Guides
How much to charge for voiceover work for a small operation
Voiceover pricing for a small studio comes down to a rate card, the usage terms behind it, and the arithmetic that shows whether the number holds.
What to take away
Pricing voiceover work for a small operation starts with usage, not time in the booth.
- Voiceover is priced by usage, not by time in the boothmedia, territory, term and exclusivity set the number before the script does.
- A single finished-minute rate cannot cover a national TV spot and a corporate e-learning module, because the buyer is purchasing reach, not audio.
- Union and non-union sessions carry different terms, and a non-union job that later goes union is a Taft-Hartley question for SAG-AFTRA, not a pricing one.
- Audiobooks pay either per finished hour or a royalty share, and the two structures produce very different income on the same title.
- Track audition-to-booking ratio, repeat-client share and effective hourly, because the rate card only proves itself against those numbers.
This article covers general voiceover-business information. It is not individualized advice. It does not cover copyright, performer, publicity-rights, or synthetic-voice advice. It does not cover union, usage, advertising, or privacy advice. It does not cover tax, employment, contract, or legal advice. Rights and rates depend on many factors. Define usage in writing and seek qualified guidance. Consider these factors:
- script
- market
- media
- territory
- term
- exclusivity
- reuse
- performer status
- agreement
What the buyer is actually paying for
A voiceover rate is a licence fee with a recording attached. The studio work is the same whether the finished audio runs thirty seconds or thirty minutes; what changes is where it plays, for how long, and whether the narrator's voice is exclusive to that client.
A national TV spot on SAG-AFTRA terms carries union minimums plus pension and health contributions. A corporate e-learning module bought outright does not.
That is why a rate card built on minutes alone collapses. Two jobs of identical length can differ by a factor of ten once media and term are named.
Illustrative rate ranges
These are illustrative figures for a non-union, regional-market narrator working from a home booth. Substitute your own market data and confirm current union minimums with SAG-AFTRA before quoting.
Illustrative Voiceover Rate Ranges
- Corporate narration$150-$400 per finished minute
- E-learning module$200-$500 per finished minute
- Local radio spot$250-$600 per spot
- Regional TV spot$800-$2,500 per spot
- Explainer video$400-$1,200 per project
- Audiobook per finished hour$150-$400
- Live announcer$500-$1,500 per day
| Job type | Typical structure | Illustrative range |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate narration, internal use | Per finished minute, buyout | $150 to $400 per finished minute |
| E-learning module | Per finished minute, one-year term | $200 to $500 per finished minute |
| Local radio spot, one station, one year | Flat session fee plus usage | $250 to $600 per spot |
| Regional TV, one-year term | Session fee plus usage | $800 to $2,500 per spot |
| Explainer video, web only, perpetual | Flat project fee | $400 to $1,200 per project |
| Audiobook, royalty share | No upfront fee, percentage of net | 25% to 50% of net royalties |
| Audiobook, per finished hour | Flat per finished hour | $150 to $400 per finished hour |
| Live announcer, event day | Day rate | $500 to $1,500 per day |
The spread inside each row is real. A narrator with an agent, a broadcast demo and a repeat client list sits at the top; a new narrator building a reel sits at the bottom and should expect to.
Public benchmarks to check against these ranges:
| Public benchmark | What it publishes | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| SAG-AFTRA | Union minimums, pension and health contributions, reuse payments | Union and union-adjacent quotes |
| Global Voice Acting Academy (GVAA) | Free public rate guide for commercial, narration, e-learning and audiobooks | Non-union comparisons |
| Voices.com | Marketplace rate guide; talent sets rates | Category ranges |
| Voice123 | Subscription marketplace; talent pays a monthly fee to apply | Seeing the low-end competition |
| Fiverr | Gigs starting at $5 | Understanding the bottom of the market |
| ACX | Audiobook production on per finished hour or royalty share | Audiobook math |
| Findaway Voices | Audiobook distribution; narrators quote per finished hour | Audiobook distribution |
The pricing approaches, and what each hides
The pricing approaches
Where it fits a voiceover business
- A fixed price for each recording job
- Repeatable work where the recording job rarely surprises
- Hourly with a minimum charge
- Jobs where the scope is unknown until the work starts
- Good, better and best bundles
- A producer or agency who wants a clear choice
- An ongoing agreement
- A producer or agency with a recurring need through advertising cycles
- Value-based quote
- A producer or agency buying certainty rather than time
What it hides
- A fixed price for each recording job
- One difficult recording job can cost more than it earns
- Hourly with a minimum charge
- Efficient crews earn less for the same outcome
- Good, better and best bundles
- The middle tier ends up carrying everyone
- An ongoing agreement
- Members expect priority when a client requesting rerecords after approval arrives
- Value-based quote
- Depends on a reputation the business may not have yet
Rerecords after approval are the row that decides whether a project was profitable. Price the first read, then price the second read separately, and say so in the quote.
