Quoting is one of the hardest skills to develop in this business, because every project is different and clients usually ask for a number before you have the information you need to give one. The good news: pricing follows a framework, and once you know the inputs, the number stops feeling like a guess.

You’re Licensing Usage, Not Selling a Recording

The most important concept in voice-over pricing is that your fee is not about how long the recording took. It is about how, where, and for how long the finished audio will be used. Usage scope is the dominant variable, not booth time.

Consider a 30-second national television spot against a 10-minute internal training module. The spot is a fraction of the recording length, yet it commands far more, because it runs on broadcast, reaches a national audience, and lives on air for the length of the campaign. The training module is longer to record but plays only to employees, behind a login, with no media buy attached.

Two scripts of the same length can carry very different fees for the same reason. A regional radio tag that airs for one year is not the same job as a national digital pre-roll licensed in perpetuity, even if both run 60 seconds. Price the usage first, then everything else follows.

The Inputs to Any Quote

Before you can name a number, you need four things:

  • Project type. Commercial, corporate narration, e-learning, audiobook, IVR, documentary, and video game each carry their own rate norms. The genre sets the baseline.
  • Usage scope. Which platforms, which geographic markets, and for how long. Broadcast versus digital, national versus regional, and one year versus in perpetuity all move the number.
  • Finished length. How long the final recording will run, driven by spoken word count rather than written word count.
  • Union status. Whether you are SAG-AFTRA and whether the client is a signatory, which determines which rate structure applies.

Why Spoken Word Count Is the Number You Need

Spoken word count drives finished length, and finished length determines the rate range you look up in the guides. The catch is that written word count is not spoken word count.

Numbers, currencies, dates, abbreviations, and URLs all expand when read aloud. “$2.5M” becomes “two point five million dollars.” “12/25/2026” becomes “December twenty-fifth, twenty twenty-six.” A script that looks like 55 words on the page can run 75 or more spoken words, which changes both your timing estimate and your rate category.

Run the script through the Script Counter to get an accurate spoken word count before you estimate recording time. For a deeper look at why written and spoken counts diverge, see why accurate word counting matters. Pair that count with your WPM by genre to turn it into a realistic finished duration, which is what the rate guides are organized around.

The Rate Guides

Three resources represent the current industry standard. Each answers a different question about where your rate should land.

GVAA Rate Guide. The non-union standard in the US, organized by project type and covering commercial, narration, e-learning, audiobook, IVR, video games, and more. If you are non-union and US-based, the GVAA Rate Guide is the first place to look.

Gravy for the Brain. An international rate guide compiled with input from working professionals across the UK, US, Canada, Latin America, Australia, and other markets. Gravy for the Brain is useful for international work and for calibrating rates outside the US.

SAG-AFTRA. The union rate structure for signatory productions. If you are SAG-AFTRA or the client is a signatory, these are minimums, not suggestions. The Voice Over Resource Guide is a useful companion for navigating SAG rates without wading through the full contracts.

Using the Guides in Practice

The guides give you ranges, not final answers. A few practical points on applying them:

  • Start with the guide range for your project type and usage scope.
  • Adjust upward for niche expertise, technical script difficulty, or turnaround pressure.
  • Let your market set the floor: a locally-run regional spot is priced differently than a national campaign, even at the same length.
  • Treat in-perpetuity and buyout requests as premium terms, not afterthoughts.
  • Do not quote before you have a complete brief.

What You Need Before You Quote

A complete brief is what separates a confident quote from a guess. Ask the client for all of the following:

  • The script, or an accurate word count if the script is not finalized yet.
  • The platforms: broadcast TV, streaming, digital and social, or internal-only.
  • The geographic market: local, regional, national, or global.
  • The usage window: one year, two years, in perpetuity, or a flat buyout.
  • The project type and genre.
  • The session format: self-directed, phone patch, Zoom-directed, or in-studio.

Quoting well is a skill, and it gets easier once the framework is clear. The guides do the heavy lifting on the numbers, so your real job is gathering the right inputs before you commit to a figure. Get the spoken word count first, and the rest of the quote falls into place.