Fish Audio vs ElevenLabs (June 2026): Honest Side-by-Side Comparison
Fish Audio is the most credible low-cost alternative to ElevenLabs for voice cloning workloads. Whether it's the right choice depends on the job. We tested both with identical English and Mandarin scripts in June 2026 — here's the honest read on price, cloning fidelity, languages, latency, and open-source options.
Disclosure: SpeechGeneration AI is our product. It is not part of this head-to-head — this page is about Fish Audio vs ElevenLabs specifically. If neither fits your workload, we mention SpeechGeneration AI once in the "When neither fits" section as a non-cloning alternative.
Contents
TL;DR Verdict
For high-volume voice cloning under $20/mo: Fish Audio Plus ($11/mo, 10 private clone slots + 2M voice public library). Mandarin/Japanese/Korean lean strongly Fish Audio.
For top-tier English emotional range and Professional Voice Cloning fidelity: ElevenLabs Creator ($11/mo, Eleven v3 + Professional Voice Cloning from 30+ minutes of training audio).
For real-time conversational AI: ElevenLabs Flash v2.5 (~75ms generation latency, 32 languages). Fish Audio streaming is not optimized for sub-100ms TTFB.
For self-hosting / open weights: Fish Audio is the only option — Fish-Speech v1.5.1 on GitHub (~30K stars, Fish Audio Research License). ElevenLabs is closed-source.
For polished web studio + 11,000+ voice library: ElevenLabs. Fish Audio's studio is functional but less refined.
Tested with identical English news script + Mandarin podcast script in June 2026. Subjective listening — your mileage may vary.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Verified June 22, 2026 against fish.audio/plan and elevenlabs.io/pricing.
| Feature | Fish Audio | ElevenLabs | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest paid tier | Plus $11/mo | Starter $6/mo | ElevenLabs cheaper to start |
| Entry-tier allowance | 250K credits / ~200 min | 30K credits | Fish Audio >8× more volume |
| Voice cloning at entry tier | 10 private + 2M public library | Instant only (Starter); Professional from Creator ($11/mo) | Workload-dependent |
| Cloning sample length | 15 seconds | Instant ~1 min, Pro 30+ min | Fish faster, ElevenLabs Pro deeper |
| Voice library size | 2M+ community voices | 11,000+ premade + community | Fish bigger raw count; ElevenLabs higher curated quality |
| Languages supported | 8+ (EN, ZH, JA, KO, FR, DE, AR, ES) | 70+ (Eleven v3) / 32 (Flash v2.5) | ElevenLabs much broader |
| Mandarin / Japanese quality | Excellent (S2 strong here) | Good (Eleven v3) | Fish Audio wins |
| English emotional range | Good | Best-in-class (Eleven v3) | ElevenLabs wins |
| Streaming TTFB | ~200ms (varies) | ~75ms (Flash v2.5) | ElevenLabs wins for real-time |
| Open-source / self-host | Fish-Speech v1.5.1 (Research License) | No | Fish Audio only option |
| Web studio polish | Functional | Refined | ElevenLabs better UX |
| Commercial use | Plus and above | Starter and above | Both clear |
Latency values are vendor-reported (Flash v2.5 ~75ms generation time, excludes network/application overhead). Independent benchmarks may differ.
What Is Fish Audio?
Fish Audio Inc. operates two related products:
- Fish Audio (hosted) at fish.audio — managed web product with the latest S2 model, a community voice library of 2M+ voices, the Story Studio editor, and a streaming API. Paid tiers start at Plus $11/mo.
- Fish-Speech (open source) at github.com/fishaudio/fish-speech — the open-weights research project that seeded the hosted product. v1.5.1 (May 2025), ~30K GitHub stars as of June 2026, released under the Fish Audio Research License (research-friendly with commercial restrictions — read the license before deploying).
The hosted product is the right choice for most users. Fish-Speech is for teams that need data sovereignty, on-premise deployment, or custom model fine-tuning, and can run H100/H200-class GPU infrastructure.
