Short scripts
per 100 words, up to 300 words
$100-$200
Beginner $75-$100Pro $200-$300
Plus a license if it runs as a paid ad.
Not one-size-fits-all. Every rate comes in three tiers, beginner, mid-level and pro, with what it looks like on ACX, Voices.com, Voice123, Fiverr, Upwork and 32 more platforms, or your own clients.
Last reviewed September 2026 by Anthony Pica
"I don't expect a new voice talent to command the same prices as someone with years of experience. To do so would seriously undermine the ability of a new voice-over artist to get results in a reasonable period of time, and dampen the ability of a seasoned voice actor to command higher rates and set themselves apart."
US dollars for non-union freelance work. The big number is mid-level (2-5 years). Beginner (0-2 years) and pro (5+ years) are underneath.
Plus a license if it runs as a paid ad.
One finished hour is about 9,300 words.
E-learning, YouTube and documentary narration.
On top of the recording fee, and the same at every level. Radio is lower: $300 national for 6 months.
Usually no separate license.
Union game work follows SAG-AFTRA scale instead.
Are Fiverr and Upwork rates different? No. Your rate stays the same on every platform and only the fee changes, so on a site that takes 20% you quote $125 to take home $100.
Almost every quote I send is built from two pieces, and sometimes a third. Once you see them separately, pricing stops feeling like guesswork.
Pays for the work itself. Audiobooks per finished hour, short scripts per 100 words, long scripts per word after 300, games and dubbing per hour.
Pays for where it's used and for how long. A paid TV, radio or online ad carries a license. An internal training video usually doesn't.
Live direction, rush delivery, file splitting and syncing to picture each get their own line, so the client sees what they're paying for.
I price by word count instead of a studio hour because the client can see exactly what they're paying for, and you don't lose money for being fast.
Your level is highlighted. Switch it here or in the calculator and every card follows.
Priced per finished hour (PFH). About 9,300 words = 1 finished hour
Authors and publishers, mostly through ACX. Our favourite place to start.
Recording fee per 100 words, plus a TV license for where and how long it runs
TV spots and paid online video ads. The license is where the money is.
Priced per spot. A :15 and a :30 cost the same, and so do a :45 and a :60. Plus a radio license
Radio, streaming audio and podcast ads. The license costs less than TV.
Short scripts per 100 words. Past 300 words, each extra word is priced per word. Non-broadcast, so no license fee
Company videos, explainers, websites and internal training.
Same rule as corporate: per 100 words up to 300, then per word. Most courses are long, so the per-word rate does the work
Online courses and training modules. Long scripts, repeat clients.
Priced per 100 words of prompts
Phone menus and on-hold messages. Short, quick, often repeat work.
Usually a session fee per hour. Small jobs per 100 words ($10-$100+)
Indie games and apps. Bigger studios often work to union scale.
Per hour, or per 150 words with a buyout
Dubbing films and series into English, and replacing lines in post.
Same rule as corporate, plus extras like background music
Guided meditations, affirmations and sleep audio.
Added on top of the recording fee. Radio costs less than TV
This is the usage fee. The longer it runs and the bigger the market, the more it's worth.
| Market | 3 months | 6 months | 1 year | Buyout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local | $125+ | $225+ | $350+ | $750+ |
| Regional | $225+ | $350+ | $500+ | $1,100+ |
| National | $350+ | $550+ | $750+ | $1,750+ |
| Market | 3 months | 6 months | 1 year | Buyout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local | $75+ | $125+ | $200+ | $400+ |
| Regional | $125+ | $200+ | $300+ | $600+ |
| National | $200+ | $300+ | $450+ | $900+ |
Usage is the part beginners leave off, and on a commercial it's usually the biggest number on the quote. The market is how far the ad reaches, and the term is how long it runs. Here's one mid-level read of 100 words ($150 to record) in five different jobs. These are TV and online video ads. Radio is lower, see the radio table.
Recording fee plus license. Leave the usage off and you've given the ad away.
The client pays once and can use the recording forever in that market. It replaces every renewal, so it costs about three times the 6-month license. Get in writing which media it covers.
If a client wants you away from competing brands while their ad runs, that stops you taking other work. It should cost more on top of the license, and the longer the lockout the more it's worth.
Internal training, a company website or an unpaid social post usually carries little or no usage fee. The moment a client pays to run it as an ad, the license applies. Always ask.
