What is Murf.ai: everything you need to know about the AI voice generator

Murf.AI
(Image credit: Murf.AI)

Murf.ai is a voice generator that uses AI to turn written prompts into realistic spoken voiceovers. With support for a range of accents and languages, it’s a versatile tool for adding human speech to podcasts, presentations and more.

Unlike traditional text-to-speech engines, Murf.ai gives you granular control of the spoken output, including the pitch, speed and style of voiceovers. You can also add pauses, emphasis on certain words and even custom pronunciations.

Whether you need a professional narration or a quick voiceover for your content, Murf.ai has plenty to offer. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

This article was correct as of March 2025. AI tools are updated regularly and it is possible that some features have changed since this article was written. Some features may also only be available in certain countries.

What is Murf.ai?

Murf.ai was founded in 2020 as an advanced text-to-speech tool, designed to generate high-quality voiceovers for a range of creative applications. It uses AI trained on natural speech patterns to mimic human intonation, offering a library of more than 120 voices in 20 languages.

In 2024, Murf.ai announced Murf Speech Gen 2, its most advanced speech model yet. Trained on more than 70,000 hours of speech data from a range of demographics, Murf.ai claims that the model achieves 98.8% word-level pronunciation accuracy in English. The latest update also introduced a number of new features, including Say It My Way, which allows users to upload a voice recording which Murf.ai can learn to replicate.

Its speed, ease of use and competitive pricing making it a popular tool for generating narrations for everything from podcasts to corporate presentations. In most cases, it’s cheaper and quicker than hiring a voice actor, although the technology’s limitations mean it can’t fully capture the nuances of human inflection, particularly when a high degree of emotion is required.

What can you use Murf.ai for?

Murf.ai can be used to generate human-sounding AI voiceovers in a range of languages and accents, based on written text. Using the web-based interface, you can select not only the voice, but also the style of delivery. These include emotional styles, such as calm, conversational and angry, as well as functional ones – such as narration, promo and documentary.

Murf.ai also offers in-depth control of speech output, including pitch and speed settings. You can add pauses of different lengths, select specific words for emphasis and adjust the degree of variability in the speech pattern, for a more neutral or expressive delivery.

Customization options include the ability to record your own spoken delivery for Murf.ai to imitate, as well as the option to add custom pronunciations.

The project interface itself allows you to create a string of voiceovers. Within a given block, you can drag paragraphs into a different order and adjust vocal variability. You can also rearrange entire blocks, each of which can have a different voice and custom settings, allowing you to create a dynamic, conversational voiceover.

Murf.ai also allows you to upload scripts, convert audio into text and translate projects into a number of different languages.

What can’t you use Murf.ai for?

As realistic as many of Murf.ai’s voices sound, it can’t yet replicate the full nuance of human speech. It excels at clarity and pronunciation, but it can’t match a real voice actor if you need deep emotion in your narration. And while you can adjust a range of settings for style and delivery, you can’t give Murf.ai’s voices artistic direction.

Murf.ai isn’t an unlimited tool. Even on its paid plans, there are caps on usage, which it means it can’t be used to generate endless amounts of spoken content.

When you’re using Murf.ai, you’re also governed by its terms of service. That means you can’t use the tool to breach the copyright of others. For example, you can’t upload someone else’s writing to create an audiobook.

While you can upload your own voice recordings to intersperse with AI voiceovers, Murf.ai isn’t capable of holding real-time spoken conversations. For those, you’ll need to try the voice modes of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini.

How much does Murf.ai cost?

Murf.ai has a free tier, as well as several paid plans. On the free plan, users can work on one project and generate up to 10 minutes of AI voiceover.

The Creator plan is priced at $29 per month (around £23 / AU$45 per month). It includes up to five projects and two hours of voice generation monthly.

The next step up is the Growth plan, with costs $99 a month (around £79 / AU$157 a month). It unlocks much higher usage limits: 50 projects and eight monthly hours of voice generation.

Then there’s the Business plan, for $299 per month (around £240 / AU$473 per month). This allows you to work on up to 200 projects with up to 20 hours of voice generation every month.

Discounts of approximately 35% are available across all plans when billed on an annual basis. Murf.ai also offers Enterprise pricing for larger companies with multiple users.

Murf.AI

(Image credit: Murf.AI)

Where can you use Murf.ai?

Murf.ai’s voice tools are available exclusively via its web interface. There isn’t a smartphone or desktop app, although you can access a mobile-optimized version of its website.

Is Murf.ai any good?

We haven’t conducted an in-depth review of Murf.ai, but from our hands-on experience with the web interface, we found it an intuitive tool to use. Select a voice and style from the drop-down list, type or paste your text into the dialogue box, then hit the play button for a preview.

A clearly labelled toolbar makes it easy to adjust settings. If you’re working with a large amount of text, you can helpfully preview individual paragraphs rather than listening through an entire VoiceOver.

The drag-and-drop timeline is also straightforward to use, allowing you to build layered voiceovers with a number of different voices. You can also add recordings of your own voice into this, to create a sense of conversation.

Output is generally very clear and easy to understand, at least in English, and results are generated quickly. Changing the vocal style makes a perceivable difference, as do adjustments to speed and pitch.

However, even with variability dialled up, there is still a sense of neutrality. Voiceovers aren’t exactly robotic, but they don’t tend to have the same emotional or tonal depth as a real voice actor might. On certain complex words, there are clearer hints that you’re listening to an AI trying to replicate a human voice. That said, these aren’t jarring enough to make the audio unusable.

For users who want fast, affordable narration, particularly in a professional context where neutral delivery and clear diction is the norm, Murf.ai is a good option.

Use Murf.ai if...

You want to build complex voiceovers

Murf.ai allows you to create a timeline of several voiceover blocks which can be exported as a single project recording. Each block can have a different voice and style, to create a sense of conversation.

You want granular voice control

As well as different languages and accents, Murf allows you to control a range of factors such as speed, pitch, style and variability. You can also add pauses, custom pronunciations and emphasis on certain words.

Don't use Murf.ai if...

You want the most realistic voiceovers

Murf.ai makes it quick and easy to generate clear spoken voiceovers. However, some of its voices sound more realistic than others. The intonation on certain words can sound robotic, breaking the illusion of human speech.

You want real-time spoken conversation

While Murf.ai is relatively quick to generate human-like voiceovers from written text, it’s not designed for real-time conversations. For that, you’re better off using a chatbot such as ChatGPT in Advanced Voice Mode.

Also consider

  • Speechify is an AI voice generator with both free and paid plans. Like Murf.ai, it can produce natural-sounding dialogue in a number of accents and languages. You can specify the purpose of the voiceover, as well as the speed.
  • ElevenLabs is another AI voice generator. It supports 32 languages, with a number of voices available for each dialect. It’s designed to generate human-like speech with realistic vocal cadences, making it a particularly useful option for podcasts and audiobooks.

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Christian Rowlands
TechRadar contributor

Formerly News Editor at Stuff, Chris now writes about tech from his tropical office. Sidetracked by sustainable stuff, he’s also keen on cameras, classic cars and any gear that gets better with age.

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