ElevenLabs vs Fish Audio: Which is better in 2026?
Both tools cover AI speech, voice cloning and an API, so the choice turns on what you need around the voice and how you pay.
Tested hands-on: 4 tests on a MacBook Pro (M1 Pro), November 1, 2026. How we tested
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Quick answer
- Choose ElevenLabs if: You want one app for a whole audio or video production: text to speech in 74 languages, dubbing, sound effects, music and the Studio editor with a timeline and one-click captions.
- Choose Fish Audio if: You want plenty of speech for a modest monthly price, or a low-cost speech API.
- Price at a glance: ElevenLabs: Free plan; paid from $6/mo · Fish Audio: Free plan; paid from $15/mo
At a glance
 ElevenLabs |  Fish Audio | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Paid plans | From $6/mo | From $15/mo |
| Our tests | Won 4 of 4 | Won 0 of 4 |
| Best for | Creators, podcasters and developers who need AI voiceovers, cloned voices or dubbing, and who are happy to build visuals in another tool or with ElevenLabs' video generation on paid plans. | Creators, audiobook narrators and developers who want expressive AI voices, quick voice cloning or a pay-as-you-go speech API, and who are happy with short third-party video clips or build visuals in another tool. |
ElevenLabs and Fish Audio both turn text into speech, clone voices and sell a pay-as-you-go API, but they put different things around the voice. ElevenLabs, founded in 2022, wraps its voices in a wider audio studio: text to speech in 74 languages, dubbing, sound effects, music and a timeline editor with captions. Fish Audio, from Hanabi AI Inc., builds on its own speech models and a community library of more than 2 million user-uploaded voices, with Story Studio for long, multi-speaker audio. Both add third-party video models on paid plans. This comparison lines up their US dollar prices, free plans, cloning, API rates and commercial rights, from each vendor's own pages.
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly (12-month total) |
|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | ||
| Free10,000 credits/month; no commercial license; attribution required when publishing | Free Free plan | |
| Starter30,000 credits/month; yearly = 10 × monthly ($5/month equivalent) | $6/mo | $60/yr ($5/mo) |
| Creator121,000 credits/month; yearly = 10 × monthly ($18.33/month equivalent) | $22/mo | $220/yr ($18.33/mo) |
| Pro600,000 credits/month; yearly = 10 × monthly ($82.50/month equivalent) | $99/mo | $990/yr ($82.50/mo) |
| Scale3 workspace seats included; 1.8M credits/month; yearly = 10 × monthly ($249.17/month equivalent) | $299/mo | $2,990/yr ($249.17/mo) |
| Business10 workspace seats included; 6M credits/month; yearly = 10 × monthly ($825/month equivalent) | $990/mo | $9,900/yr ($825/mo) |
| EnterpriseCustom credits and seats; contact sales | Custom | |
| Fish Audio | ||
| Free8,000 credits/month (up to 7 minutes); 500 characters per generation; 3 public voice slots; personal, non-commercial use only | Free Free plan | |
| Plus250,000 credits/month (up to 200 minutes); 15,000 characters per generation; 1 professional voice slot; yearly shown as $11/month, "$132 billed annually" | $15/mo | $132/yr ($11/mo) |
| Pro2,000,000 credits/month (up to 1,620 minutes); 3 team seats; 5 professional voice slots; 7-day money-back guarantee; yearly shown as $75/month | $100/mo | $900/yr ($75/mo) |
| Max25,000,000 credits/month (up to 6,250 minutes); 10 team seats; 15 professional voice slots; yearly shown as $749/month, "$8988 billed annually" | $999/mo | $8,988/yr ($749/mo) |
| EnterpriseCustom volume pricing billed annually; zero data retention, on-premise deployment, SOC 2 compliance; contact sales | Custom | |
Prices checked on .
