ElevenLabs vs Retell AI — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
ElevenLabs starts at $6/mo. Retell AI starts at Free. Retell AI is $6/mo cheaper on the entry tier than ElevenLabs.
See price history: ElevenLabs · Retell AI
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.
- 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.
- Retell AI (Per Usage) — Retell AI bills purely on usage — PAYG. 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.
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.
AI voice agent platform. PAYG at $0.07+/min base ($10 free credits, 20 free concurrent calls); real all-in cost $0.13–0.31/min. Enterprise drops to $0.05+/min base rate. Supports GPT-5.x variants and Claude 4.5/4.6 Sonnet; Fast Tier LLM adds 1.5–2× charge for lower latency. Direct competitor to Vapi and Bland AI.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | ElevenLabs monthly | ElevenLabs annual | Retell AI monthly | Retell AI annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Free / PAYG | 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
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.
Retell AI is worth it if… developers who want a slightly more opinionated voice stack than Vapi — bundled defaults that ship faster, with paid unlocks for premium voices and Fast Tier LLM latency. Free credits make prototyping frictionless.
Bottom line: Similar positioning, closer to a preference call than a strategic one.
Choose ElevenLabs over Retell AI if…
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.
Choose Retell AI if…
- You want bundled defaults that ship faster than assembling components yourself.
- You're building voice agents where developer experience and UI matter more than stack flexibility.
- You want premium voices and low-latency model tiers behind a simple paid unlock.
At a glance
| ElevenLabs | Retell AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Entry price | $6/mo | Free |
| Enterprise available | No | Yes |
| Pricing model | Per Usage | Per Usage |
| Last verified | September 10, 2026 | September 10, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 10, 2026. Tracked daily.