How much does audiobook production cost? Human, AI and done for you compared

The price of an audiobook depends less on the book than on who does the work. A professional narrator in a studio, an AI voice you direct yourself, and a service that takes your manuscript and hands back finished files are three very different budgets for the same novel. This guide puts real numbers on each, using one example book so they are easy to compare.

First, how long is your audiobook?

Audiobook work is priced either per finished hour or per word, so start by turning your word count into hours. Narration runs at about 150 to 160 words per minute, which means one finished hour holds roughly 9,300 words.

Book	Words	Finished hours
Novella or short non-fiction	40,000	about 4.3
Typical novel	90,000	about 10
Long novel or textbook	150,000	about 16

The rest of this guide uses the typical novel: 90,000 words, about ten finished hours.

Option 1: a human narrator

Professional narrators usually charge per finished hour, and the rate includes the time it takes to get there: recording, retakes, editing, proofing against the text and mastering. A common range for independent authors is $200 to $400 per finished hour, with well-known narrators charging more.

For the example novel that is $2,000 to $4,000. Some platforms offer a royalty share instead, where the narrator is paid from future sales, but fewer experienced narrators accept it for an unknown title. A human performance is still the only way to publish through ACX, so if Audible is your main market, this is the budget to plan for.

Option 2: AI narration you produce yourself

With an AI audiobook tool you are the producer. You choose the voice, fix the text, listen for mistakes and approve each chapter. On VoicedBook that costs $3 per 1,000 words, so the example novel is $270, and the price includes structure analysis, voice auditions on your own chapters, character voices, the pronunciation dictionary, a word-by-word check with automatic retakes, mastering and the upload packages.

What the price does not include is your time. Plan an evening to prepare the manuscript and pick voices, and then a full listen before you publish. For many authors that trade is the whole point: a finished audiobook for the cost of a few hours of narration.

Option 3: done for you

Done for you means you send the book and get back the finished audiobook. Someone else does the producer's job: cleaning up the text, choosing the narrator, giving each speaking character a voice, setting how names are said, listening through every chapter and fixing what needs it.

VoicedBook's done-for-you service costs $7 per 1,000 words, with a $149 minimum. The example novel is $630. That covers every retake, the mastering, credits, a retail sample, an M4B and the store packages, and it includes one free revision round after delivery. Delivery is seven days from payment. Other done-for-you AI services we have seen charge around $10 to $11 per 1,000 words with minimum orders of several hundred dollars.

Side by side

	Human narrator	AI, do it yourself	AI, done for you
90,000-word novel	$2,000 to $4,000	$270	$630
Your time	Casting, reviewing chapters	A few hours, plus a full listen	Notes at the start, a listen at the end
Typical time to finished files	Several weeks	Same day once the text is ready	Seven days
Audible / ACX	Yes	No	No
Spotify, Google Play, Kobo	Yes	Yes, disclosed as AI	Yes, disclosed as AI

Costs people forget

• Proofing. Someone has to listen to every minute against the text. With a human narrator it is often a separate fee; with AI it is your time unless the service does it.
• Pick-ups. Fixing a mispronounced name after recording means booking the narrator again. With AI, only the passages with that name are narrated again.
• Cover art. Audiobook covers are square, 3000 by 3000 pixels. Your ebook cover usually needs a new layout.
• Mastering to spec. Every store checks loudness, peaks and noise. If you record yourself, the free audiobook file checker tells you where your files stand.

Which one should you choose?

Choose a human narrator if Audible is essential or the performance is the product, such as a memoir read in your own voice by a professional. Choose AI and do it yourself if you enjoy the control and have a few evenings. Choose done for you if you want an AI audiobook on Spotify, Google Play and Kobo without learning the tools, and you would rather spend the time writing the next book.

Common questions

How much does it cost to produce an audiobook?

With a human narrator, expect roughly $200 to $400 per finished hour, so $2,000 to $4,000 for a typical 90,000-word novel of about ten hours, before cover art and distribution. Producing it yourself with AI narration on VoicedBook costs $3 per 1,000 words, about $270 for the same novel. Having VoicedBook produce it for you costs $7 per 1,000 words, about $630, with a $149 minimum.

How many finished hours is my book?

Narration runs at about 150 to 160 words per minute, so divide your word count by about 9,300 to get finished hours. A 50,000-word book is a little over five hours, a 90,000-word novel about ten, and 150,000 words about sixteen.

What does a done-for-you AI audiobook include?

On VoicedBook: text cleanup, casting a narrator and a voice for each speaking character, a pronunciation list for names and invented words, narration with a word-by-word check, a listen through every chapter with retakes, mastering, opening and closing credits, a retail sample, M4B and the upload packages for Spotify for Authors, Google Play Books and Kobo, plus one free revision round.

How long does done-for-you production take?

VoicedBook delivers in seven days from payment. It takes three books a week; when the queue is full, the delivery date moves out by a week and you see the date before you pay.

Can I publish an AI-narrated audiobook on Audible?

Not through ACX with third-party AI narration: ACX requires a human narrator, apart from Amazon's own virtual voice program. Spotify for Authors, Google Play Books and Kobo accept AI narration when you disclose it, and VoicedBook packages carry that disclosure.