ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs
Model Information
Developer:	ElevenLabs Inc.
Release date:	January 2023 (beta)
Latest version:	Eleven v3 (alpha)
Capabilities
Languages:	32+ languages
Voices:	1000+ voices
Voice cloning:	Yes (professional & instant)
Emotion control:	Yes (via audio tags)
Streaming:	Yes
Latency:	~135ms (Flash models)
Availability
Open source:	No
Website:	https://elevenlabs.io

ElevenLabs is a commercial artificial intelligence company specializing in text-to-speech synthesis and voice cloning technology. Founded in 2022 by Piotr Dąbkowski and Mateusz Staniszewski, the company has gained prominence for its AI-generated voices that can replicate human speech patterns, emotions, and intonation across multiple languages.

History and Founding

ElevenLabs was co-founded in 2022 by Piotr Dąbkowski, a former Google machine learning engineer, and Mateusz Staniszewski, an ex-Palantir deployment strategist. Both founders, originally from Poland, reportedly drew inspiration from the poor quality of film dubbing they experienced while watching American movies in their home country.

The founders first met as teenagers at Copernicus High School in Warsaw before pursuing separate academic paths—Dąbkowski studying at Oxford and Cambridge, while Staniszewski studied mathematics in London. Their shared vision of making quality content accessible across all languages led to the creation of ElevenLabs as a research-first company.

The company launched its beta platform in January 2023, quickly gaining traction with over one million users within five months. This rapid adoption demonstrated market demand for high-quality AI voice synthesis technology.

Funding and Valuation

ElevenLabs has experienced rapid growth in both user adoption and valuation:

• Pre-seed (January 2023): $2 million led by Credo Ventures and Concept Ventures
• Series A (June 2023): $19 million at $100 million valuation, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross
• Series B (January 2024): $80 million at $1.1 billion valuation, achieving unicorn status
• Series C (January 2025): $180 million at $3.3 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ Growth

The company reportedly achieved $200 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by August 2025, demonstrating significant commercial traction.

Technology and Products

Core Technology

ElevenLabs's architecture is proprietary and remains undisclosed, with little information about it being publicly available. Some have speculated that early versions of ElevenLabs were based off of Tortoise TTS; however, these rumors remain unverified.

Product Portfolio

Text-to-Speech Models

ElevenLabs offers several model variants optimized for different use cases:

• Multilingual v2: High-quality model supporting 29+ languages, optimized for audiobooks and professional content
• Flash v2.5: Ultra-low latency model (75ms) designed for real-time conversational applications
• Turbo v2.5: Balanced quality and speed model for general-purpose applications
• Eleven v3 (alpha): Latest model featuring advanced emotion control via audio tags
• Eleven Scribe v1: SoTA automatic speech recognition model
• Eleven Music v1: Text-to-music model trained on licensed data

Voice Cloning

The platform provides two voice cloning approaches:

• Instant Voice Cloning: Creates voice replicas from short audio samples (1-5 minutes)
• Professional Voice Cloning: Higher-fidelity, fine-tuning-based cloning requiring longer training samples

Additional Features

• AI Dubbing: Translates and dubs content while preserving original voice characteristics and emotions
• Voice Design: Tool for creating entirely synthetic voices from text descriptions
• Speech Classifier: Detection tool to identify AI-generated audio from ElevenLabs' technology
• Projects: Long-form content creation tool for audiobooks and extended narration

Business Model and Pricing

ElevenLabs operates on a freemium subscription model with usage-based pricing:

• Free Tier: 10,000 characters per month with basic voices
• Starter: $5/month with commercial licensing
• Creator: $11/month with enhanced features
• Pro: $99/month for professional use
• Enterprise: Custom pricing with SLAs and dedicated support

The company has evolved its pricing structure multiple times, transitioning from simple character-based billing to more complex model-aware systems and back to unified credit systems as it scaled.

Performance and Benchmarks

Independent evaluations have provided mixed results regarding ElevenLabs' performance relative to competitors:

Competitive Analysis

According to third-party benchmarks:

• Voice Quality: ElevenLabs demonstrates superior Mean Opinion Scores (MOS) compared to Google Cloud Text-to-Speech across fiction, non-fiction, and conversational content{https://unrealspeech.com/compare/elevenlabs-vs-google-text-to-speech}
• Latency: Flash models achieve approximately 135ms Time to First Audio (TTFA), competitive with major cloud providers{https://cartesia.ai/vs/elevenlabs-vs-microsoft-azure-text-to-speech}
• Accuracy: Word Error Rates vary but generally maintain competitive performance with established providers

However, these evaluations should be interpreted cautiously as they often come from companies with commercial interests in the TTS space, and standardized, independent benchmarking in the industry remains limited.

Controversies and Ethical Concerns

ElevenLabs has faced significant criticism regarding the misuse of its technology:

Early Misuse Incidents

Shortly after the beta launch in January 2023, the platform was exploited by users on 4chan and other forums to create fake audio content. Notable incidents included:

• Creation of celebrity deepfakes, including voices of Emma Watson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ben Shapiro making statements they never made
• Generation of racist, sexist, and homophobic content using cloned voices

Political Deepfakes

In January 2024, ElevenLabs' technology was used to create a robocall impersonating President Joe Biden, urging New Hampshire voters not to participate in the Democratic primary. The incident prompted investigation by the New Hampshire Attorney General's office and led to the suspension of the responsible user account.

Legal Challenges

The company faces ongoing legal challenges, including:

• A lawsuit from voice actors Mark Boyett and Karissa Vacker, alleging unauthorized use of their voices to create the "Adam" and "Bella" default voices
• Claims of copyright infringement related to the use of audiobook recordings for training

Safety Measures

In response to misuse concerns, ElevenLabs has implemented several safeguards:

• Verification requirements for voice cloning features
• AI Speech Classifier for detecting ElevenLabs-generated content
• Partnership with Reality Defender for deepfake detection
• Mandatory credit card information for certain features

Applications and Use Cases

ElevenLabs technology is utilized across various industries:

• Media and Entertainment: Audiobook production, podcast creation, film dubbing
• Gaming: Character voice generation for video games
• Education: Educational content narration and language learning
• Enterprise: Customer service automation, training materials
• Accessibility: Tools for visually impaired users

The company reports that 41% of Fortune 500 companies use its platform, with notable customers including The Washington Post, TIME magazine, and HarperCollins Publishers.

External Links

• Official ElevenLabs website
• ElevenLabs Documentation
• Text-to-Speech Demo