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You can build a custom speaking assistant in ElevenLabs without assembling speech recognition, a language model, and text-to-speech yourself. Use ElevenAgents—the current product name for ElevenLabs’ conversational-agent platform—to set its job, voice, knowledge, and tools, then test it before connecting it to a website, app, or phone workflow. A lifelike voice is only one part of a convincing agent: concise answers, sensible turn-taking, grounded information, and reliable actions matter just as much.
What you are building
Text-to-speech turns text into audio. A voice, whether selected from a library, designed, or cloned with permission, determines how that audio sounds. A conversational agent manages the interaction: it takes in what a person says, responds using a language model, can retrieve information or call tools, and speaks back. A website widget, mobile app, or telephone connection is the interface through which people use it.
ElevenAgents brings these pieces into a hosted workflow, with configuration for voice, models, knowledge, tools, conversation behavior, testing, and deployment. It is more than a voice generator, but natural speech does not guarantee correct reasoning, safe decisions, or successful transactions. For a first build, a customer-support assistant is a useful example: it can answer shipping and returns questions, collect details for a support request, and send billing disputes to a human.
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- A narrow purpose: Decide what the agent should accomplish and what it must hand off. “Answer common shipping questions and create a support request” is more manageable than “handle all customer service.”
- Approved source material: Gather current FAQs, policies, product information, and procedures. Keep internal-only content out of a public agent.
- Tool requirements: List any live action or data lookup, such as checking an order or creating a ticket. Those usually require a connected tool or backend, not just a document.
- A voice and language decision: Consider audience, brand, pronunciation, and whether speed or expressive delivery matters more.
- Test cases and escalation path: Prepare real questions, failure scenarios, and a clear destination for requests the agent cannot handle.
Create a blank ElevenLabs agent
Sign in to ElevenLabs, open ElevenAgents in the dashboard, create a new assistant, give it a descriptive name, and choose Blank template for a custom setup. The official quickstart documents this dashboard path. Names such as “Acme Support – Staging” and “Acme Support – Production” make it easier to distinguish test and live agents.
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The dashboard is the quickest route for a prototype or for people who want to iterate on behavior and voice visually. Developers can also manage agents through the API or Agents CLI, which is more useful for programmatic configuration and deployment workflows. Do not assume that every setting appears identically in every interface: check the current documentation for the route you choose, since dashboard labels and API schemas can change.
Write the system prompt
Give the agent a clear job, a defined audience, boundaries, and instructions for uncertainty. “Sound human” is too vague to guide a reliable voice interaction. Tell it to be concise, ask one question at a time, avoid unsupported claims, and verify tool results before reporting that an action succeeded.
You are [NAME], the voice assistant for [COMPANY].
Primary objective:
Help customers with [SPECIFIC TASK].
Tone:
Be warm, calm, concise, and professional. Use natural conversational language.
Avoid scripted enthusiasm and unnecessary filler.
Knowledge:
Use the connected knowledge base for company-specific facts.
If the answer is not supported, say you do not have enough information and
offer the approved next step. Do not guess about policies or account details.
Conversation:
Ask one question at a time. Keep most spoken answers to one or two short
sentences unless the user asks for more detail. Confirm important details
before taking action.
Tools:
Use [TOOL] only when [REQUIRED CONDITIONS] are met. Do not say an action
succeeded until the tool returns a successful result.
Safety and escalation:
Do not provide [RESTRICTED ADVICE OR INFORMATION]. Escalate when [CONDITIONS].
If the user asks for a human, explain the next step and route them as configured.
Ending:
Ask whether the user needs anything else before ending. Close politely when
the user is finished.Adapt the template instead of leaving bracketed placeholders in the live agent. Add rules for personal data, authentication, call endings, and any topics that need human review. Keep behavior instructions in the prompt and factual company material in the knowledge base; duplicating policies in multiple places can create contradictions.
Add a knowledge base—and use tools for live work
Add authoritative material such as product documentation, FAQs, return terms, operating hours, shipping information, and troubleshooting guides. ElevenLabs describes knowledge retrieval as a way to ground answers in connected sources, but retrieval does not guarantee accuracy. Before upload, remove obsolete policies, resolve conflicting versions, use clear document names, and date information that changes over time. Keep customer-facing and internal material separate.
