ElevenLabs
AI voice platform for text-to-speech, voice cloning, transcription and conversational voice agents.
Used mostly for natural-sounding voiceovers and narration12345, plus speech-to-text and phone voice agents built on its API.6789 Complaints are rare: one commenter found it not live enough for conversational practice10, and another says Kokoro comes close except against ElevenLabs' larger models and professional voices.11
Why people recommend it
Voiceovers · 3
Commenters use it to voice videos, ads and explainers, and one says it turned costly voiceover work into a $5 task.
“Eleven Labs made voiceover work that used to cost thousands into a $5 task”
“can generate voiceover with elevenlabs”
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“We use ElevenLabs for the music and the VoiceOver”
Voice quality · 3
Recommended when you want really good quality TTS, with voices that come out well.
“If you want to get real good quality TTS, you should check out elevenlabs.io”
“I selected Roger - Laid back Casual and Resonant, and it came out quite good!”
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“Even with Elevenlabs (long time subscriber) the comparative quality of Kokoro keeps up really well”
Voice agents · 3
Offers an end-to-end voice agent platform that one commenter calls one of the quickest ways to hook an agent up to Twilio.
“11labs does _way_ more than basic TTS.”
“On the ElevenLabs platform, you provide them a system prompt”
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“point any voice agent platform we choose -- eleven labs, vapi, pipecat, whatever”
Speech-to-text · 3
Used for transcription and STT workflows, with one commenter calling the API pretty generous.
“use eleven labs api which is pretty generous”
“elevenlabs for STT”
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“I ran it through ElevenLabs transcription and GPT5.5 based translation of the transcript”
Audiobooks · 3
Commenters generate or listen to audiobooks with it.
“generate audiobooks on topics I want to understand with ElevenLabs, Exa and OpenAI”
“an audiobook generator using deep research and ElevenLabs API”
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“I listened to some books from standard ebooks using eleven labs”
Voice cloning · 2
Voice cloning quality and customizability go well beyond basic TTS, and one commenter cloned a TV character's voice.
“11labs does _way_ more than basic TTS.”
Caveats and dissent
Real-time limits · 1
One user found it not live enough, and its models not intelligent enough, for conversational German practice.
“I tried it with elevenlabs before but it wasn't live enough and the models were not intelligent enough.”
Close alternatives · 1
A long-time subscriber says Kokoro keeps up in quality until you reach ElevenLabs' larger models and professional voices.
“Even with Elevenlabs (long time subscriber) the comparative quality of Kokoro keeps up really well”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Ask HN: Who is using MCP in production? 2 mentions
- LLM Voice 1 mention
- Where AI agents' social boundaries break: 5 LLMs try to form a government 1 mention
- Where AI agents' social boundaries break: 5 LLMs try to form a government 1 mention
- Show HN: MarketMee - Every GitHub push becomes a narrated product video 1 mention
- Gemini vs. ElevenLabs Voice Cloning and TTS 1 mention
Data: elevenlabs.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 22
“I selected Roger - Laid back Casual and Resonant, and it came out quite good!”
“ElevenLabs for the voice”
“ElevenLabs for the voice”
“We use ElevenLabs for the music and the VoiceOver”
“I think ElevenLabs clears.”
“can generate voiceover with elevenlabs”
“can generate voiceover with elevenlabs”
“I tried it with elevenlabs before but it wasn't live enough and the models were not intelligent enough.”
“On the ElevenLabs platform, you provide them a system prompt”
“point any voice agent platform we choose -- eleven labs, vapi, pipecat, whatever”
“11labs does _way_ more than basic TTS.”
“generate audiobooks on topics I want to understand with ElevenLabs, Exa and OpenAI”
“an audiobook generator using deep research and ElevenLabs API”
“I listened to some books from standard ebooks using eleven labs”
“Even with Elevenlabs (long time subscriber) the comparative quality of Kokoro keeps up really well”
“I ran it through ElevenLabs transcription and GPT5.5 based translation of the transcript”
“Eleven Labs made voiceover work that used to cost thousands into a $5 task”
“elevenlabs for STT”
“We used LemonSlice, LiveKit, and ElevenLabs.”
“use eleven labs api which is pretty generous”
“If you want to get real good quality TTS, you should check out elevenlabs.io”
“synthesized with ElevenLabs”