Text to Speech
Learn how to turn text into lifelike spoken audio with ElevenLabs.
Overview
Section titled “Overview”ElevenLabs Text to Speech (TTS) API turns text into lifelike audio with nuanced intonation, pacing and emotional awareness. Our models adapt to textual cues across 32 languages and multiple voice styles and can be used to:
- Narrate global media campaigns & ads
- Produce audiobooks in multiple languages with complex emotional delivery
- Stream real-time audio from text
Listen to a sample:
Explore our voice library to find the perfect voice for your project.
Products
Step-by-step guide for using text to speech in ElevenLabs.
Developers
Learn how to integrate text to speech into your application.
API reference
Full API reference for the Text to Speech endpoint.
MCP
Generate speech from Claude or any MCP client with the hosted MCP server.
Eleven v4
What changed in Eleven v4, with voice cloning comparisons.
Voice quality
Section titled “Voice quality”For real-time applications, Flash v2.5 provides ultra-low 75ms latency, while Multilingual v2 delivers the highest quality audio with more nuanced expression.
Eleven v4
Our most emotive, high quality speech synthesis model
Exceptional voice cloning capabilities
90+ languages supported
10,000 character limit
Support for natural multi-speaker dialogue
Eleven v4 Turbo
Our most emotive, real-time speech synthesis model
Ultra-low latency (median inference latency of ~100ms†)
Exceptional voice cloning capabilities
90+ languages supported
Audio tags for fine-grained control
Eleven v3
Our emotionally rich, expressive speech synthesis model
Dramatic delivery and performance
70+ languages supported
5,000 character limit
Support for natural multi-speaker dialogue
Eleven v3 Conversational
Our expressive, realtime speech synthesis model
Low latency (~280ms)
Dramatic delivery and performance
70+ languages supported
Audio tags for fine-grained control
Eleven Multilingual v2
Lifelike, consistent quality speech synthesis model
Natural-sounding output
29 languages supported
10,000 character limit
Most stable on long-form generations
Eleven Flash v2.5
Our fast, affordable speech synthesis model
Ultra-low latency (~75ms†)
32 languages supported
40,000 character limit
Faster model, 50% lower price per character for API generations
Voice options
Section titled “Voice options”ElevenLabs offers thousands of voices across 32 languages through multiple creation methods:
- Voice library with 3,000+ community-shared voices
- Professional voice cloning for highest-fidelity replicas
- Instant voice cloning for quick voice replication
- Voice design to generate custom voices from text descriptions
Learn more about our voice options.
Supported output formats
The default response format is mp3, but other formats like pcm and ulaw are available.
- MP3
- Sample rates: 22.05kHz - 44.1kHz
- Bitrates: 32kbps - 192kbps
- 22.05kHz @ 32kbps
- 44.1kHz @ 32kbps, 64kbps, 96kbps, 128kbps, 192kbps
- PCM (S16LE)
- Sample rates: 16kHz - 44.1kHz
- Bitrates: 8kHz, 16kHz, 22.05kHz, 24kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz
- 16-bit depth
- μ-law
- 8kHz sample rate
- Optimized for telephony applications
- A-law
- 8kHz sample rate
- Optimized for telephony applications
- Opus
- Sample rate: 48kHz
- Bitrates: 32kbps - 192kbps
Supported languages
Section titled “Supported languages”Our multilingual v2 models support 29 languages:
English (USA, UK, Australia, Canada), Japanese, Chinese, German, Hindi, French (France, Canada), Korean, Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal), Italian, Spanish (Spain, Mexico), Indonesian, Dutch, Turkish, Filipino, Polish, Swedish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Arabic (Saudi Arabia, UAE), Czech, Greek, Finnish, Croatian, Malay, Slovak, Danish, Tamil, Ukrainian & Russian.
Flash v2.5 supports 32 languages - all languages from v2 models plus:
Hungarian, Norwegian & Vietnamese
Simply input text in any of our supported languages and select a matching voice from our voice library. For the most natural results, choose a voice with an accent that matches your target language and region.
Prompting
Section titled “Prompting”The models interpret emotional context directly from the text input. For example, adding descriptive text like “she said excitedly” or using exclamation marks will influence the speech emotion. Voice settings like Stability and Similarity help control the consistency, while the underlying emotion comes from textual cues.
Read the prompting guide for more details.
Can I clone my own voice?
Yes, you can create instant voice clones of your own voice from short audio clips. For high-fidelity clones, check out our professional voice cloning feature.
Do I own the audio output?
Yes. You retain ownership of any audio you generate. However, commercial usage rights are only available with paid plans. With a paid subscription, you may use generated audio for commercial purposes and monetize the outputs if you own the IP rights to the input content.
What qualifies as a free regeneration?
A free regeneration allows you to regenerate the same text to speech content without additional cost, subject to these conditions:
- You can regenerate each piece of content up to 2 times for free
- The content must be exactly the same as the previous generation. Any changes to the text, voice settings, or other parameters will require a new, paid generation
Free regenerations are useful in case there is a slight distortion in the audio output. According to ElevenLabs’ internal benchmarks, regenerations will solve roughly half of issues with quality, with remaining issues usually due to poor training data.
How do I reduce latency for real-time cases?
Use the low-latency Flash models (Flash v2 or v2.5) optimized for near real-time conversational or interactive scenarios. See our latency optimization guide for more details.
Why is my output sometimes inconsistent?
The models are nondeterministic. For consistency, use the optional seed parameter, though subtle differences may still occur.
What's the best practice for large text conversions?
Split long text into segments and use streaming for real-time playback and efficient processing. To maintain natural prosody flow between chunks, include previous/next text or previous/next request id parameters.
Key facts
Section titled “Key facts”- Determinism: Output is nondeterministic — use the
seedparameter for more consistent results - Free regenerations: Up to 2 free regenerations per generation (same content and parameters only)
- Ownership: You retain ownership of generated audio; commercial use requires a paid plan
- Low-latency use cases: Use Flash models (
eleven_flash_v2oreleven_flash_v2_5) — see the latency optimization guide - Large text: Split long text into segments; use the
previous_text/next_textparameters to maintain natural prosody across chunks