AI Dubbing Cost per Minute: What You Pay and Why

How much does AI dubbing cost per minute? AI dubbing cost per minute is the price of turning one minute of video into one new language. Software does the transcript, translation, cloned voice and lip-sync, so there is no actor or studio to pay. At AutoDub one plan minute costs $1.72 to $2.60, everything included.

Studio dubbing, by comparison, is quoted in tens of dollars per minute, and professionally made subtitles from a few dollars a minute. This guide explains where the money goes in a minute of AI dubbing, lists AutoDub's own price per minute for every plan and minute pack, shows what traditional studios charge according to two published price guides, and walks through the things that make your bill bigger or smaller: video length, the number of languages and the time you spend checking the result.

What you pay for in one minute of AI dubbing

AI dubbing is sold by the minute because almost all of the work grows with the length of the video. Every minute of speech goes through the same chain:

1. Speech recognition. The audio is transcribed and time-stamped, sentence by sentence.
2. Translation. The transcript is translated in context and kept close to the original length so each line fits its moment on screen.
3. Voice cloning. A voice model learns the sound of the original speaker from the video and reads the translation in that voice. This is the step that makes a dub sound like you rather than a stock narrator.
4. Lip-sync. The mouth movements in the picture are adjusted to the new words. Because it changes the video frames, not only the sound, it is usually one of the heaviest parts of the job in computing power.
5. Mixing and delivery. The new voice is mixed into the video, the file is rendered and stored, and subtitles are written out.

Each of those steps runs on servers, and a longer video simply needs more of them. That is why the price follows the minute. It is also why a second language costs as much as the first: the recognition can be shared, but the translation, the new voice, the lip-sync and the render are a complete new run for every language.

Some tools charge extra for lip-sync or voice cloning, or sell credits that you have to convert into minutes before you can compare. When you compare prices, check that the per-minute figure covers the same things. With AutoDub there are no add-ons: the cloned voice, the lip-sync and the SRT and VTT subtitle files are part of every dub. For a wider introduction to the technology, read what AI dubbing is and how it works.

AutoDub's price per minute, plan by plan

AutoDub sells minutes through monthly plans. Each plan includes a number of dubbing minutes a month; dividing the price by those minutes gives the cost of one minute. Yearly billing takes 20% off the price, which lowers the per-minute cost again.

Three rules decide how minutes are counted:

• Billed in whole minutes, rounded up. A video of 9 minutes and 20 seconds uses 10 minutes.
• One language, one dub. Each target language is its own dub and uses its own minutes. On a paid plan you can pick up to five languages in one submission; each one becomes a separate dub.
• Plan minutes reset every month, on yearly plans too, and unused plan minutes do not carry over to the next month.

If a month needs more than your plan includes, subscribers can top up with minute packs. A pack is used after your plan's monthly minutes, and pack minutes never expire, so a busy month does not force a bigger plan.

There is also a one-time option for the free trial dub: if you only want to keep that one video, you can unlock its download for $4.99 without a subscription. The AutoDub pricing page always has the current figures; the numbers in this guide come from the same price list.

What traditional studio dubbing costs

A studio dub is priced around people and studio time: a translator who adapts the script, one voice actor per speaker, a director, a sound engineer and the hours in the recording booth. Published price guides agree that this lands in the tens of dollars per finished minute, and well above that for film work.

Checksub's dubbing price guide (published October 17, 2024) says that "on average, prices range from $20 to $60 per minute", that a basic-level dub "might cost around $20 to $30 per minute", and that broadcast-quality work "can start at $50 to $60 per minute". It puts studio time at $100–400 an hour. Source: Checksub, "Dubbing price guide", checked November 4, 2026.

The localisation company Translated gives a similar picture in its business-video price guide: dubbing at $30–100+ per minute, fully manual cinema dubbing at $100+ per minute, and subtitles at $3–25 per minute. It adds that traditional dubbing "often exceeds $1,000 for a 10-minute clip." Source: Translated, "How much does it cost to translate a business video? A complete price guide", a page that calls itself a 2026 guide but carries no publication date, checked November 4, 2026.

Both guides come from companies that sell translation services, and both give ranges rather than fixed prices: a real quote depends on the language, the number of speakers, the actors and how many rounds of revision you ask for.

Traditional dubbing vs AI dubbing vs subtitles: the cost side by side

Subtitles are the lighter touch: they keep the original voice and work in feeds that play without sound. On the figures above, a professionally made subtitle file costs far less than a studio dub, but it can cost more per minute than an AI dub, which comes with subtitle files of its own. A dub reaches people who would rather listen than read, and AI dubbing brings that within reach of a single creator's budget. Many channels use both.

