ElevenLabs Default Voices Retiring: Replacement List

ElevenLabs default voices, the 19 stock voices that include Brian, George, Sarah and Lily, expire on December 31, 2026: ElevenLabs says they "will no longer be accessible after this date." Each one has a suggested replacement, but in ElevenLabs' own words "this is not a strict 1-to-1 replacement, and tone and style may differ." Below are the full list with old and new voice IDs, what the announcement covers and what it leaves open, and a checklist for moving your projects across.

Source: ElevenLabs Help Center, What are Default voices?, checked on October 26, 2026.

ElevenLabs default voices at a glance

The full list: 19 default voices and their replacements

Exactly as ElevenLabs publishes it. Each old name links to that voice's page on VoiceSmiths, where its preview still plays.

Two things in this table catch people out:

• Callum is replaced by another Callum. The new voice is called "Callum - Husky Trickster" and has a different ID. Searching a voice picker for "Callum" can bring up both, so match on the ID, not the name.
• The new names carry a description after the dash. In a voice picker, search for the first word only: Sawyer, Eldrin, Talia.

Adam and Bella are not on the list

As of October 26, 2026, neither Adam nor Bella appears in ElevenLabs' replacement table, and the Default voices page does not mention them anywhere. Adam does show up on ElevenLabs' separate Legacy voices page, as the replacement for two older retired voices, Antoni and Arnold. That is all the official pages say. If a project depends on Adam or Bella, check the Default voices page again before the end of the year; we will update this page if either is added.

Why default voices are missing from your account

If you can't find Brian or George at all, check when your account was made. ElevenLabs says Default voices "are only available for accounts that were created before March 2026", so newer accounts never had them, and a tutorial that tells you to pick "Brian" will not work there.

On an older account, ElevenLabs' page How do I access ElevenLabs Default voices? says they "appear at the end of the voice selection menu", and the Type: Default filter in My Voices lists all of them. Either way, a new project should start on a voice that is not on the list.

What happens after December 31, 2026

What the official page says:

• The 19 voices "will no longer be accessible" after December 31, 2026.
• The replacements are "new voices that you will be able to use forever".

What it does not say: what happens to an API request that still names an old voice ID, or to Studio projects and agents set to a default voice.

There is a precedent. When ElevenLabs retired its older Legacy voices (Rachel, Antoni, Josh and others), its help page says "Legacy voice IDs will automatically route to their replacement voice IDs." The Default voices page makes no such promise, so plan as if requests with the old IDs will fail.

What is safe: audio you have already downloaded. An exported MP3 or WAV is just a file. What you lose is the ability to make new lines, retakes and pickups in the old voice, which matters most for anything you update over time.

Find the default voices in your code

If you call the API, search for the IDs rather than the names. This finds every one of the 19 old IDs in a project:

grep -rnE "CwhRBWXzGAHq8TQ4Fs17|EXAVITQu4vr4xnSDxMaL|FGY2WhTYpPnrIDTdsKH5|IKne3meq5aSn9XLyUdCD|JBFqnCBsd6RMkjVDRZzb|N2lVS1w4EtoT3dr4eOWO|SAz9YHcvj6GT2YYXdXww|SOYHLrjzK2X1ezoPC6cr|TX3LPaxmHKxFdv7VOQHJ|Xb7hH8MSUJpSbSDYk0k2|XrExE9yKIg1WjnnlVkGX|bIHbv24MWmeRgasZH58o|cgSgspJ2msm6clMCkdW9|cjVigY5qzO86Huf0OWal|iP95p4xoKVk53GoZ742B|nPczCjzI2devNBz1zQrb|onwK4e9ZLuTAKqWW03F9|pFZP5JQG7iQjIQuC4Bku|pqHfZKP75CvOlQylNhV4" .

Then look where code search can't: environment variables and config tables, ElevenLabs Studio projects, voice agents, and any third-party tool or plugin where you once picked "Brian" or "George" from a menu. Those tools call the same IDs.

