Free ElevenLabs Alternatives
ElevenLabs’ free plan against four verified free text-to-speech options - Amazon Polly, Cartesia, Hume AI, Deepgram - with monthly limits and cloning rules.
ElevenLabs’ free plan is a good start, but it has no commercial license and no voice cloning. The free text-to-speech options below trade differently: bigger character allowances, voice cloning on the free tier, or a one-time credit with no expiration. Every row comes from the free AI audio tools hub data, re-checked monthly.
| Option | What is free | Card | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs Free Planbaseline | 10,000 free credits a month for AI speech, sound effects, and music | no card | Catch: No commercial license, no voice cloning, no credit rollover, and audio quality capped at 128 kbps on the Free plan. |
| Amazon Polly Free Tier | Millions of free text-to-speech characters a month across Polly voices | no card | Catch: Neural, Long-Form and Generative allowances last only 12 months; since July 2025 new AWS accounts pick a free plan (6 months) or paid plan, with up to $200 in Free Tier credits. |
| Cartesia Free Plan | Free plan: 20,000 credits and $1 prepaid voice agent credits every month | no card | Catch: Concurrency is low (2 concurrent TTS requests), there is no commercial use license, and voice cloning (instant or professional) requires a paid plan. |
| Hume AI Free Tier | $20 free credits for new accounts plus a monthly free API tier | no card | Catch: Monthly free usage is modest: 10,000 characters (~10 minutes of TTS) and 5 minutes of EVI, capped at 15 RPM with 1 concurrent connection; paid overage applies beyond that. |
| Deepgram Free $200 Credit | $200 in free credits for Deepgram speech-to-text and TTS, no card | no card | Catch: Credit is tied to the Pay As You Go plan; billing switches to pay-as-you-go once the $200 credit is spent. |
The 5 options, in detail
ElevenLabs Free Plan
10,000 free credits a month for AI speech, sound effects, and music
- 10,000 credits per month, shared across all products
- No commercial license
- No instant or professional voice cloning
- No credit rollover on the Free plan
Catch: No commercial license, no voice cloning, no credit rollover, and audio quality capped at 128 kbps on the Free plan.
Amazon Polly Free Tier
Millions of free text-to-speech characters a month across Polly voices
- Standard voices: 5 million characters/month (no stated time limit)
- Neural voices: 1 million characters/month (first 12 months)
- Long-Form voices: 500 thousand characters/month (first 12 months)
- Generative voices: 100 thousand characters/month (first 12 months)
Catch: Neural, Long-Form and Generative allowances last only 12 months; since July 2025 new AWS accounts pick a free plan (6 months) or paid plan, with up to $200 in Free Tier credits.
Cartesia Free Plan
Free plan: 20,000 credits and $1 prepaid voice agent credits every month
- 20K model credits per month
- $1 prepaid agents balance per month
- Sonic-3.6 TTS: about 27 minutes/month, 2 concurrent requests
- Ink-2 STT: about 1h51m/month, 8 concurrent requests
Catch: Concurrency is low (2 concurrent TTS requests), there is no commercial use license, and voice cloning (instant or professional) requires a paid plan.
Hume AI Free Tier
$20 free credits for new accounts plus a monthly free API tier
- New accounts start on the free tier with $20 in credits
- 10,000 characters per month for text-to-speech, roughly 10 minutes of audio
- 5 minutes per month of EVI speech-to-speech usage
- 15 requests per minute; 1 concurrent connection for external LLMs
Catch: Monthly free usage is modest: 10,000 characters (~10 minutes of TTS) and 5 minutes of EVI, capped at 15 RPM with 1 concurrent connection; paid overage applies beyond that.
Deepgram Free $200 Credit
$200 in free credits for Deepgram speech-to-text and TTS, no card
- Applies to the Pay As You Go plan
- No expiration on the credit
- No minimums
- Moves to pay-as-you-go billing after the credit is used
Catch: Credit is tied to the Pay As You Go plan; billing switches to pay-as-you-go once the $200 credit is spent.
Free forever by self-hosting
Open-source projects that do the same job on your own hardware, with no quota.
Frequently asked questions
- Is ElevenLabs free?
- Yes, with limits: 10,000 credits a month shared across products, no commercial license, no voice cloning, no credit rollover, and audio capped at 128 kbps. It is in the comparison below as the baseline.
- Which free text-to-speech allows voice cloning?
- Hume AI lists voice cloning as unlimited on its free tier, alongside 10,000 TTS characters a month. Cartesia’s free plan includes instant voice cloning only. ElevenLabs’ free plan has no cloning.
- Which free TTS gives the most characters?
- Amazon Polly: 5 million standard-voice characters a month with no stated time limit, plus 1 million neural-voice characters a month for the first 12 months.
- Is there a free TTS credit that does not expire?
- Deepgram’s $200 credit has no expiration and covers speech-to-text and text-to-speech; billing moves to pay-as-you-go once it is spent.