Voice actor pay doesn't come as a single salary. Most voice actors are freelancers paid by the job: a rate per finished hour for an audiobook, a session fee plus usage fees for a commercial, a session rate for a video game, a negotiated fee or a buyout for a corporate video. So the honest answer to "how much does a voice actor make?" is a set of pay structures plus a few reference points you can check. Every figure here comes from a source we read ourselves: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, SAG-AFTRA rate sheets and ACX's help pages. Where we couldn't verify a number, we left it out. We run an AI voice site, so we have tried to keep the AI section fair to the people who do this work.
How much does a voice actor make? What the official data says
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn't count voice actors as a separate occupation. Its closest category is actors, and its Occupational Outlook Handbook notes that some actors do voiceover or narration work for animated features, audiobooks and other electronic media. For May 2025, the BLS reports:
- Median hourly wage for actors: $29.05.
- Spread: the lowest 10 percent earned less than $16.50 an hour, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $143.68.
- Jobs: about 67,500 in 2025, with little or no change projected from 2025 to 2035.
- Hours: part-time work is common.
For a nearby on-mic job, the BLS puts the median wage for announcers and DJs at $22.50 an hour in May 2025.
Read these numbers carefully. They are hourly rates for paid hours, not a yearly voice actor salary, and the BLS wage survey excludes self-employed workers, who make up 23 percent of actor jobs by its own count. How much a voice actor makes a year depends far more on how many jobs they book, what kind, and how each recording is licensed than on any hourly median. That's why "average voice actor salary" figures online vary so much and rarely name a source.
How do voice actors get paid?
Voice acting pay follows the format of the job. The main structures:
Per finished hour (audiobooks)
Audiobook narrators are usually paid per finished hour (PFH): a rate for each hour of the final, edited book, not each hour spent recording. ACX, the audiobook marketplace run by Audible, says it takes most producers 5 to 7 hours to produce one finished hour, so a PFH rate has to cover much more than an hour of work. ACX offers three deal types:
- Pay for Production: a PFH fee paid when the audiobook is finished.
- Royalty Share: no upfront fee; the producer splits the book's net royalties with the rights holder, for 7 years.
- Royalty Share Plus: a reduced PFH fee plus a royalty split.
Session fee plus usage (commercials)
Commercials separate the recording from the right to air it. The performer gets a session fee for the booth time, then use fees that depend on where the ad runs (radio, TV, online), in which markets and for how long. The same hour at the mic can pay very differently once usage is added.
Per session (video games and animation)
Union video game work is booked in sessions, with tiers based on how long the session runs and how many character voices you perform. Animation is also usually booked by session or by episode.
Per word, per minute, per project or buyout (non-union work)
Outside union contracts, everything is negotiated. E-learning and explainers are often quoted per finished minute or by word count, games per line or per hour, and corporate clients often want a flat fee or a buyout covering all future use. A buyout should cost more than a limited licence, because the client never pays you again.
Voice acting pay rates by job type
How common jobs are paid, with one published reference point per row. Union figures are minimums ("scale"); experienced talent often negotiates more.
| Job type | How it's usually paid | Published reference point | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audiobook narration | Per finished hour, royalty share, or both | 5 to 7 hours of work per finished hour; Royalty Share Plus deals with SAG-AFTRA contributions must offer at least $100 PFH | ACX Help Center (2026); ACX blog (2020) |
| Radio and audio ads (union) | Session fee plus use fees | $379.60 session for an actor or announcer; $2,059.77 for 13 weeks of unlimited network program use | SAG-AFTRA 2025 Audio Commercials Contract, Year 2 rates (Apr 2026 to Mar 2027) |
| TV ad voice-over (union) | Session fee plus use fees | $643.00 off-camera principal session | SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contract, Year 2 rates (Apr 2026 to Mar 2027), Extreme Reach rate book |
| Corporate, e-learning and audio programs (union) | First hour, then half-hour units | $550 to $614 for the first hour, $161 per extra half-hour | SAG-AFTRA Corporate/Educational contract, rates from Nov 1, 2025 |
| Phone prompts and IVR (union) | Engagement fee plus per prompt | $327 engagement fee covering 5 prompts, $8 per prompt | Same Corporate/Educational rate sheet |
| Video games (union) | Per session, tiered by length and number of voices | 15.17% raise on ratification in July 2025, then 3% raises in November 2025, 2026 and 2027 | AP (2025); SAG-AFTRA statement via Decrypt (2025) |
| Non-union work | Negotiated: per word, minute, project or buyout | No single published minimum | GVAA rate guide (free, signup required) |
A few notes on the table:
- Old ACX figure. A 2013 ACX blog post estimated roughly $200 PFH for narration plus $200 PFH for editing, mixing, mastering and QC. Treat that as history, not a current rate.
- Games. We couldn't access SAG-AFTRA's current video game wage table when we checked in October 2026, so we haven't quoted a dollar session rate.
- GVAA. The Global Voice Acting Academy's rate guide is free after signup. GVAA says it reflects ranges observed in the market and doesn't set prices.
AI voices make good scratch tracks for drafts, animatics and internal videos. Play the samples free, then sign in to generate with credits.
What affects voice actor wages
- Usage and licensing. This is the biggest factor in commercial voice actor pay. On the SAG-AFTRA audio rate sheet above, a 13-week wild spot with no major market starts at $379.60, while one that includes New York starts at $568.32. A year of national use adds far more. Always ask where, for how long and in which media a recording will run.
