ElevenLabs Hello World

Overview

Generate speech from text using the ElevenLabs TTS API. This skill covers the core POST /v1/text-to-speech/{voice_id} endpoint with real voice IDs, model selection, and audio output.

Prerequisites

• Completed elevenlabs-install-auth setup
• Valid API key in ELEVENLABS_API_KEY

Instructions

Step 1: Text-to-Speech with the SDK

TypeScript (recommended):

import { ElevenLabsClient } from "@elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js";
import { createWriteStream } from "fs";
import { Readable } from "stream";
import { pipeline } from "stream/promises";

const client = new ElevenLabsClient();

async function generateSpeech() {
  // Use a pre-made voice — "Rachel" is a default voice available on all accounts
  // Find voice IDs via: GET /v1/voices
  const audio = await client.textToSpeech.convert("21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM", {
    text: "Hello! This is your first ElevenLabs text-to-speech generation.",
    model_id: "eleven_multilingual_v2",  // Best quality, 29 languages
    voice_settings: {
      stability: 0.5,           // 0-1: lower = more expressive
      similarity_boost: 0.75,   // 0-1: higher = closer to original voice
      style: 0.0,               // 0-1: higher = more dramatic (costs more latency)
      speed: 1.0,               // 0.7-1.2: speech speed multiplier
    },
  });

  // audio is a ReadableStream — pipe to file
  await pipeline(
    Readable.fromWeb(audio as any),
    createWriteStream("output.mp3")
  );

  console.log("Audio saved to output.mp3");
}

generateSpeech().catch(console.error);

Python:

from elevenlabs.client import ElevenLabsClient

client = ElevenLabsClient()

audio = client.text_to_speech.convert(
    voice_id="21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM",  # Rachel
    text="Hello! This is your first ElevenLabs text-to-speech generation.",
    model_id="eleven_multilingual_v2",
    voice_settings={
        "stability": 0.5,
        "similarity_boost": 0.75,
        "style": 0.0,
    },
)

with open("output.mp3", "wb") as f:
    for chunk in audio:
        f.write(chunk)

print("Audio saved to output.mp3")

Step 2: Using cURL (Raw REST API)

curl -X POST "https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/text-to-speech/21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM" \
  -H "xi-api-key: ${ELEVENLABS_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "text": "Hello from the ElevenLabs API!",
    "model_id": "eleven_multilingual_v2",
    "voice_settings": {
      "stability": 0.5,
      "similarity_boost": 0.75
    }
  }' \
  --output output.mp3

Step 3: Streaming TTS (Low Latency)

For real-time playback, use the streaming endpoint:

async function streamSpeech() {
  const audioStream = await client.textToSpeech.stream("21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM", {
    text: "This audio is streamed in real-time for low-latency playback.",
    model_id: "eleven_flash_v2_5",  // Optimized for streaming (~75ms latency)
    output_format: "mp3_22050_32",  // codec_sampleRate_bitrate
  });

  // Stream chunks arrive as they're generated
  const writer = createWriteStream("streamed.mp3");
  for await (const chunk of audioStream) {
    writer.write(chunk);
  }
  writer.end();
  console.log("Streamed audio saved to streamed.mp3");
}

Available Models

Model ID	Quality	Latency	Languages	Cost (credits/char)
eleven_v3	Highest expressiveness	Medium	70+	1.0
eleven_multilingual_v2	High quality, emotional	Medium	29	1.0
eleven_flash_v2_5	Good, ultra-fast	~75ms	32	0.5
eleven_turbo_v2_5	Good, fast	Low	32	0.5
eleven_monolingual_v1	English only	Low	1	0.5

Common Default Voice IDs

Voice	ID	Style
Rachel	21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM	Calm, narration
Domi	AZnzlk1XvdvUeBnXmlld	Strong, assertive
Bella	EXAVITQu4vr4xnSDxMaL	Soft, warm
Antoni	ErXwobaYiN019PkySvjV	Well-rounded, male
Josh	TxGEqnHWrfWFTfGW9XjX	Deep, narrative

Output Formats

Specified as codec_sampleRate_bitrate:

• mp3_44100_128 (default, high quality)
• mp3_22050_32 (smaller file, streaming)
• pcm_16000 (raw PCM for processing)
• pcm_44100 (high-quality raw)
• ulaw_8000 (telephony)

Error Handling

Error	HTTP	Cause	Solution
voice_not_found	404	Invalid voice_id	Use GET /v1/voices to list valid IDs
invalid_api_key	401	Bad or missing key	Check ELEVENLABS_API_KEY env var
model_not_found	400	Wrong model_id string	Use exact IDs from models table
text_too_long	400	Exceeds 5,000 chars	Split into chunks; use streaming for long text
quota_exceeded	401	Monthly character limit hit	Check usage at elevenlabs.io/app/usage

Resources

• TTS API Reference
• Stream API Reference
• Models Overview
• Voice Library

Next Steps

Proceed to elevenlabs-local-dev-loop for development workflow setup, or elevenlabs-core-workflow-a for voice cloning.