Fish Audio's standout strength is non-English coverage. The team's background in Chinese-language TTS shows in the S2 model's Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean output — these are among the most natural we've heard at any price point.
What Is ElevenLabs?
ElevenLabs (founded 2022, US-based) is the premium-positioned TTS provider. Four production models as of June 2026:
- Eleven v3 — 70+ languages, best-in-class emotional delivery, but slow (not for real-time).
- Flash v2.5 — 32 languages, ~75ms generation latency, optimized for conversational AI.
- Multilingual v2 — 29 languages, balanced quality model.
- Turbo v2.5 — 32 languages, quality/speed balance between Eleven v3 and Flash.
Two cloning paths: Instant Voice Cloning (~1 minute of audio) and Professional Voice Cloning (30+ minutes of audio for top fidelity). The Voice Library has 11,000+ premade and community voices.
ElevenLabs' standout strengths are English emotional steering (Eleven v3), Professional Voice Cloning fidelity, and Flash v2.5 latency for real-time agents. It's also the most polished studio product on the market.
Pricing — Side by Side With Real Math
Fish Audio tiers (verified June 22, 2026)
| Tier | Monthly | Annual | Credits | Cloning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | — | Personal use only | Public library |
| Plus | $11/mo | $132/yr | 250K / ~200 min | 10 private + library |
| Pro | $75/mo | $900/yr | 2M / ~1,620 min | Unlimited + 5 pro slots |
| Max | $749/mo | $8,988/yr | 25M / ~6,250 min | 15 pro slots |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | ZDR, on-premise, SOC2 |
ElevenLabs tiers (verified June 22, 2026)
| Tier | Monthly | Credits | Cloning | Commercial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 10K/mo | No | Attribution required |
| Starter | $6/mo | 30K/mo | Instant only | Yes |
| Creator | $11/mo* | 121K/mo | Professional | Yes |
| Pro | $99/mo | 600K/mo | Professional | Yes |
| Scale | $299/mo | 1.8M/mo | Professional (3) | Yes |
| Business | $990/mo | 6M/mo | Professional (10) | Yes |
*ElevenLabs Creator is sometimes promoted at "$22 first month 50% off" — base price is $11/mo. Verify on elevenlabs.io/pricing at checkout.
Effective cost per minute generated
Comparing entry-tier paid plans head-to-head:
- Fish Audio Plus ($11/mo, ~200 min): ~$0.055 per minute of generated audio
- ElevenLabs Starter ($6/mo, 30K credits ≈ 30 min): ~$0.20 per minute
- ElevenLabs Creator ($11/mo, 121K credits ≈ 120 min): ~$0.09 per minute
At identical $11/mo spend, Fish Audio Plus gives ~1.6× more minutes than ElevenLabs Creator. Where ElevenLabs Creator catches up is feature parity: Professional Voice Cloning is included at $11/mo, which is a meaningfully different (and arguably higher-quality) cloning product than Fish Audio's 15-second clone.
Where pricing breaks down
- Fish Audio: Free tier has opaque rate limits and slower generation queue. "Up to 200 minutes" on Plus depends on credit consumption rates per model.
- ElevenLabs: Credit consumption varies by model. Eleven v3 and Multilingual v2 use 2× multiplier for cloned voices. Flash v2.5 is the cheapest model per credit. Read the model docs before estimating your monthly burn.
Voice Quality
English
ElevenLabs Eleven v3 retains a clear edge on emotional steering — dramatic delivery, sarcasm, whisper, character voicing — especially with the inline tag system. Margin in our listening: roughly 10-15% over Fish Audio S2 on premium English voices. For neutral narration (audiobook, podcast intro, e-learning), the gap closes to where most listeners wouldn't reliably tell them apart.
Mandarin / Cantonese / Japanese / Korean
Fish Audio wins clearly. The S2 model's Mandarin and Cantonese voices are exceptionally natural — tonal accuracy, prosody, syllable timing are all noticeably better than ElevenLabs Eleven v3 on the same scripts. Same advantage extends to Japanese (pitch accent handling) and Korean. If your content is primarily East Asian languages, Fish Audio is the better choice independent of pricing.
European languages (Spanish, French, German, Italian)
Roughly tied. ElevenLabs Multilingual v2 and Eleven v3 cover these well. Fish Audio S2 holds its own. For Spanish dialect coverage specifically (es-AR, es-CO, es-CL, etc.), Microsoft Azure TTS still leads both.
Voice quality assessment is subjective. Based on our internal listening tests with identical scripts in June 2026 — not a controlled blind test. Run your own samples via each tool's free tier before committing.
Voice Cloning Deep Dive
| Aspect | Fish Audio | ElevenLabs |
|---|---|---|
| Sample length | 15 seconds | Instant ~1 min · Pro 30+ min |
| Cloning tier required | Plus ($11/mo) for 10 private | Starter for Instant · Creator for Pro |
| Cross-lingual cloning | Yes (S2 supports it) | Yes (Eleven v3 + Multilingual v2) |
| Fidelity from short samples | Competitive with Instant | Pro is industry-leading |
| Voice consent / verification | TOS-based | AI detection + consent step |
| Commercial use of clones | Yes (paid tiers) | Yes (paid tiers) |
How to think about it: If you're cloning many voices from short clips (podcast cohosts, character voicing, multilingual dubbing), Fish Audio Plus is the more economical choice. If you're cloning one high-stakes voice with studio-grade fidelity (a brand voice, a publisher author, a premium audiobook), ElevenLabs Professional Voice Cloning from 30+ minutes of audio is meaningfully better.
Both platforms require explicit consent from the voice owner. Always document consent in writing before deploying a cloned voice in production — both vendors' TOS reflect this and AI voice deepfake regulation is tightening across jurisdictions.
Languages & Dialects
Fish Audio S2: 8+ confirmed languages on the homepage — English, Chinese (Mandarin + Cantonese), Japanese, Korean, French, German, Arabic, Spanish. The Fish-Speech v1.5+ documentation references 80+ language tiers, with Mandarin/English/Japanese as Tier 1. Coverage outside the core list is more uneven than ElevenLabs.
ElevenLabs Eleven v3: 70+ languages. Multilingual v2: 29 languages. Flash v2.5: 32 languages. Turbo v2.5: 32 languages. Broader coverage overall, with consistent quality across European languages.
Per-language verdict (subjective, June 2026):
- English: ElevenLabs (Eleven v3 emotional range)
- Mandarin / Cantonese: Fish Audio (clear win)
- Japanese: Fish Audio (pitch accent handling)
- Korean: Fish Audio
- Spanish: ElevenLabs (for core; Azure for dialect breadth)
- French / German / Italian: Roughly tied
- Arabic: Both passable, neither great — consider Azure
- Languages outside Fish Audio's core 8: ElevenLabs (broader coverage)
API & Developer Experience
Fish Audio API
REST + streaming endpoints. Pay-as-you-go API pricing is bundled into premium subscriptions (Plus and above). Documentation is functional but less polished than ElevenLabs. SDKs available for Python and JS.
ElevenLabs API
REST + WebSocket streaming. Flash v2.5 model is optimized for low-latency streaming (~75ms generation time). Documentation is among the best in the TTS market. Python, JS, and community SDKs in most major languages.
For real-time voice agents, ElevenLabs Flash v2.5 is the clear choice between these two. Fish Audio's streaming exists but isn't engineered for sub-100ms TTFB the way Flash v2.5, Cartesia Sonic-2, or Rime Mist v3 are. See our Best TTS APIs for Developers guide for the broader real-time comparison.
For batch generation, voiceover, or cloning workflows, Fish Audio's API is perfectly adequate and the cost economics favor Fish at scale.
Open Source / Self-Hosting
Fish-Speech v1.5.1 (released May 31, 2025) is available at github.com/fishaudio/fish-speech. ~30K stars, ~2.6K forks, 732+ commits, 14 releases. License: Fish Audio Research License (read carefully — research-friendly with commercial restrictions; not OSI-approved). Active maintenance.
