ElevenLabs AI Updates: October 21, 2026

1. ElevenLabs Launches Eleven Realtime v1 Mini and v1 Max Speech-to-Speech Models

ElevenLabs. ElevenLabs launched Eleven Realtime on October 20, a new class of speech-to-speech models that each act as a complete voice agent, supporting 90+ languages and the 17,000+ voices in the ElevenLabs library. v1 Mini targets low-cost natural conversation for assistants, tutors, and interactive characters, while v1 Max targets customer support, lead qualification, and multi-step workflows with heavier tool use. In Artificial Analysis evaluations, v1 Max scored 98.8% on Big Bench Audio with a 0.57-second average time to first audio. Both models are available in ElevenAgents and through a Realtime API compatible with OpenAI’s, so existing integrations can switch by changing the endpoint and model name. Source