Your work is worth the same wherever the client found you. What changes is the cut the platform takes, so your quote has to change for you to take home the same amount.
Don't just add 20%. A $100 rate plus 20% is $120, and after a 20% cut you're left with $96. Count memberships and payment fees too when you decide if a site is worth it.
No middleman. You quote, you negotiate usage, you keep all of it.
Royalty Share pays nothing up front. You split the book's royalties with the author, so pick the book carefully.
The fee comes out of your quote, so price the job with it in mind.
You keep 100% of the job. The plan you pay for decides how many projects you can see.
Start lower to get reviews, then raise prices as your level goes up. Add-ons like commercial rights are where Fiverr pays.
Long e-learning and narration contracts are common here. Quote per word on long scripts.
Every fee and price checked against each platform's own site in September 2026. Platforms change their fees, so check before you pay for a membership.
Flat subscription and no cut, but you chase your own invoices.
The cheapest US paid membership, and it doesn't let anyone quote under the client's budget. Fewer jobs than Voices.com or Voice123.
No bidding war, but you don't set your price, and the estimate you see is before their admin fee comes off. Ask what you'll actually be paid.
The lowest commission split we found. Entry is screened and not always open.
Free to be listed, with a vetted demo review. Check what you'll take home on a booking before you accept.
Great for practice and first credits, but most roles are unpaid. Filter for paid work.
A practice ground for character work. Stick to the paid casting calls board.
Voice work is a small slice of the listings. Worth it if you also act on camera. Backstage also owns Voice123, Mandy and StarNow.
Cheap and legitimate. Voice roles are occasional, and many of the best go through agents.
Big with agents for commercials. Less useful if you only do voice.
A directory, not a casting site. The featured price is steep for voice-only talent.
The fee is charged when you're awarded the job, not when you're paid. Lots of low-budget bidding.
Same 20% hit as Fiverr on a new client. It drops as a client keeps coming back.
Low commission, but not much voice-over work. A backup, not a main channel.
Easy work when it flows, but volume swings. Never make it your only source.
A real second marketplace to ACX. Most rate guides never mention it.
Full disclosure: Academy Voices is owned by VO Journey Academy, the people behind this guide. We cast narrators on our own audiobook productions.
Free and direct, with no payment protection. Always use a written contract.
Useful when an author wants to sell beyond Audible. You still find the author yourself.
Its narrator marketplace wound down from October 2023, and Findaway Voices stopped on 1 August 2025. Plenty of guides still send narrators there.
One of the few big audiobook publishers with an open door.
Audiobook narrators only. Their submission spec makes a good home studio checklist.
Build credits on ACX first. Publishers like Tantor cast narrators with a track record.
Aim for it once you have a list of finished titles.
Steady phone and on-hold scripts, below freelance IVR rates. Good paid practice.
Clients book at set prices. Steady if you're accepted, but you don't set the rate.
The route to the best-paid commercial and animation work. An agency that charges you up front is a red flag.
The UK industry directory. Essential for agented actors, less so for home-studio freelancers.
Now run with Backstage and StarNow. Check which one carries voice jobs where you live.
A mix of modelling, extras and some voice work. Filter hard.
Long-running Australian casting resource. Check the cost first.
Pennies per use, and you hand over control of your voice. Read the terms before you clone.
Put your business hat on. A quote is a short email with the numbers broken out, so the client can see what they're paying for and you can talk about each line.
Hi [Name],
Thanks for sending the script. My quote for the 60-second radio spot is below.
That includes fixes for anything on my end, like a misread word. Script changes after recording are quoted separately. I can deliver within 2 business days of approval, and if you'd like a longer run or a bigger market I'm happy to quote that too.
Thanks,
[Your name]
The rates are free on this page. The kit is what you use once a client says yes, or says it's too much.
It's not always going to be this cheap, and some clients will use it anyway, so I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But the numbers don't show human narration going away.
If a platform offers to pay you for cloning your voice, read the terms closely. ElevenLabs says its voice creators have earned over $22 million in total (ElevenLabs), but that's shared across thousands of people and paid per use. If a job asks to train AI on your voice, price that as its own license. We have to protect our right to decide how and where our voice is used.
In this guide a beginner is anyone in their first two years. I'd start around $75-$100 per 100 words for short scripts, $0.12-$0.16 a word after the first 300 words, and $75-$125 per finished hour for audiobooks. Plenty of beginners start lower, closer to $50 PFH on their first books, and that's your call. Early on, people are taking a chance on someone they've never heard of, so getting work in your queue matters more than every dollar. Once you've got the training and the studio sorted, it's time to raise your rates.