Rank #2
- YOUR AI PERSONAL ASSISTANT FOR EVERYDAY PRODUCTIVITY: More than a voice recorder, Pocket works as your AI personal assistant to capture, transcribe, and summarize meetings, calls, and ideas instantly. Core features are included out of the box, with optional advanced tools available for power users.
- ONE-TAP RECORDING FOR REAL-LIFE MOMENTS: Capture meetings, phone calls, and in-person conversations instantly with a simple tap, no typing, no interruptions, just effortless note-taking anywhere you go.
- SMART AI INSIGHTS & ORGANIZATION: Pocket automatically turns recordings into clear summaries, key action items and structured conversation maps so you can quickly review what matters without digging through audio.
- TURN CONVERSATIONS INTO ACTION WITH “ASK POCKET”: Don’t just record, understand. Instantly ask questions across your meetings, extract key insights and generate next steps in seconds. All grounded in your recordings, so answers stay accurate and reliable.
- MAGSAFE COMPATIBLE FOR SEAMLESS USE: Easily attach Pocket to your iPhone or other MagSafe compatible devices for convenient, hands-free recording on the go. Perfect for capturing meetings, calls, and ideas without needing to hold your device.
Use documents for stable answers such as “What are your support hours?” or “How do I reset my password?” Use a tool or backend integration for changing information or actions: “Where is my order?”, “Book an appointment,” or “Create a support ticket.” A policy document cannot safely substitute for a live order system.
For a support-ticket tool, define the required fields, validate them, and explain what counts as success or failure. Ask the customer to confirm before submitting consequential or irreversible actions. Design the tool response so the agent can distinguish a successful ticket from a timeout or rejected request. Never let it announce completion based on an assumption.
Choose, design, or clone the voice
Start with a library voice or an original voice made with Voice Design; cloning is not required for a realistic assistant. Evaluate candidates with the same short script and listen for clarity, pace, warmth, authority, and how the voice handles your brand names, acronyms, and product terms. A highly expressive voice may suit a guided experience but feel wrong for a billing or support conversation.
- Library voice: A practical starting point; check that the voice, language, and intended use are available for your agent and account.
- Voice Design: Use a description of qualities such as accent, vocal texture, energy, and speaking style to create an original persona.
- Voice cloning: Use only a voice you own or are authorized to use. Obtain documented permission; do not imitate a public figure, employee, or customer without consent.
Voice options and cloning features can depend on plan and change over time. Check the current ElevenLabs plan details before choosing a workflow. Add pronunciation guidance for likely trouble spots and test it aloud; unusual spellings, product codes, and names may need phonetic help or confirmation from the caller.
Rank #3
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Set the model, language, and conversation behavior
Choose a language model and voice configuration appropriate to the task. Faster responses generally matter more in a phone queue or a quick support exchange; richer delivery may matter more in a short, brand-led experience. Higher-quality voices, models, retrieval, and tool calls can add delay. A model’s individual inference time is not a promise of end-to-end response time: network conditions, retrieval, turn detection, and external APIs also shape what the user experiences.
Configure how the agent handles pauses, interruptions, silence, and timeouts. A conversational voice agent should let users interrupt or reclaim the turn where the configuration allows it, recover cleanly after interruption, and avoid talking over the user. Set an appropriate timeout so an abandoned session does not stay open indefinitely.
Improve spoken naturalness with short answers, one question at a time, and occasional—not constant—acknowledgments. Avoid reading long numbered lists aloud. Confirm names, dates, quantities, or addresses before acting. Give the agent a pronunciation guide for brand terms. Test actual spoken exchanges: typed prompts alone will not reveal awkward pauses, interruption problems, or unclear pronunciation.
Test before deploying
Use ElevenAgents’ dashboard testing function, identified in the quickstart as Test AI agent, and evaluate conversations against defined criteria. Test both whether the answer is right and whether the agent followed the correct process.
