ElevenLabs strikes through $6 to show "First month 83% off" until 18 October

The psychology

Why it nudges

Showing the full price next to the discount sets a reference that makes $1 feel like a bargain, and a dated end adds urgency. The "Popular" tag is social proof. Whether these lift paid sign-ups for ElevenLabs is not public.

● Strong evidence · More on reference price, with sources →

Context

An AI voice and audio platform. Prices are in US$ as served to our capture (US egress); UK prices were not shown.

Honest nudge or dark pattern?

Honest nudge

Honest nudge as captured: the end date and the regular price are shown.

Sources: Captured by Nudgeswipe, 16 Oct 2026 (logged out) · Practitioner view (not a study): Rory Sutherland, Brainfluence podcast ep. 286, 26 Sep 2019. From his direct-marketing work, a reply-by date "effectively increased" an offer's perceived value

Steal this, honestly

Say what the price is from month 2, on the card.
Use a dated end, as here.

What to test: First-month discount vs no discount. Measure month-2 retention.

Next: run it on your product

Apply this with your agent

Take the steps above into your own flow. The prompt carries this teardown, the honest-vs-dark line and the steps.

You are helping me apply a behavioural-design pattern ethically.

Pattern: ElevenLabs: ElevenLabs strikes through $6 to show "First month 83% off" until 18 October
Bias: Reference price: A price is judged against a comparison price: a 'was' price, a monthly rate, a renewal rate.
Why it nudges: Showing the full price next to the discount sets a reference that makes $1 feel like a bargain, and a dated end adds urgency. The "Popular" tag is social proof. Whether these lift paid sign-ups for ElevenLabs is not public.
Our verdict: Honest nudge. Honest nudge as captured: the end date and the regular price are shown.
Source page: https://nudgeswipe.com/examples/elevenlabs-first-month-83-off-until/ (JSON: https://nudgeswipe.com/api/teardowns/elevenlabs-first-month-83-off-until.json)

Rules: say a brand "uses" a tactic, never that it "worked"; outcomes are not public unless the company published them; no invented uplift estimates; flag mixed evidence. Honest nudge = true, visible, easy to reverse, and in the user's interest. Dark pattern = hides costs, fakes scarcity or popularity, shames, or makes leaving harder than joining. Quote company-published results as "X reports", with the source link, and don’t generalise them. Don’t cite retracted or failed-to-replicate studies as support (e.g. Ariely & Wertenbroch 2002). Don’t state study figures unless they’re on this page or in a source you can link. If an idea crosses the line, link the matching deceptive.design pattern.

Tasks:
1. Ask me for my product, the flow (URL or screenshots) and the goal.
2. Audit where this pattern already appears, or could, in that flow.
3. Propose 2-3 ethical experiments: hypothesis, variant copy or UI, primary metric, and a guardrail metric (refunds, complaints, cancellations).
4. Flag every dark-pattern risk and say how to stay on the honest side.

Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude Open in Grok Open in Cursor

ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Cursor open with the prompt filled in (it is also copied, in case the prefill doesn't load). Gemini and Codex don't support prefilled links, so the prompt is copied and the app opens; paste it in.

Sources

Our capture of elevenlabs.io, 16 Oct 2026
Kalyanaram & Winer (1995), Empirical generalizations from reference price research. doi.org/10.1287/mksc.14.3.G161
Captured by Nudgeswipe, 16 Oct 2026 (logged out): elevenlabs.io
Practitioner view (not a study): Rory Sutherland, Brainfluence podcast ep. 286, 26 Sep 2019. From his direct-marketing work, a reply-by date "effectively increased" an offer's perceived value: rogerdooley.com

ElevenLabs strikes through $6 to show "First month 83% off" until 18 October

Why it nudges

Honest nudge

Apply this with your agent

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