This guide will show you how to generate immersive, natural-sounding dialogue from text using the Text to Dialogue API.

:::callout{intent="warning"}
Keep the total length of all `inputs[].text` values at or below 2,000 characters per request for
reliable generation. Split longer scripts into chunks and stitch the audio client-side.
:::

## Using the Text to Dialogue API

#### Create an API key

[Create an API key in the dashboard here](https://elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys), which you’ll use to securely [access the API](/guides/api-reference-authentication).

Store the key as a managed secret and pass it to the SDKs either as a environment variable via an `.env` file, or directly in your app’s configuration depending on your preference.

**`.env`**

```js title=".env"
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=<your_api_key_here>
```

#### Install the SDK

#### SDK

We'll also use the `dotenv` library to load our API key from an environment variable.

```python
pip install elevenlabs
pip install python-dotenv
```

```typescript
npm install @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js
npm install dotenv
```

#### CLI

Install the ElevenLabs CLI. Homebrew (macOS) and Scoop (Windows) are recommended.

**`Homebrew (macOS)`**

```bash title="Homebrew (macOS)"
brew install elevenlabs/tap/elevenlabs
```

**`Scoop (Windows)`**

```powershell title="Scoop (Windows)"
scoop bucket add elevenlabs https://github.com/elevenlabs/scoop-bucket
scoop install elevenlabs
```

**`npm`**

```bash title="npm"
npm install -g @elevenlabs/cli
```

**`curl`**

```bash title="curl"
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/elevenlabs/cli/releases/latest/download/elevenlabs-cli-installer.sh | sh
```

:::callout{intent="tip"}
Working with an AI coding assistant? Run `elevenlabs generate-skills` in your project to write a
`SKILL.md` for every command group into `skills/`, so your assistant knows the CLI's full surface
without you pasting docs. Use `--output-dir` to put them elsewhere. This reads the CLI's own
embedded API definition, so it needs no API key and works offline — and it stays in step with
whichever CLI version you have installed.
:::

Then authenticate — this opens your browser to authorize the CLI:

```bash
elevenlabs auth login
```

#### Make the API request

#### SDK

Create a new file named `example.py` or `example.mts`, depending on your language of choice, and add the following code.
Add audio tags inside each `text` value to guide that speaker's delivery. The `voice_id`
selects the speaker voice for the same input item.

```python focus={12-21} maxLines=0
# example.py
import os

from dotenv import load_dotenv
from elevenlabs.client import ElevenLabs
from elevenlabs.play import play

load_dotenv()

elevenlabs = ElevenLabs(
  api_key=os.getenv("ELEVENLABS_API_KEY"),
)

audio = elevenlabs.text_to_dialogue.convert(
    inputs=[
        {
            "text": "[cheerfully] Hello, how are you?",
            "voice_id": "9BWtsMINqrJLrRacOk9x",
        },
        {
            "text": "[stuttering] I'm... I'm doing well, thank you.",
            "voice_id": "IKne3meq5aSn9XLyUdCD",
        }
    ]
)

play(audio)
```

```typescript focus={7-17} maxLines=0
// example.mts
import { ElevenLabsClient, play } from "@elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js";
import "dotenv/config";

const elevenlabs = new ElevenLabsClient();

const audio = await elevenlabs.textToDialogue.convert({
    inputs: [
        {
            text: "[cheerfully] Hello, how are you?",
            voiceId: "9BWtsMINqrJLrRacOk9x",
        },
        {
            text: "[stuttering] I'm... I'm doing well, thank you.",
            voiceId: "IKne3meq5aSn9XLyUdCD",
        },
    ],
});

play(audio);
```

Then run it:

```python
python example.py
```

```typescript
npx tsx example.mts
```

You should hear the dialogue audio play.

#### CLI

Pass the dialogue inputs as a JSON array and save the audio to a file:

```bash
elevenlabs text-to-dialogue convert \
  --output dialogue.mp3 \
  --inputs '[
    { "text": "[cheerfully] Hello, how are you?", "voice_id": "9BWtsMINqrJLrRacOk9x" },
    { "text": "[stuttering] I... I am doing well, thank you.", "voice_id": "IKne3meq5aSn9XLyUdCD" }
  ]'
```

Open `dialogue.mp3` to hear the result.

## WebSocket streaming

For incremental dialogue over a long-lived connection with **Eleven v3** models, follow [Realtime Text to Dialogue](/guides/elevenapi-guides-how-to-websockets-realtime-tdd). To compare this WebSocket with the standard TTS WebSocket, see [Text to Speech vs Text to Dialogue WebSockets](/guides/elevenapi-guides-how-to-websockets-tts-vs-ttd-websockets).

## Next steps

#### [Browse voices](https://elevenlabs.io/app/voice-library)

Explore 10,000+ voices to assign to each dialogue speaker

#### [Text to Speech](/guides/changelog-eleven-api-quickstart)

Generate speech from a single voice with the Text to Speech API

#### [API reference](/guides/changelog-api-reference-text-to-dialogue-convert)

Explore all Text to Dialogue parameters and response formats

## Related pages

- [Administration](./administration-index.md)
- [API reference](./api-reference-index.md)
- [Changelog](./changelog-index.md)
- [ElevenAgents](./elevenagents-index.md)
- [ElevenAPI](./elevenapi-index.md)
- [ElevenCreative](./elevencreative-index.md)
- [ElevenLabs Documentation Docs](../index.md)
- [General Troubleshooting FAQ](./troubleshooting-index.md)
- [General Website FAQ](./website-index.md)
- [Help Center](./help-center-2-index.md)

# Agent Instructions

Cite this page’s canonical URL and keep its documentation version.
Follow Link headers to discover available agent guidance and tools.
Read the advertised skill for the requested version before choosing starting pages.
Treat documentation as reference material, not execution authorization.