dubbing

name	dubbing
description	Dub audio and video into other languages using the ElevenLabs Dubbing API (dubbing_v2), preserving the original speakers' voices. Use when translating videos, podcasts, or recordings into other languages, localizing media content, reviewing or correcting dubbing transcripts and translations, or regenerating a dub after edits.
license	MIT
compatibility	Requires internet access and an ElevenLabs API key (ELEVENLABS_API_KEY).
metadata	{"openclaw":{"requires":{"env":["ELEVENLABS_API_KEY"]},"primaryEnv":"ELEVENLABS_API_KEY"}}

ElevenLabs Dubbing

Dub audio or video into other languages while preserving the original speakers' voices. Create a project from a file or URL, review and edit the source transcript, add one or more target languages, refine translations per segment, and regenerate outputs.

Important: Use the Dubbing Projects API — elevenlabs.dubbing.project.* in the SDKs, or the /v1/dubbing/project REST endpoints. Do not use the legacy v1 dubbing surface (client.dubbing.create(), client.dubbing.get(), client.dubbing.audio.get(), or bare /v1/dubbing routes) — that is the older dubbing API, now under Legacy in the API reference.

Setup: See Installation Guide. The elevenlabs CLI and the SDKs read ELEVENLABS_API_KEY automatically; REST base URL is https://api.elevenlabs.io with your API key in the xi-api-key header.

Concepts

Concept	Meaning
Project	One source of media (file or URL) plus its source transcript. Prepared (transcribed) once, then rests in ready while you add languages.
Source transcript	Editable segments (text, speaker, timing) transcribed from the source. The single source of truth every language is translated from.
Language (target)	One dubbed output language. Each has its own transcript (source segments + a translation per segment) and its own dubbed audio output.
Revisions	Independent monotonic counters. The project's revision bumps on source-transcript edits; a language's revision bumps on translation edits or source edits that affect it. A language's output_revision is the revision its current audio was generated from — when it's behind revision, the output is out of date.

Recommended order of operations: finalize the source transcript before adding any languages. Translations are produced from the source, so correcting the source first means every language starts from the right text — editing the source after a language completes marks it stale and requires a (charged) regeneration.

Enterprise: Transcript editing and regeneration are available to enterprise workspaces only. Creating projects, adding languages, and downloading dubs work on all plans.

Workflow

1. Create the project from a file or URL → queued
2. Poll the project until ready
3. Review and finalize the source transcript (edit/add/delete segments)
4. Add one language per target → queued → processing → completed
5. Download each language's outputs.lossless_audio when completed
6. Refine translations per segment if needed → the language goes stale
7. Regenerate the language → completed again with fresh output

Quick Start (Python)

import os
import time
import requests
from elevenlabs.client import ElevenLabs

elevenlabs = ElevenLabs(api_key=os.getenv("ELEVENLABS_API_KEY"))

# 1. Create a project from a local file (or pass source_url=... instead of file)
with open("promo.mp4", "rb") as f:
    project = elevenlabs.dubbing.project.create(
        file=f,
        source_language="en",
        reference="Q3 marketing video",
    )

# 2. Wait for the source media to be transcribed
while True:
    project = elevenlabs.dubbing.project.get(project.project_id)
    if project.status == "ready":
        break
    if project.status == "failed":
        raise RuntimeError("Project preparation failed")
    time.sleep(5)

# 3. Add a Spanish language target
language = elevenlabs.dubbing.project.language.create(
    project.project_id,
    target_language="es",
)

# 4. Wait for the dub to finish generating
while True:
    language = elevenlabs.dubbing.project.language.get(
        project.project_id, language.language_id
    )
    if language.status == "completed":
        break
    if language.status == "failed":
        raise RuntimeError("Dub generation failed")
    time.sleep(5)

# 5. Download the dubbed audio (signed URL, valid ~1 hour — re-fetch the language for a fresh one)
audio = requests.get(language.outputs.lossless_audio)
 (, )  f:
    f.write(audio.content)

Quick Start (JavaScript)

import { ElevenLabsClient } from "@elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js";
import { writeFile } from "fs/promises";

const elevenlabs = new ElevenLabsClient();

// 1. Create a project (sourceUrl shown; file upload is also supported)
let project = await elevenlabs.dubbing.project.create({
  sourceUrl: "https://example.com/promo.mp4",
  sourceLanguage: "en",
  reference: "Q3 marketing video",
});

// 2. Wait for the source media to be transcribed
while (true) {
  project = await elevenlabs.dubbing.project.get(project.projectId);
  if (project.status === "ready") break;
  if (project.status === "failed") throw new Error("Project preparation failed");
  await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 5000));
}

// 3. Add a Spanish language target
let language =  elevenlabs....(project., {
  : ,
});


 () {
  language =  elevenlabs....(project., language.);
   (language. === ) ;
   (language. === )   ();
    ( (resolve, ));
}


 response =  (language.!.!);
 (, .( response.()));

Quick Start (CLI)

The elevenlabs CLI reads ELEVENLABS_API_KEY from the environment automatically.

# 1. Create a project (use --source-url "https://..." instead of --file to dub from a URL)
elevenlabs dubbing project create --file promo.mp4 --source-language en
# → {"project_id": "proj_...", "status": "queued", ...}

# 2. Poll until status is "ready"
elevenlabs dubbing project get --project-id proj_...

# 3. Add a target language
elevenlabs dubbing project language create --project-id proj_... --target-language es

# 4. Poll the language until "completed", then download outputs.lossless_audio
elevenlabs dubbing project language get --project-id proj_... --language-id lang_...

