elevenlabs__skills/text-to-speech/references/installation.md

Installation

Python

pip install elevenlabs

Configure your API key:

from elevenlabs import ElevenLabs

# Option 1: Pass directly
client = ElevenLabs(api_key="your-api-key")

# Option 2: Environment variable (recommended)
# Set ELEVEN_API_KEY in your environment
client = ElevenLabs()  # Automatically reads ELEVEN_API_KEY

JavaScript / TypeScript

npm install @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js

Configure your API key:

import { ElevenLabsClient } from "@elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js";

// Option 1: Pass directly
const client = new ElevenLabsClient({ apiKey: "your-api-key" });

// Option 2: Environment variable (recommended)
// Set ELEVEN_API_KEY in your environment
const client = new ElevenLabsClient();

cURL / REST API

Set your API key as an environment variable:

export ELEVEN_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Include in requests:

curl -X POST "https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/text-to-speech/{voice_id}" \
  -H "xi-api-key: $ELEVEN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "Hello world", "model_id": "eleven_multilingual_v2"}'

Getting an API Key

1. Sign up at elevenlabs.io
2. Go to Settings → API Keys
3. Click Create API Key
4. Copy and store securely

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
ELEVEN_API_KEY	Your ElevenLabs API key (required)