An ElevenLabs alternative at a quarter of the price
ElevenLabs list pricing starts at $0.05 per 1,000 characters and runs to $0.10 for their multilingual models. We resell the same underlying voice quality, metered per character, from $0.0230.
Price, side by side
| What | Compared with | Their price | SmartAPIHub | Relative cost | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text to speechper 1,000 characters | ElevenLabs Multilingual v2 | $0.10 | $0.0249 | −75% | |
| Text to speechper 1,000 characters | ElevenLabs Flash / Turbo | $0.05 | $0.0249 | −50% | |
| Speech to textper audio hour | ElevenLabs Scribe | $0.22 | $0.0998 | −55% | |
| Speech to textper audio hour | Deepgram Nova-3 | $0.462 | $0.0998 | −78% | |
| Sound effects & audioper minute | ElevenLabs | $0.12 | $0.0399 | −67% |
ElevenLabs list pricing read from elevenlabs.io/pricing/api and Deepgram Nova-3 pre-recorded at $0.0077/min, both checked on 9 August 2026. Our rates are the effective per-unit price of the Pro plan's included allowance.
Where we are honest about the trade-offs
Cheaper is not free of consequences. Here is what you give up.
Latency
We sit in front of the provider, so add a little overhead versus calling them directly. For batch and background work this is irrelevant; for hard real-time it may not be.
Surface area
We expose the endpoints most projects actually use, not every option the vendor ships. If you need a niche parameter, check the listing docs before you switch.
Support model
Support is through the RapidAPI listing and email, not a dedicated account manager. Every response carries a request ID, which is what makes that workable.
Questions
How many voices and languages are there?
Over 10,000 voices across 32 languages, including Japanese, Spanish, Hindi and Arabic. You pick a voice by its 4-digit ID and can tune stability, similarity, style, speaker boost and speed per request.
What audio formats can I get back?
MP3 at several bitrates and raw PCM. mp3_44100_128 is the full-quality default; mp3_22050_32 is roughly a quarter of the size, which matters because response bytes count toward your RapidAPI bandwidth allowance.
How is text to speech billed?
Per character, not per request. One unit is 10 characters, rounded up, so a 66-character request costs 7 units rather than the same as a 20,000-character one. Transcription is billed per 5 seconds of audio, and sound effects and audio processing per 5 seconds of output.
Is the audio quality actually the same as going direct?
For text to speech, yes — the same underlying voice models, so the output is what you would get from a premium voice vendor. For transcription the accuracy is very good but not identical to the most expensive dedicated model; if you need absolute best-in-class word error rate on difficult audio, go direct.
Can I use the audio commercially?
Yes. Generated speech and sound effects are yours to use in commercial work, with nothing to clear and no attribution required.
Try it on the free tier first
No card, no contract. Compare the output against what you use today before you switch anything.