# Free alternatives to ElevenLabs

> ElevenLabs (Starter) costs $72 a year. Free alternatives: Chatterbox and Piper. Data checked 2026-10-17.

- Page: https://stoprenting.dev/apps/elevenlabs/
- Category: AI (https://stoprenting.dev/categories/ai/)
- Vendor: ElevenLabs
- Plan: Starter
- Price: $6/month, $72/year
- Billing: monthly (first month $1 promo until Oct 18)
- Price quote from the vendor's page: "Starter Until Oct 18 $6 First month 83% off $1 per month"
- Price source: https://elevenlabs.io/pricing (checked 2026-10-17)

## Alternatives

### Chatterbox

- Website: https://resemble-ai.github.io/chatterbox_demopage/
- Repository: https://github.com/resemble-ai/chatterbox (27,032 stars, last push 2026-07-21)
- License: MIT
- Open source: yes, OSI-approved license
- Type: command-line tool
- Linux: unverified
- Self-hostable: no
- Note: A Python model with a basic demo app: no studio for long projects, dubbing or voice library, and it's fastest with a GPU.
- More: https://stoprenting.dev/alternatives/chatterbox/
- Checked: 2026-10-17

### Piper

- Website: https://github.com/OHF-Voice/piper1-gpl
- Repository: https://github.com/OHF-Voice/piper1-gpl (5,905 stars, last push 2026-10-17)
- License: GPL-3.0
- Open source: yes, OSI-approved license
- Type: command-line tool
- Linux: AUR: piper-tts-bin; Flathub: org.freedesktop.Piper
- Self-hostable: no
- Install: `yay -S piper-tts-bin`, `flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Piper`
- Note: Fast offline text-to-speech, but its voices sound clearly synthetic next to ElevenLabs and it can't clone voices.
- More: https://stoprenting.dev/alternatives/piper/
- Checked: 2026-10-17

## FAQ

### Is there a free alternative to ElevenLabs?

Yes. The 2 free alternatives are Chatterbox (open source, MIT) and Piper (open source, GPL-3.0).

### How much does ElevenLabs cost?

ElevenLabs's Starter plan costs $6 a month, which is $72 a year (monthly (first month $1 promo until Oct 18)). Source: the official pricing page at elevenlabs.io, checked Oct 17, 2026.

### Which ElevenLabs alternatives run on Linux?

Piper (AUR: piper-tts-bin; Flathub: org.freedesktop.Piper).

### Can you self-host a ElevenLabs alternative?

Chatterbox and Piper are command-line tools that run on your own machine, so there's nothing to host.

### Are these ElevenLabs alternatives open source?

Yes. All 2 use OSI-approved open-source licenses: Chatterbox (MIT) and Piper (GPL-3.0).

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Source: Stop Renting (https://stoprenting.dev). Methodology: https://stoprenting.dev/methodology/