Video translation is one of the few AI capabilities that is straightforwardly better than what it replaces. Localising a video used to mean re-recording, re-shooting, or accepting visible mismatch. Now it means a translated track and a mouth that matches it, and the performance underneath stays the real person's.
What we do and do not do: 8frame has no translation tool. We generate speech (ElevenLabs TTS, 13 credits per 1,000 characters) and we do lip sync (OmniHuman), which are two of the three pieces. The translation itself happens elsewhere, and dedicated dubbing platforms bundle all three.
TL;DR
- Free tiers: minutes-per-month caps, watermarks, and a limited language list
- Three separate steps: transcribe, translate, then voice and sync. Dubbing platforms bundle them; assembling it yourself gives more control
- On 8frame: generated speech at 13 credits per 1,000 characters, plus lip sync to match the mouth
- The non-negotiable rule: a native speaker listens to every language before it ships
- Consent: applying lip sync to a real person requires their permission for those specific words
The three steps
1. Transcribe. Free and accurate enough now. Platform captions or open-source speech recognition.
2. Translate. This is the step that decides whether the result is good, and it is the step people treat as automatic. Machine translation gets grammar right and register wrong: it does not know your product name, your tone, or that a phrase lands as a joke in one language and an insult in another.
3. Voice and sync. Generate the translated speech, then match the speaker's mouth to it. On 8frame: TTS at 13 credits per 1,000 characters, plus OmniHuman for the lip sync.
What it costs to localise one video
Canon 8frame prices, a credit is $0.01 at pack rate. A 3-minute video, roughly 2,800 characters of script, into four languages:
| Step | Route | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Voice, 2,800 chars x 4 languages | ElevenLabs TTS at 13 per 1k | ~146 |
| Lip sync per language | OmniHuman, priced per second of output | varies by length |
| Music bed, if the original is replaced | Lyria 2 at 13 per 30s | 78 |
The voice layer is genuinely cheap: under two dollars for four languages. The lip sync scales with duration, so price it against your actual clip length before committing to a batch.
The rule that separates good localisation from embarrassing localisation
A native speaker listens to every language before it ships. Not reads, listens.
Synthetic voices are fluent-sounding in dozens of languages, and fluent-sounding is not correct. What goes wrong and what a tool cannot flag:
- Emphasis on the wrong word, which changes the meaning of a sentence.
- Register. Formal where it should be casual, or the wrong second-person form in languages that distinguish them. This alone can make a friendly brand read as cold or as presumptuous.
- Idiom translated literally.
- Your product name pronounced wrong, every single time, for the whole video.
- Numbers and units read in a format the market does not use.
Thirty minutes of a native speaker's time per language is the cheapest quality insurance in this entire category, and skipping it is how companies ship videos that quietly insult their audience.
The consent line
Lip sync puts words in a real person's mouth. It requires that person's permission, and the permission has to cover the specific words, not just the technique. Someone who agreed to appear in an English product video did not agree to say different things in six languages unless that was stated.
Never apply it to a public figure, never to footage you do not have rights to, and never to change what someone said. This is the capability with the most obvious misuse path and the rules are not optional.
Where free tiers land
Typical free tier: a few minutes per month, watermarked, with a short language list and the older voice models. That is enough to test whether the sync quality holds on your footage, which is the thing that varies most: head movement, partial occlusion and fast speech all degrade it.
Test with your actual footage before buying anything.
What to localise and what not to
Localise: product explainers, tutorials, onboarding, documentation video, anything informational. The gain is large and the risk is low.
Be careful with: marketing where tone carries the message. A joke, a tagline or an emotional beat needs a writer in that language, not a translation of your English one.
Do not localise: anything where the specific wording is a commitment. Legal, medical, safety, financial terms. Those need a professional translator and a review, not a pipeline.
FAQ
Does 8frame translate video? No. We generate speech and do lip sync. Translation happens elsewhere, or use a dedicated dubbing platform that bundles all three steps.
Is free AI dubbing good enough? The voice quality usually is. The translation quality is the risk, and it is the part free tiers do not solve.
How many languages should I start with? One, properly, with a native speaker reviewing it. Four half-checked languages is worse than one correct one.
Can I dub someone else's video? Not without their permission. Lip sync on a real person needs consent for the specific words.
Localise real performances, and have a native speaker listen. The 8frame canvas is free and unlimited, and generation is paid from $19/month.