beginner
elevenlabs
How to Use ElevenLabs: The Complete Guide to AI Voice Generation
Turn text into natural-sounding speech, clone voices, and create multilingual audio content with the leading AI voice platform.
28 February 2026
elevenlabs
ai-voice
text-to-speech
voice-cloning
ai-audio
Hyper-realistic AI text-to-speech
Voice cloning from short audio samples
32 languages with natural delivery
Automatic video dubbing and lip-sync
AI sound effects from text descriptions
Conversational AI for real-time voice apps
Audio Native for website article narration
Full API with Python and JS SDKs
Why This Matters
ElevenLabs has emerged as the industry leader in AI voice synthesis, producing speech so natural that listeners often can't distinguish it from human recordings. Founded in 2022, the platform now serves everyone from solo podcasters to enterprise media companies.
What makes ElevenLabs special is its emotional range and naturalness. Unlike robotic text-to-speech of the past, ElevenLabs voices pause naturally, emphasise key words, and convey genuine emotion — excitement, warmth, authority, or calm. It supports 32 languages with native-quality pronunciation, making it invaluable for creators reaching multilingual audiences across Asia and beyond.
The platform offers voice cloning from as little as 30 seconds of audio, a growing library of pre-made voices, and an API for developers building voice into their products. Whether you're narrating a YouTube video, creating an audiobook, dubbing content into new languages, or building a voice assistant, ElevenLabs is the tool to learn.
Open ElevenLabs →
What makes ElevenLabs special is its emotional range and naturalness. Unlike robotic text-to-speech of the past, ElevenLabs voices pause naturally, emphasise key words, and convey genuine emotion — excitement, warmth, authority, or calm. It supports 32 languages with native-quality pronunciation, making it invaluable for creators reaching multilingual audiences across Asia and beyond.
The platform offers voice cloning from as little as 30 seconds of audio, a growing library of pre-made voices, and an API for developers building voice into their products. Whether you're narrating a YouTube video, creating an audiobook, dubbing content into new languages, or building a voice assistant, ElevenLabs is the tool to learn.
Open ElevenLabs →
How to Do It
1
Create your ElevenLabs account
Go to elevenlabs.io and sign up. The free tier includes a generous character allowance each month — enough to test voices and generate short content. You can upgrade later for higher limits and voice cloning.
2
Explore the Voice Library
Click Voices in the sidebar to browse the pre-made voice library. Use filters to narrow by language, accent, age, and use case (narration, conversational, characters). Preview voices by clicking the play button before committing to one.
3
Generate your first speech
Navigate to Speech Synthesis in the sidebar. Select a voice, paste your text into the editor, and click Generate. Start with a short paragraph to hear how the voice handles your content before processing longer scripts.
4
Fine-tune with voice settings
Adjust the Stability and Clarity + Similarity Enhancement sliders:
- Stability controls emotional variation (lower = more expressive)
- Clarity controls how closely the output matches the original voice character
- Try different combinations to find what suits your content style.
- Stability controls emotional variation (lower = more expressive)
- Clarity controls how closely the output matches the original voice character
- Try different combinations to find what suits your content style.
5
Try voice cloning
Go to Voices > Add Voice > Instant Voice Cloning. Upload a clean audio sample (at least 30 seconds, ideally 1-3 minutes). The cleaner and more consistent your source audio, the better the clone. Once processed, your cloned voice appears in your voice library.
6
Download and use your audio
Click the download button on any generated audio to save it as an MP3. For batch workflows, use the Projects feature to manage multi-section scripts as a single project, or connect via the API for automated generation.
What This Actually Looks Like
The Prompt
Voice: Rachel (pre-made, English) Stability: 0.45 | Clarity: 0.78 Text: "Welcome to AI in Asia, your practical guide to using artificial intelligence tools in everyday work. In today's episode, we're exploring how small businesses across Southeast Asia are using AI to automate customer support — saving hours each week while keeping the personal touch their customers love."
