AI video dubbing costs about $5–7 per finished minute once lip sync is included
Madmahi25 · reddit · 2026-07-23
The author priced a full AI video dubbing pipeline for their own channel and found it is not a one-step, zero-cost task.
- The pipeline has two real cost centers: voice generation (ElevenLabs voice cloning + translated audio) and lip sync.
- For lip sync, sync.so is quoted at $0.05/sec, or about $3/minute via API; HeyGen can get expensive at higher volume because it is more avatar generation than pure sync.
- Wav2Lip is technically free, but the author argues it still costs GPU time and setup labor.
- Their rough all-in estimate is $5–7 per finished minute for voice + lip sync, or $150–210 for a 10-minute video in 3 languages before editor costs.
- They ask whether anyone has found a cheaper lip-sync option at scale.
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