ElevenLabs Creator vs Starter Plan: How I Save $72/Year
You need Creator to create your Professional Voice Clone. You don’t need it after that. Here’s the sequence I use and what you keep when you downgrade.
New to ElevenLabs? Get 50% off your first month* – $11 instead of $22. Same creator tools, half the price.
Here’s the part most guides skip: you need the Creator plan to create your Professional Voice Clone. But once it’s published and earning, you can downgrade to Starter and your voice stays live. I’ve been doing this since my voice published. It works – it’s how the platform is designed.
The Sequence
Sign up for Creator Plan ($11/month with discount)
This is the only plan that lets you create a Professional Voice Clone. You need it for this step. Use the 50% discount link* to get it at $11 instead of $22.
Create your Professional Voice Clone and publish it
Upload your audio, fill out voice details, verify ownership, enable sharing, publish to the Voice Library. Wait for ElevenLabs approval (1-2 days).
Once live and earning, downgrade to Starter ($5/month)
Account > Subscription > Change Plan > Starter. Your published voice stays in the library, keeps earning, keeps processing payouts. Nothing changes except your bill.
What I’ve been doing
I signed up for Creator, created my voice, published it, and downgraded to Starter. My voice has earned €263.42 in 3 months on the Starter plan. Full monetization, full payouts, voice stays discoverable. The only thing I lost is the ability to create new Professional Voice Clones – which I already made.
What You Keep vs What You Lose
The character limit drop only matters if you use ElevenLabs to generate audio for your own projects. For passive income from the Voice Library, 30,000 characters is more than enough for testing your voice occasionally.
The Math
Staying on Creator
$132/year
$11/month x 12
Downgrade to Starter
$60/year
$11 first month + $5/month x 11
You save $72/year. Same earnings. Same voice. Just a smaller bill.
When to Stay on Creator
Two reasons to keep paying $11/month:
- You want to create another Professional Voice Clone. Each new PVC requires Creator. If you’re building a second or third voice, you’ll need Creator again for that account (or that month). Once the new voice is published, downgrade again.
- You regularly hit 30,000 characters/month for your own content. If you use ElevenLabs to generate audio for your own videos, podcasts, or projects and you consistently need more than 30,000 characters, Creator’s 100,000 limit is worth the extra $6/month.
For most people who just want their voice earning passively in the library, Starter is all you need after the initial setup.
For multiple voices: Each ElevenLabs account gets one Professional Voice Clone slot. For additional voices, create separate accounts with different emails – each gets its own slot. Same equipment, $11 first month per account, then downgrade each to $5/month.
Want the full setup process?
The complete guide covers account setup, the downgrade sequence, equipment, recording, editing, category positioning, and monetization – from signup to first payout.
See the guides →Related Articles
*This article contains affiliate links. If you sign up through one of these links, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. The price you pay stays the same. I only recommend tools I actually use.
Andy from KindredView
I test creator monetization strategies and write about what actually works. No hype – just the numbers.