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ElevenLabs vs Lazybird

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Cheaper paid plan
Lazybird — $4/mo vs $6/mo for ElevenLabs
Free plan
Both have one
Public API
Both have one
Best fit
ElevenLabs: Product teams adding narration or voice agents without training a model · Lazybird: Course, tutorial and explainer narration on a small budget
Platforms
ElevenLabs: Web, iOS, Android · Lazybird: Web

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

Side by side

FactElevenLabsLazybird
CategoryText-to-SpeechText-to-Speech
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$6/mo$4/mo
Public APIYesYes
Trust score88 / 10088 / 100
PlatformsWeb, API, iOS, AndroidWeb, API
CompanyElevenLabsLazybird Co Ltd
Launched2022—
Last verifiedOct 16, 2026Oct 15, 2026

What our research says

ElevenLabs

The quality bar for synthetic speech and the easiest voice API to start on, but the credit meter is the actual product and it empties faster than the plan names imply.

Pros

  • Output quality and language coverage remain ahead of most rivals
  • One account spans speech, dubbing, recognition, effects and agents
  • The first paid tier is $6, so testing commercially costs almost nothing

Cons

  • Credits rather than minutes, so cost per finished second shifts with model and settings
  • Commercial licence and instant cloning are both withheld from the free tier
  • Professional voice cloning starts only at Creator ($22)
  • Team seats do not appear until the $299 Scale plan

Lazybird

Lazybird undercuts the well-known TTS vendors by a wide margin — $49 a year for 200,000 credits with commercial rights and cloning is aggressive pricing. The long-document import that auto-splits into script blocks is a genuinely useful workflow touch for audiobooks and courses. The reason for caution is the voice catalogue, which is advertised with real celebrity and cartoon character names.

Pros

  • Entry paid tier is $49 a year with commercial rights and voice cloning included
  • Long document import that splits text into script blocks automatically
  • 200+ voices with 100+ language coverage
  • Public text-to-speech API for embedding the synthesis elsewhere
  • Free tier lets you audition every voice before paying

Cons

  • Free tier is listen-only — no downloads
  • Voice library leans on celebrity and character names of dubious provenance
  • Vietnamese governing law makes enforcement awkward for EU or US buyers
  • The Max tier is mentioned without published limits

Which one fits

Choose ElevenLabs if you need

  • Product teams adding narration or voice agents without training a model
  • Creators dubbing video into other languages with the speaker's timbre kept
  • Audiobook and podcast producers who need a licensable cloned voice

Choose Lazybird if you need

  • Course, tutorial and explainer narration on a small budget
  • Long-form audio where import-and-split saves real time
  • Developers who want cheap TTS behind an API

ElevenLabs vs Lazybird: the questions people ask

Is ElevenLabs cheaper than Lazybird?

On published entry prices, Lazybird starts lower — $4/mo against $6/mo for ElevenLabs. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does ElevenLabs or Lazybird have a free tier?

Both: ElevenLabs has a free tier, and Lazybird has a free tier.

Which has a public API, ElevenLabs or Lazybird?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.

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