ElevenLabs v4 at $0.022 per 1k characters to Oct 12 vs Sume TTS

ElevenLabs' API pricing page lists Eleven v4 at $0.022 per 1,000 characters through October 12, 2026, then the regular $0.08, and v4 Turbo at $0.011 then $0.04; the page calls the promotion 72% off. Its changelog says v4 launched on September 28. Sume's text to speech is $0.0475 per 1,000 characters, a single rate. For 1 million characters that is $22, $80, $11, $40 and $47.50.

ElevenLabs figures are from its pricing page and changelog, read 2026-10-01. The Sume rate is from the rate card in the API reference. Voice quality, languages and latency are not compared.

What does ElevenLabs list per 1,000 characters?

The page lists a promotional and a regular price for the two v4 models, and older models at their standard prices.

What happens to the comparison on October 13?

The v4 prices return to $0.08 and $0.04 per 1,000 characters on the page's own terms, so a budget built on the promotion needs a second column. Sume's rate does not have a promotional step, but it does carry a 5.5% agent fee by default, which is not in the $47.50.

What are Sume's limits per request?

TTS Router requests accept a transcript of up to 20,000 characters, and audio longer than 1,200 seconds fails with tts_duration_exceeded, so a long script needs splitting. See the Sonic 3.6 ids for the model list.