Eleven v4
Top-rated expressive voice for audiobooks and characters. Eleven v4 Turbo ties it in blind tests at half the price.
Should you use it?
Pick it if
Audiobook narrators and dubbing teams who want expressive character voices and care more about quality than cost.
Best for: Audiobooks and dubbing with expressive character voices (Voice models Top 20)
Skip it if
You want the same quality for less; use Eleven v4 Turbo.
You give up: Twice v4 Turbo's price for the same rank; trains on your content by default
The short version
- What this is
- ElevenLabs' newest text to speech model, aimed at expressive long-form speech such as audiobooks and character voices, in 90+ languages.
- Why it matters
- It is among the two most preferred AI voices in blind tests, but its faster sibling matches it for half the price.
- 2nd of 96 on the Artificial Analysis speech arena, tied with v4 Turbo; no score yet, as its terms stop us publishing one.
- $0.08 per 1K characters, twice the price of v4 Turbo s2.
- Most people should pick Eleven v4 Turbo instead.
Good at
Our take
Eleven v4 is excellent, and ElevenLabs released it on 28 Sep 2026 alongside a Turbo version s6. On Artificial Analysis's blind listening arena the two are within each other's margin of error at the top s1, but Turbo costs half as much s2.
Pick v4 for long, expressive work such as audiobooks where ElevenLabs positions it s5. For agents, apps and everyday narration, Turbo is the better buy. The launch promo ended on 12 Oct 2026; the price is now $0.08 per 1K characters s2.
Score
A score from 0 to 100 per job, against everything available today.
New to this? What the scores and labels mean
- 0 to 100
- Our score for one job, like writing or coding, compared with everything else out today. 100 is the best available today. For AI models we build it from public data, such as Arena's blind votes and Epoch AI's independent tests; apps and tools are scored on our own checklist. The same tool can score differently for different jobs, and where two likely ranges overlap, we call it a tie.
- Our verdict
- Use it: a top choice for most people. Worth trying: good, and worth a go. Depends: good for some people or one kind of job. Wait: too early to tell, or not out for everyone yet. Skip: something else does the job better.
- First look
- Just released. We say what it is and whether to bother, and give it a score once public results exist.
- No score yet
- None of the public sources we use covers it yet, or the only evidence is from a source whose numbers we can't use, so we describe it in words instead.
- Best buy
- Nothing cheaper scores as well for that job.
- Best free
- The best score for that job that costs nothing, through a free plan or by running on your own computer.
- Pay as you go
- No monthly plan: you pay for each use, usually through a developer account.
- Checked
- The day we last confirmed the score and the price against the sources. Prices change often, so check the date.
- AI model
- The engine underneath, like GPT or Claude. You use it through an app or, if you code, directly.
- Open source
- Free to download and run on your own computer, so nothing leaves your machine.
Voice and audio
No score yet. The leaderboard this rests on does not let us publish numbers from it, so we describe the evidence instead.
1 source so far
Public leaderboardArtificial Analysis text to speech arena rank 2 of 96, Elo 1323, rank range 1 to 2 s1.
Alternatives
Nothing we have scored beats it for voice on score or on price.
- Eleven v4 TurboVoice model–FreeTies it in blind tests at half the price, with lower latency. Side by side
- Gemini 3.8 Flash TTSVoice model–FreeRanks 5th at about a fifth of the price on Artificial Analysis. Side by side
- Cartesia Sonic 3.6Voice modelNot reviewed yetRanks 4th at a lower price.
Evidence
Everything behind the call and the scores, folded so the page stays short. Spotted a wrong price, score or link? Report a mistake.
How we scored this
Voice has no score yet, because none of the public sources we use covers it.
Public leaderboard
Reviews are drafted with help from AI models, including Anthropic's Claude. Model scores come only from outside leaderboards and independent evaluations, by a written rule.
No one paid for this review or gave us free access, and we earn nothing if you sign up. How we score
Sources 6
- s1Artificial Analysis text to speech leaderboard
- s2ElevenLabs API pricing
- s3ElevenLabs pricing
- s4ElevenLabs privacy policy
- s5ElevenLabs docs: models
- s6ElevenLabs blog: Eleven v4
Something here out of date or wrong? Report a mistake and we will check it against the source.
History 3 changes
Every change to a rating, the price or our call, with the reason. Scores are against what exists on the day, so they drift down as better things ship. Older entries come from before we moved to scores.
- Launch promo ended 12 Oct 2026; price lines now show only the list price, confirmed on the ElevenLabs API pricing page. Rating unchanged.
- New: Voice ratedReviewed: voice.
- Audit: re-opened the Artificial Analysis TTS leaderboard; rank, range, Elo and the 96-model total confirmed. Added the missing maker_disclosure field. Rating unchanged.
Use it well 4 guides on this site
Pages on this site that help with the jobs above.