--- title: "ElevenLabs API free inference" description: "A recurring no-cost API allowance covering 5 cataloged models." canonical_url: "https://freeinferencing.com/provider/elevenlabs_api/" md_url: "https://freeinferencing.com/provider/elevenlabs_api.md" last_updated: "2026-09-19" --- # ElevenLabs API > A recurring no-cost API allowance covering 5 cataloged models. ## Classification - **Directory:** Current - **Free access:** Always-free quota - **Status:** Restricted access - **Confidence:** High - **Payment card:** No - **Account:** Required - **Equivalent paid value:** Up to $1.00/mo - **API endpoint:** `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1` ## Models mentioned - `eleven_v3` - `eleven_v3_conversational` - `eleven_flash_v2_5` - `scribe_v2` - `scribe_v2_realtime` ## Limits and terms ```yaml plan_price_usd_per_month: 0 credits_reset: monthly flash_or_turbo_tts_characters_per_month: 20000 multilingual_tts_characters_per_month: 10000 conversational_v3_characters_per_month: 20000 scribe_v2_hours_per_month: 4.5 scribe_v2_realtime_hours_per_month: 2.5 speech_engine_minutes_per_month: 15 music_minutes_per_month: 3 voice_isolator_minutes_per_month: 8.3 voice_changer_minutes_per_month: 8.3 sound_effect_generations_per_month: 8 dubbing_v1_minutes_per_month_approximate: 2.53 dubbing_output_watermarked: true caveat: Most, but not every, API endpoint is available on Free; each request consumes the account's credits. ``` ## What happens to your prompts? **Not private.** Non-enterprise API data is retained and eligible for audio-model improvement by default unless the user opts out. Privacy is audited separately from price. Review the current governing terms before sending sensitive or regulated data. ## Data governance and agreements ```yaml data_governance: review_status: reviewed plan_scope: ElevenLabs APIs and web products; default, enterprise, product-specific, and zero-retention modes differ. prompt_retention: By default ElevenLabs retains API inputs and outputs for history, improvement, troubleshooting, and security. Users can delete generations, but debugging and moderation logs can remain; deleted database items remain in backups up to 30 days. response_retention: Same default retention as inputs. Agent conversations default to two years unless configured; some stateful products require storage. ordinary_logging: Request history, account, usage, security, debugging, and moderation information is retained. ZRM restricts content logging but does not cover support, account, or separately shared files. model_training: Non-enterprise customer data may be used to improve ElevenLabs audio models by default. Users can opt out for future submissions. Enterprise customer data is not trained on by default except as needed to provide the service. product_improvement: Enabled by default for eligible non-enterprise data and can be disabled in Data Use settings; previously completed improvements are not reversed. human_or_operator_access: Retained content can be accessed for troubleshooting, moderation, security, and service improvement. ZRM limits stored access for eligible API payloads. subprocessors_and_routing: ElevenLabs uses subprocessors and third-party LLM providers; it says its provider agreements prohibit training on customer content, while some image and video providers do not support ZRM. deletion_controls: Generations can be deleted by API, accounts can be deleted, and backups expire within 30 days. Select enterprise customers can enable ZRM for eligible API products; UI traffic is never covered. caveat: Free-plan data improvement is opt-out, not opt-in. ZRM is a select Enterprise control and excludes music, image/video, cloning, dubbing, Studio, support data, and UI traffic. agreements: terms_of_use: https://elevenlabs.io/terms-of-use privacy_policy: https://elevenlabs.io/privacy-policy ``` ## Eligibility ```yaml account_required: true payment_method_required: false free_plan_license: noncommercial_with_attribution ``` ## API compatibility and modalities - **Compatibility:** Elevenlabs Rest And Websocket - **Modalities:** Text To Speech, Speech To Text, Sound Generation, Speech / audio ## Before you build with ElevenLabs API ### Read the classification narrowly This record describes the bounded offer supported by evidence on 2026-09-19; it does not guarantee permanence, production suitability, uptime, latency, model quality, or access from every account and region. “Always-free quota” should be interpreted together with the Current directory placement, High confidence, No payment-card status, and the plan-specific sources below. ### Resolve the live model route The snapshot records 5 model IDs. Match the exact ID against the provider's current catalog before using it in code because zero-price routes, aliases, context limits, and