- Job type. Broadcast advertising pays for usage; corporate and e-learning work often doesn't. Audiobook rates have to cover editing and retakes.
- Union status. Union jobs come with minimum rates and benefit contributions paid on top of wages (23.5 percent on the 2025 Audio Commercials rate sheet). Non-union jobs can pay more or much less, because everything is negotiated.
- Market. Union use fees change with market size, and other countries follow their own systems.
- Experience. A strong demo, credits, fast turnaround and clean audio let you quote higher; repeat clients beat one-off gigs.
- Production work. If you edit, master and deliver files, price it in. ACX's 5 to 7 hours per finished hour shows how much of an audiobook fee is post-production.
How to start and grow as a voice actor
Set up a basic home studio
- A quiet, dead-sounding room matters more than the microphone. A closet full of clothes or a small room with soft furnishings cuts echo.
- A microphone: a USB mic is fine to start; an XLR mic with an audio interface gives you room to grow.
- Closed-back headphones, a pop filter and a steady stand.
- Recording software: a free editor such as Audacity is enough to learn editing.
- A real delivery spec to aim for. ACX's audio submission requirements are a good benchmark: each file between -23 dB and -18 dB RMS, peaks below -3 dB, a noise floor below -60 dB RMS, and MP3 at 192 kbps or higher (constant bit rate) at 44.1 kHz.
Train and make demos
Take acting and voice classes and read copy aloud daily. A demo is your calling card: short, built from your best reads, one genre per demo (commercial, narration, animation or games).
Find work
- Audiobooks: on ACX, narrators audition for titles posted by authors and publishers.
- Casting marketplaces such as Voices.com, Voice123 and Backstage list paid auditions across genres.
- Direct clients: production companies, e-learning studios and agencies, reached with a simple website and your demos.
- Agents: once you have strong demos and some credits, a talent agent can open bigger commercial and animation auditions.
Grow your rates
Put usage terms in writing on every quote, raise rates for repeat clients over time, and log what each job paid and how it was licensed. That log becomes your own rate guide.
AI voices and voice actor pay: an honest look
We build AI voice tools, so here is a straight account, including the parts that are uncomfortable for us.
How AI is affecting the market
The work most exposed to AI is standardised, high-volume and low-budget: internal training audio, basic explainers, placeholder lines, quick social clips. In April 2026, Chinese outlet Lanjing News quoted a voice actor with more than ten years in the business who said his commercial voiceover work had dropped by 70 to 80 percent, which he linked to AI. Platforms are setting rules too. ACX's submission requirements say audiobooks must be narrated by a human unless otherwise authorized, and that unauthorized use of text to speech or AI is prohibited. In July 2025 ACX also began a beta that lets narrators make replicas of their own voices: narrators choose the projects and the pay model, and Audible says it won't use a replica without the narrator's approval.
What the unions have negotiated
SAG-AFTRA's approach is consent and pay rather than a blanket ban.
- Video games. After an 11-month strike over AI that began in July 2024, members ratified the 2025 Interactive Media Agreement in July 2025, with 95 percent voting yes. According to AP, companies need a performer's written consent to create a digital replica, must pay for replica work and must provide usage reports. The union also says performers can suspend consent for new AI material during a strike.
- Commercials. Under the 2025 Commercials Contracts, per DLA Piper's summary, producers must give 48 hours' notice before creating or using a digital replica, get consent in writing, and pay 1.5 times the scale session fee for each commercial that uses a replica performance, plus use fees as if the performer had recorded it in person.
- Licensed voice replicas. In January 2024, SAG-AFTRA signed an agreement with Replica Studios that lets members license digital voice replicas for scripted video game content, with consent required for each new project and pay based on the Interactive Media Agreement (Loeb & Loeb, 2024).
Consent and compensation for voice cloning
The principle behind all of these deals is simple: a voice belongs to the person. Cloning someone's voice needs their informed, written consent, a clear description of how the clone will be used, and pay that matches the use. At least one court has taken the same view. In April 2024, the Beijing Internet Court ruled that a voice actor's rights covered an AI voice built from her recordings without permission and awarded her 250,000 yuan (Economic Daily, 2024). If you hire voice talent and might want a replica later, say so up front and put it in the contract. Our voice cloning guide covers consent in more detail. This is general information, not legal advice.
Where human voice actors still lead
- Performance over time: character arcs, emotional range and consistency across a whole game, series or audiobook.
- Live direction: a director can ask for ten reads and get ten real choices.
- Brand voices: campaigns where a recognisable, accountable human voice is the point.
- Comedy, accents and cultural nuance, where synthetic voices are less reliable.
- Projects that require humans: platforms like ACX, or clients who simply want a person.
AI voices make the most sense for drafts, scratch tracks, internal training, accessibility versions and projects that never had a talent budget. That's what our text to speech studio is built for. If you're comparing tools, our AI voiceover platform comparison covers licensing as well as features.
Do voice actors make good money?
Some do, and the spread is wide. The BLS data for actors runs from under $16.50 to over $143.68 an hour, and a rate sheet only shows what one booking pays. Voice actors who earn well usually treat the work as a small business: they price usage, keep repeat clients, work in more than one genre and protect their voice with clear contracts, including terms on AI.
Record or upload a short clip of your own voice, then sign in to hear it read your text at 1 credit per 20 characters. Cloning is only for your voice or one you have written permission to use.
