ElevenLabs dubbing: translate your videos into other languages

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ElevenLabs dubbing is a feature inside the ElevenCreative platform, ElevenLabs' unified content tool for speech, video and music, that takes a video or audio file and generates a translated, re-voiced version in another language, while trying to keep the original speaker's tone and delivery intact rather than producing a flat, literal translation. This guide covers how it actually works today, what it costs, how to fix mistakes, and where it genuinely fits for ecommerce and training content.

How dubbing works

ElevenLabs currently runs two dubbing tools, and it matters which one you're using:

• Dubbing v2 (Automatic Dubbing): the current, actively developed product. It uses an updated model that supports region-qualified dialect tags (for example, distinguishing regional variants of a language), not just a base language code.
• Dubbing Studio: the older, manual-editing version of the tool. ElevenLabs' own documentation states it's now "in maintenance mode and receives critical bug fixes only," meaning it still works but isn't where new functionality lands. It uses the older Dubbing v1 model, which supports the same languages as Eleven v3 text to speech but only accepts base language tags, not region-specific dialects.

In practice, start with the newer automatic tool unless you specifically need Dubbing Studio's manual, clip-by-clip editing interface for a project that needs tighter human control over the result. Compare other AI dubbing tools if this one does not fit.

Cost, and fixing mistakes

ElevenLabs bills dubbing in credits, the same system it uses across its other audio tools, but its own documentation doesn't state an exact credit-per-minute figure in the page I could access, it points to the pricing page for the current number instead. Confirm the live rate on ElevenLabs' current pricing page before committing a long video or a batch of videos, since dubbing a full video's audio track typically consumes more credits than a short text to speech generation of the same length.

One genuinely useful detail: if a dubbing job fails or gets cancelled partway through, ElevenLabs states that credits are automatically refunded to your account, so a failed run on a long video doesn't cost you the credits for nothing.

For fixing mistakes, Dubbing Studio's manual editor is the more precise tool: you can edit the generated transcript directly, reassign which speaker a line belongs to, and regenerate individual clips rather than the whole file, which matters if one line in an otherwise good dub comes out wrong. The newer automatic Dubbing v2 tool is faster end to end but gives you less of this granular, clip-level control, so for a project where getting every line exactly right matters more than speed, Dubbing Studio's editing tools are still worth using despite its maintenance-mode status. Fixing a wrong translation in a dubbed video walks through it.

Use cases for ecommerce and training

• Ecommerce product videos: dubbing an existing product demo or ad into the languages of your other target markets is usually far cheaper and faster than reshooting or re-recording the same video with a local voice talent in each language.
• Training and onboarding content: a company with offices or franchisees in multiple countries can dub one master training video into each local language, keeping the content consistent across markets instead of commissioning separate videos per region. Translating training videos for Spanish-speaking staff is one concrete case.
• Customer support and explainer videos: dubbing an existing how-to video extends its useful life into new markets without a full re-production.

A practical way to pilot this before committing to dubbing an entire content library: pick one representative video, dub it into your highest-priority target language, and review the full result with a native speaker on your team or a contractor before deciding whether to dub the rest of your library the same way. This catches language-specific issues, an unusual accent choice, a term that doesn't translate the way you expected, before you've spent credits dubbing dozens of videos with the same avoidable mistake repeated across all of them.

In all three cases, the same rule applies: review the dubbed output before you publish it, don't assume a first-pass automatic dub is launch-ready, especially for product names, numbers or technical terms that often need a manual correction pass.

What dubbing can't fully solve

Dubbing translates and re-voices speech, but it doesn't rewrite your video's visuals, on-screen text, or culturally specific references that may not land the same way in a different market. A product demo with on-screen captions or text overlays in the original language will still show that original text unless you separately edit the video, dubbing only replaces the audio track. Similarly, a joke, idiom or cultural reference that worked in the source language can translate literally but land oddly, or not at all, in the target language, since translation and localization aren't quite the same thing. For content where this matters, a product launch video, a brand-voice-heavy ad, it's worth a human review specifically for tone and cultural fit, not just accuracy of the words, before publishing a dubbed version into a new market. This guide on when AI dubbing is enough and when to hire a native speaker goes further.

Choosing between the two dubbing tools in practice

In practice, most new dubbing projects should default to the automatic Dubbing v2 tool, since it's the actively developed product and supports more granular dialect targeting. Reach for Dubbing Studio's manual editor specifically when a first-pass automatic dub comes back with a handful of specific errors, a mispronounced product name, a line attributed to the wrong speaker, that are faster to fix with clip-level editing than to solve by re-running the whole automatic process and hoping the error doesn't recur. Treating the two tools as a two-stage process, automatic first pass, manual fixes only where needed, tends to be faster overall than trying to force one tool to do the whole job perfectly on its own.

Planning which languages to dub first

Dubbing every video into every language your business might ever need is rarely the right starting point. Instead, prioritize by where your actual audience or market demand already exists, your website analytics, your sales pipeline's geographic mix, or a specific market you're actively expanding into, rather than dubbing broadly and hoping for traction. Starting with one or two priority languages, reviewing the results properly, and expanding from there once you've confirmed the quality holds up for your content type is a more efficient use of both credits and review time than a wide, shallow rollout across many languages at once.

How I'd approach a multi-language video project

When a client needs training or marketing video content working across multiple languages, I treat dubbing as the first pass, not the final product. I review the output for the specific terms and product names that matter to that business, correct what needs correcting, and build a repeatable process for future videos rather than a one-off fix. Get in touch if you want a multi-language video pipeline set up properly.