How Much Does AI Voiceover Cost per Minute?
AI voiceover is billed per character, not per minute. What a minute, a drama episode, an audiobook chapter and a lesson really cost, versus human voice actors.
VoiceSmiths TeamListen to this article
AI narration · about 2 min
"How much per minute" is the most common question about AI voiceover, and the honest answer is that per-minute pricing is the wrong frame: AI voiceover is billed per character, so speaking pace does not change the price. This post converts typical content into minutes and money so you can compare it with human voice actors.
The conversion
Spoken English runs at about 150 words, or 800 characters, a minute. The standard model costs 7 credits per 100 characters, so a minute is roughly 56 credits; the fast model costs 4 per 100, about 32. The Creator plan at $19 includes 2,400 credits — about 43 minutes on the standard model, or 44 cents a minute; on the fast model about 75 minutes, or 25 cents a minute.
| Content | Characters | Length | Credits (standard) |
|---|---|---|---|
| One short-video script | 1,000 | 75 s | 70 |
| A short-drama episode | 5,000 | 6 min | 350 |
| An audiobook chapter | 16,000 | 20 min | 1,120 |
| A 30-minute lesson | 24,000 | 30 min | 1,680 |
Versus a human voice actor
Human voiceover runs from $50 to $500 per finished minute depending on the talent, and every script change means a new session. AI re-generation is billed only on the characters you change. Humans still win on breath control in long passages and on improvisation; for drama, courses and explainers the AI is already there, and for the one hero line in an ad it is worth trying several voices or booking a person.
Versus classic TTS
Classic TTS is cheap per call but sounds like a machine. The premium buys emotion, phrasing and character — one clip makes the case:
[laughs] Fine. Nobody leaves until it does.Four ways to spend less
- Draft on the fast model, then regenerate the final on standard or flagship.
- Failed generations are refunded, so experimenting is free.
- Submit long text in one go; splitting it re-bills the context.
- Yearly plans cost two months less — see pricing.
The full rules are in how credits work; model differences are in picking the right TTS model.