What Are Voice Models?

If you’ve ever wanted your content to sound more natural, more personal, or more closely aligned with a specific brand voice, voice models make it possible.

In HeyGen, voices bring your scripts and avatars to life through AI-generated narration. Every voice you select is powered by a voice engine—a model designed to produce natural, expressive and linguistically accurate speech. Choosing the right engine helps you match the tone, pace and emotion of your message.

What voice models are

A voice model is the underlying AI system that generates speech. It determines how a voice sounds, how expressive it is, how quickly it speaks, and how effectively it performs across languages.

HeyGen offers multiple voice engines, each optimised for different use cases such as training, marketing, storytelling, or localisation.

Automatic voice engine

The Auto setting enables HeyGen to automatically select the most suitable voice engine based on your video’s language and content. This is a good option if you want reliable results without having to choose a model manually.

ElevenLabs voice engine

ElevenLabs delivers studio-quality narration in more than 70 languages, making it well suited to most video and voice projects.

If you’re using a custom voice, you can also choose the voice model that powers it, giving you greater control over tone and realism. By default, HeyGen uses ElevenLabs’ multilingual V3 model, known for its natural expression and strong performance across languages.

Turbo voice models

For projects that require faster generation, you can switch to one of the Turbo models. These offer lower latency and quicker processing, but are primarily optimised for English content.

Starfish voice engine

Starfish is optimised for Asian languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. It ensures natural pronunciation and pacing for region-specific content.

Panda voice engine

Panda is HeyGen’s expressive engine, designed for emotive delivery and advanced control. It supports features such as Voice Director and Voice Mirroring, enabling precise control over timing, emphasis and tone.

Fish voice engine

Fish, powered by fish.audio, specialises in expressive English voiceovers. It is well suited to storytelling, conversational videos, and content that benefits from nuanced delivery.

Together, voice engines and models give you control over how your videos sound, from tone and emotion to speed and linguistic accuracy.