ElevenLabs launches Speech Engine: bring-your-own-LLM voice layer for existing chat agents
On 2026-05-20 ElevenLabs introduced Speech Engine, an API and SDK that turns an existing text chat agent into a voice agent. ElevenLabs handles transcription, TTS, turn-taking and interruption, while the developer's own server and LLM keep the conversation logic.
Key facts
- Announced on X 2026-05-20: 'turn their existing chat agent into a full voice agent with one prompt'
- Combines ElevenLabs speech, transcription and voice-orchestration models in one pipeline; works with any LLM (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, ...)
- WebSocket-based; JavaScript and Python SDKs manage connection lifecycle, turn-taking and interruption cancellation
- 70+ languages; SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, EU data residency, zero-retention mode (AlternativeTo summary)
- Pricing page lists burst pricing of $0.16/min; the standard per-minute rate ($0.08) is from a lead, not confirmed in our fetch
- 2026-09-21 changelog: new cascade_timeout_seconds parameter (2-15 s, default 4)
What happened
ElevenLabs split its voice-agent stack. ElevenAgents is the full hosted platform, and Speech Engine is a thin voice layer for teams that already have a text agent and want to keep their own LLM and logic.
Why it matters
It is the cascaded ("STT -> your LLM -> TTS") answer to end-to-end speech-to-speech models from OpenAI, Google and xAI. Developers keep full control of the model and tools and get ElevenLabs voices and turn-taking.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created
Related posts (1)
- ElevenLabs ElevenLabs @ElevenLabs · x · 2026-05-20
Cited as a source by: 2026-05-20-elevenlabs-speech-engine
Related events
- ElevenLabs launches Reception, an AI phone receptionist for small businesses built on ElevenAgents ★★
Sources (5)
- officialElevenLabs on X: Introducing Speech Engine
- docsElevenLabs docs: Speech Engine
- officialElevenLabs: Turn your chat agent into a voice agent
- officialElevenLabs API pricing
- pressAlternativeTo: ElevenLabs launches Speech Engine
id: 2026-05-20-elevenlabs-speech-engine · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline