AI voice-overs

Audio elements can generate speech from text. Instead of uploading an audio file, you write the words to be spoken, and Creatomate sends them to a text-to-speech provider (ElevenLabs or OpenAI) each time the template is rendered. Combined with a dynamic text field, this lets you produce narrated videos entirely through automation.

Creating a voice-over

• Add an audio element to your template, or select an existing one.
• In the properties panel, set Provider to ElevenLabs (or OpenAI).
• Enter the words to be spoken in the Text field.
• Pick a Model and Voice.

The speech is generated at render time, so you won't hear it while editing. To make the spoken text dynamic, use the round toggle next to the Text field, allowing your automation to pass different words with every render.

Setting up ElevenLabs

The first time you use a provider in a project, you need to connect your own account. The editor shows a notice with an Enable it in Project Settings link, which takes you to the right place. You can also open it manually: go to Project Settings, scroll to Integration, toggle ElevenLabs, and paste the API key from your ElevenLabs account.

Two things to know:

• A paid ElevenLabs plan is required. ElevenLabs blocks free accounts that are used through a third-party API such as Creatomate, resulting in an "unusual activity" render error. This is an ElevenLabs policy, not a Creatomate limitation.
• Render concurrency is limited while a text-to-speech integration is enabled, so your renders stay within the provider's rate limits.

The OpenAI provider works the same way: enable the OpenAI integration with your OpenAI API key, then choose one of its models (TTS-1 or TTS-1-HD) and voices.

Choosing a model and voice

For ElevenLabs, Eleven Multilingual v2 is the default model and a solid choice for most languages. The Voice menu offers a set of ready-made voices; to use any other voice from your own ElevenLabs account, including cloned voices, select Custom Voice and enter its voice ID from the ElevenLabs dashboard. The Stability, Similarity, Style, and Speaker Boost settings map directly to ElevenLabs' voice settings, so you can fine-tune the delivery without leaving the editor.

Adding subtitles

A voice-over pairs naturally with auto-generated subtitles: point a subtitle element's Source at the voice-over element, and the spoken words appear as synchronized captions. ElevenLabs even reports the exact timing of each word as the speech is generated, so the subtitles match the voice precisely.