It is preferable overall for producers to be up front about the budget they are offering for voice talent, rather than having actors “guess” what rates they can put when they send their audition. It is acceptable to have talent negotiate for a higher rate as a condition of their participation in the project, but it should not be considered acceptable for talent to submit rates lower than the posted payout in order to better their chances (or to encourage talent to “bid” lower if they wish to better their chances).
Type of Rate | Cost (in USD) | Suggested Minimum | Examples / Notes |
Suggested | $200-$250 per hour | 1-2 hours* | Los Angeles industry standard nonunion rate for games
and prelay (original) animation is $250 per hour
with a 2-hour minimum. If you are able to meet
this particular rate standard, you open yourself up to
being able to hire the grand majority of professional
voice talents who are willing to work nonunion. (*some
bigger-name actors may have an "overscale" requirement
or work union-only) Even if you can't quite meet the industry standard, a $200-$250 per hour rate will heavily increase your chance of attracting qualified talent for your project and is recommended for indie games with significant commercial release (especially console game/"all-platform" releases). *While the 2-hour minimum is an industry standard, we recognize the budget limitations of indie games, particularly when it comes to characters with a small amount of lines. How flexible an actor is willing to be on minimums for indie projects will vary. |
Mid-Tier | $100-$150 per hour | 1 hour | This is a viable indie rate for projects such as visual
novels, Steam games, YouTube animations, small mobile
games with minimal dialogue, etc. While you generally
won't be able to attract the same levels of professional
talent as with the above-mentioned rate, you will be able
to find pro or semi-pro freelancers in online communities.
Some indie devs may use a rate similar to this if they
have a bunch of characters who only have a small handful
of lines each, and they want to be able to cast a
different actor for every character rather than
doubling/tripling up. |
Lower-Tier |
$50-$75 per hour |
1 hour |
Rates for anime & foreign dubbing tend to
range from $50-$75 per hour depending on location. While
such rates do not apply to games and original
animation in terms of industry standards, it's used as a
baseline here to provide an indie option for projects with
very limited budget, for example, a student film that
needs VO, a game design class project, or an independent
animation for a very small YouTube channel. |
Notes: |
|
Type of Rate | Cost (in USD) | Suggested Minimum | Examples / Notes |
Suggested / Higher-Tier | $4-5* per line | $200** | Indie projects with significant commercial releases
(including console and mobile-game projects) who wish to
do a per-line rate are advised to follow a similar rate
structure such as this, as it tends to even out to be
similar to the suggested per-hour rates depending on how
quickly the talent works. *While a $5 per line rate is typically considered quite high, it has been popping up on projects where each character tends to have a smaller number of lines, such as those with mobile app releases. If you are an indie dev who anticipates a character having 100+ lines, an hourly rate may make more sense for your budget at that point. **In some cases, actors may waive or lower the suggested minimum at their discretion for projects with a very small amount of lines. An alternative to this is to simply double/triple up on actors for smaller roles. Per-line rates are recommended for self-directed recordings only as opposed to live sessions. |
Mid-Tier | $2-3 per line | $100 | This is a viable indie rate for projects such as visual
novels, Steam games, YouTube animations, small mobile
games without major funding etc. While you generally won't
be able to attract the same talent as with the above rate,
you will be able to find freelancers in online
communities. |
Lower-Tier | $1-2 per line | $25-50 | This rate is more for personal "voice commission" style
projects primarily made by one or two people, or projects
such as audio dramas, comic dubs, etc that are largely
considered passion projects. This type of rate will
typically attract newer actors looking to get their start
in paid projects, or those who are transitioning from
turning their voice acting hobby into income. |
Notes: |
|
Type of Rate | Cost (in USD) | Suggested Minimum | Examples / Notes |
Higher-Tier | 25-35 cents per word | $100-$150/variable based on project* | Narration for YouTube videos,
voicemail/phone system recordings, etc. *In some cases, actors may waive or lower the suggested minimum at their discretion for very short/simple recordings. |
Mid-Tier | 15-20 cents per word | $50-$100 | Also for short-form narration, poetry, etc. This is a fairly typical rate range that you will see for a lot of projects that come through online/freelancer services. |
Lower-Tier | 5-10 cents per word | $25-50 | Small "voice commission" style projects, short voice messages, personal projects, etc. |
Notes: |
|
**In general, it is a better idea - AND likely more cost-efficient - to hire a post-production audio engineer to handle dialogue editing/mixing/mastering, rather than expecting each actor to do it with varying results. If you’d prefer to pay a third party to do all your sound/dialogue editing, we have audio engineers available for hire on the VAC Discord Server.
Extra Takes:
Payment Timelines & Best Practices
RE: You'll only get paid if the game sells, revenue
share, etc:
Keep in mind that this is not how video game recording works in the
actual industry. Voice actors get paid for the amount of time
worked, and game work is almost always a "buyout" meaning there are
no royalties, residuals, or revenue share. If a client says they
cannot pay you for your work but promises you will make lots of
money if the game does well, treat this as a red flag - because
chances are you'll never actually get paid. While it's one thing to
record a short demo/scratch track for Kickstarter promotion, voice
acting is typically a "stretch goal" and voice recording should not
begin until funds are secured to pay actors for the work they
complete. Any "you'll get paid if we get paid" type of project
should be considered an unpaid project and taken at the actor's own
risk.
Actors: