---
title: "ElevenLabs vs OpenAI: TTS latency & word error rate — independent benchmark | Openbenchmarks"
description: "ElevenLabs vs OpenAI text-to-speech, compared on measured Time to First Audio (TTFA) and Word Error Rate — independent benchmark data on identical inputs, refreshed daily. Not vendor claims."
url: https://openbenchmarks.com/text-to-speech-benchmark-by-coval/elevenlabs-vs-openai
---

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[benchmarks](https://openbenchmarks.com/) / [tts by coval](https://openbenchmarks.com/text-to-speech-benchmark-by-coval) / elevenlabs vs openai 

text-to-speech head-to-head · data by Coval 

# ElevenLabs vs OpenAI: Text-to-Speechlatency & accuracy

Measured head-to-head, not marketing: **ElevenLabs** currently leads both measured axes: median TTFA and Word Error Rate. Independent data, refreshed daily, on identical inputs. Voice quality and price are not measured.

\[00\] verdict

## ElevenLabs or OpenAI: which is better?

Each provider's best model on each measured axis, last 7d. Lower is better on both:

| Axis | ElevenLabs (best model) | OpenAI (best model) | Measured winner |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Speed**: median TTFA | eleven\_flash\_v2\_5 · **186 ms** | gpt-4o-mini-tts · **2,675 ms** | **ElevenLabs** |
| **Accuracy**: avg WER | eleven\_v3\_conversational · **1.6%** | gpt-4o-mini-tts · **1.6%** | **ElevenLabs** |

Not measured here: **voice quality / naturalness and price**. Treat those as vendor claims until measured. Full leaderboard context: [the independent text-to-speech benchmark →](https://openbenchmarks.com/text-to-speech-benchmark-by-coval) 

\[01\] every model

## Every ElevenLabs and OpenAI model, measured

All benchmarked models from both providers on the same pinned dataset, ranked fastest-first (median TTFA), last 7d:

| Model | Provider | TTFA median | TTFA p95 | WER | Samples |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **eleven\_flash\_v2\_5** | ElevenLabs | **186 ms** | 230 ms | 1.7% | 665 |
| **eleven\_v4\_turbo** | ElevenLabs | **192 ms** | 271 ms | 1.6% | 672 |
| **eleven\_v3\_conversational** | ElevenLabs | **320 ms** | 401 ms | 1.6% | 665 |
| **gpt-4o-mini-tts** | OpenAI | **2,675 ms** | 5,356 ms | 1.6% | 662 |

\[02\] source

## Data by Coval

Coval sells voice-agent evaluation infrastructure. Numbers are a rolling 7d aggregate on a pinned dataset under production-realistic conditions. Openbenchmarks mirrors the results with attribution; methodology and runner are open-source.

synced from Coval 2026-10-11 11:51 UTC · [full TTS benchmark →](https://openbenchmarks.com/text-to-speech-benchmark-by-coval) · [methodology →](https://github.com/coval-ai/benchmarks) 

\[03\] faq

## ElevenLabs vs OpenAI: common questions

### Is ElevenLabs faster than OpenAI for text-to-speech?

On the current 7d window, ElevenLabs's fastest model (eleven\_flash\_v2\_5) has a median TTFA of 186 ms, vs 2,675 ms for OpenAI's fastest (gpt-4o-mini-tts), so ElevenLabs is faster on measured median latency. Distributions matter too: p95 is 230 ms for ElevenLabs vs 5,356 ms for OpenAI.

### Which is more accurate, ElevenLabs or OpenAI?

By Word Error Rate: ElevenLabs's best model (eleven\_v3\_conversational) averages 1.6%, vs 1.6% for OpenAI's best (gpt-4o-mini-tts). ElevenLabs leads on measured accuracy. Lower is better; WER is measured on identical inputs under production-realistic conditions.

### Which should I pick, ElevenLabs or OpenAI?

ElevenLabs currently leads both measured axes (median TTFA and WER). Full per-model distributions are in the table below; voice quality / naturalness and price are not measured here.

### Where does this data come from?

Coval sells voice-agent evaluation infrastructure. Every model runs the same pinned dataset under production-realistic conditions. The table is a rolling 7d aggregate, not a single job; Openbenchmarks mirrors it with attribution. Methodology and runner are open-source (Apache-2.0).