ElevenLabs plans vs Sume TTS: cost per million characters

Every ElevenLabs plan on the pricing page works out to about $0.022 per 1,000 included v4 characters at the current discounted rate (read 2026-10-07): Creator is $22 for 1,000,000 characters. Sume TTS is $0.0475 per 1,000, so 1,000,000 characters is $47.50. If you will use a subscription's full allowance, the voice vendor is cheaper per character; Sume is a pay-per-use rate with no allowance to waste.

Plan fee divided by characters

Divide each fee by its included characters and multiply by 1,000. Creator: $22 / 1,000,000 x 1,000 = $0.022. Pro: $99 / 4,500,000 x 1,000 = $0.022. Starter: $6 / 273,000 x 1,000 is about $0.0220. The page also lists the first month at $1 for Starter and $11 for Creator.

Pay-as-you-go and Sume

ElevenLabs' pay-as-you-go v4 price on the page is $0.022 per 1,000 (72% off until Oct 12), shown against a struck-through $0.08. At the discounted rate Sume is 2.16 times as much ($0.0475 / $0.022). At the struck-through $0.08, a million characters is $80.00 and Sume's $47.50 is 41 percent lower ((80 - 47.50) / 80).

Scripts per month

At 800 characters per script, 1,000,000 characters is 1,250 scripts. That is $22 on a Creator plan if you use the whole allowance, $47.50 on Sume, and $80.00 at the struck-through $0.08 rate. For 100 scripts (80,000 characters) Sume is $3.80, while the Creator fee is still $22 whether you use 80,000 characters or 1,000,000.

Caveats

Sume TTS is not a way to use ElevenLabs voices, and I make no quality claim. The page says the v4 discount runs until Oct 12; the struck-through $0.08 is the price it shows for the regular rate, so check the page after that date. Sume's rate comes from the public rate card and may change; read it before budgeting.

Break-even volume

A Creator plan is $22 for 1,000,000 characters. Sume is $0.0475 per 1,000, so $22 buys 463,158 characters on Sume ($22 / $0.0475 x 1,000). Below about 463,000 characters a month, Sume's pay-per-use rate is cheaper than the Creator fee; above it, the Creator plan is cheaper per character, provided you stay inside its allowance.

In scripts of 800 characters, the break-even is about 579 scripts a month. Compare the Starter plan: $6 for 273,000 characters. Sume matches $6 at 126,316 characters, about 158 scripts. If you make fewer than that, Sume costs less than the cheapest paid ElevenLabs plan, but the voices differ, so the choice is not purely about price.