Features compared
| Feature | ElevenLabs | Fish Audio |
|---|---|---|
| Voice cloning | Yes · Instant from Starter; Professional from Creator | Yes · Instant clone from a short sample (10 to 30 seconds per its pages); Professional Voice Clone on paid plans (1, 5 or 15 slots) |
| Text-to-video | Yes · Paid plans; third-party models (Veo, Sora, Kling) | Yes · Plus and higher; third-party models (Seedance, Kling, Veo, WAN, MiniMax); clips up to 30 seconds on some models |
| Avatars | Partial · Lip-sync talking videos via third-party models (OmniHuman, Veed) | Partial · Talking-photo avatars via third-party lip-sync models (Creatify Aurora, HeyGen Avatar 4, Veed); Plus and higher |
| Editing | Yes · Studio audio and video editor with timeline and captions | Partial · Story Studio project editor for long-form, multi-speaker audio (export needs a paid plan); no video editor listed |
| Languages | Yes · 74 for text to speech | Yes · 83 for the S2.1 Pro model (docs); other Fish Audio pages say 8, 13 or 30+ |
| Export limits | Yes · Audio 128 kbps on Free and Starter, up to 192 kbps on higher plans; video 720p to 4K by plan | Yes · Speech per month: Free 7 min, Plus 200, Pro 1,620, Max 6,250; per generation: Free 500, Plus 15,000, Pro 30,000 characters |
| API | Yes · Plan credits or pay-as-you-go; TTS from $0.04 per 1K characters | Yes · Pay-as-you-go, no subscription; S2.1 Pro $15 per 1M UTF-8 bytes; free S2.1 Pro model through Nov 30, 2026 |
| Free tier | Yes · 10,000 credits/month; attribution required | Yes · 8,000 credits/month (up to 7 min), 500 characters per generation; personal use only |
| Commercial rights | Yes · All paid plans (not Beta Services); not the Free plan | Yes · Paid plans (the pricing FAQ says "verified voices (that you own)"); Free-plan output personal, non-commercial only |
How we tested
We gave ElevenLabs and Fish Audio the same 4 tasks on the same MacBook Pro (M1 Pro). Each test below lists the task, how we judged it, both results and screenshots; select a screenshot to see it at full size.
- Device
- MacBook Pro (M1 Pro) · macOS 26.6.2 · Chrome 156
- Tested
- November 1, 2026
- Plans used
- ElevenLabs: Free · Fish Audio: Free
- App versions
- ElevenLabs: Text to Speech (web), voice Adam, model Eleven v4, Text to Speech (web), voice Jessica, model Eleven v4 · Fish Audio: Text to Speech (web), voice Verity, model Drama 3
| Test | ElevenLabs | Fish Audio | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narrate the opening of the Gettysburg Address (timed) | Pass3 s | Partial3 s | ElevenLabs |
| Read an order notice with numbers, a price and abbreviations | Pass6 of 6 | Partial5 of 6 | ElevenLabs |
| Read a bilingual English and Spanish greeting with one voice | Pass | Partial | ElevenLabs |
| Work out how much of the free monthly allowance one narration uses | Pass3.6 % | Pass4.5 % | ElevenLabsby Share of the monthly free allowance used |
| Tests won | 4 | 0 | 0 ties |
Test 1: Narrate the opening of the Gettysburg Address (timed)
The task
Turn this public-domain passage (the Bliss copy, as transcribed by Abraham Lincoln Online) into speech with each tool's text to speech and its default English voice:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
How we judged it
Pass: every word spoken in order, natural pauses at the commas and periods, and no glitches (clicks, repeated or skipped words, odd stress).
Partial: every word spoken, but one unnatural pause, stress or glitch.
Fail: a word missing or changed, two or more glitches, or no playable result.
The time is measured from pressing the generate button until the audio can be played.
ElevenLabs: Winner
Pass 3 s
Ready to play about 3 seconds after the press. On a listen, every word came in order, with natural pauses at the commas and periods and no glitches.
Fish Audio
Partial 3 s
Ready to play about 3 seconds after the press. On a listen, every word came in order, but one word was stressed oddly.
Run by the assistant in the owner's Chrome, signed in on both Free plans: Fish Audio on October 31 and ElevenLabs on November 1, 2026, each with the voice and model its editor opened with (Verity on Drama 3; Adam on Eleven v4), the passage entered once. Each press returned two takes; the owner judged ElevenLabs' first and one of Fish Audio's two by ear. The time runs from the press until each tool showed its players: 2.7 s in both, which rounds to 3 s.
Test 2: Read an order notice with numbers, a price and abbreviations
The task
With the same voice and model as in the first test, generate this notice for the FICTIONAL shop Fernhill Goods:
Hi, this is Fernhill Goods. Your order #4512 ships on Tue., Nov. 3, and arrives by 4:30 p.m. The total is $1,249.99, including 8.25% sales tax. You can also pick it up at 221 W. Elm St., Ste. 5.
How we judged it
Six items are checked: the order number, the date, the time, the price, the tax rate and the address. One counts when it is read as a US English speaker would say it (for example "Tuesday, November third", "four thirty p.m.", "eight point two five percent", "West Elm Street, Suite five"; the order number as a whole number, in pairs or digit by digit).
Pass: all six right.
Partial: four or five right.
Fail: three or fewer right, or words skipped.
ElevenLabs: Winner
Pass 6 of 6
All six items were read as a US English speaker would say them: the order number, the date, the time, the price, the tax rate and the address.
