Professional human narration typically runs $200 to $400 per finished hour (PFH), which works out to roughly $1,800 to $3,600 for narration alone on an average 80,000-word novel, before editing, mastering, and other production costs are added. AI narration can cost a small fraction of that. The right choice depends on your budget, your genre, and how much control and rights you want to retain.
This is part of the Complete Guide to Audiobook Production.
Audiobook narration is priced per finished hour (PFH), meaning one hour of final, polished, ready-to-publish audio, not raw recording time. The industry's standard conversion is roughly 9,300 words of manuscript per finished hour, so an 80,000-word novel produces about 8.6 finished hours, and a 100,000-word novel produces roughly 10.5 to 11.
| Narrator experience | Typical rate per finished hour |
|---|---|
| Entry-level / newer narrators | Around $150-$200 |
| Solid professional narrators | $200-$400 |
| Mid-list narrators with strong credits | $300-$500 |
| Name talent | $1,000+ (rarely available to first-time authors) |
For an 80,000-word novel (about 8.6 finished hours), narration alone commonly runs $1,700 to $3,500 at typical professional rates. Add editing, mastering, and quality review, and total production cost often lands between $2,500 and $5,000, with premium narrators or full-service production houses pushing costs considerably higher.
Some narrators offer a royalty-share arrangement instead of an upfront flat fee: no payment upfront, but the narrator receives a share of your audiobook royalties, commonly for a period of years. This removes the initial cost barrier, but it typically requires exclusive distribution through a single platform, and if the book sells well, you may end up paying the narrator considerably more over time than a flat fee would have cost. It's a reasonable option for a first book with essentially no production budget, but it comes with real trade-offs, including losing the option to distribute wide.
AI narration platforms commonly price per word rather than per finished hour, and total costs can run from under $100 to a few hundred dollars for a full novel, dramatically less than human narration. Quality has improved substantially and continues to for many genres, though performance-heavy books still generally favor human narration. See Human vs. AI Audiobook Narration.
Editing and mastering are sometimes included in a narrator's quoted rate and sometimes billed separately, commonly adding a meaningful amount on top of raw narration cost. Budget too for cover art if your audiobook edition needs something different from your print or ebook cover, platform or distribution fees, which vary by platform and distribution model, and retakes or revisions, which can add cost if significant changes are needed after initial recording.
Distribution fees, cover art, and related costs commonly add another $50 to $400 on top of narration and editing, regardless of which production path you choose.
Narrator experience and reputation is the single biggest factor in human narration pricing, followed by book length, since cost scales directly with finished hours. The number of distinct voices needed matters too, since full-cast productions cost meaningfully more than single-narrator ones (see Single Narrator vs. Full Cast), as does turnaround time, since rush production typically costs more, and genre complexity, since heavy accents, technical terminology, or many distinct characters can increase a narrator's rate or the time required.
For a standard-length novel with a solid professional human narrator on a flat-fee basis, budget somewhere in the $2,000 to $5,000 range for a complete, professionally produced audiobook. For a tighter budget, AI narration can bring that down to well under $500, with quality that's increasingly competitive for many genres.
Get a Real Quote for Your Book
Entrada Publishing sources and vets narrators on your behalf and can give you a specific quote based on your manuscript's length and genre.
For an 80,000-word novel with professional human narration, expect roughly $1,700 to $3,500 for narration alone, and $2,500 to $5,000 for complete production including editing and mastering.
Narration is priced by the length of the final, polished audio, not raw recording time. One finished hour is roughly equal to 9,300 words of manuscript.
Significantly, often costing under a few hundred dollars for a full novel compared to several thousand for professional human narration, though quality trade-offs vary by genre.
An arrangement where you pay no upfront fee but share ongoing royalties with the narrator, typically for several years, and are usually required to distribute exclusively through one platform. It removes upfront cost but can end up costing more over time if the book sells well, and it limits your distribution options.