PFH means per finished hour, so you're paid for each hour of finished, edited audio and not for the time you spend in the booth. In my experience one finished hour takes about 3-6 hours of work once you count recording and editing. ACX estimates about 9,300 words per finished hour, so a 60,000-word book is about 6.5 finished hours. At a mid-level $125-$225 PFH, that's roughly $806-$1,452.
It can be, but it's a bet on the book. With Royalty Share you get nothing up front and split the royalties with the rights holder for seven years. Under Audible's new royalty model, open to ACX creators since 26 May 2026, that split is 25% each, up from 20% each under the old model, which ends by the end of 2026. Look at the author's other books and reviews before you say yes. Royalty Share Plus adds a reduced PFH fee on top of the split, which is safer. I did royalty share early on to keep books in my queue, just don't let it be your only work.
A buyout means the client pays once and can use the recording forever, usually within an agreed market and media. Because it replaces every future renewal, it costs more. In this guide a TV buyout is $750 local, $1,100 regional or $1,750 national, and a radio buyout is $400, $600 or $900, on top of the recording fee. Always get in writing which media it covers.
Yes. For the same market and the same run, a radio license costs less than a TV one, because radio costs the client less to air. Radio is also priced per spot, so a 15- and a 30-second spot cost the same to record, and so do a 45 and a 60. In this guide a mid-level 60-second radio spot running locally for 3 months is about $170-$200, and a 30-second TV spot on the same terms is about $225-$325.
This guide uses 150 words per minute, the same pace Voice123 uses. A 30-second spot is about 75 words and a 300-word script runs about two minutes. Your own pace may be faster or slower, and you can change it in the calculator. Audiobooks are counted differently, at about 9,300 words per finished hour (ACX).
Union jobs are done under SAG-AFTRA contracts, with set session fees, use fees and health and retirement contributions. This guide covers non-union freelance work. For reference, the SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media rate for an off-camera game session of up to 3 voices over 4 hours is $1,134.95 (1 Nov 2025 to 31 Oct 2026). If the job is union, go by the union's current rate sheets and not this page.
If it's my mistake (a misread word or a wrong pronunciation) I fix it for free. If the client changes the script or wants a different read after approving the direction, that's a new recording and I charge my per-word rate for the changed lines. Put your policy in the quote before you start. Your clients will actually thank you for being up front.
Charge the same rates as anywhere else and price for the fee. Fiverr keeps 20% of every order, tips included, so a package that takes home $100 has to be priced at $125. Fiverr sells voice-over a bit like products on a shelf, so the add-ons matter. Commercial rights, broadcast rights and rush delivery should each be their own extra. New sellers often start lower to get the first reviews, then raise prices as their level goes up.
Raise them when your queue stays full and you've got the training and a good studio behind you. Move up a tier instead of a few dollars at a time. Put the new rates on new clients first, then give regular clients a month's notice before it applies to them. Some will leave, and the ones who stay are paying what your work is worth now.
Both, depending on length. Scripts up to 300 words are priced per 100 words, because even a short job needs a setup, a read and an edit. After 300 words, every extra word is priced at the per-word rate, and the first 300 stay at the per-100 rate, so a 301-word script never costs less than a 300-word one. Anything under 100 words is priced as 100. A 1,000-word script at mid-level comes to about $398-$726.
The rates on this page are my own. They come from my years of voice-over work and from the thousands of voice actors I've helped price their jobs, checked against published union scale and the free guides below. They're split by experience because I don't expect a new voice talent to command the same prices as someone with years of experience. One price doesn't fit everyone.
Last reviewed September 2026. Any figure we took from someone else is named and linked, like ACX's 9,300 words per finished hour. Nothing on this page is taken from the GVAA Rate Guide.
This guide and calculator give educational estimates only. They are not legal or tax advice, they are not union advice, and they are not a price list. They do not set or suggest minimum fees for anyone. Every job is different and you alone decide what you charge. Union work is governed by SAG-AFTRA contracts, so check the union's current rate sheets. I'm not a union voice and this page isn't sponsored by any platform. Figures last reviewed September 2026.
Bring your quote to a free live class and we'll talk about it with you.
Come to a free classCORE members get four live classes a week and notes on every read. Your first month is $39.
Join CORE