Fish Audio
Partial 5 of 6
Five of the six items were read right. The miss was the date: “Tue., Nov. 3” was not read the way a US English speaker would say it (such as “Tuesday, November third”).
Run by the assistant in the owner's Chrome on November 1, 2026, signed in on both Free plans, with the voices and models of the first test; the notice was entered once, with no pronunciation settings. Each press returned two takes; the owner judged ElevenLabs' first and one of Fish Audio's two by ear, counting an item when it was read as a US English speaker would say it.
Test 3: Read a bilingual English and Spanish greeting with one voice
The task
With each tool's text to speech, generate this greeting for the FICTIONAL shop Fernhill Goods with a single voice, switching between English and Spanish sentence by sentence:
Welcome to Fernhill Goods. Bienvenidos a Fernhill Goods. Our refills arrive in paper packaging. Nuestras recargas llegan en empaques de papel. Thank you, and see you soon. Gracias, y hasta pronto.
How we judged it
Pass: one voice reads all six sentences, each in its own language with a natural accent, and no words are skipped.
Partial: every sentence is spoken, but the sentences in one language carry a strong accent of the other, or one sentence is read with the other language's pronunciation.
Fail: words are missing, two or more sentences are read with the other language's pronunciation, no single voice on the plan used reads both languages, or no playable result.
ElevenLabs: Winner
Pass
One voice, Jessica, read every sentence in its own language with a natural accent, and no words were skipped.
Fish Audio
Partial
One voice spoke every sentence, but the Spanish ones, though recognizably Spanish, carried a strong English accent. The voice, Verity, is tagged English.
Run by the assistant in the owner's Chrome on November 1, 2026, signed in on both Free plans; the greeting was entered once, with no language tags, and judged by the owner by ear (ElevenLabs' first take, one of Fish Audio's two). ElevenLabs labels its opening voice, Adam, English only, so it used Jessica, the first voice labeled for both languages that Free can use, on Eleven v4, Language Auto; a first try with Adam was void (never heard). Each Fish Audio voice card checked shows one language, so it kept Verity (tagged English) on Drama 3.
Test 4: Work out how much of the free monthly allowance one narration uses
The task
Measure how far each free plan stretches: find out how many credits (or characters) the Gettysburg passage from the first test used, and what share of the plan's monthly allowance that is. Run it together with the first test, so no extra audio is generated.
How we judged it
Pass: the account shows the cost of the generation, or the balance before and after it, as an exact figure, so the share can be worked out.
Partial: only a rounded figure or a progress bar, so the share is an estimate.
Fail: no usage or balance shown anywhere in the account.
Share = credits used ÷ the monthly free allowance shown in the account × 100, to one decimal place.
ElevenLabs: Winner
Pass 3.6 %
The 356-character passage cost 356 credits: the Subscription page shows it, and the balance went from 10,000 to 9,644. That is 3.6% (rounded) of the 10,000 credits the free plan gives each month.
Fish Audio
Pass 4.5 %
The 356-character passage cost 356 credits: the usage list shows it, and the balance went from 8,000 to 7,644. That is 4.5% (rounded) of the 8,000 credits the free plan gives each month.
Run by the assistant in the owner's Chrome, signed in, not timed: Fish Audio Free on October 31 and ElevenLabs Free on November 1, 2026. Each tool's generate button was pressed once for a 356-character passage from the Gettysburg Address, with the voice and model it opened with, and each returned two takes: Fish Audio listed one 356-credit charge for both, and the ElevenLabs balance fell by 356 credits for both. The share is the credits used as a percentage of the monthly credits the account shows (8,000 and 10,000), to one decimal place (4.45% and 3.56%, rounded to 4.5% and 3.6%).
Our verdict
Both tools cover AI speech, voice cloning and an API, so the choice turns on what you need around the voice and how you pay.
ElevenLabs is the broader production tool. Its Studio editor lays out audiobooks, podcasts and narrated videos on a timeline with one-click captions, and one credit pool also pays for dubbing, sound effects, music and video at up to 4K. Starter has the lower entry price for commercial use: $6 a month, or $60 a year, with instant voice cloning. Professional voice cloning starts on Creator at $22.
Fish Audio costs less for professional cloning, small teams and the API. Plus costs $15 a month for up to 200 minutes of speech (ElevenLabs estimates about 121 on Creator), commercial use and one Professional Voice Clone slot, and Pro adds three team seats for $100, where ElevenLabs' shared seats begin with Scale at $299. Its S2.1 Pro API costs $15 per million UTF-8 bytes, about $0.015 per 1,000 characters of plain English, against $0.04, the lowest rate on ElevenLabs' API price list. Its videos are short third-party clips, and its own pages disagree on how many languages it speaks, so check yours.
