ElevenLabs SDK review

Q: How do I install ElevenLabs SDK?

Run pip install elevenlabs. It needs Node.js >=18.0.0. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

ElevenLabs SDK is the official Python library for the ElevenLabs API, covering text-to-speech, voice cloning, streaming audio and voice agents.

Updated Nov 1, 2026. Review written Oct 22, 2026 from the project's own sources; usage data refreshed every Monday.

TL;DR

ElevenLabs SDK is the official Python SDK for the ElevenLabs API. It is for Python developers adding speech synthesis, voice cloning or real-time voice agents to their apps. It includes sync and async clients, audio streaming, ElevenAgents conversations with custom tools, and Speech Engine for server-side agents that use any LLM.

3.2kGitHub stars
+15new stars, week of Oct 25
~4Mdownloads a week, +15% vs 4-week avg
#10in Voice and realtime this week

ElevenLabs SDK at a glance

Category: Voice and realtime
Maintained by: ElevenLabs (organization, @elevenlabs on GitHub)
License: MIT
Language: Python
Repository: github.com/elevenlabs/elevenlabs-python
Website: elevenlabs.io/docs/api-reference/overview
npm package: @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js 2.74.0
PyPI package: elevenlabs 2.74.1
Latest release: v2.74.1 on GitHub, Oct 20, 2026
First published: Mar 26, 2023

What ElevenLabs SDK does

ElevenLabs SDK converts text to speech with models such as eleven_v3, eleven_multilingual_v2, eleven_flash_v2_5 and eleven_turbo_v2_5.
ElevenLabs SDK streams audio in real time as it is generated. You can play it locally or process the bytes yourself.
ElevenLabs SDK lists your available voices and reads default voice settings. It also creates instant voice clones from sample audio files.
ElevenLabs SDK runs ElevenAgents conversations with real-time audio input and output. Agents can call sync or async tools you register.
ElevenLabs SDK Speech Engine runs a WebSocket server that receives user transcripts and streams LLM responses back for speech synthesis.
ElevenLabs SDK auto-detects LLM stream formats from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Gemini when sending Speech Engine responses.
ElevenLabs SDK exposes raw responses with headers, including the character cost and request IDs for each generation.

How it works

ElevenLabs SDK is a Python client for the ElevenLabs HTTP API. You create an ElevenLabs or AsyncElevenLabs client with an API key. For Speech Engine, your server acts as a WebSocket endpoint. ElevenLabs connects to it and sends transcripts, and your handler replies. If the user interrupts mid-response, the SDK cancels the previous handler automatically. Speech Engine can also plug into FastAPI or Starlette through create_session().

How to install and start using ElevenLabs SDK

With pip

pip install elevenlabs

Node.js library

npm install @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js

Requirements

Python >=3.8 and <4.0.
An ElevenLabs API key. Voice cloning explicitly requires one.
Node.js >=18.0.0 for the separate JavaScript library.

First steps

Install the package with pip install elevenlabs.
Provide your API key, either with api_key= on the client or through the ELEVENLABS_API_KEY environment variable.
Call elevenlabs.text_to_speech.convert with text, a voice_id and a model_id, then play the result with play().
List the voices available to you with elevenlabs.voices.search().

Who ElevenLabs SDK is for

Python developers adding text-to-speech or streaming audio to applications.
Teams building voice agents that call custom tools during real-time conversations.
Backend developers who want to pair their own LLM with ElevenLabs voice over WebSockets.

Limitations to know

Speech Engine is async-only and available only on AsyncElevenLabs.
The library is generated programmatically, so pull requests to the code cannot be merged as-is.
Disabling Speech Engine authentication lets any client that can reach the server open sessions, unless a network restriction such as an IP allowlist is in place.
With a custom event loop in ClientTools, you manage the loop's lifecycle yourself.

Is ElevenLabs SDK growing? Usage data

In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, ElevenLabs SDK ranked #173 on the Devtoolwatch Board and #10 in Voice and realtime, with a momentum score of 48 out of 100. Its main package had about 4M downloads that week, +15% against its own 4-week average.

New GitHub stars per week for the last 12 weeks, from GitHub's stargazer history (today's stargazers by the week they starred).

