Add natural breaks to your audio so it sounds more like human speech and less like a continuous flow. Pro and Agency plans.
Where pauses help
- Between paragraphs (visitors can process each section)
- After headings (breathing room before the next topic)
- Before and after quotes
- At end-of-section transitions
Settings
Go to Text to Speech → Content → Pauses.
Pause after paragraph
A short silence after each paragraph. Default is 400 ms, which sounds natural. Range: 0 to 2000 ms.
Pause after heading
A longer silence after each H1, H2, H3 heading. Default is 600 ms. Range: 0 to 2000 ms.
Pause after title
The pause between the post title and the body content. Default is 600 ms.
Pause at start and end
Silent padding at the very start and end of the audio file. Useful for avoiding awkward cuts when players load. Default: 300 ms each.
How pauses affect generation
- Pauses are inserted as silent SSML breaks before the text is sent to ElevenLabs
- Silent time adds a few milliseconds to the file size but does not count as characters
- Credit use is not affected by pause settings
Free plan behavior
Free plan users get a single fixed pause (400 ms after paragraphs). The custom controls are locked.