ElevenLabs vs Murf: Shared Credits or Voice Minutes?
Both turn a script into a voiceover, but they count the work differently. ElevenLabs charges credits per character from one pool that also pays for transcription and dubbing. Murf Studio meters minutes of generated speech and bills dubbing and its API on their own. This page counts the same monthly work in each unit and lists who may publish what.
By Elias Brandt · Updated 8 Oct 2026 · About 8 min read · Plan terms taken from each tool profile
The short answer
Choose ElevenLabs if you need a commercial license under USD 10 a month, a cloned voice without an Enterprise contract, or dubbing and transcription paid from the same credits; about 1,000 credits buy one minute of speech. Choose Murf if narration goes into Canva, PowerPoint or an embedded course player, or if you tweak voices a lot, because restyling unchanged text is free; Creator includes 2 hours a month.
ElevenLabs or Murf: which one, when?
Pick by where the voice goes next
In shortNarration that also gets translated or transcribed points to ElevenLabs; narration that lands in slides, Canva or a course page points to Murf.
ElevenLabs for localizing existing recordings
Narration, transcription and dubbing come out of one subscription, so a team that also translates footage does not need a second product or a second invoice.
Murf for narrated slides and e-learning modules
Voiceovers are made where the deck lives, in Canva from Creator and in PowerPoint or Google Slides from Business, and the embed player drops audio into course pages.
ElevenLabs for a signature voice on a small budget
Instant cloning is part of every paid plan, and Creator adds a professional clone at USD 22 billed monthly, with no sales call involved.
Murf yearly for seasonal production
A yearly plan hands over the whole annual pool at once, so a heavy launch month can use far more than one-twelfth of it.
Five everyday jobs, side by side
In shortRead across a row: the job, then what each tool does and what it uses up.
| If the job is… | ElevenLabs | Murf |
|---|---|---|
| Voice four 1,000-word newsletters a month | Assuming Murf's estimate of about 6 minutes per 1,000 words, about 24,000 credits: inside Starter's 30,000 | About 24 of Creator's 120 monthly minutes, with downloads and commercial rights |
| Transcribe a 45-minute interview | About 14,850 credits at roughly 330 a minute (45 x 330), half of Starter | Audio to Text on Business, which accepts uploads of up to 45 minutes |
| Dub a 10-minute demo into Spanish | Automatic dubbing: about 30,000 credits (10 x 3,000) from the plan pool | Murf Dub: 20 credits (10 x 2), USD 5 at the pricing page's USD 0.25 per credit |
| Generate 1 million characters through the API | 1 million credits on Multilingual v2, above Pro's 600,000; Flash and Turbo models cost 0.5 to 1 credit per character | USD 10 on Falcon (1,000 x USD 0.01) or USD 30 on Gen2, from API credit that never expires |
| Record a founder's voice as a clone | Instant clone from Starter after a consent confirmation; one professional clone on Creator | Custom clone as an Enterprise add-on, documented for English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and German |
The basics
In shortRead live from each profile.
| What do you need? | ElevenLabs | Murf |
|---|---|---|
| In short | Text to speech in 74 languages, with dubbing and cloning. | Turn scripts into AI voiceovers, then sync them with video, music and slides. |
| Free access | Free access available | Free access available |
| Plans |
|
|
| Price check | Pricing review due · Sep 25, 2026 | Pricing review due · Sep 25, 2026 |
| Full profile | ElevenLabs profile | Murf profile |
Values come from each tool’s profile and update with it, in the currency each vendor shows.
Visit ElevenLabs (opens in a new tab) Visit Murf (opens in a new tab)
What does a month of narration use on each side?
In shortElevenLabs counts characters every time audio is generated. Murf counts minutes of generated speech, but not when you only change the voice, speed or pronunciation of finished text. Count your month in those units before you compare prices.
