Translate and dub speech overview

Descript offers tools to translate content into multiple languages. Use these features together or separately, depending on your needs.

You’ll find these options in the AI Tools panel under the Repurpose section.

This article covers:

Before you translate

Translation is a finishing step! Unlike features you can toggle on and off, translating creates a new composition with new audio (and video, if you use lip sync). If you make changes to your project after translating, you'll need to re-translate and use more AI credits.

For best results, complete your composition before you translate. We recommend:

Usage note

On current plans, this feature uses AI Credits. Learn more about tracking your Media Minutes and AI Credits.

Legacy and Sunset plans track usage differently. See our Understanding your Legacy and Sunset plan guide for details.

Translate features

Translate supports three distinct features, which you can use together or separately. See full feature availability by plan.

  • Translate captions: Select a language to Translate to and Descript creates translated captions and transcripts from your original content. 
  • Dub speech: Create a full voiceover of your content in another language, not just subtitles. Replaces your original audio with a translated AI voice. 
  • Lip sync: Part of the dub speech workflow, lip sync adjusts the speaker's mouth movements to match the translated audio. This makes dubbed videos look more natural and authentic.

Underlord can translate and dub

Prefer to let Underlord do the work? Use a prompt like: “Add German captions to this video, and also create a version where you dub it in French.” Learn more about Underlord.

Translation style options

Choose between two translation styles:

Match timing: Optimizes translation to match the original speech timing. The translation may use additional descriptive words or different phrasing to achieve the right duration, which aims to keep the dubbed audio at a more “natural” speaking pace. This option takes longer to process.

Direct translation: More literal translation that closely follows the original wording. Because the translated text may be shorter or longer than the original, sections of the dubbed audio might be slightly sped up or slowed down to match your video's timing.

To change the preferred default style, set your preference in Descript's App Settings in the Advanced section.

the Translate panel in the Descript editor, with the style dropdown menu expanded to show the Match timing and Direct translation options

Feature availability by plan

Feature Free Hobbyist Creator Business Enterprise
Translate captions Limited ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Dub speech Limited ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Translation proofread ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅
Lip-sync* ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅

*Lip-sync is only available on Descript's current subscription plans. Users on Legacy or Sunset plans cannot access this feature.