Hardware requirements (production-grade): An NVIDIA H100 or H200 GPU is recommended for real-time-factor throughput. Lower-end GPUs (A100, L4, RTX 4090) can run inference but with reduced throughput. CPU-only is impractical for production workloads.
When self-hosting pays off:
- Data sovereignty / on-premise requirements (regulated industries, EU customers with strict residency rules)
- Very high generation volume (~10M+ characters/month) where hosted credits become expensive
- Custom fine-tuning needs for a domain-specific voice
- Research / experimentation
ElevenLabs has no self-host path. Closed-source, hosted-only. For teams with strict data residency or on-premise requirements, Fish Audio (via Fish-Speech) is the only credible option in this comparison.
Commercial Use & Data Handling
Commercial use: Both vendors allow commercial use on paid plans. Fish Audio Free is personal-use only. ElevenLabs Free requires attribution but otherwise restricts commercial deployment until Starter ($6/mo).
Cloned voice consent: Both platforms require consent from the voice owner. ElevenLabs adds an AI detection + voice verification step in the cloning flow. Fish Audio is TOS-based without an active verification step at clone creation time.
Data residency & retention: ElevenLabs offers EU data processing for Enterprise customers. Fish Audio Enterprise offers Zero Data Retention and on-premise deployment. Both vendors' standard paid tiers process data on their default infrastructure — if regulated data residency matters, get this in writing from sales before deploying.
Caveat: Voice deepfake regulation (US, EU AI Act, UK Online Safety Act) is evolving. Both vendors' TOS reflect this — review the current terms at deploy time.
When to Choose Fish Audio
- Voice cloning is core and you need budget-friendly volume. Plus $11/mo covers 10 private clones + 2M-voice public library + ~200 min/mo generation.
- Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, or Korean content. Quality lead is clear.
- You need self-hosting or on-premise deployment. Fish-Speech is the only credible option in this comparison.
- High-volume cloning workflows (podcast cohosts, character voicing, dubbing). Cost economics favor Fish.
- You want access to a large community voice library (2M+ voices) without creating clones yourself.
When to Stick with ElevenLabs
- Real-time conversational AI. Flash v2.5 (~75ms generation latency) is meaningfully faster than Fish Audio's streaming and the simpler vendor relationship for voice agents.
- Best-in-class English emotional steering. Eleven v3 holds the edge for dramatic delivery, character voicing, and tonally complex scripts.
- Professional Voice Cloning from 30+ minutes of training audio. Industry-leading fidelity — not matched by Fish Audio's 15-second clone.
- You need the broadest language coverage. Eleven v3 covers 70+ languages with consistent quality.
- You want one vendor for studio + real-time. Switching means stitching two vendors; Eleven covers both modes.
- Polished web studio matters. ElevenLabs has the more refined UX.
When Neither Is the Right Fit
- If voice cloning isn't required and budget volume is the job: consider SpeechGeneration AI — $5/mo for 60K characters, two voice tiers with emotion tags, no credit card for the free trial. See the broader ElevenLabs Alternatives list.
- If you need team workspaces, video sync, or shared brand voice management: Murf.ai is purpose-built for this. See our Murf comparison.
- If you need Spanish dialect breadth (es-AR, es-CO, es-CL) or other regional accents: Microsoft Azure TTS leads with 15+ Spanish dialects and 4 French variants.
- If you need sub-50ms TTFB for voice agents: Cartesia (Sonic-2) or Rime AI undercut even ElevenLabs Flash. See the developer-focused TTS API guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Fish Audio actually as good as ElevenLabs?
Close, but not identical. For voice cloning fidelity from short samples (15 seconds), Fish Audio is competitive with ElevenLabs Instant Voice Cloning at roughly half the price. For English emotional steering and Professional Voice Cloning (which uses 30+ minutes of training audio), ElevenLabs still leads. For Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean specifically, Fish Audio often matches or beats ElevenLabs in our listening. Web studio polish: ElevenLabs is more refined.
Is Fish Audio really unlimited voice cloning at low cost?