Show the weekly numbers

New GitHub stars per week for ElevenLabs SDK
Week of	New stars
Aug 9, 2026	7
Aug 16, 2026	13
Aug 23, 2026	6
Aug 30, 2026	5
Sep 6, 2026	9
Sep 13, 2026	10
Sep 20, 2026	11
Sep 27, 2026	14
Oct 4, 2026	8
Oct 11, 2026	12
Oct 18, 2026	10
Oct 25, 2026	15

On Hacker News

This Voice Doesn't Exist – Generative Voice AI, 448 points and 260 comments (Jan 12, 2023)
Eleven v3, 293 points and 164 comments (Jun 5, 2025)
Eleven Music, 207 points and 271 comments (Aug 5, 2025)
Voice Isolator: Strip background noise for film, podcast, interview production, 163 points and 131 comments (Jul 3, 2024)
ElevenLabs Launches Voice Translation Tool to Break Down Language Barriers, 129 points and 51 comments (Oct 10, 2023)

The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.

ElevenLabs SDK alternatives

Other voice and realtime AI tools on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:

Voice and realtime ranked by momentum, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026
Rank	Tool	Stars	Downloads/wk
#1	faster-whisperfaster-whisper is a Python reimplementation of OpenAI's Whisper speech-to-text model built on the CTranslate2 inference engine for…	26.4k	4.4M
#2	KokoroKokoro is a Python inference library for Kokoro-82M, an open-weight text-to-speech model with 82 million parameters.	9.8k	150.7k
#3	ChatterboxChatterbox is a family of open-source text-to-speech and voice cloning models by Resemble AI, with English and multilingual variants.	27.5k	73.2k
#4	VoiceMemInfrastructure for the next generation of voice agents, designed to provide universal memory. It is divided into a left brain and a…	2.8k	–
#5	PipecatPipecat is an open-source Python framework for building real-time voice and multimodal conversational agents, maintained by Daily and…	17k	348.5k
#6	WhisperXWhisperX is a Python speech recognition tool built on Whisper that adds word-level timestamps and speaker diarization.	25k	158.6k

All voice and realtime AI tools, ranked

Recent ElevenLabs SDK releases

v2.74.1, Oct 20, 2026
v2.74.0, Oct 20, 2026
v2.73.1, Oct 17, 2026
v2.73.0, Oct 15, 2026
v2.72.0, Oct 13, 2026

ElevenLabs SDK FAQ

Is ElevenLabs SDK free and open source?

Yes. ElevenLabs SDK's source code is on GitHub (elevenlabs/elevenlabs-python) under the MIT license, so you can use it for free. Its website also links to a pricing page (https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/api) for any paid plans.

How do I install ElevenLabs SDK?

Run pip install elevenlabs. It needs Node.js >=18.0.0. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Is ElevenLabs SDK still maintained?

Yes. The elevenlabs/elevenlabs-python repository was last updated on Oct 20, 2026, and the latest release, v2.74.1 on GitHub, came out on Oct 20, 2026.

How popular is ElevenLabs SDK?

ElevenLabs SDK has 3.2k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 15 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 10 a week. Its main package had about 4M downloads that week, +15% against its own 4-week average. That made it #10 among voice and realtime AI tools on the Devtoolwatch Board.

What are the best alternatives to ElevenLabs SDK?

Other voice and realtime AI tools on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: faster-whisper (#1), Kokoro (#2), Chatterbox (#3), VoiceMem (#4), Pipecat (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

Which text-to-speech models can the ElevenLabs SDK use?

ElevenLabs SDK examples use four main models. Eleven v3 supports 70+ languages and multi-speaker dialogue. Eleven Multilingual v2 supports 29 languages and is recommended for most use cases. Eleven Flash v2.5 offers ultra-low latency. Eleven Turbo v2.5 balances quality and latency.

Does the ElevenLabs SDK support async code?

Yes. ElevenLabs SDK provides AsyncElevenLabs for asynchronous API calls. Speech Engine is available only through this async client.

Can I use my own LLM with ElevenLabs voice agents?

Yes. ElevenLabs SDK Speech Engine passes user transcripts to your handler, which can use any LLM. session.send_response() accepts strings or async iterators. It auto-parses OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Gemini streams.

How does the ElevenLabs SDK secure Speech Engine servers?

ElevenLabs SDK verifies the X-Elevenlabs-Speech-Engine-Authorization header on every incoming connection. It rejects requests that ElevenLabs did not sign. You can pass disable_auth=True, but only behind an IP allowlist or a similar restriction.

How can I track character costs with the ElevenLabs SDK?

ElevenLabs SDK provides with_raw_response calls, such as text_to_speech.with_raw_response.convert. These return the response headers. The character-cost header gives the cost, and request-id and x-trace-id help with debugging.

Sources

ElevenLabs SDK README badge

Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:

[![Devtoolwatch](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/badge/elevenlabs-sdk.svg)](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/elevenlabs-sdk/)

How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].