For authors

Audiobook cost calculator

Enter your word count and the rate you'd pay a narrator. You'll see the finished length and what you'd pay, before you post anything.

Real narrators audition for your book. You choose the voice.
Posting your book and hearing auditions is free.
Pay over time with Klarna, Affirm or in parts.

Prices as of November 2026.

Pay per finished hour

Your book's word count Narrator's rate per finished hour:

$50$400

Finished hours

Narration

Production fee$350

Estimated total

An estimate. Your narrator's actual rate and the book's final length set the real price. Books under an hour are billed as one hour. You can pay the narration over time with Klarna or Affirm, or in parts.

Prices by book length

What an audiobook costs, by word count

Totals include the $350 production fee. You choose the rate you offer, from $50 per finished hour; a higher rate brings more experienced narrators to audition.

Book length	Finished hours	At $100/hour	At $200/hour	At $300/hour
20,000 words	2.2	$565	$780	$995
40,000 words	4.3	$780	$1,210	$1,640
60,000 words	6.5	$995	$1,640	$2,285
80,000 words	8.6	$1,210	$2,070	$2,931
100,000 words	10.8	$1,425	$2,501	$3,576
120,000 words	12.9	$1,640	$2,931	$4,221

Finished hours = words ÷ 9,300. Your narrator's real rate and your book's word count set the real price, and it's written into your contract before recording starts.

Or pay almost nothing up front

Royalty share: when is it cheaper?

On royalty share you pay only the $350 fee. Instead of a narrator payment, every sale is split for 10 years: 40% to you, 40% to your narrator, 20% to Academy Voices. When you pay the narrator per hour, you keep 80%.

So the real question is how much your audiobook will earn. If its royalties over 10 years add up to more than the number below, paying per hour costs you less.

Book length	Narrator at $200/hour	Per hour costs less if the audiobook earns more than
40,000 words	$860	$2,150
60,000 words	$1,290	$3,225
80,000 words	$1,720	$4,300
100,000 words	$2,151	$5,378

The extra 40% you keep on per-hour pays back the narrator's fee once total royalties pass the narrator's fee ÷ 0.4. Long books on royalty share get fewer auditions, because the narrator waits years to be paid; Royalty Share Plus adds one payment to your narrator, from $50, and brings more experienced narrators.

Questions about audiobook costs

For a 60,000-word book, about 6.5 finished hours, expect $995 to $2,285 with us: the rate per finished hour you offer your narrator ($100 to $300 in these examples) plus our one-time $350 production fee. On royalty share you pay only the $350 and share the sales instead.

About one finished hour for every 9,300 words. A 60,000-word novel is about 6.5 hours; a 90,000-word novel is about 9.7 hours. The calculator above does the sum for you.

The $350 production fee is due once the narrator you chose signs the contract. The narrator's payment is due before the final files are delivered, and you can spread it out with Klarna or Affirm, or in 2 to 5 parts on a payment of $300 or more.

No. The narrator's payment is set from the estimated hours in your contract, not the final runtime, so you know the number before recording starts. Books under an hour are billed as one hour.

No. The rate is per finished hour of the book, so two or more narrators split the same payment by the hours each one records.

Before you approve the first 15-minute sample, you can ask for a different narrator at no cost. The production fee carries over to the new narrator.

Want the whole picture, including what other companies charge? Read how much it costs to make an audiobook or how Academy Voices works.

Hear your book in a real narrator's voice

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