Example output — your results will vary based on your inputs
ElevenLabs generates a 15-second audio clip with warm, professional narration. Rachel's voice delivers the text with natural pauses after commas, slight emphasis on 'artificial intelligence tools' and 'personal touch', and a conversational yet authoritative tone. The pacing feels like a real podcast host — not rushed, not robotic.
The lower Stability setting (0.45) adds subtle emotional variation that makes the delivery feel genuine rather than monotone. The high Clarity (0.78) keeps the voice consistent and recognisable throughout.
The lower Stability setting (0.45) adds subtle emotional variation that makes the delivery feel genuine rather than monotone. The high Clarity (0.78) keeps the voice consistent and recognisable throughout.
How to Edit This
To customise this output: Increase Stability to 0.65+ for a more consistent, formal tone (corporate presentations, audiobooks). Decrease to 0.25 for highly expressive delivery (storytelling, dramatic readings). Swap 'Rachel' for any voice in the library — try 'Adam' for a male narrator or browse community voices for specific accents. For multilingual versions, keep the same voice but switch the language toggle and paste translated text.
Prompts to Try
Professional Narration Voice
Select the 'Adam' or 'Rachel' voice from the Voice Library. Set Stability to 0.50 and Clarity to 0.75. Paste your script and generate. These settings produce a warm, authoritative narration style ideal for explainer videos, course content, and documentary-style voiceovers.
What to expect: A polished, broadcast-quality voiceover with natural pacing and clear enunciation. Adjusting Stability higher (0.7+) makes the voice more consistent but less expressive; lower values add more emotional variation.
Multilingual Content Creation
Choose any English voice from the library. Toggle the language selector to your target language (e.g., Japanese, Thai, Hindi, Mandarin). Paste your script in the target language and generate. ElevenLabs will speak the foreign text using the same English voice's characteristics — accent, tone, and style.
What to expect: The selected voice speaking naturally in the target language while retaining its unique vocal characteristics. Quality varies by language — European and East Asian languages tend to be strongest. Always review pronunciation of proper nouns.
Voice Cloning for Personal Branding
Navigate to Voices > Add Voice > Instant Voice Cloning. Upload 1-3 minutes of clean audio (no background music, minimal echo). Name your voice and add a description. Once processed, select your cloned voice and generate speech from any text.
What to expect: A synthetic version of the uploaded voice that captures its unique timbre, pace, and speaking style. Quality depends heavily on the source audio — studio-recorded samples with clear speech produce the best clones. Professional Voice Cloning (paid tier) uses 30+ minutes of audio for even higher fidelity.
Common Mistakes
Using low-quality source audio for voice cloning
Background noise, echo, and music in your source recording dramatically reduce clone quality. Always use clean, studio-quality audio — even a quiet room with a decent USB microphone produces far better results than a phone recording in a cafe.
Ignoring the Stability and Clarity sliders
The default settings work for general use, but tuning these makes a huge difference. Low Stability (0.2-0.4) adds emotional variation ideal for storytelling. High Stability (0.6-0.8) keeps the voice consistent for professional narration. Experiment with both.
Pasting huge blocks of text at once
Long passages can cause pacing issues and the occasional mispronunciation to compound. Break your script into paragraphs or sections and generate each separately. This also makes it easier to re-do individual sections without regenerating everything.
Not using SSML or pronunciation controls
When ElevenLabs mispronounces a name or technical term, don't just accept it. Use phonetic spelling in your text (e.g., 'NVIDYA' instead of 'NVIDIA') or SSML tags to control pronunciation, pauses, and emphasis precisely.
Forgetting to check commercial usage rights
Pre-made voices in the library have different licensing terms. Some are free for commercial use, others aren't. Always check the voice's licence before using it in monetised content like YouTube videos, podcasts, or client work.
