How to Translate a Video into Another Language with a Voice-Over
Subtitles translate the words, but many people do not read them — especially on a phone, in short videos or when they are doing something else. A voice-over in the viewer's language keeps them watching. Here are three ways to translate a video with voice, and what each one really costs.
Option 1. Professional voice actors
A translator writes the script, voice actors record it in a studio, a sound engineer mixes it with the original. The result can be excellent, including lip-sync for films.
- Cost: usually tens of dollars per minute of video, more for several voices.
- Time: days to weeks.
- Best for: films, ads with a big budget, brand videos where every word matters.
Option 2. Record it yourself
If you speak the language, you can translate the script and record over the video in any editor. It is cheap but slow: you need to fit every sentence into the original timing, lower the original voice and keep the music audible.
- Cost: your time — often several hours per 10 minutes of video.
- Best for: one or two languages you speak fluently.
Option 3. AI dubbing
AI recognizes the speech, translates it, voices it with natural synthetic voices and places the new voice on the original timeline. Good services also separate the voice from the background, so music and sounds stay.
- Cost: cents per minute. In Vyexa Dubbing, 1 credit = 1 minute of video.
- Time: minutes.
- Best for: YouTube, social media, courses, product videos — anything where speed and many languages matter more than studio perfection.
How to translate a video with AI voice-over, step by step
- Upload the video (MP4, MOV, WEBM or MKV). The original language is detected automatically.
- Choose the target language — for example English, Spanish, German, Ukrainian or Polish.
- Choose voices or leave Auto: every person in the video gets their own voice, men — male, women — female, children — child voices.
- Download the dubbed MP4, the .srt subtitles and, if you publish on YouTube, a separate audio track for multi-language audio.
What to check before publishing
- Names and terms. Product names, people and slang are where translations slip most often — listen to them.
- Fast speech. Some languages take more words to say the same thing. Very dense speech gets a slightly faster voice; check it still sounds natural.
- Text on screen. Titles burned into the picture stay in the original language.
- Rights. Dub only videos you own or have permission to translate.
Which option to choose
If the video is a film or a major ad campaign — hire actors. For everything else, try AI dubbing first: it costs almost nothing to test a language and see whether that audience responds. You can always invest in a studio version for the languages that work.
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