How to Translate a Video into Another Language Using AI

Until recently, translating a video into another language cost thousands of dollars and took weeks. You had to hire a translator, a voice actor, a sound engineer, and for lip sync — an entire studio. Today, neural networks do this in minutes: they transcribe speech, translate text, synthesize voice, and even sync lip movement. Let's break down how it works.

How AI Video Translation Works

The full video translation pipeline consists of four stages, each performed by a separate neural network:

1. Transcription — speech recognition

The neural network listens to the audio track and converts speech into text. The leader in this field is Whisper from OpenAI.

Whisper is an open speech recognition model supporting more than 90 languages. It accurately recognizes speech even in noisy conditions, adds punctuation, and splits text into timecodes.

Alternatives:

• AssemblyAI — a cloud service with high accuracy
• Deepgram — fast transcription for business
• Google Speech-to-Text — a cloud model from Google

2. Text translation

The resulting text is translated into the target language. Here it's important not just to translate the words, but also to adapt the length of phrases to the video timing.

DeepL — one of the best translators, especially for European languages. It preserves the meaning and style of the original excellently.

ChatGPT / Claude — language models translate with an understanding of context and can adapt phrase length:

Translate the following text from English to Russian.
These are subtitles for a video, so:
- Keep approximately the same length for each phrase
- Use a conversational style
- Adapt idioms and cultural references for a Russian-speaking audience

[subtitle text with timecodes]

3. Voice synthesis — voiceover

The translated text is voiced by a neural network voice. Modern models can clone the voice of the original speaker.

ElevenLabs — the leader in speech synthesis. Key features:

• Voice cloning from a sample (30 seconds of audio)
• Natural intonation and emotions
• Support for 29 languages
• API for automation

Other options:

• Microsoft Azure TTS — high-quality synthesis with many voices
• Google Cloud TTS — reliable synthesis from Google
• Coqui TTS — an open model that runs locally

4. Lip sync

The most impressive stage — the neural network modifies the speaker's lip movement so that it matches the new audio. The video looks as if the person is actually speaking another language.

HeyGen and Rask.ai are the leaders in this technology.

HeyGen — full video translation cycle

HeyGen offers a Video Translate feature that performs all four stages automatically.

Step-by-step process

1. Sign up at heygen.com
2. Go to the Video Translate section
3. Upload a video (up to 5 minutes on the free plan)
4. Select the source and target languages
5. Enable the Lip Sync option for lip synchronization
6. Click Translate and wait for processing (usually 5–15 minutes)
7. Download the result or share the link

Supported languages

HeyGen supports translation between 40+ languages, including Russian, English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, and many others.

Quality and limitations

• Lip sync works best on close-ups with clear articulation
• Group scenes and long shots are processed worse
• Background music is preserved but may change slightly
• The free plan allows translating 1 video

Rask.ai — professional dubbing

Rask.ai specializes in translating and dubbing video content. It's suitable for YouTube bloggers, online courses, and corporate video.

Step-by-step process

1. Go to rask.ai
2. Create a project and upload a video
3. The service automatically transcribes the audio
4. Review and edit the transcription
5. Select the target translation language
6. Configure the voice (you can clone the original)
7. Enable lip sync (available on the Pro plan)
8. Start processing and download the result

Rask.ai features

• Ability to edit the translation before voiceover
• Support for multi-speaker videos (recognizes multiple speakers)
• YouTube integration — automatic video import
• Voice Cloning — cloning the speaker's voice for natural dubbing
• Subtitle support (SRT/VTT)

Kapwing — a simple online tool

Kapwing offers video translation as part of its online video editor.

Step-by-step process

1. Open kapwing.com
2. Upload a video or paste a YouTube link
3. Go to the Translate section
4. Select the target language
5. Kapwing will create subtitles and (optionally) a dubbed voiceover
6. Edit the result on the timeline
7. Export the video

Kapwing advantages

• Built-in video editor for final polishing
• Automatic subtitles in addition to voiceover
• Simple interface with no learning curve
• Free plan for short videos

Descript — editing video through text

Descript is a unique video editor where you work with video like a text document. Translation is one of its features.

Step-by-step process

1. Install Descript (desktop application)
2. Import a video — Descript will automatically create a transcription
3. Edit the text (deleting words deletes video fragments)
4. Use the translation function to convert the text
5. Apply AI Voice to voice the translated text
6. Export the final video

When to choose Descript

• When you need not only to translate but also to edit the video
• For podcasts and long interviews
• When translation accuracy matters (manual editing is available)

Step-by-step manual translation process

If you want maximum control over quality, build the pipeline yourself.

Step 1. Transcription via Whisper

pip install openai-whisper
whisper video.mp4 --model medium --language en --output_format srt

The result is a subtitle file video.srt with timecodes.

Step 2. Translation via GPT or DeepL

Upload the SRT file to ChatGPT:

Translate these subtitles from English to Russian.
Keep the SRT format with timecodes.
The length of the translated phrases should roughly match the original.
Use a conversational style.

[contents of the SRT file]

Step 3. Voiceover via ElevenLabs

1. Go to elevenlabs.io
2. Select or clone a voice
3. Upload the translated text in fragments with timecodes
4. Generate audio for each fragment
5. Download the audio files

Step 4. Assembly in a video editor

1. Open the original video in any video editor (DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, CapCut)
2. Remove or mute the original voice track
3. Place the translated audio fragments according to the timecodes
4. Adjust the timing and volume
5. Export the final video

Price comparison

Tips for high-quality translation

Video preparation

• Use video with clean sound (minimal background noise)
• One speaker gives a better result than a dialogue between several people
• Short videos (up to 10 minutes) are processed with higher quality
• Clear articulation of the speaker improves lip sync

Editing the translation

• Always review the automatic translation before voiceover
• Adapt the length of phrases if they don't fit the timing
• Consider cultural context — jokes and references may not translate directly
• For technical terms, specify preferred translations

Final check

• Watch the translated video in full before publishing
• Check the synchronization of audio and video
• Make sure the subtitles (if added) don't cover important visual elements
• Ask a native speaker of the target language to evaluate the result

Applications of AI video translation

YouTube bloggers

Translate your content into English, Spanish, or Hindi and gain access to a billion-strong audience. Many bloggers increased their views 3–5 times by dubbing their videos.

Online education

Translate courses and webinars for an international audience. A single course can be monetized in several language markets.

Business

Corporate presentations, training videos, marketing videos — all of this can be quickly adapted for foreign offices and clients.

Content marketing

Videos in multiple languages significantly expand reach and improve SEO in different regions.

Conclusion

AI video translation is one of the most impressive technologies of recent years. For a quick result with lip sync, use HeyGen or Rask.ai. For maximum control, build a pipeline from Whisper, DeepL/GPT, and ElevenLabs. The quality is already high enough for publishing, although a final human review is still necessary.

Start with a short video (1–2 minutes) on the HeyGen free plan to evaluate the quality. If the result satisfies you, scale it to all your content.