Tools That Work for This
ElevenLabs Speech Synthesis
The core text-to-speech engine at elevenlabs.io — paste text, choose a voice, adjust settings, and generate natural-sounding audio instantly. Supports 32 languages.
Voice Library
A community-contributed collection of thousands of pre-made voices spanning different ages, accents, and speaking styles. Filter by language, use case, and gender to find the perfect voice.
Voice Cloning (Instant & Professional)
Clone any voice from audio samples. Instant cloning needs just 30 seconds of audio; Professional cloning uses 30+ minutes for higher fidelity. Both produce voices you can use for any text.
ElevenLabs API
RESTful API for integrating voice generation into apps, workflows, and automation tools. Supports streaming audio, voice cloning, and all platform features programmatically.
Getting Started: Text-to-Speech and Voice Selection
Go to elevenlabs.io and create a free account. The free tier gives you a generous monthly character allowance — enough to generate several minutes of high-quality audio and explore the platform's features.
The core workflow is simple: choose a voice, paste your text, and click Generate. The result downloads as an MP3 file ready for use in videos, podcasts, presentations, or any other project.
Start by exploring the Voice Library — a collection of thousands of pre-made voices spanning different ages, accents, languages, and speaking styles. Filter by language, use case (narration, conversational, character), and gender. Preview voices before selecting one by clicking the play button.
For your first generation, select a voice like Rachel (warm, professional) or Adam (clear, authoritative), paste a short paragraph of text, and generate. The quality will be immediately obvious — these aren't the robotic text-to-speech voices of the past.
Two critical settings to understand from the start:
- Stability controls emotional variation (lower = more expressive, higher = more consistent)
- Clarity + Similarity Enhancement controls how closely the output matches the voice's original character
The core workflow is simple: choose a voice, paste your text, and click Generate. The result downloads as an MP3 file ready for use in videos, podcasts, presentations, or any other project.
Start by exploring the Voice Library — a collection of thousands of pre-made voices spanning different ages, accents, languages, and speaking styles. Filter by language, use case (narration, conversational, character), and gender. Preview voices before selecting one by clicking the play button.
For your first generation, select a voice like Rachel (warm, professional) or Adam (clear, authoritative), paste a short paragraph of text, and generate. The quality will be immediately obvious — these aren't the robotic text-to-speech voices of the past.
Two critical settings to understand from the start:
- Stability controls emotional variation (lower = more expressive, higher = more consistent)
- Clarity + Similarity Enhancement controls how closely the output matches the voice's original character
Voice Cloning and Custom Voice Creation
ElevenLabs goes far beyond basic text-to-speech:
Voice Cloning lets you create a synthetic version of any voice. Instant Voice Cloning needs just 30 seconds of clean audio and produces a usable clone in minutes. Professional Voice Cloning uses 30+ minutes of source audio for studio-grade fidelity. Once cloned, your voice can speak any text in any supported language.
Multilingual Support covers 32 languages with native-quality pronunciation. The breakthrough feature: a voice cloned from English audio can speak fluently in Japanese, Thai, Hindi, Spanish, or any other supported language — maintaining the original voice's unique characteristics while speaking natively in the target language.
Projects is a long-form editor for audiobooks, courses, and podcasts. Upload an entire script, assign different voices to different sections (perfect for dialogue), fine-tune pronunciation, and export the whole thing as a single audio file or chapter-by-chapter.
Sound Effects generates custom audio effects from text descriptions — 'busy coffee shop ambience', 'thunderstorm with distant rumbling', 'futuristic spaceship engine hum'. Useful for podcasters, video creators, and game developers.
The API opens everything up programmatically — integrate voice generation into apps, automation workflows, and content pipelines. Streaming support means you can build real-time voice experiences.
Voice Cloning lets you create a synthetic version of any voice. Instant Voice Cloning needs just 30 seconds of clean audio and produces a usable clone in minutes. Professional Voice Cloning uses 30+ minutes of source audio for studio-grade fidelity. Once cloned, your voice can speak any text in any supported language.