feature support can rotate while an older documentation page remains online. ### Match the quota to the workload shape Translate the allowance into peak requests per minute, input and output tokens, concurrency, retries, and every daily or monthly ceiling that applies to the intended account. The first limit reached by the workload is the practical ceiling. A large token pool can still fail interactive bursts, and a high request limit can still fail long-context work. Include tool calls and retry traffic, test the largest realistic payload, and treat research, experimental, and community access as conditional on their eligibility and fair-use terms. ### Preserve billing and privacy boundaries The recorded payment-card requirement is No, and account access is required. Confirm both in the live signup flow, set provider-side budgets when charges are possible, and observe the balance or usage fields after a complete request. The prompt-handling classification is **Not private** because Non-enterprise API data is retained and eligible for audio-model improvement by default unless the user opts out. Re-read the terms for the exact route and plan before sending sensitive, regulated, or proprietary content. ### Follow the evidence, then re-check it This record links 10 first-party sources covering the offer, catalog, limits, pricing, terms, privacy, or adoption evidence available to the audit. Prefer the newest and most specific governing document or live catalog when sources disagree. A dated finding can become stale even when the page remains online, so retain the source and snapshot that supported the decision and submit a correction when a provider changes a material term. ### Plan fallback without policy drift A fallback should preserve modality, context length, streaming, structured output, tools, safety controls, and data terms, not only API syntax. Decide which errors may retry, cap retry storms, and prevent an exhausted free route from silently switching to a billable model. Rotating aliases and free pools can change behavior without changing the endpoint, so retain the response model field and test at least one substitute route before the primary offer becomes unavailable. ### Monitor the offer as a dependency Capture the model ID, response model, rate-limit headers, usage fields, latency, HTTP status, and provider request identifier. Watch authorization failure, quota exhaustion, catalog removal, policy revision, and balance movement as separate failure modes. Re-check the live catalog and governing sources on a schedule proportionate to the workload's importance, and keep an owner and exit path for any production dependency on volatile free capacity. ### Test one complete request before scaling Start with the smallest permitted request using the exact credential, model ID, endpoint, region, and account type intended for deployment. Record the status, headers, usage fields, response model, latency, and dashboard balance movement. Then exercise an invalid model, quota exhaustion, or rate limit so failure is explicit and cannot silently switch to a paid route. Validate streaming, structured output, and tool calls separately because a free model can expose fewer features than its paid counterpart. Keep a budget ceiling outside the application whenever billing is possible, and do not send sensitive data until the observed route matches the reviewed agreement. ## Primary sources - [ElevenAPI pricing](https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/api): Official Pricing - [API availability on Free](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/help-center/technical/how-much-does-it-cost-to-use-the-api): Official Docs - [Billing and Free plan](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/overview/administration/billing): Official Docs - [ElevenLabs Terms of Use](https://elevenlabs.io/terms-of-use): Official Terms - [ElevenLabs Privacy Policy](https://elevenlabs.io/privacy-policy): Official Privacy - [ElevenLabs Zero Retention Mode](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/eleven-api/resources/zero-retention-mode): Official Docs - [Model-improvement data controls](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/help-center/legal/is-my-data-used-to-improve-eleven-labs-ai-models): Official Docs - [ElevenAgents retention](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/eleven-agents/customization/privacy/retention): Official Docs - [ElevenLabs Series C post citing millions of users and 60%+ Fortune 500 reach (2025-01-30)](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/series-c): Official Blog - [PyPI download stats for elevenlabs](https://pypistats.org/packages/elevenlabs): Package Registry Stats ## Sitemap See the full [semantic sitemap](/sitemap.md) for every page and markdown mirror.