A checklist before December 31

1. Make an inventory. Every product, channel and project that uses one of the 19 voices, found by ID.
2. Listen before you switch. Generate the same paragraph with the old voice and its replacement while both still exist. ElevenLabs aimed for similar voice types, but tone and style may differ.
3. Decide what to re-voice. Audio you edit often (course intros, app prompts, phone menus, product videos) is easier to re-voice now in one go than to patch later with a voice that no longer matches.
4. Switch series at a break. Change a podcast or audiobook series at a season or book boundary, not halfway through a chapter, where listeners will hear the seam.
5. Or get a voice you control. ElevenLabs points to the same options: Voice Design, Voice Remixing and voice cloning. On VoiceSmiths you can design a voice from a sentence for 20 credits, or clone your own voice, or one you have documented permission to use.

Hear a voice that isn't retiring

If you used George for British narration or Brian for YouTube voiceovers, you can also move to a voice that is not on the list at all. These are not ElevenLabs' official replacements; they are designed voices from our catalog, given the same script and the same model as the original clip.

George (retiring), the opening of a chapter from our long-form audiobook demo:

Voice: GeorgeEnglish34 s

British Butler, a designed British voice, reading the same opening:

Voice: British ButlerEnglish15 s

Brian (retiring), a YouTube intro:

Voice: BrianEnglish9 s

Tech Founder, a designed American voice, reading the same intro:

Voice: Tech FounderEnglish12 s

To hear ElevenLabs' official replacements, search their names in the ElevenLabs app.

What changes on VoiceSmiths

VoiceSmiths is built on the official ElevenLabs API, so the retirement reaches our catalog too:

• 19 of our 54 curated voices are on the list. They are the stock ElevenLabs voices such as Brian and George. They work as before until December 31, and we are moving each one to its official replacement before then, with a note on its voice page.
• Adam and Bella are not on the list; we follow ElevenLabs' page for them.
• Our 24 designed character voices, from Anime Girl to British Butler, are not default voices and are not on the list. Browse them in the voice library.
• Everything already made stays. Audio you generated is yours to keep and use commercially, and the 534 finished episodes in the audio drama theater are audio files that keep playing.

For a wider comparison, see VoiceSmiths vs ElevenLabs and ElevenLabs alternatives.

FAQ

When do ElevenLabs default voices stop working? ElevenLabs says all Default voices "will expire on December 31, 2026, and they will no longer be accessible after this date." Nineteen voices are on its list, from Roger and Sarah to Brian, George and Lily.

Why can't I find the default voices in my ElevenLabs account? According to ElevenLabs, Default voices are only available to accounts created before March 2026, so a newer account never had them. On an older account they sit at the end of the voice menu, and the Type: Default filter in My Voices lists them all.

What replaces the Brian voice? ElevenLabs lists "Sawyer - Midnight Storyteller" (voice ID 8dEUmyPMdDdK91vboYih) as the replacement for Brian (nPczCjzI2devNBz1zQrb). It aimed for similar voice types but says this is "not a strict 1-to-1 replacement", so listen with your own script before you switch.

What replaces George? "Eldrin - Crisp British Baritone", voice ID 6WwXjDDEMyNmFG95zycZ. George's old ID is JBFqnCBsd6RMkjVDRZzb.

Will audio I already made with a default voice stop working? Files you have downloaded are ordinary audio files and keep playing. What ends is access to the voices themselves, so plan for new lines, retakes and fixes in those voices to stop after December 31, 2026.

Will the old voice IDs redirect to the replacements? The Default voices page does not say. When ElevenLabs retired its earlier Legacy voices, it routed their API IDs to the replacements, but nothing promises the same this time, so change the IDs yourself before December 31.

Are Adam and Bella being retired too? Neither appears in ElevenLabs' replacement table as of October 26, 2026, and the page says nothing else about them. If you depend on either voice, re-check the official page before the end of the year.

ElevenLabs is a trademark of ElevenLabs. VoiceSmiths is an independent studio built on the ElevenLabs API and is not affiliated with ElevenLabs.

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