How many ElevenLabs credits is one minute of audio?
About 835 credits per finished minute of narration — a figure we measured by running a 991-character brief through the ElevenLabs API and getting 72 seconds of audio, not an estimate. That means Starter's 30,000 credits buy roughly 36 minutes a month and Creator's 121,000 about 2.4 hours. Standard text-to-speech meters at ElevenLabs' own rate of ~1 credit per character; Dubbing runs much hotter at ~2,000 credits per minute. Retakes rebill the full text, so expressive work costs more. Verified against our published bench run, Jul 2026.
The distinction that matters: ElevenLabs states its meter in credits per character, but creators budget in minutes — so the ~835 credits/minute figure is our conversion at default narration pacing, published with the raw MP3 and timings. Your pacing, voice and retake rate will move it.
Different features use different meters, which is where budgets blow up: a plan that lasts a month of narration can vanish in an afternoon of dubbing (~2,000 credits/min) or music (~900/min). Convert any credit amount or plan in the credits calculator, with the full math in the credits explainer.
Sources checked
Official vendor pages used for pricing, rights and feature claims.
- ElevenLabs pricing - plan prices, credits, commercial-license floor
Keep going
- ElevenLabs credits calculator — Credits → minutes, characters, scripts.
- ElevenLabs credits, explained — The ~835/minute measurement.
- ElevenLabs pricing (2026) — Every plan in finished minutes.