Is there an AI for dubbing videos into other languages?

How to translate a video into another language

Upload the file or paste a link, pick the target languages, and the service does four jobs in a row: it transcribes the speech, translates the transcript, voices it in a clone of each speaker, and lays the new voice back over the video. Some add a fifth, lip sync, which redraws the mouth to fit the new words. You wait minutes per video, not days.

The step that decides the quality is the one people skip: read the transcript before you translate. A misheard word gets translated and voiced with total confidence. Some of the picks above let you edit the translated script, and one takes a glossary so brand names and product terms come out the same in every language. Then export a finished file, or only the new audio track if you publish somewhere that takes one.

Translate a video to English when you didn't make it

Several of the services above take a YouTube link instead of a file, so you can paste a lecture, an interview or a cooking video in Japanese and get an English version back, usually in the original speaker's voice. Before you pay for that, open the player settings on YouTube and look under Audio track: the creator may already have an English dub, automatic or their own, and switching to it costs nothing.

If you only need to follow along, translated subtitles are quicker and cheaper than a dub, and our captions page covers them. If you plan to post the dubbed version anywhere, ask the owner first: US copyright law names a translation as a derivative work, and the right to prepare one belongs to the copyright holder. This is general information, not legal advice.

YouTube auto dubbing: what it does to your channel

If your channel is eligible, YouTube already dubs your uploads for free, and the feature is on by default. Videos in English get tracks in about 20 languages; most other languages are dubbed into English only. Eight languages get expressive speech, which copies the pitch and intonation of the original, and a lip sync pilot is open to select channels. Viewers see an auto-dubbed label and can switch back to your voice.

The limits matter more than the price. You can't edit an automatic dub, only publish, unpublish or delete it, so set publishing to manual in YouTube Studio and listen first. Videos over 120 minutes, with copyright claims or with little speech are skipped. For a better dub, make one elsewhere and upload it as your own audio track: that option needs access to YouTube's advanced features, and you have to delete the automatic dub for that language first.

Lip sync AI: when the mouth has to match the new words

Lip sync AI redraws the lower part of a face, frame by frame, so the mouth shapes fit the translated audio instead of the original. It earns its price when a face fills the frame and talks to the camera: a presenter, a course, an ad. For voiceover, screen recordings, slides or a speaker who is small in the shot, plain audio dubbing is enough; the first pick above itself suggests audio-only dubbing when the speaker is small or offscreen.

It fails in predictable places: that service's lip sync guide says accuracy drops with noisy audio and with a face that is partly covered or turned too far away. It also costs more. One service above keeps lip sync for its $99 plan, against $39 for dubbing alone, and its enhanced mode uses three minutes of your allowance for every minute of video. To make a still photo talk rather than fix a video, see AI avatar videos.

Free video translator: how far the free plans go

Free plans give you minutes, not hours, and most stamp a watermark. Among the picks above: one translates up to three videos a month of a minute each; one gives free credits worth about five minutes of watermarked dubbing a month; one allows ten minutes a month, but only as a share link, with downloads on the paid plan; one is a three-minute trial. Enough to hear yourself in Spanish, not to dub a channel.

Two routes have no meter. YouTube dubs eligible channels at no charge, though only on YouTube and with no way to edit the result. And the open-source pick at the end of the list runs on your own computer: it transcribes, translates and re-voices a video with local models or with API keys you bring, at the cost of installing it yourself. The voice service second in the list has a page on what its free plan holds back.

dubbing videos into other languages: quick answers

How do you turn off auto dubbing on YouTube?

As a viewer, open the player settings, choose Audio track and pick the original. To make it stick, add the languages you understand under Settings, Languages, Preferred languages in the app: videos whose original audio is in one of them play undubbed. As a creator, uncheck Allow automatic dubbing under Settings, Channel, Advanced settings in YouTube Studio on a computer.

Can you translate a YouTube video into another language?

Yes, three ways. If the creator has added dubs, pick one under Audio track in the player settings. If not, paste the link into one of the services above that accept YouTube links and get a dubbed copy for yourself. To read along instead, turn on subtitles, choose Auto-translate, then a language.

Should you hire dubbing companies instead of AI?

For a film, a series, an ad or anything carried by acting, yes. A dubbing company casts a voice per character, adapts the script so lines fit the mouth, and records and mixes it in a studio, which takes days to weeks. For talking heads, courses, tutorials and interviews, AI dubbing plus one native speaker checking the script gets you most of the way for a fraction of the cost.

Dubbing vs subtitles: which should you use?

Start with subtitles: they keep your real voice, cost almost nothing and can be checked line by line. Add a dub when your viewers listen more than they read, for example on a phone while doing something else, or in long tutorials where their eyes belong on your screen. A dub you can't check is worse than a subtitle you can.