Do ElevenLabs pay-as-you-go credits expire?
Yes — 12 months after purchase. ElevenLabs' pay-as-you-go docs state "PAYG credits expire 12 months after purchase," and the terms of service repeat it for all prepaid credits. Unlike subscription credits, PAYG funds have no monthly rollover cap and survive plan changes; the trade-off is the hard 12-month clock and a strictly prepaid model — hit $0 with auto-top-up off and service pauses immediately. Verified Jul 19, 2026.
PAYG is a second currency next to your subscription credits, and the two follow different clocks: subscription credits reset monthly and roll over up to two months' worth; PAYG top-ups (minimum $5) sit outside that cap entirely but die at the one-year mark.
Worth knowing if you're new: PAYG replaced the old postpaid overage billing for new self-serve accounts — ElevenLabs now calls usage-based billing "a legacy feature." Subscription credits burn first, then the PAYG balance; there are no surprise overage invoices, but also no service past a $0 balance.
Size any top-up against real output with the ElevenLabs credits calculator — our measured rate is ~835 credits per finished minute of narration. ElevenLabs doesn't publish a flat dollars-per-credit PAYG rate; usage draws from the balance at per-feature rates shown in your dashboard.
Sources checked
Official vendor pages used for pricing, rights and feature claims.
- ElevenLabs — pay-as-you-go docs - prepaid PAYG replaced postpaid overage for new self-serve; 12-month expiry, no monthly cap
- ElevenLabs terms of use - 'all sales are final' baseline; PAYG credits non-refundable, expire 12 months
Keep going
- Do ElevenLabs credits roll over? — The subscription-credit rules PAYG sits outside of.
- ElevenLabs credits calculator — Credits → finished minutes, scripts and dubbing time.
- ElevenLabs credits, explained — What a credit buys: ~835 per finished minute, measured.