Rank #4
- YOUR AI PERSONAL ASSISTANT FOR EVERYDAY PRODUCTIVITY: More than a voice recorder, Pocket works as your AI personal assistant to capture, transcribe, and summarize meetings, calls, and ideas instantly. Core features are included out of the box, with optional advanced tools available for power users.
- ONE-TAP RECORDING FOR REAL-LIFE MOMENTS: Capture meetings, phone calls, and in-person conversations instantly with a simple tap, no typing, no interruptions, just effortless note-taking anywhere you go.
- SMART AI INSIGHTS & ORGANIZATION: Pocket automatically turns recordings into clear summaries, key action items and structured conversation maps so you can quickly review what matters without digging through audio.
- TURN CONVERSATIONS INTO ACTION WITH “ASK POCKET”: Don’t just record, understand. Instantly ask questions across your meetings, extract key insights and generate next steps in seconds. All grounded in your recordings, so answers stay accurate and reliable.
- MAGSAFE COMPATIBLE FOR SEAMLESS USE: Easily attach Pocket to your iPhone or other MagSafe compatible devices for convenient, hands-free recording on the go. Perfect for capturing meetings, calls, and ideas without needing to hold your device.
| Test area | Try this | Check for |
|---|---|---|
| Common questions | Ask the top expected questions in several phrasings, including incomplete or colloquial speech. | Accurate answers, clear speech, and concise responses. |
| Knowledge gaps | Ask about missing information, stale policies, or conflicting documents. | Admission of uncertainty and appropriate escalation instead of invention. |
| Tool behavior | Omit a field, provide malformed details, repeat a request, and test an API error or timeout. | Validation, safe retry behavior, no duplicate action, and no false success claim. |
| Turn-taking | Interrupt it, pause, change subjects, correct it, ask for repetition, or end abruptly. | Recovery without repeating the entire conversation or speaking over the user. |
| Boundaries | Request restricted advice or private information, ask for a human, or use an unsupported language. | Respect for limits and a clear next step. |
Useful evaluation criteria include answer correctness, appropriate tool use, task completion, escalation, unsupported claims, required information collection, concision, tone, pronunciation, and interruption recovery. ElevenLabs’ documented analysis criteria can classify conversations as success, failure, or unknown with a rationale. Review failed and unknown cases, update the prompt, knowledge, or tool behavior, then rerun the tests. Continue monitoring after launch rather than treating a successful demo as proof that the agent is ready for every conversation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Deploy to a website, app, or phone workflow
For a website prototype, use the widget setup in the current ElevenLabs dashboard or documentation. The quickstart shows an embed route; a script pattern documented for the widget is:
<script src="https://unpkg.com/@elevenlabs/convai-widget-embed" async type="text/javascript"></script>The script alone is not a complete installation: the widget also needs the current agent identifier and any required configuration. Copy the live embed snippet and parameters from your dashboard rather than reusing an old tutorial’s attributes. Test the widget on the actual site, on supported browsers and devices, and confirm that authentication and data access are appropriate.
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ElevenAgents also describes mobile, telephony, and API-based application deployment. Availability and setup can vary by account, provider, and geography, so verify the current route before planning a launch. A phone deployment needs particular attention to interruption handling, noisy environments, timeouts, escalation, and call costs.
Best Value
- [AI Smart Recorder for Work & Study] The AI voice recorder is ideal for meetings, interviews, lectures, and study sessions. Powered by advanced AI models, the app offers highly accurate transcription, smart summaries, and AI-generated mind maps to boost productivity. With the "Ask AI" feature, you can analyze recordings, identify key points, and gain actionable insights. Transcribe and summarize in 90+ languages, and translate conversations in real time across 91 languages to communicate more easily in international meetings, academic research, and cross-cultural settings.
- [Simple One-Touch Operation] Voice Recorder makes operation effortless — simply slide the power switch and press the red button, and recording starts in a split second. Press the same button again to save your file instantly with a time-stamped name, so you can capture important details during busy moments. For review, use A-B repeat and variable speed playback without distortion. Time-slot recording and voice activation are available in a clean, intuitive menu. Transfer files quickly via Boean app or USB-C for secure, hassle-free management.
