you need, the same models are available at the source, with a known quota. 25+ stock speakers, 60+ on Business.
Free plan. 60 media minutes a month, 100 AI credits once, limited text-to-speech and 720p video with a watermark.
Entry price. Hobbyist at $24 a month ($16 billed yearly), with custom voice clones and 1080p exports without a watermark; Creator at $35 ($24 billed yearly), 800 credits; Business at $65 ($50 billed yearly), 1,500 credits and dubbing in 30+ languages (Descript pricing, checked Oct. 7, 2026).
What counts. AI credits shared with Underlord, Studio Sound and image or video generation, with no rollover. No rate is published for speech, only that longer output uses more credits (AI credits, checked Oct. 7, 2026), so no per-minute cost can be estimated before you pay.
Which tools allow commercial use, free or paid?
No dedicated voice tool on this page allows commercial use on its free plan. What each provider writes (checked Oct. 7, 2026):
| Tool | Free plan | Commercial use on the free plan | Paid plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | ~10 min a month | No; non-commercial sharing must credit “elevenlabs.io” or “11.ai” in the title | Commercial license on every paid plan, except beta services |
| Speechify Studio | 10 min (600 credits) | No (“No commercial usage rights”) | Commercial rights; you own the audio “in perpetuity,” per the FAQ |
| WellSaid | 3 download min a month | No | “Full commercial usage rights” on all paid plans |
| Fish Audio | Up to 7 min a month | No: struck through on the plan, “personal, non-commercial” in the FAQ and terms | Allowed, with the FAQ limiting it to “verified voices (that you own)” |
| Murf | 10 min, no downloads | No | Commercial rights on paid Studio plans; broadcast rights on Enterprise |
| Async | ~15 min, lifetime | Terms allow output “for any lawful purpose,” with no free/paid distinction, though they describe the custom Business account as designed for organizations with commercial needs | Watermark removed; unlimited exports |
| Descript | Limited text-to-speech | Terms give you ownership of output, with no free/paid distinction; watermarked video | Watermark-free exports from Hobbyist |
Sources: ElevenLabs publishing rules, Speechify Studio, WellSaid, Fish Audio terms, Murf, Async terms and Descript terms.
Fish Audio offers a free API model “for testing, prototyping, development, and smaller businesses,” while its terms reserve commercial use for paid services: ask Fish Audio before shipping a product on it. On every tool, a voice license doesn’t cover your script, music or a cloned voice you have no consent for. This is a summary of published terms, not legal advice.
Which tools work in Spanish and other languages?
From each provider’s documentation. A listed language doesn’t guarantee a natural accent: test your own script.
| Tool | Languages announced | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | 90+ with Eleven v4 | Yes (“Spanish, LatAm”) | 74 languages in the pricing page’s app table |
| Fish Audio | 83 (S2.1-Pro) | Yes, “Tier 2” | Tier 1: Japanese, English, Chinese |
| Murf | 30+ languages and accents | Yes | 33 languages according to the help center |
| Speechify Studio | About 20 for voice-overs | Yes | French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean also listed |
| Descript | 19 for text-to-speech | Yes (“Spanish (US)”) | French (FR) also listed |
| Async | 15+ | Yes (Flash v1.5) | Highest-quality model is English-only |
| WellSaid | English below Enterprise | Enterprise only | Spanish and French among the “global languages” |
PlayHT has shut down: don’t pick it
PlayHT no longer exists as a service. Meta acquired PlayAI in July 2025, as reported by Bloomberg and TechCrunch. In December 2025, play.ht still presented itself as PlayAI’s voice platform (archived page); by Jan. 6, 2026, the homepage read “We have shut down the service” (Wayback Machine capture). On Oct. 7, 2026, the domain no longer returned an address, and its name servers were Facebook’s.
To replace a voice cloned there, start again from your original recordings, with the speaker’s consent.
How this comparison was made
- Sources: pricing pages, help centers, documentation and terms of service, read on Oct. 7, 2026, with no account and no paid generation.
- Selection: tools that turn a script into speech, sold to the public with a public price.
- Order: by use, then by the cheapest displayed price (excluding promotions) for a plan with commercial rights, billed yearly when shown. It is not a quality ranking.
- Affiliate links: Génie Artificiel is funded by affiliate commissions. The site is an independent ElevenLabs affiliate and a Murf affiliate; their “Try” links are labeled and may earn it a commission. The other tools pay nothing, and none was added or ranked higher for a commission.
For music rather than voices, see Suno alternatives.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best ElevenLabs alternative?
It depends on the job: Speechify Studio for regular voice-overs (about $0.05 to $0.07 a minute billed yearly, by calculation), WellSaid for English narration, Fish Audio for a small budget or an API, Murf for business use and dubbing, Async or Descript for voice inside an editor. On price alone, ElevenLabs Starter remains the cheapest paid plan with commercial rights, at $6 a month.
Is there a free ElevenLabs alternative for commercial use?
Not among the dedicated voice tools: ElevenLabs, Speechify Studio, WellSaid, Fish Audio and Murf all exclude commercial use, or downloads, on their free plans. Async’s and Descript’s terms don’t make that distinction, but their free allowances are small and they watermark exports. Outside this list, TTSMaker and Luvvoice say their free tiers allow commercial use: see free AI voice generators.
Which tools offer voice cloning on an entry plan?
Fish Audio Plus ($15 a month, one professional voice slot) and Descript Hobbyist ($16 a month billed yearly). Speechify Studio no longer lists cloning in Starter (Oct. 8, 2026), Async starts at Pro, Murf only sells custom clones on Enterprise, and WellSaid doesn’t list cloning on its pricing page.
Does Descript use ElevenLabs?
Yes. Descript’s help center says its AI speech runs on ElevenLabs’ Multilingual v2, v3 and v4 models, and switches your saved model setting to v4 automatically.
Is PlayHT still available?
No. Meta bought PlayAI in July 2025, and the play.ht homepage announced the service had shut down by January 2026.
