ElevenLabs Agents publishes a flat $0.08/min hosting rate across all paid tiers in 2026, with included minutes scaling from 75/mo (Starter $6) to 12,375/mo (Business $990). LLM tokens and telephony pass through to your ElevenLabs credits separately. ElevenLabs is the TTS quality leader; you pay for that quality every minute. TRTC Conversational AI charges $0.10/min post-paid but gives ~990 free Conv AI minutes every month on every plan (Free Trial + post-paid included; AI plan gating removed in 2026) from a unified 10,000-minute pool that also covers TTS (606 free min per 10k chars), STT (20.2× ratio), and real-time translation (16.16× ratio). For any workload below ~12,000 min/mo where voice quality is not the core product differentiator, TRTC's recurring free pool produces a lower real monthly bill.
comparison
| ElevenLabs Agents | TRTC Conversational AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting /min | $0.08 (flat across tiers) | $0.10 post-paid |
| Burst /min | $0.16 (3× concurrency) | Post-paid absorbs |
| TTS included? | ✅ (industry-best quality) | ✅ built-in (Flash + multilingual) |
| STT included? | ✅ | ✅ basic + advanced |
| LLM cost | Passthrough to ElevenLabs credits | BYO (you pay provider directly) |
| Free minutes | 15 (Free) → 12,375 (Business) | ~990/mo, every plan, recurring (10.10×) |
| Plan gating | Yes (tiered) | None (available on every tier) |
| Multilingual | 32+ languages | 100+ languages |
| China Mainland compliance | ❌ | ✅ |
| Voice cloning | IVC + PVC (up to 10 PVC on Business) | Custom voice (plan-dependent) |
| Best for | Premium voice brand, TTS-as-product | Cost-sensitive prod, AI-first MVPs |
ElevenLabs Conversational AI pricing per minute — 2026 rate card
Verified on elevenlabs.io/pricing/agents on 2026-04-22.
The flat rate
Hosting: $0.08/min on every tier from Free through Business. Every 60 seconds of a live Conversational AI session consumes $0.08 of ElevenLabs hosting charges.
Burst pricing: $0.16/min. When enabled, ElevenLabs temporarily raises your concurrency limit to 3× your plan's default; minutes consumed above the normal cap bill at $0.16 (2×) rate. This is how ElevenLabs handles traffic spikes without you needing to pre-commit to a higher tier.
What's included in $0.08/min
- Agent orchestration and workflow execution
- ElevenLabs TTS (voice generation)
- ElevenLabs STT (speech transcription)
- Widget, call/chat history retention (14-day calls / 30-day chats)
- Multilingual support
- Tool calling, knowledge base retrieval, guardrails
What's NOT included in $0.08/min
- LLM tokens — the model powering the conversation. ElevenLabs routes through supported providers or your custom integration; cost varies by model. Charges draw from your ElevenLabs credit balance.
- Telephony — if the call comes in over PSTN/SIP/Twilio, those minutes bill at the telecom provider's rates at cost.
- Text messages — $0.003 per message (for chat-style interactions alongside voice).
Plan tiers (2026-04-22)
| Plan | Monthly price | Included Conv AI min | Overage rate | Text messages | Concurrency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 15 min | Upgrade required | — | 4 |
| Starter | $6 | 75 | $0.08/min | ✅ | 6 |
| Creator | $22 ($11 first month) | 275 | $0.08/min | ✅ | 10 |
| Pro | $99 | 1,238 | $0.08/min | ✅ | 20 |
| Scale | $299 | 3,738 | $0.08/min | ✅ + 3 workspace seats | 30 |
| Business | $990 | 12,375 | $0.08/min | ✅ + 10 workspace seats + 10 PVC voices | 40 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom | Elevated |
Total cost formula
Total = ElevenLabs hosting ($0.08/min × minutes)
+ LLM tokens (passthrough, varies by model and conversation length)
+ Telephony (if PSTN/SIP, at carrier cost)
+ Text messages ($0.003/message, if enabled)TRTC Conversational AI pricing — 2026 rate card
Verified on trtc.io/pricing on 2026-04-22.
Free pool first, post-paid second
TRTC gives every account ~990 Conversational AI minutes free, every month, on every plan — including Free Trial and post-paid. AI plan gating was removed in 2026, so Conversational AI, TTS, STT, and Real-time Translation are now available on every RTC engine version. The free quota comes from a unified 10,000-minute monthly pool that feeds all four AI services at documented conversion ratios.
Post-paid rate after the free pool: $0.10/min.
