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Audio did not generate

4 min read

You clicked Generate and got an error, or the spinner stopped without producing audio. This page covers the most common causes and how to fix each one. Start from the top and work your way down.

Quick checklist

Run through these first. Most issues are one of these four:

  1. Out of credits
  2. Invalid or missing voice
  3. Text is too long for the chosen model
  4. Site is not connected to TTSWP

Each of these shows a specific message in the error popup. Read the exact wording before jumping to conclusions.

Cause 1: Out of credits

Error message: "Insufficient credits" or "You have run out of credits"

Why it happens: Your TTSWP monthly credits are used up, you have no top-up balance, and no ElevenLabs BYOK key is connected.

Fix options:

Cause 2: Invalid or missing voice

Error message: "The selected voice is no longer available on your ElevenLabs account. Please pick a different voice."

Why it happens: The voice you had selected as default was removed from your ElevenLabs account. Often happens after a cloned voice is deleted, or a voice ID was stored incorrectly.

Fix:

  1. Go to Text to Speech → Voices.
  2. Click Refresh voices in the topbar.
  3. Pick a different voice from the list.
  4. Click Select.
  5. Regenerate the post.

Cause 3: Text is too long for the model

Error message: "This text is longer than ElevenLabs accepts for this model. Please shorten it or pick a different model."

Why it happens: Each ElevenLabs model has a per-request character limit. Flash and Turbo v2.5 allow 40,000 characters, but Multilingual v2 only allows 10,000 and Eleven v3 only 3,000. Your post is longer than what your chosen model supports.

Fix options:

  • Switch to a model with a higher limit on the Voices page
  • Break the post into shorter sections with multiple shortcodes
  • Remove content with the no-audio class or CSS selectors

See the model limits table in Choose a voice.

Cause 4: Site is not connected

Symptom: The Overview page shows a purple Connect Card instead of your credits.

Fix: Connect your site first. Without a connection, generation always fails.

Less common causes

Your ElevenLabs BYOK key is invalid

Error: "TTS synthesis failed: Invalid API key"

Fix: See Connect your own ElevenLabs key and update the key.

Network timeout

Error: "TTS synthesis failed: Operation timed out"

Why it happens: Very long texts or a slow network path to ElevenLabs.

Fix:

  • Try again. Transient timeouts usually resolve on the next attempt.
  • If it keeps happening, try a faster model (Flash v2.5) and shorter text.

Subscription payment issue

Error: "Your subscription has a failed or incomplete payment."

Why: Your ElevenLabs subscription has an overdue invoice. This only applies when you use BYOK with a paid ElevenLabs account.

Fix: Log in to elevenlabs.io and pay the invoice.

Voice and model language mismatch

Error: "Model X does not support language_code Y"

Why: Not every model supports every language. Less common after version 3.1.7 which normalizes WordPress language codes.

Fix: Pick a different language on the Voices page, or change model to Flash v2.5 which supports most popular languages.

Where to check the error message

When generation fails from the posts list, the TTS column shows a small error icon. Hover for the message. You can also check My Stats → Recent activity for a log of recent attempts.

If the error message is cryptic, copy it and check this page or Support.