- [Long Battery & Massive Storage] Operate this long-lasting portable recording device continuously for 30 hours on one charge and store up to 4700 hours of audio. Capture professional meetings, college lectures, field research, or interviews without battery and storage anxiety. Power-optimized for travelers and high-volume users. (Note: Bluetooth for file transfer, no Wi-Fi needed for recording)
- [Dual Mic Clear Voice Capture] Built with dual high-sensitivity microphones and AI noise reduction, AI voice recorder captures voices from 360°. Voice-activated recording starts when people speak and pauses during silence, helping reduce unnecessary storage usage.
What ElevenAgents costs
ElevenLabs says creating an agent itself is free, but using it consumes usage. Its pricing page listed the following plan figures when checked on August 18, 2026; pricing, included minutes, promotions, and feature availability can change, so verify the current Agents pricing before budgeting.
| Plan | Monthly price shown | Included call minutes | Concurrent calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 15 | 4 |
| Starter | $6 | 75 | 6 |
| Creator | $22 ($11 first month shown) | 275 | 10 |
| Pro | $99 | 1,238 | 20 |
| Scale | $299 | 3,738 | 30 |
| Business | $990 | 12,375 | 40 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom |
The same page listed additional minutes at $0.08 per minute, text messages at $0.003 each, and burst pricing at $0.16 per minute when calls temporarily exceed the concurrency allowance. These figures are a dated pricing snapshot, not a guaranteed quote. The cost documentation says voice-only usage is based primarily on connection duration, not just the seconds the agent speaks; silence longer than 10 seconds receives a 95% discount for voice-only calls. Multimodal interactions can add message charges, and language-model and telephony costs are separate.
Budget for more than the plan line item:
ElevenAgents usage
+ language-model charges
+ telephony charges, if used
+ external API costs
+ logging, storage, and monitoring
+ human escalation and supportA free allowance can validate a prototype’s prompt, voice, knowledge, and widget, but it is not unlimited production capacity. Estimate realistic call duration, monthly volume, peak concurrent calls, and the cost of connected services before selecting a plan.
Common problems and practical fixes
- Confident but unsupported answers: The knowledge may be missing, stale, or contradictory. Make uncertainty behavior explicit, keep one authoritative source per policy, and test questions the agent cannot answer.
- Good voice, awkward conversation: Long answers, canned enthusiasm, slow turns, or poor interruption handling can undermine a natural voice. Shorten responses, remove repetitive filler, and test spoken interruptions.
- Tool action is wrong or duplicated: Add input validation, confirmation for consequential actions, structured error states, and duplicate-request protections. Have the agent report success only after a successful backend response.
- Mispronounced names or products: Add pronunciation notes, test representative terms, and have the agent confirm ambiguous names or codes.
- Private information leaks: Separate internal and public agents, exclude secrets and customer records from public knowledge, and use authentication and authorization for protected data and tools. ElevenAgents documents authentication and dynamic configuration options, but they do not replace secure backend access control.
- Unexpected bills: Account for connection time, model and telephony charges, messages, overages, and concurrency. Set sensible timeouts, monitor usage, and review current rates before launch.
When ElevenAgents may not be the right fit
ElevenAgents is a reasonable fit when you want a hosted agent, voice quality is central, and you prefer a faster route to web, mobile, or telephony deployment than assembling the whole real-time stack. It is less suitable when you need private, fully controlled infrastructure, deterministic responses for every input, highly specialized orchestration, or already operate a mature voice platform.
A custom alternative typically combines streaming speech recognition, an LLM, tool or workflow orchestration, streaming text-to-speech, turn-taking, session management, and monitoring. That approach gives a team more control over components and data flow but requires engineering and ongoing operations. The trade-off is convenience and integrated tooling versus low-level control and platform independence.
A reliable build sequence
Start with one bounded use case. Create a blank agent, write explicit rules, add current and approved knowledge, choose a suitable voice, and configure turn-taking. Connect only the tools the task needs, with validation and confirmation. Test normal conversations and failures, deploy to a limited audience, then monitor quality, usage, and escalation before expanding scope. That process does more to create a believable and useful speech agent than voice selection alone.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
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