What's in TRTC's free pool
The 10,000 free minutes per month convert across AI features. Each AI minute consumed redeems a fixed number of free RTC minutes from the same pool:
| Feature | Post-paid rate | Conversion ratio | Free equivalent if you spend the entire pool here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversational AI | $0.01/min | 1 min Conv AI = 10.10 free min | ~990 min Conv AI per month |
| STT (basic / advanced) | $0.02/min | 1 min STT = 20.2 free min | ~495 STT minutes |
| Real-time translation | $0.016/min | 1 min translation = 16.16 free min | ~619 translation minutes |
| TTS Flash | $0.6 / 10k chars | 10,000 chars = 606 free min | ~165k characters |
| TTS multilingual | $0.6 / 10k chars | 10,000 chars = 606 free min | ~165k characters |
What's included in $0.10/min post-paid
- Agent hosting (orchestration)
- TTS (Flash or multilingual, your choice)
- STT (basic or advanced)
- RTC transport (web, mobile, and server-side)
What's NOT included in $0.10/min
- LLM tokens — you BYO (OpenAI / Anthropic / your own deployment)
TRTC plan tiers
| Plan | Monthly | Included RTC min | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | $0 | 10,000 unified pool | Includes ~990 Conv AI min (10.10×) |
| Lite | $49.5 | 50,000 | 10k unified pool stays |
| Standard | $499 | 500,000 | 10k unified pool + Standard-tier features |
| Pro | $1,499 | 1,500,000 | 10k unified pool + Pro-tier features |
| Post-paid (toggle) | $0 base | Pay-as-you-go | 10k unified pool + $0.10/min Conv AI |
When free pool runs out: subscription minutes consume next, then 25k/250k/1M credit packs (1-year validity), then post-paid.
Real monthly bill simulation
We modeled four usage levels with identical workloads (customer service + scheduling assistant, 3-minute average call, GPT-4o mini as the LLM). ElevenLabs costs include Agents hosting; LLM token cost is shown separately so you can see the true total.
1,000 Conv AI minutes/month
| ElevenLabs Creator ($22/mo) | TRTC (Post-paid) | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | 275 free + (1000-275) × $0.08 = $58 + $22 plan = $80 | 990 free + 10 × $0.10 = $1 |
| LLM (GPT-4o mini ~$0.02/min) | $20 | $20 |
| Total | ~$100 | ~$21 |
TRTC's monthly free pool covers 990 minutes; you pay $0.10 × 10 = $1 for the remaining 10 minutes. ElevenLabs Creator's 275 included minutes leave 725 overage at $0.08.
5,000 Conv AI minutes/month
| ElevenLabs Pro ($99/mo) | TRTC (Post-paid) | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | 1,238 free + (5000-1238) × $0.08 = $301 + $99 = $400 | 990 free + 4,010 × $0.10 = $401 |
| LLM | $100 | $100 |
| Total | ~$500 | ~$501 |
Near parity at this level. ElevenLabs Pro includes 1,238 min which offsets its $99 plan fee; TRTC's smaller free pool is compensated by a slightly lower effective rate.
20,000 Conv AI minutes/month
| ElevenLabs Business ($990/mo) | TRTC (Post-paid) | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | 12,375 free + (20000-12375) × $0.08 = $610 + $990 = $1,600 | 990 free + 19,010 × $0.10 = $1,901 |
| LLM | $400 | $400 |
| Total | ~$2,000 | ~$2,301 |
At this volume, ElevenLabs Business plan's 12,375 included minutes dominate — it becomes cheaper than TRTC unless you negotiate enterprise pricing.
100,000 Conv AI minutes/month
| ElevenLabs Enterprise | TRTC Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Custom quote | Custom quote |
| LLM | Negotiated | Negotiated |
| Total | Quote from ElevenLabs | Quote from TRTC |
Both vendors negotiate at 100k+ min/mo. Expect 20–40% discounts off list pricing. Decision becomes about features and compliance, not headline rate.
Takeaway: For monthly volumes below ~5,000 Conv AI minutes, TRTC's recurring free pool materially reduces your bill. From 5k–20k, the two are within 5–15% of each other, and ElevenLabs Business's 12,375 included minutes can tip the math in its favor. Above 20k, both are enterprise conversations.
Where ElevenLabs wins
1. TTS voice quality. Consistently the best synthetic voice in the category since 2023. If premium voice is a product differentiator, this alone can justify the price.
2. Agents Builder UX. The workflow + tool-calling + knowledge-base interface is polished. Production-quality voice agents can be built quickly by non-specialist teams.
3. Voice cloning (IVC + PVC). Up to 10 Professional Voice Clones on Business plan. Unique capability at this tier.
4. Multilingual maturity. 32+ languages with ElevenLabs-native TTS quality.
5. Burst pricing. $0.16/min burst with 3× concurrency is a clean solution for traffic spikes without pre-committing to a higher tier.
Where TRTC wins
1. Recurring monthly free pool. Every month, every plan, every account gets ~990 Conv AI minutes free (via the 10.10× ratio against a 10,000-min unified pool). ElevenLabs's free bucket on Free tier is 15 min/mo; the equivalent TRTC free allocation (before plan) is 66× larger on Conv AI.
