Vocnu vs YouTube's automatic dubbing
YouTube now dubs some videos itself and can turn captions into subtitles in your language, both for free. They cover part of what people watch: some languages, eligible videos, and creators who keep dubbing on. Here is what each does, and when Vocnu is worth using.
For Chrome 120 or newer, Brave and Edge on a computer.
Side by side
| Feature | Vocnu | YouTube automatic dubbing |
|---|---|---|
| Price | €0.13 to €0.20 a minute with the voice-over, 40 free credits to start | Free |
| Which videos | Any video you watch in Chrome, Brave or Edge, on YouTube and on other sites | Eligible YouTube videos whose creator keeps automatic dubbing on |
| Languages | From the spoken language into any of 35 | English into 20 languages, and 29 languages into English |
| Long videos and live streams | Both, a live stream a few seconds behind the picture | Not videos longer than 120 minutes |
| How it sounds | Voice-over: one voice reads the translation over the lowered original sound | A dub: an AI-dubbed audio track in place of the original one |
| Subtitles | Translated subtitles over the player, in fullscreen too | Auto-translate makes subtitles from the video's captions, if it has any |
| Where | Chrome, Brave and Edge on a computer | YouTube's own player |
How YouTube's own tools work
- Auto-translate turns a video's captions into subtitles in another language. You choose it in the player's subtitle settings, and the sound stays in the original language.
- Automatic dubbing adds AI-dubbed audio tracks to eligible videos, which viewers pick in the player's audio track menu. It is on by default for eligible creators, who can turn it off or review each dub before it goes live.
- English videos are dubbed into 20 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malayalam, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu and Ukrainian. Videos in 29 languages are dubbed into English.
- It skips videos longer than 120 minutes, videos that are mostly music or have very little speech, speech that is too fast, and videos whose language it cannot detect, among others.
When each is the better choice
If a video has an audio track in your language, use it: it is free and built into YouTube's player.
Vocnu helps where YouTube has nothing for you: a language its dubbing does not cover, such as Lithuanian, Czech or Greek, a video in a language it does not dub into yours, a video longer than 120 minutes or one whose creator turned dubbing off, a live stream, and every other site, from online courses to streaming services. See how to translate a YouTube video with it.
What Vocnu costs
The extension charges by the minute you watch, and a video already in your language costs nothing:
| With voice-overThe voice and subtitles in your language | 2 credits per minute |
|---|---|
| Already voicedA minute Vocnu plays from a voice-over it already made of the same video in your language and voice | 1 credit per minute |
| Subtitles onlySubtitles in your language over the video | 1 credit per minute |
- With the voice-over, a minute costs €0.13 to €0.20, depending on the credit pack.
- New accounts get 40 free credits after confirming their email address: 20 minutes with the voice-over or 40 minutes of subtitles.
- Watching the same minutes again within 30 days, in the same language, voice and mode, is free.