Union, non-union and the Taft-Hartley question
A SAG-AFTRA session has minimums, pension and health contributions, and reuse payments that scale with how the spot runs. A non-union session has whatever the contract says, which is often less.
When a non-union producer later signs a union agreement, the narrator's coverage is a Taft-Hartley matter. That is a question for the union's contracts department, not for a rate card.
Audiobooks: royalty share against per finished hour
Royalty share pays nothing upfront and a percentage of net for years. Per finished hour pays on delivery and ends there. ACX, the platform used by Audible, offers both structures.
Audiobook Royalty-Share Arithmetic
- Take the title's finished hours
- Multiply by rate or expected royalty
- Subtract booth time
- Subtract editing
- Subtract proofing
- Subtract platform commission
The arithmetic is the same shape either way. Take the title's finished hours, multiply by the rate or by the expected royalty, then subtract booth time, editing, proofing and platform commission. If you cannot state the expected royalty in dollars, the royalty-share offer is a guess, not a rate.
Sponsorship and host-read work
Host-read and sponsorship placements price differently again, because the buyer wants the narrator's audience as much as the voice. Rate cards for that work follow reach, placement length and exclusivity, and the structure is set out in this guide to voiceover sponsorship deals.
What to verify before quoting
The Internal Revenue Service: What kind of records should I keep? page sets out the records that support income, expenses, purchases and assets. A voiceover business needs those records before it can tell whether a rate worked.
The Federal Trade Commission: Advertising FAQs: A Guide for Small Business explains that advertising claims must be truthful and supported, and that endorsements must reflect honest experience with material relationships disclosed. A demo reel is an advertising claim.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Broadcast, Sound, and Video Technicians describes audio and video equipment work. Technicians set up, operate, monitor, and troubleshoot equipment. This happens in studios and live settings. Schedules vary by production. It is a useful reference for what a session day actually contains.
The numbers that prove the rate card
Audition-to-booking ratio shows how much unpaid work each booking carries. Repeat-client share shows whether the rate is sustainable or whether every month starts at zero.
Numbers That Prove the Rate Card
- Audition-to-booking ratiounpaid work per booking
- Repeat-client sharesustainability of the rate
- Effective hourlyfee minus costs divided by all hours
- Monthly reviewcatch falling effective hourly
Effective hourly is the one that settles arguments. Take the fee and subtract direct costs. Then divide by every hour the job consumed. Those hours include audition, prep, recording, and editing. They also include invoicing and follow-up. A rate that looks generous per finished minute often lands below a modest day rate once that division is done.
Review the three monthly. A rising repeat-client share with a falling effective hourly means the rates are too low for the clients you have.
Common questions
Why can two jobs of the same length pay so differently?
Because the fee buys usage, not minutes. Media, territory, term and exclusivity decide the number, and a national TV spot with a one-year term carries far more than an internal training video that never leaves the company intranet.
How should rerecords after approval be priced?
As a separate line, quoted before the first session. State what counts as an approved read, what counts as a script change, and what the second read costs. A producer who knows the price of a change asks for fewer of them.
What should a new narrator charge?
Start from the illustrative ranges above, sit at the bottom of the row, and raise the rate as repeat clients and bookings accumulate. Confirm union minimums with SAG-AFTRA before quoting any union-adjacent work, and keep the records that show which rate actually paid.
When should the rate card be reviewed?
Quarterly, against effective hourly and repeat-client share. Raise one row at a time and watch whether bookings hold, rather than lifting every line by the same percentage and losing the clients who made the business work.
