Creating Multilingual Videos: Automatic Translation with AI

Your German video is performing well. But what if you could offer it in English, Spanish, and French with minimal effort? With ElevenLabs and AI translation, that's possible today — at a fraction of traditional costs. In this guide, I'll share my complete workflow.

Why Multilingual Videos?

The numbers speak for themselves:

• Reach: Only 26% of internet users speak English; 75% of YouTube views come from non-English speakers
• Engagement: Videos in a viewer's native language have 2-3x higher completion rates
• SEO: Multilingual videos rank in local search results
• Trust: Localized content builds trust

Localization used to be expensive: translators, voice actors, recording studios. Today you can do it in hours instead of weeks.

Option 1: ElevenLabs Dubbing (Simple)

ElevenLabs offers an all-in-one dubbing solution:

1. Upload video
2. Select target languages
3. ElevenLabs transcribes, translates, and generates new audio tracks
4. Download localized videos

Pros: Extremely simple, voice preservation, automatic timing. Cons: Less control, occasional sync issues, higher costs (dubbing credits extra).

Ideal for: talking head videos, tutorials, simple explainers.

Option 2: Manual Workflow (Full Control)

For more professional results:

Step 1: Transcription

# With Whisper (local or API)
whisper video.mp4 --language en --output_format srt

Step 2: Translation

Use DeepL (best for European languages), GPT-4 (great for contextual translation), or Google Translate (fastest). Pro tip: Have GPT-4 "localize" the translation — adapt idioms, smooth unnatural phrasing.

Step 3: Text-to-Speech

Create a voice clone in ElevenLabs Voice Lab, then generate audio for each subtitle block using the multilingual v2 model. Your voice can now speak 29+ languages.

Step 4: Audio Sync

The biggest challenge: matching generated audio to lip movements. Options include time-stretching, shorter translations, and speed parameters in ElevenLabs. Tools: Descript, DaVinci Resolve, FFmpeg.

Language Quality

Cost Comparison

A typical 10-minute video: ~1,500 words = ~10,000 characters per language.

• 1 video × 3 languages with ElevenLabs Starter: ~$5
• 10 videos × 5 languages with ElevenLabs Pro: ~$99
• Professional voice actor (1 language): $200-500

The savings are enormous: one video in 5 languages costs ~$10-20 with AI vs. $1,000-2,500 with professional speakers.

Conclusion: Global Reach Becomes Affordable

With ElevenLabs and modern translation tools, video localization is no longer a luxury. You can make your content globally available in hours instead of weeks — at a fraction of traditional costs.