How Long Does It Take to Record a Voice Over?

The recording is the fast part. A 60 second script takes about a minute to read and rarely more than half an hour in the booth. What sets your actual delivery date is everything around it: casting, approvals, scheduling, direction, edit and, on multi-language jobs, the slowest language in the set.

Longer or more complex work runs to a different clock. Audiobook narration is measured in weeks, not days. A multi-language campaign is set by the availability of the hardest language to cast, not by the recording time. And a video game cast with twenty characters is a scheduling job before it is a recording job.

Script length to finished runtime

Professional narration sits at roughly 150 words per minute. The National Center for Voice and Speech puts average conversational speech at 120 to 150 wpm, and most voiceover calculators default to somewhere between 135 and 155. Individual narrators vary between about 130 and 170 wpm, so treat any estimate as plus or minus 10 to 15%.

Two things pull the real session length above the runtime. First, retakes and alternate reads: a 30 second radio ad is often recorded three or four ways so the client has options. Second, direction. A scripted corporate narration read cold is quick. A performance-led animation or trailer read takes as long as it takes to get the take.

A working rule for short form: book two to three times the finished runtime in studio, with a 15 minute minimum.

Where the time actually goes

Six stages, and only one of them involves a microphone. There is more on all six in how we work.

1. BriefSame day if you have the script, the usage and the deadline ready. Our guide on how to brief a voiceover agency covers what to include so this stage does not loop.
2. CastUsually within hours. You get a focused shortlist of suitable voices rather than a search box and 4,000 profiles.
3. ApproveThe one stage we do not control. This is where most projects lose days.
4. Studio15 minutes to a full day depending on script length. Recorded in London, Birmingham, Amsterdam, New York or remote via Source-Connect, Cleanfeed or Zoom.
5. DirectLive, with your notes acted on in the session rather than emailed back afterwards.
6. DeliverSame day or next morning for short form, including editing, mastering, file splits and EBU R128 loudness compliance.

If you want the longer version of what an agency is doing across those six stages, read what a voiceover agency actually does.

Typical turnaround by project type

• Radio adverts and short commercials. 15 to 30 minutes in studio. Delivered same day or next morning. The fastest category we handle.
• Explainer and animation videos. Scripts are usually 300 to 800 words, so 30 to 45 minutes in studio, next day delivery. Add time if the read has to hit a locked picture.
• eLearning modules. Long scripts, split into many files. Budget a half or full day of studio per module set, then a day for splitting and naming files to your LMS spec.
• Corporate narration. One to two days end to end for a standard film. Longer if legal has to sign off the script.
• Documentary narration. Recorded to picture, so session length follows the edit. Usually booked by the half day.
• IVR and phone systems. Hundreds of short prompts. Fast to record, slower to name, split and deliver in the format your phone system needs.
• Video games. Multiple characters, multiple sessions, often across weeks. Scheduling the cast is the long pole.
• Dubbing and ADR. Timed to the original performance, so slower per minute than any other format.
• Audio description. Script writing to picture takes longer than the recording. Plan in weeks for a feature.
• Podcast intros and sponsorship reads. Minutes in studio. Usually delivered the same day.
• Medical and pharma. Recording is standard. Terminology checks and compliance review are what add the days.

Multi-language projects run on a different clock

If you are recording one script in eight languages, the schedule is not eight times a single job. It is set by the slowest single element in the set, and that is almost never the recording.

Three things stretch a multi-language timeline

• Translation and adaptation. A translated script is rarely the same length as the English. German and Spanish commonly run longer, which matters when the read has to fit a 30 second slot. Our language services cover adaptation as well as translation for this reason.
• Native talent availability. Widely spoken languages are quick to cast. Smaller markets take longer, simply because the pool of professional native voices is smaller.
• Time zones and in-country approvals. A native reviewer in another market adds a day, and it is a day worth spending.

We cast every language in parallel rather than in sequence, which is what keeps a large campaign from becoming a queue. There is more on running one message across many markets in one campaign, every language.

Audiobooks: the long-form exception

Audiobooks are the one format where the recording genuinely is the bulk of the work. The planning figure the industry uses is roughly 9,000 to 9,300 words per finished hour of audio, which is 150 to 155 words per minute held over hours of reading.

One finished hour is not one hour of work. Recording, retakes, proofing against the manuscript, editing, mastering and quality control typically add up to several hours of production per finished hour. That is why audiobooks are priced per finished hour rather than by session.

A practical estimate for an 80,000 word novel: around nine finished hours, and a realistic schedule of three to five weeks from casting to platform-ready delivery, depending on narrator availability. If you want the cost side of that, read what audiobook narration costs in the UK, and see full audiobook production if you would rather one team handled the whole thing.

What slows projects down, and what speeds them up

If you are choosing an agency rather than a voice, what to look for in a voiceover agency and how to hire a London voice over artist without wasting time or budget cover the questions worth asking before you commit to a deadline.

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Frequently asked questions