What Does "Auto-Dubbed" Mean on YouTube?

What the "auto-dubbed" label means

YouTube's automatic dubbing translates what is said in a video and generates new audio tracks in other languages. YouTube marks these videos as "auto-dubbed" in the video description, not on the player itself, which is why most people hear the strange voice before they notice the label.

The feature is switched on by default for eligible creators. New uploads get dubbed automatically, and YouTube says it may also add dubs to videos published earlier. So a channel you have watched for years can suddenly start speaking your language in a voice that is not the creator's.

Is an auto-dub AI-generated?

Yes. Both the translation and the voice are machine-generated. For some language pairs YouTube uses "expressive speech", which tries to copy the original speaker's pitch and intonation; YouTube notes it is not used on every eligible video. YouTube is also testing an experimental lip-sync feature for select channels that alters the speaker's mouth movements to match the dub.

Auto-dubbed vs. a creator's own audio track vs. translated captions

Having several audio languages does not mean all of them were generated by YouTube. And turning a dub off does not turn your captions off: audio and subtitles are separate settings.

Why was this video dubbed for me?

YouTube picks the audio track from your preferred languages, a YouTube setting that is separate from your app language and your location. If a video's original audio is in one of your preferred languages, YouTube plays the original. If it is not, and a dub exists in a language you prefer, you get the dub.

How to switch back to the original audio

On one video

1. Open the video.
2. In the player, select Settings (the gear icon).
3. Select Audio track.
4. Choose the track marked as the original.

The Audio track option only appears when the video actually has more than one track. If you don't see it, that video has no alternative audio to switch between.

If you still hear a translated voice after choosing the original audio, a dubbing extension may be running. YouTube's audio setting does not stop an extension. In AutoDub, open the AutoDub panel and click "Dubbing… (Click to Stop)", or set Dubbing → Off, subtitles only to keep translated subtitles without the voice.

To stop dubs on future videos without switching each one manually, see setting your preferred languages.

For every video: set your preferred languages

On a computer:

1. Click your profile picture, then Settings.
2. Click Playback & Performance.
3. Under Language, click "add or edit languages".
4. Select every language you understand and click confirm.

Videos originally recorded in one of those languages will then default to their original audio. The same setting also controls translated titles and descriptions. YouTube says it does not affect your search results or recommendations. There is no single "never dub anything" switch for viewers; videos recorded in a language you did not add can still play with a dub.

Shorts

YouTube Help does not describe a Shorts-only switch. The preferred-languages setting above applies across YouTube, so it is the setting to change if your Shorts feed keeps playing dubbed audio.

Which languages does YouTube auto-dub? (checked October 21, 2026)

YouTube's official table, checked on October 21, 2026:

• English videos can be 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 other languages can be dubbed into English (13 of them with expressive speech).
• A few other pairs exist: Hindi → Bengali, Korean → Indonesian, Portuguese → Spanish, Spanish → Arabic and Portuguese.

* supports expressive speech.

Why your language may be missing

If you speak, for example, Turkish, Vietnamese, Persian, Thai, Chinese, Urdu, Swedish or Greek, YouTube's table does not list it as a language English videos are dubbed into. Those languages appear only as source languages that can be dubbed into English. YouTube says it is gradually adding languages and that some channels may get new ones sooner, so a specific video's Languages page in YouTube Studio can show more than the public table, including "experimental" languages.

Even for a supported pair, a dub only exists if the channel has automatic dubbing on and the video qualifies.

Why auto-dubs sometimes sound wrong

YouTube lists the usual causes itself: mispronunciations, accents, dialects or background noise in the original, trouble with names, idioms and jargon, and difficulty matching the dub voice to the original speaker. If a creator set the wrong original language, the dub can be mistranslated; correcting it makes YouTube generate the dubs again. Creators can review, unpublish or delete an automatic dub, but they cannot edit it.

A video may get no dub at all if it is longer than 120 minutes, has little or no speech, is in a language YouTube does not support or cannot detect, has speech too fast to dub, or contains copyrighted content.

For creators: turn automatic dubbing off, or review dubs first

1. On a computer, open YouTube Studio → Settings → Channel → Advanced settings.
2. Uncheck "Allow automatic dubbing" to stop it, or keep it and check "Manually review dubs before publishing".
3. Click Save.

To manage dubs on a published video: Content → select the video → Languages → in the language's Audio column choose Publish, Unpublish or Delete. Unpublished dubs can be republished later; deleted ones cannot. YouTube says managing dubs (preview, publish, delete) is only available in YouTube Studio on a computer. The Studio mobile app has an on/off switch under Settings → Content → Automatic dubbing.

Turn dubbing on and review before publishing

In the same Advanced settings, check Allow automatic dubbing. If the feature is not enabled, look for an Enable option for early access. Availability depends on your channel and video. Check Manually review dubs before publishing if you want to listen first. Set the original video language correctly and review generated tracks in Languages. See the official creator instructions or our step-by-step dubbing tutorial.

When YouTube has no dub in your language

First try Settings → Subtitles/CC → Auto-translate. If reading works for you, you need nothing else.

Frequently asked questions