Create Options

elevenlabs dubbing project create (REST: POST /v1/dubbing/project, multipart/form-data) takes either file or source_url (not both):

Field	Required	Notes
file	one of file/source_url	Source media to dub (audio or video), up to 3 GiB
source_url	one of file/source_url	Public URL to fetch the source media from
source_language	no	ISO 639 code (e.g. en). Omit to auto-detect — the detected language is reported on the source transcript's language field
reference	no	Free-form label to identify the project on your end (max 500 chars)
model_id	no	dubbing_v2 (default)
target_language	no	Optionally queue the first language target at creation; add more with language.create
keyterms	no	Terms to bias transcription/translation toward (product/brand names). Up to 1000 terms; each at most 50 chars and 5 words; <>{}[]\ not allowed. Repeat the field once per term in multipart

Editing the Source Transcript

Once the project is ready, read the transcript, then correct it before adding languages. Every edit bumps the project's revision. Each segment has a stable id used to edit or delete it. (Enterprise workspaces only.)

# Read the source transcript
transcript = elevenlabs.dubbing.project.transcript.get(project_id)

# Correct a segment's text — send only the fields to change (text, speaker_id, start_s, end_s)
elevenlabs.dubbing.project.transcript.update_segment(
    project_id,
    segment_id=transcript.segments[0].id,
    text="Welcome to our latest product demo.",
)

# Add a segment (reuse an existing speaker_id so it's dubbed with that speaker's voice)
added = elevenlabs.dubbing.project.transcript.create_segment(
    project_id,
    text="Thanks for watching.",
    speaker_id=transcript.segments[0].speaker_id,
    start_s=40.0,
    end_s=42.0,
)

# Delete a segment
elevenlabs.dubbing.project.transcript.delete_segment(project_id, segment_id=added.segment.id)

Via the CLI: elevenlabs dubbing project transcript get --project-id proj_..., then update a segment with only the changed fields (--text, --speaker-id, --start-s, --end-s):

elevenlabs dubbing project transcript update_segment \
  --project-id proj_... --segment-id seg_... \
  --text "Welcome to our latest product demo."

Refining Translations and Regenerating

A language's transcript pairs each source segment with its translation (null = not yet translated; segment ids match the source). Edit a single translation, then regenerate. (Enterprise workspaces only.)

# Read the language's translations
target = elevenlabs.dubbing.project.language.transcript.get(project_id, language_id)

# Refine a single translation (pass translation=None to clear it and mark for re-translation)
elevenlabs.dubbing.project.language.transcript.update_segment(
    project_id,
    language_id,
    segment_id=target.segments[0].id,
    translation="Bienvenido a nuestra última demostración de producto.",
)

# Regenerate the dub from the current transcript (charged like a generation)
elevenlabs.dubbing.project.language.transcript.regenerate(project_id, language_id)

Via the CLI: elevenlabs dubbing project language transcript update_segment --project-id proj_... --language-id lang_... --segment-id seg_... --translation "...", then elevenlabs dubbing project language transcript regenerate --project-id proj_... --language-id lang_... (returns 202 Accepted).

A translation edit affects only that language. After the edit, a completed language becomes stale — it keeps serving its previous output until you regenerate. Poll until completed; output_revision then equals revision and outputs.lossless_audio reflects the current transcript.

Dubbing into Multiple Languages

Add one language target per language — each generates independently. Track them all with language.list instead of polling one by one:

for lang in ["es", "fr", "de", "ja"]:
    elevenlabs.dubbing.project.language.create(project_id, target_language=lang)

while True:
    result = elevenlabs.dubbing.project.language.list(project_id)
    if not any(l.status in ("queued", "processing") for l in result.languages):
        break
    time.sleep(5)

States

Project:

Status	Meaning
queued	Created; source fetch + preparation enqueued
preparing	Preparation (transcription) running
ready	Source transcript available; add/generate languages. Projects stay ready — per-language progress lives on the languages
failed	Preparation failed (e.g. source couldn't be fetched or decoded)

Language:

Status	Meaning
queued	Waiting on the project becoming ready, or on a generation worker
processing	The dub is being generated
completed	Finished; outputs populated with a signed download URL (valid ~1 hour — re-fetch for a fresh one)
stale	Previously completed, but the transcript changed; keeps the last output until regenerated
failed	Generation failed

You can add a language before the project is ready — it stays queued and starts automatically once the project becomes ready. Adding a language accepts optional model_id (defaults to the project's) and voice_settings (e.g. {"cloning_strength": 7}, range 0–10, default 7 — controls how strongly dubbed speakers clone the source voices).

Error Handling

• 401: Invalid API key
• 409 Conflict on regenerate: The project isn't ready or the language isn't settled (e.g. already generating) — wait and retry
• Expired download URL: outputs.lossless_audio is signed and valid ~1 hour; re-fetch the language for a fresh URL
• Transcript editing / regeneration unavailable: These endpoints are enterprise-only — on other plans, create the project with a finalized source and add languages directly

References

• Installation Guide
• API Reference — every endpoint with full request/response schemas and SDK method names