Verdict
ElevenReader gives 10 hours of listening a month free, enough for about a 400-page book, and a totally blind user reviews user said its new v4 voices are hard to tell from a recorded audiobook. Paying users complain about lost reading positions and buggy updates, and a reviewer found fiction dialogue flat. The same company sells voice cloning that Consumer Reports found relied on a tick-box promise of consent, and clones made this way are the raw material of phone scams.
Privacy note. Trains on user data including voice by default with a settings opt-out and 3-year voice retention (elevenlabs.io/privacy-policy); voice cloning consent is a tick box per Consumer Reports (innovation.consumerreports.org), and its tools were linked to the 2024 Biden deepfake (fortune.com).
Best for
Listening to PDFs, articles and non-fiction on the move, and people with sight loss
Skip if
Cloning anyone else's voice, or anyone uneasy about voice recordings being used for AI training by default
Key facts
- Made by
- Eleven Labs Inc.
- Based in
- United Kingdom (London HQ per company; US-registered Eleven Labs Inc.)
- Launched
- 2024
- Works on
- iPhone, Android, Web
- In the UK
- Yes
- Price from
- $6 a month
- Free plan
- ElevenReader Free gives 10 hours of text-to-audio a month (about a 400-page book) and 1,000+ voices; ElevenLabs Free gives 10,000 credits a month for text to speech, with no voice cloning or commercial licence
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Billed |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $6 | month |
| Creator | $22 | month |
| Pro | $99 | month |
| Scale | $299 | month |
| Business | $990 | month |
| ElevenReader Ultra | $11 | month |
| ElevenReader Ultra (billed annually) | $99 | year |
What it does
- turns text into lifelike speech in many voices
- clones voices from short samples
- dubs video into other languages
- generates music and sound effects
- ElevenReader app reads books, PDFs and articles aloud
Ratings
What people say
user reviews praise centres on voice quality, especially after the October 2026 v4 update, while 2026 complaints from paying ElevenReader users are about bugs, lost places in ebooks and content warnings on dark fiction. Store stars are high (ElevenReader 4.66 UK App Store, the separate ElevenLabs app 4.77 from 3,135), but Trustpilot sits at 3.1 from 1,180 reviews with complaints about credits running out and hard-to-reach support.
“I'm totally blind and use TTS every day… If someone played me an Eleven V 4 clip with a voice I didn't recognize and didn't tell me it was TTS, I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference between that and a well-recorded audiobook.”
Individual user review, 3 October 2026 · source
“I then paid the $100 and committed to a year, now it is unusable. The reader can no longer keep track of my place in the ebook.”
Individual user review, 11 August 2026 · source
“I have been paying for ElevenReader for almost a year now but this month have been one of the worst experience. Annoying ui changes, glitch and bugs.”
Individual user review, 21 September 2026 · source
“I recently paid for a yearly subscription to ElevenReader mainly to use it as a text-to-speech tool for listening to fiction books… some content from my account violates their Prohibited Uses Policy”
Individual user review, 17 June 2026 · source
“We cloned the voices of non-native English speakers (n=86) with ElevenLabs, Coqui-XTTS and ChatterBox. In 4,000 human ratings, the clones sounded warmer, more authoritative, and even more *humanlike* than the real speakers.”
Post on X, 7 October 2026 · source
Press reviews
- WILX (What the Tech) 2026-08-18
Free app that turns notes, articles and PDFs into fairly realistic audio for students, but 'isn't a replacement for studying'.
- Tom's Guide 2024-06-26
Launch hands-on: 'worked brilliantly' with natural, varied voices, but also read out page clutter such as pull quotes and ads. Launched in the UK, US and Canada.
- Consumer Reports (via NBC News) 2025-03-10
ElevenLabs was one of four of six voice-cloning services that only required a tick box saying the speaker had given permission; it charged $5 for a custom clone.
Privacy
- Trains on your data
- yes by default; the privacy policy (updated 9 Oct 2026) says personal information, which can include voice data, is used 'to research, build, train and improve our AI models'
- Opt-out
- Account settings > Terms and Privacy > Data use; applies only to training after opting out
- Retention
- Data generated about a user's voice is kept no longer than 3 years after the last interaction; other personal data for as long as the account is open
- Incidents
- Jan 2024: ElevenLabs reportedly suspended the account behind the fake Joe Biden robocall after Pindrop traced the audio to its tools (Fortune; the New Hampshire AG said the attribution could not be confirmed). Mar 2025: Consumer Reports found its voice-cloning consent check was a tick box. Voice-clone scams are a live UK risk: 28% of 3,000+ UK adults told a Starling Bank survey (Sep 2024) they may have been targeted. May 2026: named in nine Illinois BIPA class actions in Chicago federal court alleging AI voice models were trained on voiceprints without written consent (early stage, no rulings)
- Age limit
- 18+ per the privacy policy; uploading voice data of anyone under 18 is prohibited. ElevenReader App Store rating 12+
Official videos
- Meet ElevenReader with Eleven v4 2026-09-30
- ElevenReader App by ElevenLabs 2024-06-25
FAQ
Is ElevenReader free?
Yes, with limits. The free plan gives 10 hours of listening a month, which ElevenLabs says is about a 400-page book. Ultra costs $11 a month or $99 a year.
Can ElevenLabs clone someone's voice?
Yes, on paid plans from $6 a month. For instant clones the user only has to confirm they have the right and consent, which Consumer Reports said in 2025 was too weak to stop misuse. Cloning someone without permission breaks ElevenLabs' rules.
Can ElevenReader read Kindle books?
It reads uploaded PDFs, ePubs, documents and web links. A 2026 review noted that books bought on Kindle or Apple Books cannot be read because of copy protection.
ElevenReader vs Speechify?
ElevenReader's paid plan costs $11 a month against Speechify's higher price, and reviewers rate its voices among the most natural. Speechify has a longer track record and more ratings, but also a long list of billing complaints.
Does ElevenLabs use my voice to train its AI?
By default, yes. Its privacy policy says inputs and outputs, including voice data, may be used to train models, with an opt-out under Data use in account settings.
Scores are based on published evidence, not lab tests. How we score.
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