Not quite — the marketing line is more nuanced. Fish Audio Plus ($11/mo) gives you 10 private voice clone slots plus unlimited access to a 2M+ voice public library (community-trained voices). Pro ($75/mo) adds unlimited voice slots plus 5 professional clone slots. LMNT Indie ($10/mo) is the only tool here that explicitly offers unlimited cloning at the entry tier. So Fish Audio's pricing is excellent, but the "unlimited" framing applies to library access, not your own private clone count at Plus.
Is Fish Audio open source?
Partially. The Fish-Speech project (github.com/fishaudio/fish-speech, v1.5.1, ~30K stars as of June 2026) provides open model weights under the Fish Audio Research License. The hosted product at fish.audio runs Fish Audio S2 — a related but distinct model. Self-hosting Fish-Speech is feasible if you have GPU infrastructure (H100/H200-class for production throughput) and the engineering time. ElevenLabs is fully closed-source with no self-host path.
Can I use Fish Audio voices commercially?
Yes, on paid tiers (Plus, Pro, Max). The Free tier is personal-use only. ElevenLabs requires Starter ($6/mo) or above for commercial rights. For both platforms, cloning someone else's voice requires explicit consent — verify the current TOS before deploying cloned voices in production.
Where is Fish Audio based and where is my data stored?
Fish Audio Inc. is a US-incorporated company with an international team. Data residency specifics aren't publicly published the way Azure or AWS publish them — if data residency is regulated for your use case, ask Fish Audio sales directly. Enterprise tiers add Zero Data Retention and on-premise deployment options. ElevenLabs is US-based (New York) with EU data processing options for Enterprise customers.
Does Fish Audio support real-time streaming for conversational AI?
Fish Audio offers a streaming API, but it's not optimized for sub-100ms latency the way Cartesia (~40ms vendor-reported) or ElevenLabs Flash v2.5 (~75ms) are. For real-time voice agents where TTFB matters, ElevenLabs Flash v2.5 wins between these two. Fish Audio is the better choice for batch generation, voiceover, and cloning workflows.
What's better for Mandarin, Fish Audio or ElevenLabs?
Fish Audio, by a meaningful margin. The company's roots are in Chinese-language TTS research, and Fish Audio S2's Mandarin and Cantonese voices are among the most natural we've heard at any price point. ElevenLabs Eleven v3 supports Mandarin via its 70+ language coverage, but the model's strengths are most evident in English and major European languages. For Mandarin podcasts, dubbing, or voiceover, Fish Audio is the better choice. Same recommendation extends to Japanese and Korean.
Should I use Fish Audio's hosted product or Fish-Speech open source?
Hosted Fish Audio is the right choice for most users: managed infrastructure, the latest model (S2), the community voice library, and the studio UI. Fish-Speech open source is worth the effort if you need (a) data sovereignty / on-premise deployment, (b) very high generation volume where hosted credits become expensive, or (c) custom model fine-tuning. Hardware: plan for an H100 or H200 GPU for production-grade throughput.
Verdict & Next Steps
Both Fish Audio and ElevenLabs are credible choices in 2026 — the right pick depends entirely on workload, not on a universal "winner."
The fastest way to decide is to try both with your actual content:
Try Fish Audio →
Free tier supports personal-use testing. Plus $11/mo for commercial work.
Try ElevenLabs →
10K credits/month free with attribution. Starter $6/mo for commercial use.
Test the same script on both. Listen for cloning fidelity if that's your priority. Time the streaming TTFB if you're building a voice agent. The right answer becomes obvious in about 30 minutes.
Related Resources
All ElevenLabs Alternatives
9 alternatives compared — including Cartesia, LMNT, Azure, Murf, Hume AI
Best TTS APIs for Developers
Streaming latency benchmarks across Cartesia, Rime, LMNT, Inworld, ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs vs Murf.ai
Studio quality vs team workflows
ElevenLabs vs Speechify
Creator tool vs reading-app comparison
Best TTS Tools 2026
Broader 10-tool comparison across all categories
How TTS APIs Work
Architecture, streaming, SSML, voice cloning tiers
Page Changelog
- June 22, 2026: Initial publication. Pricing verified against fish.audio/plan and elevenlabs.io/pricing on this date.