Neither free plan allows commercial use, but both let you try the same script before you pay.
Choose ElevenLabs if
You want one app for a whole audio or video production: text to speech in 74 languages, dubbing, sound effects, music and the Studio editor with a timeline and one-click captions. Starter, at $6 a month, is the lower entry price for commercial use and includes instant voice cloning; Creator, at $22 a month, adds professional voice cloning. It also suits narrated videos that need visuals, since paid plans generate video at 720p to 4K, depending on the plan.
Choose Fish Audio if
You want plenty of speech for a modest monthly price, or a low-cost speech API. Plus, at $15 a month or $132 a year, includes 250,000 credits (up to 200 minutes), commercial use and one Professional Voice Clone slot, and Pro adds three team seats for $100 a month. Developers pay as they go, with no subscription: $15 per million UTF-8 bytes for S2.1 Pro. It also suits anyone happy to pick from more than 2 million community voices instead of cloning one; check its terms before commercial use.
Frequently asked questions
Is ElevenLabs or Fish Audio cheaper?
It depends on how much you generate. ElevenLabs has the lower entry price: Starter costs $6 a month, or $60 a year, with 30,000 credits (about 30 minutes of text to speech, by ElevenLabs' estimate) and a commercial license. Fish Audio's first listed paid plan, Plus, costs $15 a month, or $132 a year, for 250,000 credits (up to 200 minutes of speech); ElevenLabs estimates about 121 minutes on Creator at $22. ElevenLabs' credit costs vary by product (dubbing, for example, takes 2,000 to 10,000 credits per minute), so price both with a script of your usual length. For a team of three, Fish Audio Pro costs $100 a month, while ElevenLabs' first plan with shared seats, Scale, costs $299. ElevenLabs' paid plans roll unused credits over, up to twice the monthly quota; Fish Audio's unused minutes do not roll over.
Can I use the ElevenLabs or Fish Audio free plan for commercial work?
No. ElevenLabs Free gives you 10,000 credits a month but no commercial license, and anything you publish must carry "elevenlabs.io" or "11.ai" in its title (music made with Eleven Music names "Eleven Music" instead). Fish Audio Free gives you 8,000 credits a month (up to 7 minutes) for personal, non-commercial use only, with up to 500 characters per generation. Every ElevenLabs paid plan includes commercial use (its Beta Services excepted), and so do Fish Audio's paid plans. Fish Audio's pricing FAQ words this as commercial use of "verified voices (that you own)", and its terms bar commercial use of content you do not own without the owner's consent, so check them before you publish audio made with a community library voice.
How does voice cloning compare?
Both clone voices. ElevenLabs includes instant voice cloning from Starter ($6 a month) and professional voice cloning from Creator ($22 a month). Fish Audio clones a voice from a short sample (its pages say 10 to 30 seconds) and adds Professional Voice Clone slots on paid plans: 1 on Plus ($15 a month), 5 on Pro and 15 on Max. Both can also design a new voice from a text description: ElevenLabs lists Voice Design on every plan, Free included, while Fish Audio's needs a paid plan, so its Free plan has neither Voice Design nor a Professional Voice Clone. In either tool, clone only a voice you own or have permission to use.
How do the ElevenLabs and Fish Audio APIs compare on price?
Fish Audio's API is pay-as-you-go with no subscription: its S2.1 Pro model costs $15 per million UTF-8 bytes, and a free S2.1 Pro model with fair-use limits runs through November 30, 2026. ElevenLabs' API page says API usage is billed in US dollars, not credits, with text to speech at $0.04 per 1,000 characters on its low-latency models (Flash/Turbo, v4 Turbo and v3 Conversational) and $0.08 on v4, v3 and v2 Multilingual. For plain English text, where each character takes one byte, Fish Audio's rate works out to $0.015 per 1,000 characters. Most characters in non-Latin scripts take two or three bytes each in UTF-8 (Chinese, Japanese and Korean take three), so for those languages the gap narrows, or, at three bytes ($0.045 per 1,000 characters), reverses against the $0.04 rate.
Can ElevenLabs or Fish Audio make videos?
Both can, on paid plans only and through third-party models. ElevenLabs generates video from text or images with models such as Veo, Sora and Kling, makes lip-synced talking videos through models such as OmniHuman and Veed, exports video at 720p to 4K depending on the plan, and has the Studio editor with a timeline and captions. Fish Audio offers video on Plus and higher through models such as Seedance, Kling, Veo, WAN and MiniMax, and talking-photo avatars through Creatify Aurora, HeyGen Avatar 4 and Veed. Most of its clips last up to about 10 seconds (30 seconds on Seedance 2.5 and WAN 3.0), and no video editor is listed.
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