How Much Does Voiceover Pay?
Short answer: voiceover pay is mostly not about how long the session takes. It is about usage: where the recording runs, for how long, and how widely. A two hour session can be worth a few hundred dollars or several thousand depending entirely on that.
Union work separates the two explicitly. There is a session fee for recording, and then separate use payments as the spot actually runs. Non-union work more often bundles everything into one number, which is what people mean by a buyout.
The single most useful habit: before quoting anything, ask what the usage is.
Session fee versus usage
This is the structure that explains almost everything confusing about voiceover pay. The session fee covers the recording itself. The use payment covers the value of the recording being out in the world doing a job for somebody.
To put real numbers on it, under SAG-AFTRA's 2025 audio commercial rate sheets the session fee was $404.30. The use payments attached to that same session ranged from roughly $500 for a four week digital window to over $4,000 for a year of national terrestrial radio. Same session, same performance, same amount of your time. The difference is entirely what the advertiser bought.
Rate sheets change, so treat any specific figure here as a reference point rather than a current quote, and check SAG-AFTRA's published rate sheets for the category you are working in.
Holding fees and the 13 week cycle
Union commercial work runs on 13 week cycles counted from the session date. Within that structure, a holding fee is what an advertiser pays to keep the commercial available to them and to keep you exclusive within that product category. SAG-AFTRA's own example is that if you are being held on a Pepsi spot, you cannot go book a Coca-Cola spot during that window.
That exclusivity is a real cost to you, which is exactly why it is paid for. It is also why a union commercial that runs well can keep generating income long after the day you recorded it, and why people talk about commercial work in terms of what it pays over a year rather than what it paid that afternoon.
Buyouts
A buyout means one payment, and then the client uses the recording under whatever terms the agreement sets out. This is normal in non-union work and is not inherently a bad deal. The problem is that "buyout" on its own is not a description of anything. A buyout for one year of regional web use and a buyout for worldwide, all media, in perpetuity are entirely different products, and they are sometimes quoted at the same price to people who did not ask.
If a client asks for a buyout, the useful response is not to refuse, it is to ask what they need to cover and price that. A lot of clients ask for perpetuity because it is the default language in their template, not because they need it.
What different categories tend to look like
- Commercial. The category where usage matters most and where the pay ceiling is highest, because national campaigns carry real money. Also the most competitive.
- Animation. Union animation sessions carry substantial session fees plus residuals tied to airing. The work is also episodic, which makes it some of the most stable income in the business when it lands.
- Video games. Union game work is generally paid by session with additional session bonuses, often without the ongoing residual structure that broadcast work has.
- Promo and radio imaging. Frequently retainer-shaped rather than job-shaped: a station or network pays for a defined period of ongoing work. Predictable income when you have it.
- Corporate, e-learning, explainer. Lower usage value, lower rates, but far more of it, and it is often where people build a working week while chasing the bigger categories.
- Audiobooks. Usually paid per finished hour, sometimes with a royalty share. A finished hour takes considerably more than an hour to produce, which is the thing people underestimate.
Union and non-union
There is a lot of union work and a lot of non-union work, and the non-union side includes campaigns people would recognize. Union contracts bring negotiated minimums, the use and holding structure described above, and pension and health contributions on top of the fee. Non-union work is faster to book and more variable in what it pays.
Neither one is the answer on its own. What matters more for your income in any given year is usually which categories you are competitive in, not which side of the line you are on.
Where people lose money
- Quoting before asking about usage. The most common and most expensive mistake.
- Agreeing to perpetuity because the contract said so. Often negotiable, and often not actually needed by the client.
- Racing to the bottom on pay to play platforms. Those platforms are a real part of the business and some people do well on them, but bidding low to win volume tends to lock in the volume and not the rate.
- Not tracking what has been paid. Use and holding payments arrive over long stretches, and cycles do get missed. Nobody is going to catch it for you.
- Absorbing revisions and pickups for free. Occasionally goodwill, frequently a pattern once it starts.
Common questions
How much does a voiceover job pay?
It depends far more on usage than on how long the session takes. A union audio commercial session fee was $404.30 under the 2025 rate sheets, but the use payments attached to it ranged from a few hundred dollars for a short digital window to several thousand for a year of national use. Non-union work varies enormously, from tens of dollars on a pay to play platform to several thousand for a direct client campaign.
What is a buyout in voiceover?
A buyout means the client pays once and then uses the recording under whatever terms the agreement specifies, rather than paying again as usage continues. Buyouts are common in non-union work. They are not automatically bad, but the number only makes sense in light of what is being bought: worldwide, all media, in perpetuity is a very different thing from one year of regional web use.
What is a rebuy or a holding fee?
Under SAG-AFTRA commercial contracts, payments run in 13 week cycles from the session date. A holding fee keeps the commercial available to the advertiser and keeps you exclusive to that product category, so you cannot take a competitor's spot during that window. Use payments compensate for the commercial actually running. This cycle structure is why union commercial work can keep paying long after the session.
Do you need to be in SAG-AFTRA to make a living in voiceover?
No. There is a great deal of non-union voiceover work, including national campaigns people would recognize. Union membership changes which pockets of work you can be sent to and adds contract protections and pension and health contributions, but plenty of working voice actors build careers on either side, and many work both.
How much does an agent take?
Ten percent is standard. On union work it is typically added on top of scale rather than deducted from your fee, which is worth confirming with any agency before you sign. Managers, where someone has one, generally take fifteen to twenty percent.
Why do two similar sounding jobs pay so differently?
Because you are not being paid for your time, you are being paid for the use. Two identical two hour sessions can differ by an order of magnitude if one is an internal training video and the other is a national broadcast campaign. Getting comfortable asking what the usage is, before quoting, is one of the highest value habits in this business.