For AI agents: a documentation index is available at the root level at /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt. Append /llms.txt to any URL for a page-level index, or .md for the markdown version of any page.
Connect
BlogHelp CenterAPI PricingSign up
OverviewElevenCreativeElevenAgentsElevenAPIAPI referenceChangelog
OverviewElevenCreativeElevenAgentsElevenAPIAPI referenceChangelog
  • Get started
    • Quickstart
    • Agents Quickstart
    • Choosing the right model
  • Tutorials
    • Text to Speech
    • Speech to Text
    • Speech Engine
    • Music
    • Text to Dialogue
    • Voice Changer
    • Voice Isolator
    • Dubbing
    • Sound effects
    • Forced Alignment
  • Concepts
    • Understanding audio streaming
    • Understanding latency
    • Voice cloning
  • How-to guides
  • Reference
    • Libraries & SDKs
    • Errors
    • Agent tooling
    • Webhooks
    • Zero Retention Mode
    • Breaking changes policy
    • UI components
    • Example projects
    • Next.js template
    • Showcase
  • Private deployment
    • Overview
LogoLogo
Login
Login
Connect
BlogHelp CenterAPI PricingSign up
On this page
  • Using the Sound Effects API
  • Next steps
Tutorials

Sound Effects quickstart

Learn how to generate sound effects using the Sound Effects API.
Was this page helpful?
Previous

Forced Alignment quickstart

Learn how to use the Forced Alignment API to align text to audio.
Next
Built with

This guide will show you how to generate sound effects using the Sound Effects API.

Use the ElevenLabs sound-effects skill to generate sound effects from your AI coding assistant:

$npx skills add elevenlabs/skills --skill sound-effects

Using the Sound Effects API

1

Create an API key

Create an API key in the dashboard here, which you’ll use to securely access the API.

Store the key as a managed secret and pass it to the SDKs either as a environment variable via an .env file, or directly in your app’s configuration depending on your preference.

.env
1ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=<your_api_key_here>
2

Install the SDK

We’ll also use the dotenv library to load our API key from an environment variable.

1pip install elevenlabs
2pip install python-dotenv

To play the audio through your speakers, you may be prompted to install MPV and/or ffmpeg.

3

Make the API request

Create a new file named example.py or example.mts, depending on your language of choice and add the following code:

1# example.py
2import os
3from dotenv import load_dotenv
4from elevenlabs.client import ElevenLabs
5from elevenlabs.play import play
6
7load_dotenv()
8
9elevenlabs = ElevenLabs(
10 api_key=os.getenv("ELEVENLABS_API_KEY"),
11)
12audio = elevenlabs.text_to_sound_effects.convert(text="Cinematic Braam, Horror")
13
14play(audio)
4

Execute the code

1python example.py

You should hear your generated sound effect playing through your speakers.

Next steps

Sound effects overview

Learn about sound effect generation, supported formats, and use cases

Text to Speech

Generate spoken audio from text with the Text to Speech API

API reference

Explore all Sound Effects parameters and response formats