Four monthly loads, counted
In shortRates from each profile: about 1,000 ElevenLabs credits per minute of narration, 3,000 per dubbed minute automatic or 10,000 in Dubbing Studio; on Murf, minutes of generated speech and 2 Dub credits per dubbed minute per language. Script length uses Murf’s estimate of about 6 minutes per 1,000 English words, applied to both sides.
| Load | ElevenLabs credits | Murf minutes and Dub credits |
|---|---|---|
| Eight 1,000-word lessons, each re-voiced once after review with the text unchanged | About 96,000 (8 × 6 × 1,000, twice): over Starter’s 30,000, inside Creator’s 121,000 | 48 minutes (8 × 6); the re-voice uses none: inside Creator’s 120 a month |
| The same eight lessons, with every passage rewritten once in review | Up to about 96,000: only regenerated passages are charged again | Up to 96 minutes (2 × 48): edited sub-blocks are counted again, inside Creator’s 120 |
| A 10-minute product video narrated in English and dubbed into Spanish, French and German | About 100,000 with automatic dubbing (10,000 + 3 × 10 × 3,000), inside Creator; about 310,000 in Dubbing Studio (10,000 + 3 × 10 × 10,000), inside Pro’s 600,000 | 10 Studio minutes plus 60 Dub credits (3 × 10 × 2): Dub Free’s 100 credits cover the count, with a watermark and two projects at a time; without a watermark, from USD 15 at USD 0.25 a credit |
| A launch month that needs 30 hours of narration, with quiet months around it | About 1.8M (1,800 × 1,000): Scale’s monthly 1.8M, or Pro after two unused months, since rollover caps a balance at three months of quota | 1,800 minutes: inside Business yearly, whose 96 hours can be spent in any month; Business monthly’s 8 hours and Creator yearly’s 24 hours fall short |
Arithmetic on those rates and the allowances on each profile. Take and revision counts are assumptions; change them to yours. A Murf help article lists a higher per-credit Dub price than the pricing page, so confirm the rate at checkout.
The first two rows show where Murf’s free voice changes stop helping: rewriting the words costs both tools again, so a team that edits copy late gains little from that rule.
Sources: ElevenLabs pricing, ElevenLabs: what are credits, Murf voice generation time, Murf Dub credit use.
What each plan holds, in scripts
| Plan | Allowance | 1,000-word scripts, one render each |
|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs Starter | 30,000 credits, about 30 minutes | 5 a month (30 / 6) |
| ElevenLabs Creator | 121,000 credits, about 121 minutes | About 20 a month (121 / 6) |
| ElevenLabs Pro | 600,000 credits, about 600 minutes | 100 a month (600 / 6) |
| Murf Creator | 2 hours a month, or 24 hours a year on yearly billing | 20 a month (120 / 6), or 240 a year |
| Murf Business | 8 hours a month, or 96 hours a year on yearly billing | 80 a month (480 / 6), or 960 a year |
Price per month on yearly billing, from the ElevenLabs profile. Bars compare plans of this tool only.
Price per month on yearly billing, from the Murf profile. Bars compare plans of this tool only.
Both charts show monthly equivalents on yearly billing. Monthly-billing prices are in the live table at the top of the page. A yearly Murf plan is charged upfront; a yearly ElevenLabs plan still refills credits month by month.
Sources: ElevenLabs billing, Murf pricing, Murf unused minutes.
When can you publish the audio, and in whose voice?
In shortNeither free plan gives you audio a company can publish. The paid plan that does differs on each side, and so does the route to a cloned voice.
Publishing rights, plan by plan
| ElevenLabs | Murf | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan audio | Noncommercial, with attribution when published | Previews, share links and embeds; no downloads and no commercial rights |
| Upgrading later | Does not make free-generated audio commercial | Unused free minutes are added to the paid plan |
| First plan with commercial rights | Starter | Creator, with unlimited downloads |
| A registered company | A separate company licence is not covered in the sources checked | Murf recommends Business, which carries its Business License |
| Conditions on paid audio | Excludes beta features; depends on your rights to uploaded material | not covered in the sources checked |
Sources: Eleven Rights, Murf free trial features.