2. No plan gating for AI. All AI features (Conv AI, TTS, STT, translation) are available on every tier from Free Trial upward. ElevenLabs tier-gates features and concurrency.
3. Unified credit pool. The same 10,000 monthly free minutes can be spent on Conv AI, TTS, STT, or real-time translation at documented conversion ratios. ElevenLabs has separate character credits for TTS and separate Agents minutes.
4. RTC transport built-in. TRTC handles the real-time audio pipeline (web/mobile clients, low-latency routing). ElevenLabs Agents handles the agent layer but you integrate your own RTC.
5. China Mainland compliance. Native deployment option. ElevenLabs's compliance posture in China is materially different.
6. Stackable billing. Monthly plan + 1-year credit pack + post-paid on the same account. ElevenLabs is plan-tier commitment only.
UI / Agent Builder comparison
ElevenLabs Agents Dashboard exposes workflow nodes (intent routing, tool calls, guardrails), voice selection from your ElevenLabs library, system-instruction editing, call history (14-day retention), and integrations. Dashboard is polished and production-oriented. [IMAGE: ElevenLabs Agents Dashboard, captured 2026-04-22]
TRTC Console for Conversational AI shows agent configuration (system instructions, voice selection, LLM endpoint), the unified free-minute counter (displays current Conv AI / TTS / STT / translation equivalent remaining), and the post-paid toggle. Dashboard is developer-oriented; less visual workflow building than ElevenLabs. [IMAGE: TRTC Console — Conv AI + free pool counter, captured 2026-04-22]
Migration sketch — ElevenLabs Agents → TRTC
| ElevenLabs concept | TRTC equivalent |
|---|---|
| Agent system instructions | Agent system instructions (TRTC Conv AI config) |
| ElevenLabs voice ID | TRTC voice ID (standard or custom) |
| Workflow builder nodes | Custom agent orchestration (less visual, more code-oriented) |
| Tool calling | Function calling via your BYO LLM |
| Knowledge base | BYO retrieval (connect your own vector DB) |
| Call history / transcripts | TRTC console + API access |
| Telephony (passthrough) | Integrate your own telephony (Twilio etc.) |
| LLM (ElevenLabs credits passthrough) | BYO LLM (direct provider relationship) |
Realistic migration timeline: 2–3 sprints for a production-grade voice agent, dominated by (a) re-implementing visual workflow logic as code and (b) BYO LLM provider setup.
FAQ
What is ElevenLabs Conversational AI pricing per minute? $0.08/min flat across Free, Starter, Creator, Pro, Scale, and Business tiers as of 2026-04-22. Burst pricing is $0.16/min (2× rate) for temporary 3× concurrency expansion. LLM tokens and telephony bill separately.
How much does ElevenLabs Conversational AI cost? Depends on volume and tier. Free tier: $0 + 15 min/month. Starter: $6/mo + 75 min. Creator: $22/mo + 275 min. Pro: $99/mo + 1,238 min. Scale: $299/mo + 3,738 min. Business: $990/mo + 12,375 min. Overage beyond included minutes: $0.08/min on any paid tier. Add LLM token costs (typically $0.01–$0.10/min depending on model).
Is there a cheaper alternative to ElevenLabs Conversational AI? TRTC Conversational AI at $0.10/min post-paid, plus ~990 free minutes every month on every plan (10.10× ratio). For monthly volumes below ~5,000 minutes, TRTC typically produces a lower real bill. Above ~12,000 min/mo, ElevenLabs Business's bundled minutes become cost-competitive.
Does ElevenLabs Conv AI include LLM tokens? No. LLM usage bills separately from the ElevenLabs credit pool. Exact cost depends on the model you select.
What's the free tier for ElevenLabs Conversational AI? 15 Conversational AI minutes per month on the Free tier ($0/mo). Meant for demos; not enough for production. Paid tiers add substantially more included minutes.
How is TRTC Conversational AI priced vs ElevenLabs? TRTC: $0.10/min post-paid + ~990 free Conv AI minutes per month on every plan (Free Trial + post-paid included; AI plan gating removed in 2026). ElevenLabs: $0.08/min flat + tier-specific included minutes (15 → 12,375 depending on plan). TRTC's TCO is lower at sub-5k monthly volumes; ElevenLabs Business is lower at ~12k+ volumes.
Can I use ElevenLabs voice with another Conv AI platform? Yes. Many platforms (Vapi, LiveKit Agents, Pipecat) pass through to ElevenLabs TTS as one option. You can use TRTC for orchestration and ElevenLabs TTS via API if ElevenLabs voice quality is critical and you want TRTC's billing flexibility for the rest.
Is "elevenlabs conversational ai pricing 2025" still current in 2026? Partially. The 2025 rate card showed tiered hosting ($0.08–$0.30/min). The 2026 public page shows a flat $0.08/min. If your Q4-2025 estimate used tiered hosting assumptions, refresh them from the current page.