AssemblyAI vs ElevenLabs — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
AssemblyAI starts at Free. ElevenLabs starts at $6/mo. AssemblyAI is $6/mo cheaper on the entry tier than ElevenLabs.
See price history: AssemblyAI · ElevenLabs
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- AssemblyAI (Per Usage) — AssemblyAI bills purely on usage. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
- ElevenLabs (Per Usage) — ElevenLabs bills purely on usage — Starter. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
Speech AI platform for developers — long-form audio transcription, speaker diarization, and Universal-2 speech understanding models. Usage-based pricing: Best model at $0.37/hr audio, Nano tier at $0.12/hr. Pay-as-you-go with $50 free credit. Popular with podcast platforms, meeting recorders, and companies building on top of long-form audio.
AI voice generation and speech synthesis platform, and the category-defining player in generative audio — voice cloning, multi-language dubbing, and text-to-speech that competitors benchmark against. Credit-based pricing from Free (10K credits) up to Business ($990/mo, 6M credits). Powers podcast creators, product teams building voice UX, and voice agent platforms. Best-in-class voice quality is the durable moat.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | AssemblyAI monthly | AssemblyAI annual | ElevenLabs monthly | ElevenLabs annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Pay-as-you-go: Universal-2 (async) / Free | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Entry paid | — / Starter | — | — | $6 | $5 |
| Mid tier 1 | — / Creator | — | — | $22 | $18.33 |
| Mid tier 2 | — / Pro | — | — | $99 | $82.5 |
| Pro / power | — / Scale | — | — | $299 | $249.17 |
| Teams | — / Business | — | — | $990 | $825 |
| Enterprise | Enterprise / — | Custom | Custom | — | — |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
AssemblyAI is worth it if… developers processing long-form audio at scale — podcasts, recorded meetings, call recordings. The per-hour pricing works out cheaper than Deepgram for batch transcription (as opposed to real-time streaming).
ElevenLabs is worth it if… creators and product teams who want the highest-quality synthetic voices on the market — particularly for voice cloning, multilingual dubbing, and long-form narration. Free tier is enough to test but restricts commercial use; Starter ($6) unlocks it.
Bottom line: Similar positioning, closer to a preference call than a strategic one.
Choose AssemblyAI over ElevenLabs if…
Choose AssemblyAI if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, a free entry tier).
- You match the profile AssemblyAI is built for: developers processing long-form audio at scale — podcasts, recorded meetings, call recordings.
- You need a general-purpose voice agents & speech/audio option rather than a vertical-specific one.
Choose ElevenLabs if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, from $6/mo).
- You match the profile ElevenLabs is built for: creators and product teams who want the highest-quality synthetic voices on the market — particularly for voice cloning, multilingual dubbing, and long-form narration.
- You need a general-purpose voice agents & speech/audio option rather than a vertical-specific one.
At a glance
| AssemblyAI | ElevenLabs | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Entry price | Free | $6/mo |
| Enterprise available | Yes | No |
| Pricing model | Per Usage | Per Usage |
| Last verified | September 20, 2026 | September 10, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 20, 2026. Tracked daily.