Multilingual Support covers 32 languages with native-quality pronunciation. The breakthrough feature: a voice cloned from English audio can speak fluently in Japanese, Thai, Hindi, Spanish, or any other supported language — maintaining the original voice's unique characteristics while speaking natively in the target language.
Projects is a long-form editor for audiobooks, courses, and podcasts. Upload an entire script, assign different voices to different sections (perfect for dialogue), fine-tune pronunciation, and export the whole thing as a single audio file or chapter-by-chapter.
Sound Effects generates custom audio effects from text descriptions — 'busy coffee shop ambience', 'thunderstorm with distant rumbling', 'futuristic spaceship engine hum'. Useful for podcasters, video creators, and game developers.
The API opens everything up programmatically — integrate voice generation into apps, automation workflows, and content pipelines. Streaming support means you can build real-time voice experiences.
Advanced Features: Dubbing, Sound Effects, and API
Getting professional-quality output from ElevenLabs depends on understanding a few key principles:
Source audio quality determines clone quality. For voice cloning, use recordings made in a quiet environment with a decent microphone. Background noise, echo, and music in your source audio will degrade the clone significantly. Even a quiet room with a USB microphone beats a phone recording in a cafe.
Tune the sliders for your use case. For narration and professional voiceovers, set Stability to 0.55-0.70 for consistency. For storytelling and character voices, drop it to 0.25-0.45 for more expressive, dynamic delivery. Always experiment — small slider adjustments can dramatically change the feel.
Break long scripts into sections. Generating a 10-minute script in one go can introduce pacing issues and compounding mispronunciations. Process paragraph by paragraph or use the Projects feature for long-form content, where you have per-section control.
Fix pronunciation proactively. When ElevenLabs mispronounces a name or term, use phonetic spelling in your text (e.g., 'NVIDYA' instead of 'NVIDIA') or use the pronunciation dictionary feature to set permanent corrections.
Check voice licensing before commercial use. Pre-made voices in the community library have different licensing terms. Always verify a voice's licence before using it in monetised content — YouTube videos, client work, or products.
Source audio quality determines clone quality. For voice cloning, use recordings made in a quiet environment with a decent microphone. Background noise, echo, and music in your source audio will degrade the clone significantly. Even a quiet room with a USB microphone beats a phone recording in a cafe.
Tune the sliders for your use case. For narration and professional voiceovers, set Stability to 0.55-0.70 for consistency. For storytelling and character voices, drop it to 0.25-0.45 for more expressive, dynamic delivery. Always experiment — small slider adjustments can dramatically change the feel.
Break long scripts into sections. Generating a 10-minute script in one go can introduce pacing issues and compounding mispronunciations. Process paragraph by paragraph or use the Projects feature for long-form content, where you have per-section control.
Fix pronunciation proactively. When ElevenLabs mispronounces a name or term, use phonetic spelling in your text (e.g., 'NVIDYA' instead of 'NVIDIA') or use the pronunciation dictionary feature to set permanent corrections.
Check voice licensing before commercial use. Pre-made voices in the community library have different licensing terms. Always verify a voice's licence before using it in monetised content — YouTube videos, client work, or products.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, there's a free tier with a monthly character allowance for text-to-speech, access to pre-made voices, and basic features. Paid plans start at around $5/month and unlock voice cloning, higher limits, and commercial usage rights.
Yes. Instant Voice Cloning needs just 1 to 5 minutes of clean audio. Professional Voice Cloning uses 30 minutes to 3 hours of recordings for higher quality. You can then generate speech in your cloned voice across 32 languages.
Yes, paid plans include commercial usage rights for generated audio. You can use the output in YouTube videos, podcasts, audiobooks, ads, and apps. Always ensure you have rights to any voice you clone.
Next Steps
Create a free account, generate your first text-to-speech clip, then try Instant Voice Cloning with a short recording of your own voice.