# Narrator voices

Updated 2026-09-30. Web page: https://kitcut.ai/docs/voices

Every film is narrated. You can leave the voice to Claude, pick one of KitCut's voices, or use your own voice from your ElevenLabs account. The choice is made once for a whole workspace and can be changed for any project, so every episode of a series sounds the same.

## Where a voice comes from

- **KitCut chooses.** Claude picks a voice that suits each film, from KitCut's 30 voices. The episodes of a project keep the voice of the first one. This is what happens when nothing is set.
- **A KitCut voice.** One of KitCut's 30 voices, every film. Each has a short sample to listen to before you pick. Claude still chooses how it is read: warm, brisk, hushed.
- **Your ElevenLabs voices.** A voice from your own ElevenLabs account: one you cloned or designed there, or one you saved from its library. Claude writes the words; the voice is yours.

## Setting the narrator

![The voice picker for a workspace: tabs for KitCut chooses, KitCut voices and a connected ElevenLabs account, the ElevenLabs tab open with search, filters and a list of voices, each with a play button; circle 1 marks the ElevenLabs tab, circle 2 the voice in use.](https://kitcut.ai/docs/img/voices-picker.webp "The voice picker: one tab per source; the selected voice is highlighted.")

- **For a whole workspace:** Settings, then **Defaults**, then **Narrator**. Every project that has not chosen its own uses it. Only a workspace's owners and admins change it.
- **For one project:** the project's **Voice** tab, **Narrator**, then **Change for this project**. **Use the default** goes back to the workspace's.
- **The row always says where the voice comes from:** "Set for this project", the workspace's default, or KitCut's default.
- **The voice picker** has a tab per source. The ElevenLabs tab lists the account's voices, with filters for your own, saved and ElevenLabs' default voices, the kind of voice (cloned, professional clone, designed) and the language. A voice with no preview can have a sample made: one sentence, which uses about 60 of the account's characters, at most 20 a day in a workspace.
- **Approved voice lines are kept per voice.** A line approved in one voice does not play when the project's narrator is another. The picker warns before you change it.
![A project's Voice tab: the Narrator row shows a designed ElevenLabs voice, Warm storyteller, set for this project, with Change and Use the default, and under it the ElevenLabs characters an episode takes and how many are left. The row is circled.](https://kitcut.ai/docs/img/voices-project.webp "A project that sets its own narrator.")

- **The next episode's composer shows the narrator** ("Voice: …"). Clicking it opens the Voice tab.

## Connecting ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs connects with an API key you make in your ElevenLabs account. KitCut never sees your ElevenLabs password.

1. In ElevenLabs, open **Developers**, then **API keys**, and press **Create API key**.
2. Give the key these permissions:
   - **Text to Speech** (needed): it records the narration;
   - **Voices: Read** (needed): it lists your voices;
   - **User: Read** (recommended): it lets KitCut check your characters before a film starts.
3. Leave **IP addresses** empty: KitCut records from its own servers, whose address can change. A credit limit on the key is fine.
4. In KitCut, open Settings, then **Connections**, press **Connect**, paste the key and press **Test and connect**.

![The Connect ElevenLabs dialog: four numbered steps, the three permissions to give the key (Text to Speech and Voices: Read needed, User: Read recommended, circled), advice to leave IP addresses empty, and the field to paste the key.](https://kitcut.ai/docs/img/connect-elevenlabs.webp "Connecting ElevenLabs: the permissions to give the key.")

KitCut tests each permission and says which are missing, in words. Testing costs no characters. When it passes, the key is stored encrypted and is never shown again, to anyone. To change it, paste a new one (**Replace key**); to remove it, **Disconnect**.

![A workspace's Connections page: the ElevenLabs card, Connected, with the account's plan, characters left and when they renew, the number of voices and when it was last used (circled), and buttons for Voices, Check now, Replace key and Disconnect.](https://kitcut.ai/docs/img/connections-elevenlabs.webp "A connected ElevenLabs account.")

In a workspace with several people, only owners and admins connect or disconnect ElevenLabs. Everyone in it can pick its voices for their projects, without seeing the key.

## What a film in your own voice spends

- **KitCut credits:** the same as any film.
- **Your ElevenLabs characters:** the words of the narration, about 1200 characters for a minute of film, plus any line recorded again. They come from your ElevenLabs plan, and ElevenLabs bills them. A film that fails still used the characters it spent.
- **Before a film starts, KitCut asks your ElevenLabs account** whether the key still works, the voice is still there, and (with User: Read) whether there are characters enough. If not, the film does not start, no credits are used, and the message says what to fix.
- **On ElevenLabs' Free plan,** a film narrated with it must credit ElevenLabs, and may not be used commercially.

## When your ElevenLabs account stops speaking

If the account runs out of characters, the key stops working or the voice is removed while a film is being narrated, the film **pauses** instead of failing:

- its page says **Paused: waiting for the narrator's voice**, and why, and an email says the same ("Your film is paused"), with the button that fixes it. In an organisation, a member's film is fixed by its owners and admins: they get the email too;
- everything made so far is kept, and so are its credits;
- put the account right, then press **Continue**: the film carries on from where it stopped;
![A paused film's page: Paused, waiting for the narrator's voice, the reason (the ElevenLabs account is out of characters), what to do, and the Fix ElevenLabs and Continue buttons, with Continue circled.](https://kitcut.ai/docs/img/film-paused.webp "A film paused for its narrator's voice.")

- a paused film waits up to 7 days. After that it is stopped and its credits come back. **Stop** does the same at once.

The workspace's Connections page marks the connection **Needs attention**, with what happened and the one button that fixes it.

## Privacy

- **Your key** is stored encrypted and used only for your workspace's narration, voice list and samples. KitCut's studio never holds it: it asks KitCut's site to speak each line, and the site uses the key.
- **The narration's words** go to ElevenLabs, under your own agreement with ElevenLabs.
- **Use only voices you have the right to use.** A voice cloned from someone needs their consent.