Head-to-head · facts checked 21 Sept 2026
AssemblyAI vs ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs uniquely has 14 features · AssemblyAI uniquely has 5 features.
From
$0.15/hr (pay as you go)
Free plan
No
From
$6/mo (Starter)
Free plan
Yes
The verdict
AssemblyAI or ElevenLabs?
Section 01
Pricing, plan by plan
Every plan each vendor publishes, monthly and yearly where both are offered.
AssemblyAI
Free Tier
Free
Up to 185 hours pre-recorded transcription and 333 hours streaming transcription, no credit card required
Universal-3.5 Pro
$0.15/hr
Highly accurate STT model, 99 languages, 12.5M+ hours training data, no minimum commitment
Universal-3.5 Pro
$0.21/hr
Most accurate async STT model, 18 languages, native code-switching, best-in-class speaker diarization
Enterprise / Custom
Custom
Custom rate limits, enhanced concurrency, enterprise-grade flexibility, volume discounts, AWS Marketplace available
ElevenLabs
Free
Free
10k credits/month; Text to Speech, Speech to Text, Sound Effects, Voice Design, Music, 3 Projects in Studio
Starter
$6/mo · $60/yr
30k credits/month; Commercial License, Instant Voice Cloning, 20 Projects in Studio, Music commercial use, Dubbing Studio, Image & Video
Creator
$22/mo · $219.66/yr
121k credits/month; Professional Voice Cloning, Additional Credits available
Pro
$99/mo · $990/yr
600k credits/month; 44.1kHz PCM audio output via API, 192kbps quality audio
Scale
$299/mo · $2,990/yr
1.8M credits/month; 3 Workspace seats, Team Collaboration, 3 Professional Voice Clones
Business
$990/mo · $9,900/yr
6M credits/month; Low-latency TTS as low as 5c/minute, 10 Professional Voice Clones, 10 Workspace seats
Enterprise
Custom
Custom credits and seats; HIPAA BAAs, Custom SSO, elevated concurrency, fully managed dubbing, priority support
For everything else about each tool, read the full AssemblyAI review and ElevenLabs review.
Side by side
| Company | ||
| Founded | 2017 | 2022 |
| HQ | San Francisco, USA | New York, USA |
| AI model | Universal-3.5 Pro (Proprietary) | Proprietary (Eleven Multilingual v2, Eleven v3, Eleven Flash v2.5, Eleven Scribe v2) |
| User base | Millions of developers | 1M+ users |
| Platforms | Web | Web, iOS |
| Languages | 99 (Universal-2), 18 (Universal-3.5 Pro) | 70+ languages |
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Freemium |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Free trial | No | No |
| Starting price | $0.15/hr (pay as you go) | $6/mo (Starter) |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing with custom rate limits, enhanced concurrency, and enterprise-grade flexibility | Custom pricing |
| All plans | Free Tier — Free Universal-3.5 Pro — $0.15/hr Universal-3.5 Pro — $0.21/hr Enterprise / Custom — Custom | Free — Free Starter — $6/mo Creator — $22/mo Pro — $99/mo Scale — $299/mo Business — $990/mo Enterprise — Custom |
| Positioning | ||
| Best for | Developers who want low per-hour transcription with redaction, word timestamps and a self-hosted option | Creators who want voice cloning, dubbing and multi-voice dialogue in one studio, with commercial rights from the first paid plan |
| Differentiator | Native code switching and highly accurate speaker diarization; async speech-to-text trained on 12.5M+ hours of audio | Professional voice cloning starting at Creator plan ($11/mo), high-quality PCM audio output via API on Pro, HIPAA-compliant enterprise tier, low-latency TTS on Business plan |
| Competitors | Deepgram, OpenAI Whisper, Google Speech-to-Text, Amazon Transcribe, Rev.ai | Murf AI, Descript, PlayHT, Speechify, Suno, Udio, Deepgram |
| Features | ||
| Async Speech to Text | ✓ | — |
| Async Transcription | ✓ | — |
| Code Switching | ✓ | — |
| Dubbing Studio | — | ✓ |
| Multi Language Support | ✓ | — |
| Music Generation | — | ✓ |
| Professional Voice Cloning | — | ✓ |
| Sound Effects | — | ✓ |
| Speaker Diarization | ✓ | — |
| Speech to Text | — | ✓ |
| Text to Speech | — | ✓ |
| API Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audio Enhancement | ✕ | ✓ |
| Batch Processing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commercial Rights | ✓ | ✓ |
| Languages Supported | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile App | ✕ | ✓ |
| Music Generation | ✕ | ✓ |
| Noise Removal | ✕ | ✓ |
| Podcast Editing | ✕ | ✓ |
| Text to Speech | ✕ | ✓ |
| Transcription | ✓ | ✓ |
| Voice Cloning | ✕ | ✓ |
| Voice Styles | ✕ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ||
| Adobe Audition | ✕ | — |
| API Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Garageband | ✕ | — |
| Key Integrations | AWS Marketplace, GPT (LLM Gateway), Claude (LLM Gateway), Gemini (LLM Gateway), Community LLM Models, Python SDK, REST API, WebSocket Streaming API | Twilio, WhatsApp, phone/chat channels for Agents; Veo, Wan, Kling, Seedance for video; custom API integrations; Salesforce (enterprise partner); Cisco; Nvidia ACE |
Section 02
AssemblyAI vs ElevenLabs: common questions
Is AssemblyAI or ElevenLabs cheaper?
AssemblyAI's cheapest paid plan is $0.15/hr (pay as you go) and ElevenLabs's is $6/mo (Starter). Compare what each plan includes below before going on price alone.
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