Cloning a voice
On ElevenLabs the room for custom voices grows with the plan: 10 voice slots on Starter, 30 on Creator, and 10 professional clones on Business. On Murf a clone is an Enterprise purchase, so a branded voice sets the plan before any minute is counted.
Sources: ElevenLabs instant voice cloning, Murf voice cloning.
What else does each one cover besides narration?
In shortElevenLabs adds more audio jobs to one balance. Murf adds more places for the voiceover to go, with dubbing and the API sold apart.
Five differences that decide it
- Billing unit
- ElevenLabs charges credits per character from one pool shared by narration, transcription and dubbing. Murf Studio meters minutes of generated voice, and Murf Dub and the Murf API each have their own bill. Source: elevenlabs.io
- Worked example
- Assuming 60 finished minutes of narration a month and no re-renders, ElevenLabs needs about 60,000 credits: too many for Starter's 30,000, inside Creator's 121,000 at USD 22 billed monthly. On Murf the same hour is half of Creator's 120 monthly minutes at USD 29 billed monthly. Source: murf.ai
- Free access
- ElevenLabs Free grants 10,000 credits every month for noncommercial, attributed audio. Murf Free is a one-time 10 minutes that can be previewed, shared and embedded but not downloaded. Source: help.murf.ai
- Revisions
- Murf spends no minutes when you change the voice, style, pitch, speed or pronunciation of unchanged text, while editing words re-renders the whole sub-block. On ElevenLabs every regenerated passage is charged again at its full character count. Source: help.murf.ai
- Unused allowance
- ElevenLabs paid plans roll credits forward for up to two months, so a balance can reach three months of quota. Murf carries unused minutes into the next cycle once and loses them on cancellation or a failed renewal. Source: help.murf.ai
Feature matrix
In shortThirteen capabilities marked from the two profiles. A dash means the profile does not cover it, not that the tool lacks it.
| Capability |  ElevenLabs |  Murf |
|---|---|---|
| Making speech | ||
| Text to speech | Offered74 languages on every plan | Offered200+ voices on the pricing page |
| Adjust pitch, speed, pauses and pronunciation per block | Not listednot covered in the sources checked | Offeredfree on unchanged text |
| Design a new voice | OfferedVoice Design: 3 slots on Free | Not listednot covered in the sources checked |
| Generate sound effects and music | Offeredsound effects draw on the shared credits | Not listednot covered in the sources checked |
| Lay voice over images, video and music | Not listednot covered in the sources checked | Offeredexport as audio or MP4 and MOV |
| Voices of your own | ||
| Instant voice clone | OfferedStarter and up | Not listednot self-service |
| Professional or custom clone | Offeredone on Creator, 10 on Business | PartlyEnterprise add-on, five languages |
| Other audio work | ||
| Dub into other languages | OfferedDubbing Studio or automatic, shared credits | OfferedMurf Dub, billed separately |
| Transcribe a recording | Offeredabout 330 credits a minute | PartlyBusiness and higher, 45-minute uploads |
| Clean up a recording | OfferedVoice Isolator, files up to 500 MB and one hour | Not listednot covered in the sources checked |
| Hand-off | ||
| Canva, PowerPoint or Google Slides | Not listednot covered in the sources checked | OfferedCanva from Creator; PowerPoint and Slides on Business |
| Embed player for sites and courses | Not listednot covered in the sources checked | Offeredevery plan, Free included |
| Developer API | Offereddraws on plan credits | Offeredseparate pay-as-you-go credit |
offered partly or with limits not listed on the profile.
If the voice comes from code
| ElevenLabs API | Murf API | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | The plan’s monthly credits, shared with web work | A separate pay-as-you-go balance the pricing page says never expires |
| 1,000 characters of speech | 1,000 credits on Multilingual v2; 500 to 1,000 on Flash and Turbo | USD 0.01 on Falcon, USD 0.03 on Gen2 |
| Free start | Free plan credits | USD 10 of credit; the plan card says every month, the API FAQ says once at signup |
| Parallel requests | 3 on Starter, 5 on Creator | 5 on the free trial |
| Output options | 44.1kHz PCM on Pro; low-latency text to speech from 5 cents a minute on Business | not covered in the sources checked |
On ElevenLabs, API calls and studio work draw on one monthly balance; on Murf a developer budget never touches the narration team’s minutes.
