How to tell a video is auto-dubbed

Open the video description. An auto-dubbed video has a How this was made section with the Auto-dubbed label.

The Auto-dubbed label in the How this was made section of a YouTube video description
The Auto-dubbed label in the video description.

Switch one video back to the original voice

  1. Click the gear icon (Settings) in the bottom right of the player.
  2. Open Audio track.
  3. Choose the track marked original, for example English (US) original. The dubbed tracks are listed below it, under Auto-dubbed.
YouTube player settings menu with the Audio track item
Audio track in the player settings shows which track is playing now.
YouTube Audio track menu with the original track at the top and auto-dubbed tracks below
The original track is at the top; the auto-dubbed ones are listed under it.

In the YouTube app on a phone it works the same way: tap the video, then the gear, then Audio track.

Stop YouTube dubbing languages you understand

YouTube picks the audio track using the languages it thinks you speak. Tell it which languages you understand, and videos in those languages will play with the original voice.

  1. On youtube.com, click your profile picture and open Settings.
  2. Go to Playback and performance.
  3. In the Language section, click Add or edit languages and add every language you watch videos in.
The Language section of YouTube settings with Preferred languages and the Add or edit languages link
Preferred languages are saved to your Google account.

The setting belongs to your account, so it works on every device where you’re signed in. At the time of writing, YouTube has no single switch that turns auto-dubbing off for every video: for a language that isn’t on your list, switch the track by hand as shown above.

If you’re a creator and don’t want your own videos dubbed, that’s set separately, in YouTube Studio settings.

Keep the original voice and still understand the video

Many people turn the dub off because the AI voice drowns out the original: the creator’s intonation, music and atmosphere are gone. But the dub was useful when you don’t know the language. I built Audio Translator for YouTube™ for exactly that case: the original stays, and the translation is only played when you ask for it.

Audio Translator for YouTube™ 91 users · Chrome extension Add to Chrome
  1. Install Audio Translator for YouTube™ from the Chrome Web Store.
  2. Open a video in a language you don’t speak and click the yellow DUB button in the player.
  3. Press Listen. Use the Video and Dub sliders to decide how loud the original and the translation are.
Audio Translator panel with the Listen button, a language, a voice and the Video and Dub volume sliders
The DUB panel: the translation language, the voice and the balance between the original and the translation.

There are two modes. Free reads YouTube’s auto-translated subtitles with your browser’s voice and costs nothing. Advanced uses a natural translation adapted for dubbing and a lifelike female or male voice; it comes with free minutes to try it, and more minutes with a paid plan.

Questions

Why does YouTube dub videos at all?

YouTube translates videos automatically so that people who don’t speak the creator’s language can watch them. Creators can turn it off for their own videos.

I switched to the original, but the next video is dubbed again

The audio track choice applies to one video. To make it stick, add the video’s language to your preferred languages (method 2).

There’s no Audio track item in the menu

Then the video has only one audio track and isn’t dubbed: you’re already hearing the original.