If you've searched for an answer to this question, you've probably already found the Gravy For The Brain Rate Guide ... and it's a genuinely useful resource. But a rate card can only ever tell you part of the story. It can't tell you why two commercials of similar length can pay ten times differently. It can't tell you what happens when a "quick, cheap favour" for a small client gets repurposed into a national campaign. And it can't tell you what it actually feels like to build a career on fees that swing from tens of pounds to thousands, sometimes in the same week.
I've been a professional voiceover for over 25 years, voicing commercials for clients around the world. This is my honest, first-hand answer to "how much do we actually earn" ... using the Gravy For The Brain guide as a starting point, but going well beyond it.
THERE IS NO "GOING RATE" ... THERE'S A RANGE, AND IT'S HUGE
Here's the truth that catches a lot of people off guard: the fee for a commercial voiceover job can be tens of pounds, or it can be thousands. I've done both. A local radio commercial for a small local client might earn tens of pounds. A global tour campaign for a major band can earn thousands. Both are legitimate, professionally priced jobs. The difference isn't talent or effort ... it's usage.
USAGE IS THE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE-MAKER
If you take one thing away from this post, let it be this: it's not about how long you spend in the booth, it's about how far and how long your voice will travel.
- Small potential audience → smaller fee
- Vast potential audience → substantially larger fee
A voiceover recorded for a single local shop's radio ad and a voiceover recorded for a multinational campaign might take the same twenty minutes to record. But one will be heard by a few thousand local listeners for a few weeks, and the other could be heard by millions across multiple countries for a year or more. The fee reflects the reach and duration of that usage ... not the minutes spent recording it.
This is why the Gravy For The Brain guide is structured around usage categories rather than a single flat "voiceover rate." It's also why it's an aide-mémoire and a useful starting point for everyone ... not an absolute guide. There are many variables to weigh on top of it, and no rate card can capture every nuance of every job.
WHY BUYOUTS ARE RARE ... AND A CAUTIONARY TALE
You'll sometimes hear about "buyouts," where a client pays one fee to own the audio outright, forever, for any use. In my experience, this is very rare, and for good reason: ownership of the audio should always remain with the voiceover, so we retain control over how it's ultimately used.
I've seen this go wrong for fellow professionals. There have been cases where voiceovers agreed to a small buyout fee for what seemed like a small, one-off project ... only for that company to later be purchased, with the audio then repurposed for much bigger projects than originally intended, with no additional fees paid.
That's why almost all professional voiceover work is licensed, not sold: for a specific project, for a specified amount of time, for a set fee. If the client wants to use it beyond that agreement ... a longer run, a different territory, a new campaign ... that's negotiated separately. It protects the voiceover, and honestly, it protects the client too, because it keeps everyone clear on what they've actually paid for.
THE "AGREED FEE" ISN'T THE SAME AS MONEY IN YOUR POCKET
One thing that genuinely frustrates me: the way some newer voiceovers post online, seemingly bragging that they've just earned a large fee for a few minutes' work. It paints a wildly misleading picture of this profession.
The reality is that running a professional voiceover business is expensive. There's studio-grade kit to invest in and continually upgrade, treated recording spaces or booths that aren't cheap, broadcast-quality microphones that are serious money, and then the ordinary costs of running any business ... insurance, software, admin, tax. It takes many slices to make a loaf. A headline fee is never the full story.
WHAT TO REALISTICALLY EXPECT STARTING OUT
If you're new to commercial voiceover in the UK, here's the honest picture:
- Gaining clients is genuinely difficult. There isn't a long queue of jobs sitting there waiting for new voices to work through. Even established professionals go through quiet times ... the work is rarely regular, and that doesn't change much with experience.
- Invest properly, or don't bother. Like any profession, being a true professional means investing in proper kit. A USB mic on a kitchen table is not going to land well with most clients. Clients can tell, and they'll vote with their feet.
- Don't undercut the market. Low-balling your price isn't doing you, or your fellow professionals, any favours whatsoever. Undercutting the going rate to secure work is short-term thinking ... and it drags the whole market down with it. As a professional, you are worth an appropriate fee. Know your worth. It's a race to the bottom where only the client wins.
AGENTS, MIDDLEMEN AND PAY2PLAY SITES ... MY HONEST TAKE
I don't personally have an agent, though I'm not against the concept at all. I have regular clients, and I have some trusted middlemen who recommend me to their clients. Importantly, my rate is my rate, regardless of whether a middleman or agent is involved ... the fee reflects the usage and the job, not who introduced it.
Where I'm far less enthusiastic is "pay2play" style casting websites. They require every applicant to spend time recording auditions for jobs that are often underpriced to begin with. You end up spending hours of your life auditioning, but with hundreds of other job-hungry voiceovers doing exactly the same thing, your audition rarely even gets heard. In my view, it's rarely worth the time or effort.
FIND YOUR NICHE ... DON'T TRY TO BE A VOICE SWISS ARMY KNIFE
Voiceovers are used absolutely everywhere: TV, radio, digital media ads, e-learning projects, train announcements, phone systems, lifts ... the list goes on. My advice is to find what genuinely suits your voice. Not everyone can be brilliant at everything, and there's no point trying to be a Swiss Army knife of the voice world. If you're not sure where your natural strengths lie, talk to a professional coach to help you find your niche ... then boss it.
HOW THE MARKET HAS CHANGED IN 25 YEARS
The voiceover world has changed markedly since I started ... and never more so than with this new wave of AI voice cloning. I'll be honest: I really wouldn't want to be new to this business now, because it is harder than ever to find clients who see the value a professional human brings versus a free AI voice clone. Competition has always existed, but the nature of it has shifted, and it's something every voiceover, new or established, now has to reckon with.
SO ... IS IT STILL WORTH IT?
I don't think it's my place to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do with their career. What I can tell you is that I know several highly regarded, genuinely brilliant professionals who have chosen to hang up their headphones and pivot away from voiceover entirely, because they simply can't rely on it as a career any more.
I'd also push back on calling it a "side hustle" ... that term diminishes the professionalism and ongoing investment this work actually requires.
What I will say clearly is this: regular work is harder to find than ever before. Those who cut corners ... inferior kit, poor recording spaces, not being available when clients need them ... will be found out, and clients will vote with their feet. It's more competitive than ever, and there are plenty of great voiceovers ready and waiting to perform if you're not.
My honest take: do it properly, or not at all. It may or may not be profitable for you. But if you don't approach it properly, you can be certain you're making it far harder for yourself than it needs to be.
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Terry Golding has voiced commercial campaigns for clients around the world for over 25 years. Send your script and get a fast, transparent, no-obligation quote.
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