Sources: Murf API plans and limits, ElevenLabs pricing.
Where the voiceover ends up
Murf builds the voiceover into a timeline with images, video and background music, and exports MP4 or MOV with optional subtitles. Its Canva app caps each voiceover block at 1,000 characters and a design at 50 blocks, and script imports stop at 15,000 words per upload. The embed player works on every plan; removing Murf branding from it needs Enterprise. ElevenLabs assembles long-form audio in Studio projects, 3 on Free and 20 on Starter, and hands over audio files or API output for another editor to place.
Sources: Murf Canva app limits, Murf HTML embed, Murf import limits, Murf video export.
Videos, questions and what this page does not judge
Official videos
In shortFrom each vendor’s YouTube channel. They load only when you press play.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, ElevenLabs or Murf?
For a first commercial plan, ElevenLabs Starter lists USD 6 billed monthly or USD 5 billed yearly, against USD 29 or USD 19 for Murf Creator. At about two hours a month the gap narrows to USD 22 and USD 29 on monthly billing. ElevenLabs quotes prices before tax, and Murf adds tax at checkout where it applies.
What happens to my work if I cancel?
With Murf, rendering and downloads stop when the billing cycle ends, all remaining minutes are lost, and projects stay stored until you delete them; Trash empties after 30 days. ElevenLabs also forfeits unused credits at the end of the cycle when you downgrade or cancel, so export finished audio first.
Can I pay without a monthly subscription?
Partly. ElevenLabs sells Pay As You Go credits, stored as a dollar value and converted at the rate of your current plan. Murf Studio has no usage-only option, but its API credit and Murf Dub credits are bought as needed, and Murf says purchased API credit never expires.
Which service offers more languages?
The ElevenLabs comparison table lists 74 text-to-speech languages on every plan, Free included. Murf's pricing page advertises 200+ voices in Studio, and its API trial covers 150+ voices in 35+ languages. If the project needs a cloned voice in a less common language, Murf's cloning is documented for five languages only.
How many people can share one account?
Murf's Creator and Business plans each have a single editor seat; shared workspaces, SSO and 5+ editors start on Enterprise. ElevenLabs adds workspace seats sooner: Scale includes 3 for USD 299 billed monthly and Business includes 10 for USD 990, with lower yearly rates.
Which downloads suit broadcast or phone systems?
Murf exports MP3, WAV and FLAC at up to 48 kHz, plus a-law and u-law files for telephony, and MP4 or MOV when pictures are added. ElevenLabs lists 192kbps audio and 44.1kHz PCM output through the API as Pro features, so budget for Pro when a delivery spec demands either.
What this page does not judge
Which voices sound more natural, how much emotion each can carry, how quickly audio comes back and which editor is easier to learn are what most comparisons rank on, but neither profile documents them in a way we can check. We have not voiced the same script in both, so this page compares what each one counts and what each lets you publish. The check below measures it on your own script.
Take a 500-word script you own, about 3 minutes of speech. Render it once on ElevenLabs Free and once on Murf Free and note the credits and minutes used. Then change only the voice and render again, edit one sentence and render again, and note both counts after each step. Neither result can be published: the ElevenLabs audio is noncommercial and the Murf audio cannot be downloaded.
How this comparison was made
Plans, units and limits come from the ElevenLabs and Murf profiles on this site, which cite the vendors’ pricing and help pages and carry their own check dates; tables marked as live are read from those profiles each time the page loads. Sections follow the topics the pages ranking for this search cover, limited to what the vendors document. No rating is given. If the voice needs an on-screen presenter, see Synthesia vs HeyGen; if your own recording should drive a talking photo, see Dzine vs HeyGen. See our editorial policy.
