Voice Over Prices in the UAE (AED): Freelancer, Agency or AI Voice

01How much does a voiceover cost in the UAE?

The UAE differs from the rest of the Gulf in one important way: most campaigns need more than one language. A Dubai mall or an Abu Dhabi restaurant usually speaks to Emiratis, Arab residents and residents who don't speak Arabic at all, so one ad becomes an Arabic version and an English version, and sometimes an Emirati cut plus an MSA cut.

A note of honesty up front: we looked for published AED rate cards from UAE studios and agencies and found none we could cite; agencies generally quote per project. So this article uses what freelance marketplaces publish openly for Gulf voice actors, converts it to dirhams at the peg, and explains what an agency quote adds on top.

02Published rates for Gulf voice actors, in AED

These are starting prices for Gulf voiceover services, some naming Emirati explicitly, as shown on Khamsat, plus the ranges VoiceBros states on its Arabic voice actors page:

Sources: Gulf voiceover listings on khamsat.com and the Arabic voice actors page on voicebros.com, as shown on 3 October 2026. Converted at the AED peg of 3.6725 and rounded. These are sellers' own starting prices, not market averages, and can change.

For a 30-second ad, that is roughly AED 37 to 110 across these listings before extras, and AED 92 to 294 on VoiceBros' stated range. Two details from the listings themselves: one prices an advertising read above a standard read and states that changing the text after recording needs a new order, while another advertises unlimited revisions. Terms vary a lot, so read them first.

03Bilingual Arabic and English spots: how many recordings?

In the UAE, one ad often becomes two or three. The simple maths: each language usually means a different voice actor, a different order and a different fee, and every change to the offer has to be repeated in every version. Here is a mall ad in two versions:

On Vocla you write both versions in the same editor, pick an Emirati voice for the Arabic and an English voice for the English, at the same credit rate. English brand names inside the Arabic script are read the way your audience says them.

04What an agency adds: broadcast buyouts, studio and direction

Move from marketplaces to an agency or studio in Dubai or Abu Dhabi and the shape of the bill changes. We won't quote figures, because we found no published AED rate cards, but these lines usually appear:

• Talent fee: per session, per script or per finished minute.
• Usage rights or buyout: priced by medium (social, radio, TV, mall screens), term and territory, UAE-only or GCC-wide.
• Studio time and engineer: booking, recording, cleanup and export in the formats you need.
• Direction: if a voice director attends to shape the read.
• Pick-ups and revisions: fixing lines after review, sometimes at a full-session minimum.
• Each extra language or dialect: usually its own talent and session.

Broadcast rights move the numbers more than anything else. A spot running on radio and TV for a year is a completely different purchase from a one-month Instagram video, even with the same script. Ask for the medium, term and territory in writing.

05Emirati, MSA or white Gulf?

This choice affects the budget too, because every dialect is another version. A practical rule for the UAE: Emirati for messages aimed squarely at Emiratis and for national occasions such as Eid Al Etihad, MSA or English for mixed audiences, and white Gulf for campaigns that run across several GCC countries on one production budget.

Both lines mean: what are you waiting for? The offer is for a limited time, book now. شو تتريّا is why so many brands choose Emirati: the listener knows in the first second that the ad was made for them. We collected ready-made Emirati ad phrases in a separate article, and explained when one Gulf style can cover the whole region:

06A sample monthly budget for a Dubai restaurant

Take a realistic case: a Dubai restaurant needs four 30-second social ads a month, each in Emirati Arabic and English, so eight files. Here is the budget at the published prices above and in Vocla credits:

Those figures are before revisions. If a dish price changes mid-month, a voice actor usually re-records both versions; with generated voice you regenerate only the sentence with the price. Add a welcome message for the reservations line and a 300-character prompt is about 360 Vox Prime credits.

Voice actor figures are derived from starting prices published on 3 October 2026, rounded, and exclude broadcast rights, rush delivery and revisions. Credits are estimates; the exact figure appears in the in-app quote.

07What the same ad costs on Vocla

Vocla bills by characters, not seconds: Vox Prime uses 1,200 credits per 1,000 characters, and 1,000 characters is roughly a spoken minute. A 30-second ad is about 600 credits, the Arabic and English pair about 1,200, and every language and dialect costs the same.

Prices display in dirhams on the pricing page and are charged in USD. For a precise comparison, enter the quotes you received into the tool below; it assumes no prices for you:

08When to use an agency, and when AI voice is enough

• Use an agency or a known voice: for a major radio or TV spot with broadcast rights, a campaign built on a recognisable personality, or acted performance.
• AI voice is enough: for recurring bilingual social ads, in-store screens, IVR, training videos and anything whose price or offer changes often.
• Combine them: record the hero spot with a voice actor, then generate cut-downs, updates and language variants with a generated voice, keeping it a distinct voice rather than an imitation of the actor.

Around Eid Al Etihad on 2 December, demand for Emirati voice actors rises and timelines get tight, so start early whichever route you choose. Planning the full occasion video? We have a dedicated guide:

Vocla prices and credit rates as of October 2026, subject to change; the exact figure for each generation appears in the in-app quote. Lengths assume roughly 1,000 characters per spoken minute.