Make AI Voice

ElevenLabs v3 Audio Tags List & Examples

Every documented v3 audio tag, grouped by what it does — and a dialogue editor right here to hear each one. Click a tag to copy it, paste it into a line, and generate.

Emotions

Set how the line feels.

Delivery & pacing

Change volume, speed and intensity.

Human reactions

Non-verbal sounds a person makes.

Accents & character

Shift the voice's character without switching voices.

Conversation flow

Make multi-speaker dialogue feel real.

Sound effects

Short effects inside the audio.

Try tags in a conversation

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Audio tag examples by use case

Ready-made scripts you can copy. Click Try this script to load one into the editor above, then change the words and voices.

Audiobook & fiction narration

A narrator plus a character, with the emotion carried by the character's lines.

Hank: The letter had been under the door all night. She read it twice before she let herself breathe.

Arabella: [whispers] He knew. [pause] All this time, he knew.

Hank: [slowly] Outside, the rain had finally stopped.

Keep the narrator mostly untagged so the tagged lines stand out. One [pause] inside a line does more than several in a row, and [slowly] on the closing line gives the scene an ending.

Podcast & YouTube banter

Two hosts who sound like they're actually talking to each other.

Liam: So I tried making sourdough this weekend.

Laura: [laughs] Oh no. How did it go?

Liam: [sighs] It's less of a bread and more of a doorstop—

Laura: [interrupting] Wait, wait, you brought it today, didn't you?

Reactions like [laughs] and [sighs] at the start of a reply make the timing feel live. Cut the previous line off with a dash and open the next one with [interrupting].

Ads & promos

A short, punchy read that builds up to the offer.

Phil: [excited] This weekend only, every pair of running shoes is forty percent off.

Phil: [rushed] Online and in store, while sizes last.

Phil: [shouts] Don't miss it!

Use one voice and change the energy line by line: [excited] for the offer, [rushed] for the small print, [shouts] only on the last line. Shouting the whole script just sounds flat at a higher volume.

Game characters & villains

Dialogue for a cutscene, trailer or tabletop session.

Brock: [shouts] Hold the gate! Nobody gets through!

Aria: [laughs] Brave. [softly] And so very foolish.

Brock: [gasps] How did you get behind us?

Contrast is what makes a villain land: the soldier shouts and the villain gets quieter. [softly] after a laugh comes across as more menacing than any amount of [angry].

Meditation & sleep

A slow, calm guided script.

Allison: [softly] Let your shoulders drop. [pause] Breathe in through your nose.

Allison: [slowly] And let it go. [pause] Notice how heavy your hands feel.

Pick a voice that's calm to begin with, then add [softly], [slowly] and [pause]. Tags can soften a voice, but they can't turn an energetic announcer into a meditation guide.

Comedy & sarcasm

Deadpan delivery and a laugh at the end.

Marshal: [sarcastically] Oh good, another meeting that could have been an email.

Lutz: [big laugh] You say that every Monday.

Sarcasm depends on the words. [sarcastically] works when the line is already ironic and does almost nothing on a neutral sentence.

How audio tags work

Tags sit inline in your script, in square brackets, and direct how the next words are performed. You can stack them — “[excited] [shouts] We won!” — and change them mid-line. They're directions, not guarantees: the result depends on the voice, so a naturally deep, calm narrator will interpret [shouts] differently from an energetic announcer.

On this site, tags work in Dialogue mode, which runs Dialogue v3 at 7 credits per 1,000 characters. Tags count toward the characters.

How to add pauses in ElevenLabs

The syntax depends on the model. v3 has its own pause tags and doesn't support the SSML break tag; the older models work the other way round.

Eleven v3 (Dialogue mode on this site)

[pause] [short pause] [long pause]

Put the tag where the gap should go: "I opened the door. [long pause] Nobody was there." These tags only work in v3. Don't use <break> here — ElevenLabs says v3 and v4 don't support it.

Multilingual v2, Turbo v2.5 and other older models

<break time="1.5s" />

Set the length in seconds, up to 3s. Keep it to a few per script: ElevenLabs warns that too many break tags in one generation can make the voice speed up or add artifacts.

Punctuation also works as a softer option on any model: a dash (- or —) for a short break, an ellipsis (…) for a hesitant trailing pause. It's less consistent than a tag, so use a tag when the timing matters.

Common mistakes

  • A tag on every sentence. The voice ends up sounding overacted, and the tags start cancelling each other out. Tag the lines that matter and leave the rest plain.
  • Asking a voice for something it can't do. A soft, calm voice asked to [shouts] may read the tag out loud instead. If a tag gets spoken, change the voice before you change the tag.
  • Using tags outside v3. Turbo 2.5 and Multilingual v2 read the brackets as text. On this site, tags only work in Dialogue mode.
  • Expecting the same take twice. v3 performs a little differently every time. Generate two or three takes of an important line and keep the best one.

Looking for a calm voice to start from? See the meditation voices or the narrator voices.

FAQ

How do I use audio tags?

Put the tag in square brackets right before the words it should affect: "[whispers] Don't turn around." Tags are case-insensitive; lowercase is the convention.

Why did the voice read my tag out loud?

v3 reads a tag as text when the voice can't perform it — for example asking a soft, calm voice to [shouts] repeatedly. Pick a voice with a wider emotional range, or use a gentler tag.

How do I add a pause in ElevenLabs?

In v3, write [pause], [short pause] or [long pause] where the gap should go. Other ElevenLabs models (such as Multilingual v2 and Turbo v2.5) use the SSML break tag instead, like <break time="1.5s" />, for pauses up to 3 seconds. v3 does not support break tags.

Do tags work with Turbo 2.5 or Multilingual v2?

No. Audio tags are a v3 feature. On this site they work in Dialogue mode, which runs v3.

Is this list complete?

It lists the tags ElevenLabs documents. v3 understands many other natural-language directions too — try your own, like [nervously] or [trying not to laugh].

Is this site affiliated with ElevenLabs?

No. We're an independent service that runs ElevenLabs models among others. ElevenLabs is a trademark of its owner.

Tag list based on ElevenLabs' published documentation. Not affiliated with or endorsed by ElevenLabs.