AI Voiceover vs. Human Talent – Choose Who Will Speak For You

The AI voice did a fantastic job—and at lightning speed for less than a dollar (for the record, we used ElevenLabs' Jeremy voice).

However, there's a noticeable "agreeableness" to it. While it's far from being flat or monotonous, its smoothness can feel somewhat unnatural. To draw a poetic comparison, a human voice is akin to a river with its natural twists, shallows, and dynamic rhythm, whereas an AI voiceover flows like an artificial canal—direct and unvarying.

The difference is evident for those with sharp ears, so keep reading for some thoughts on when it's worth investing in a human voice.

What's the cost of a good AI voiceover?

With the quality of synthetic speech catching up to, and in some ways surpassing human voiceover, many find that the balance has tipped in AI's favour. Human voices can be more engaging, but this comes at a huge cost—often unviable.

For example, when it comes to e-learning, GVAA (Global Voice Acting Academy) advises voice actors to charge around $0.2–0.35 per word, which translates to about $35–50 per minute.

In the video that we shared above:

• The voiceover sourced from Fiverr would cost around $15 per minute. Alternatively, posting a voiceover request on Upwork with a budget of $2–$3 per minute for an ongoing collaboration can attract a decent number of applicants. Here's an example of a video on philosophy that could use such a voiceover.
• The AI-generated voiceover in the second part of the video—and that is the best one we found out of over 100 voices in 20 different tools—would cost $0.2–3.5 per minute. The exact cost depends on the tool you choose and the subscription cost, which in turn depends on the number of minutes you need to record per month.

How much time can AI voiceover save?

Imagine you've successfully found, vetted, and hired a voice actor for your project. Now comes the crucial part: timing. How soon can they start voicing your script? Once you receive the initial version, how much time will revisions take? And then there's the post-processing of the final version. What's the timeline for that?

From our experience and insights from several industry discussions, each stage—drafting, revisions, and post-processing—typically takes around 24–48 hours. After a few rounds, the entire process of recording a 5-minute voiceover usually balances out to about 72 hours in total (or approximately 3 business days).

But what about using AI voiceovers? While post-processing isn't typically needed, some time must be allocated for fine-tuning:

• Low- to medium-quality voices: These often require considerable effort to add emphasis in the right places. A common issue is that they tend to read questions ("Curious about our secret?") and exclamations ("Get ready to see the difference!") in the same flat tone as regular sentences. This can be frustrating, as adding extra punctuation either has no effect or results in too much excitement.
• High-quality voices: These are a different story. They usually get the tone right 95% of the time and place emphasis correctly. For example, a high-quality AI voice might say, "You're probably already aware that human and AI are VERY different creatures," without any special fine-tuning. In our experience, you may need to adjust no more than 1–2 out of every 10 sentences, using quotation marks or ALL CAPS to slightly shift the emphasis.