What changes the cost of a dub

The per-minute price is only half of the bill. These are the levers that move the total:

1. Length. Minutes are what you pay for, so a tighter edit is the simplest saving. Cut long intros, pauses and outros before you dub, not after.
2. Number of languages. Every language multiplies the minutes. A 10-minute video in French and German uses 20 minutes, which fits inside Pro's 30 monthly minutes but not inside Basic's 15. Start with the one or two languages where your audience already is: our pages for English to French video translation and English to German video translation show what a dub between those languages involves, and the video translation by language pair hub lists every pair with its own page.
3. Review. Budget time for a native speaker to watch the dub once, especially for names, numbers and technical terms. AutoDub has no script editor, so a fix happens at the source, and dubbing the same video again uses minutes again. A clean recording with one clear speaker saves both.
4. Your monthly volume. Choose the plan whose monthly minutes match what you publish in a normal month, and cover the busy months with packs. Yearly billing lowers the per-minute price if you dub every month.

Try it before you pay

The free trial dubs your first video, up to 2 minutes long, into one language at no cost. You watch the full dub in your dashboard; downloading it takes a plan or the one-video unlock. To see what a finished dub includes before you start, the AI video dubbing tool page walks through the voice clone, the lip-sync and the subtitle files.

AutoDub specs and limits

What AutoDub accepts, what it returns, and what it does not do yet.

What AutoDub does not do yet

• No script editor. You cannot edit the transcript or the translation of a dub, so watch every dub before you publish it.
• No public API. Every dub is started in the web app; there is no API for teams yet.
• One language per dub. Each dub has one target language and is billed as its own dub. Paid plans can pick several languages in one submission; the free trial is one video in one language.
• 30 minutes and 2 GB per video. A longer or larger video has to be split into parts before you upload it.
• Subtitles only in the new language. The SRT and VTT files are in the dubbed language; there is no subtitle file in the original language.
• Links from three sites. AutoDub fetches YouTube, TikTok and Instagram links; a video from anywhere else has to be uploaded as a file.
• No accent or dialect setting. You pick a language, such as Spanish, not a regional variety of it.
• No automatic deletion. Nothing is removed for you: your videos and dubs stay in your account until you delete them in your dashboard.
• Downloads need a plan or an unlock. A free trial dub can be watched, not downloaded: the video and its subtitles download with a plan or a one-time unlock from $4.99.

Last verified November 4, 2026

Frequently asked questions

Does the per-minute price include lip sync?

At AutoDub, yes. The cloned voice, the lip-sync and the SRT and VTT subtitle files are part of every dub, on the free trial too, so a plan minute buys the finished dub with nothing to add on. Some other tools price lip-sync or voice cloning as separate options, or sell credits that you have to convert into minutes first, so when you compare per-minute prices, check what each one includes.

What does a 10-minute video cost to dub with AI?

With AutoDub a 10-minute video in one language uses 10 minutes. On Basic ($39 a month for 15 minutes) those 10 minutes are worth $26; on Pro they are worth $23, and on Premium $21.50. Each extra language uses another 10 minutes. A studio dub of the same clip often costs more than $1,000, according to Translated's undated price guide.

Do pack minutes expire like plan minutes?

No. Plan minutes are a monthly allowance: they reset every month, on yearly plans too, and what you do not use is gone. Minute packs are different: pack minutes never expire, they are used only after your plan's monthly minutes, and they stay yours even if you cancel the plan later. You need a plan to buy a pack.

Do I pay for each language separately?

Yes. Each target language is its own dub, so it uses its own minutes: a 5-minute video in three languages uses 15 minutes. On a paid plan you can choose up to five languages in one submission to save time, but each of them is still counted as a separate dub.

Is AI dubbing cheaper than hiring voice actors?

For most videos, by a wide margin. Published price guides put studio dubbing with voice actors at $20–60 per minute on average (Checksub) and $30–100+ per minute (Translated), before the cost of extra revisions. AI dubbing with AutoDub costs $1.72 to $2.60 per plan minute, with the cloned voice and lip-sync included. Voice actors are still the better choice for drama, comedy and anything that depends on a performance.

Related reading

• What is AI dubbing? How it works and its limits
• How to dub a video with AI, step by step
• YouTube auto dubbing explained
• Is AI dubbing safe? Your video, voice and data
• AutoDub vs HeyGen
• Subtitles vs dubbing: which to choose
• YouTube multi-language audio tracks: adding your dub
• Is AI dubbing legal? Copyright, consent and platform rules