Two kinds of people ask this question. A performer about to send a quote, and a buyer about to commission one. The answer is the same in either case; you are both looking at the same fee from opposite sides of it. This page is written for both of you.
Why nobody can give you one number honestly
A voice over fee is not the price of a recording. It is the price of a recording plus permission to use it. The performer records once; the client then runs that recording somewhere, for some length of time, in front of some number of people. The recording is the smaller part of what is being sold.
That is why a single figure is useless. Two jobs can share an identical script, an identical read and an identical session length. One of them runs internally for a training module; the other runs nationally for a year. They are not worth the same money. Anyone who quotes you before asking where the audio will be used is pricing the studio time and giving the rest away.
So the honest answer is a structure, not a number. You work out what is being bought, price each part of it, and arrive at a range you can explain out loud. This applies whether you are quoting or receiving a quote.
The four things that decide the fee
The work itself
This is the part most people think of first. Script length, session time, whether the performer is directed live or records alone, whether editing and delivery are included. It sets a floor. It rarely sets the fee.
Where the recording runs
Media type moves the fee more than anything else. A regional radio spot and a national broadcast campaign are not the same product. Neither is a paid social advert, a corporate explainer that never leaves an intranet, an audiobook, an e-learning module or a telephone system. Each one puts the audio in front of a different audience for a different purpose. The read may be identical. The value to the buyer is not.
How long it runs, and where
Term and territory move a fee more than most performers expect. A licence for three months in one country is a different product from a licence for two years worldwide. Longer terms cost more, but not in a straight line. A renewal for a second year usually sits below the first year; the client has already paid for the launch. Territory works the same way.
Exclusivity, and which agreement it falls under
If the performer is barred from voicing competitors for the term, that restriction has a price of its own, separate from the usage. Union work is different again. Published union scale sets the session and use fees, adds pension and health contributions, and requires the buyer to be a signatory. Non-union work is negotiated freely. See union vs non‑union voice over if you are deciding which side you are on.
The questions to ask before you quote
This section is for the performer. Do not send a number until you can answer all of these. There is nothing awkward about asking; buyers who commission voice over regularly expect the questions.
- What is the media type, and every place the audio will appear?
- What is the term, and does it start at delivery or at first air?
- What territory does the licence cover?
- Is exclusivity required, and against what category?
- How long is the script, and are pickups and revisions included?
- Who is the end client, and is this an agency booking?
If you are the buyer, answer those six before you ask for a price; you will save a round of email and get a tighter number. A performer working without information quotes defensively.
The three mistakes that cause underquoting
Pricing the session and giving away the usage
This is the common one. The performer quotes an hourly or per-finished-minute figure for the recording. The client then runs the audio for two years across every channel it owns. No fee was ever charged for that. The session is the cost of making the asset. The usage is the value of owning it.
Agreeing to a vague buyout
The word buyout means almost nothing on its own. Ask what is actually being bought: which media, what term, what territory, exclusive or not. A quote for "full buyout" with no definition is a quote for something neither party can describe. Whoever wrote the contract will read it generously. Write the scope into the invoice in plain words. Usage and buyouts covers this in more detail.
Billing overlapping rights twice
The opposite failure, and it costs you credibility rather than money. Suppose a client buys paid social. You then bill separately for the same audio, in the same placement, under a different label. Your quote stops making sense to the person approving it. Rights that genuinely overlap should be priced once, as one broader licence. A defensible quote never charges for the same permission under two names.
How to arrive at a range you can defend
Start from the media type. Add the term and territory. Add exclusivity if it applies. Then check the result against what similar work in your market actually pays. Present it as a range rather than a single figure. A range is honest, and it leaves the client room to shape the scope. We draw the figures on this site from public and private industry sources and fine-tune them with input from industry experts; see sources.
The test of a quote is whether you can say out loud what each part of it is for. "This covers the session, this covers two years of online use, this covers the exclusivity you asked for." A number you can break down survives a conversation with a procurement department. A number you cannot break down gets negotiated down to whatever the buyer felt like paying.
Doing the arithmetic
The reasoning above is the part you have to do yourself. The arithmetic is not. The calculator takes the media type, term, territory, exclusivity and script length, then returns a range. It gives you the breakdown as well, so you can read it back to a client. We keep your first three quotes free, then it is $2.99 a month or $28.70 a year.
It is a calculator. We do not negotiate for you and we do not set your fee. You set your own rates independently, and you are free to quote above or below anything it gives you. If a term on this page is unfamiliar, the glossary defines it, and voice over rates explains how the categories fit together.