Unlimited Open Source Models
Get PlanLast updated · By ModelsLab Engineering
ElevenLabs lists its Sound Effects API at $0.12 per minute of audio, or $0.002 a second. The ModelsLab sound effects API runs Stable Audio Open 1.0 at $0.001 a second — half that rate — with no per-effect charge on the $149/month plan. You give up clips longer than 15 seconds and the loop option, and you can still call ElevenLabs on the same key.
The two APIs side by side, from each provider's own pages.
| ElevenLabs Sound Effects | ModelsLab sound effects API | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Sound Effects v2 (eleven_text_to_sound_v2) | Stable Audio Open 1.0 |
| Price | $0.12 / minute of audio ($0.002 / s) | $0.001 / s, $0.0047 minimum |
| 10-second effect | $0.02 | $0.01 |
| Unlimited plan | No | $149/month, no per-effect charge |
| Clip length | 0.5 to 30 s | 3 to 15 s (whole seconds) |
| Output | MP3; WAV 48 kHz for non-looping effects; PCM, Opus | mp3, wav or flac, 44.1 kHz stereo |
| Loop option | Yes | No |
| Response | Audio bytes in the response body | File URL in output, fetch by id, or webhook |
| Other APIs on the same key | Speech, voice, music, dubbing | Image, video, speech, LLMs, and ElevenLabs SFX at $0.06 / generation |
Read on October 6, 2026. ElevenLabs lists Sound Effects at $0.12 per minute on its API pricing page; the same page's FAQ says sound effects are billed per generation, and its docs say 40 credits per second when a duration is set.
At $0.001 a second, a 10-second effect costs $0.01 on ModelsLab against $0.02 on ElevenLabs. At volume the gap widens: on the $149/month Open Source Unlimited plan, effects carry no per-effect charge, which beats ElevenLabs’ per-minute price from about 7,450 ten-second effects a month. If your product already uses ModelsLab for image, video or speech, sound effects join the same key and the same bill.
ElevenLabs Sound Effects v2 allows clips up to 30 seconds and has a loop option, and a different model will not sound the same on your prompts. If those are why you chose it, compare Stable Audio Open on your own prompts before you move, or keep ElevenLabs. You can also keep calling it through ModelsLab with model_id eleven_sound_effect at $0.06 per generation, but if ElevenLabs is the only model you use, its own API is cheaper.
For clip-by-clip prices across fourteen offers, see sound effects API pricing.
The same sound effect on each API. Map text to prompt and duration_seconds to duration.
1curl -X POST 'https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/sound-generation' \2 -H 'xi-api-key: YOUR_ELEVENLABS_API_KEY' \3 -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \4 -d '{5 "text": "Heavy wooden door creaking open slowly in a stone hallway",6 "duration_seconds": 57 }' \8 --output door.mp3
1curl -X POST 'https://modelslab.com/api/v6/voice/sfx' \2 -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \3 -d '{4 "key": "YOUR_MODELSLAB_API_KEY",5 "prompt": "Heavy wooden door creaking open slowly in a stone hallway",6 "duration": 5,7 "output_format": "mp3"8 }'9# The response carries the file URL in "output".
Four unedited 5-second effects from the ModelsLab endpoint, generated on October 6, 2026. Run the same prompts on ElevenLabs and compare by ear before you move a production workload.
Every text-to-sound-effects offer we priced, sorted by the cost of one 10-second effect.
| Provider | Model | Listed price | 10-second effect | Max length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pika (dev.pika.art) | Pika SFX | $0.0002 / second + $10/month membership | $0.002 | 20 s |
| Replicate | MMAudio (zsxkib/mmaudio) | ≈ $0.0049 / run (L40S GPU time) | ≈ $0.0049 | Not published |
| ModelsLab | Stable Audio Open 1.0 | $0.001 / second, $0.0047 minimum; none on the $149 plan | $0.01 | 15 s |
| fal | MMAudio V2 | $0.001 / second | $0.01 | 30 s |
| fal | Sonilo v1.1 | $0.0018 / second | $0.018 | 180 s |
| ElevenLabs | Sound Effects v2 (eleven_text_to_sound_v2) | $0.12 / minute of audio | $0.02 | 30 s |
| fal | ElevenLabs Sound Effects V2 | $0.002 / second | $0.02 | 22 s |
| fal | Stable Audio 3 Small SFX | $0.0206 / audio | $0.0206 | 120 s |
| WaveSpeed | Kling text-to-audio | $0.035 / run | $0.035 (max 10 s) | 10 s |
| Segmind | ElevenLabs sound generation | $0.05 / generation | $0.05 | Not published |
| ModelsLab | ElevenLabs Sound Effects (eleven_sound_effect) | $0.06 / generation | $0.06 | Not published |
| WaveSpeed | Mirelo SFX 1.6 | $0.01 / second | $0.10 | 60 s |
| Stability AI | Stable Audio 2.5 | 20 credits ($0.20) / generation | $0.20 | 190 s |
| fal | Stable Audio 2.5 | $0.20 / audio | $0.20 | 190 s |
Every price read on the provider's own page on October 6, 2026, in the unit the provider publishes. ElevenLabs lists Sound Effects at $0.12 per minute on its API pricing page, while its FAQ says sound effects are billed per generation and its docs say 40 credits per second when a duration is set. Replicate bills GPU time, so its cost per run varies. Pika's $10/month membership is charged on top of usage.
Every price and limit on this page, with the page we read it on and the date.
The ModelsLab endpoint: price, limits, samples, curl and Python.
Price per second and per 10-second effect across 14 offers.
ElevenLabs, Pika, MMAudio, Stable Audio and ModelsLab compared.
Request errors logged per endpoint, last seven days.
Stable Audio Open 1.0 at $0.001 per second.
Price per second across 14 offers.
ElevenLabs, Pika, MMAudio and ModelsLab compared.
Image, video and speech prices side by side.
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