In depth
Everything you need to know about audiobook costs
With AI narration, the cost of an audiobook comes down to one number: how much text gets voiced. A longer book takes more credits, a premium voice takes more credits per line, and anything you leave out of the audio, such as front matter, costs nothing.
The audiobook cost calculator above turns your manuscript's length into three answers: how long the finished audiobook will run, how many credits it takes, and which of our plans covers it. It uses the studio's own rates and our live plan prices, so the numbers match what you would see after signing up.
How long will my audiobook be?
Audiobook narration usually runs at around 150 to 160 words a minute. The calculator uses 155, which is about 9,300 words per finished hour. At that pace a 90,000-word novel runs about 9 hours 41 minutes, a 30,000-word novella about 3 hours 14 minutes, and a 7,500-word short story about 48 minutes.
Real running time moves a little either way. Dialogue-heavy chapters tend to run longer because of the pauses between speakers, and some voices read faster than others. For more on pages, pace and listening speed, see the audiobook length calculator.
AI audiobook cost: from words to credits
Credits are counted by the characters that get voiced, spaces included, not by words or minutes. English averages about 5.9 characters a word once spaces are counted, so 90,000 words is roughly 532,000 characters.
Each voice model has its own rate per 1,000 characters: standard voices cost the least, premium voices more. As an AI audiobook cost calculator, it multiplies your character count by the same rates the studio charges, and the studio shows the exact cost of a chapter before you generate it, so nothing is spent by surprise.
What changes the real number
Three things move the final bill. The text you actually voice: leaving out the copyright page, acknowledgements or an index lowers it. The voices you choose: premium voices cost more per character than standard ones. And regenerations: voicing a chapter again after an edit or a recast uses credits again.
The cheapest way to work is to get one chapter right first. Settle the cast, the direction notes and the pronunciation of tricky names on a sample, then generate the rest of the book in one go.
Human narrator vs AI: per finished hour or royalty share
Human narration is usually quoted per finished hour of audio, so any audiobook cost per finished hour calculator comes down to one sum: the hours shown above times the narrator's rate. ElevenLabs' audiobooks page, for one, compares AI production with a traditional $500 to $1,000 per finished hour, and a full cast multiplies that with every extra performer.
There is a second route with no fee up front. On ACX, a Royalty Share deal pays the narrator a portion of the book's royalties for seven years instead, split between you and the narrator, and the audiobook must be distributed exclusively through ACX (ACX help pages, checked October 2026).
AI narration is a different product, not just a cheaper one. A skilled narrator brings interpretation you won't get from text-to-speech, and some stores, including Audible through ACX, accept only human narration today. Used as an audiobook production cost calculator, this page gives you the AI side in credits and the hours a narrator would quote on, so you can weigh both with real numbers.
Budgeting a series or a serial
For a series, run each book through the audiobook cost calculator and add the credits up. A plan that covers one book a month can carry a trilogy over three months, and keeping the same cast across the series doesn’t add anything: only the text you voice counts.
For a web novel published chapter by chapter, enter one chapter’s word count instead. The running time and credits per chapter show which plan keeps the audio edition in step with your posting schedule.
Next step: hear your first chapter
The files you export are yours: an M4B with chapter markers, one MP3, or a ZIP with a file per chapter. Each store sets its own rules for AI-narrated audio, so check them before you upload. For the wider picture, read how much it costs to make an audiobook; to hear your own book with a full cast, try the multi-voice audiobook studio, or compare plans in the pricing section of the home page.
