When you’re outsourcing your video editing, your first question probably is this: How much does it cost to hire a video editor?
The answer depends on how you pick your editor, and on the billing model.
Here are the main options: You can hire a video editor outright, and they’ll be an employee on your team. But you can also outsource editing to a freelancer or video editing company. There are also several payment options, from a salary over hourly rates, per-project pricing, and subscriptions.
Depending on which hiring approach you choose, the total cost – and how predictable it is – will vary.
Let’s get into the details.
Quick Facts
The average hourly wage for US film and video editors is $40 in the US, and $83,470 annually.
Hourly rates generally range from $20–$100+ per hour.
Short single video packages start at around $250 (social media shorts can be less).
Video editing subscriptions range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars monthly.
Keep reading for the full scoop!
How much does it cost to hire a video editor for your team?
Are you a creator looking for high output and the closest possible collaboration? Are you running a rapidly growing content creation business? Or are you an established brand, aiming to expand into video marketing? Then hiring a video editor full- or part-time may be an option for you.
According to the Department of Labor, the average hourly wage for video editors is about $40, with most in the range of around $20 to $75. It depends heavily on skill level and experience: A film student part-timer may ask for less, the most seasoned pros may earn well south of $100/hour.
However, besides the actual salary, you’ll also have to shell out for office space, soft- and hardware, and payroll taxes. Depending on your state, the taxes come to 8-15% of the salary.
This becomes a little more complicated with remote employees: They might not need an office and have lower living costs, on the one hand. On the other, figuring out taxes and reporting can be complex. Working back-and-forth can take longer, which has its own costs.
How much does it cost to hire a video editor externally?
Is it your first time hiring a video editor? You don’t have the constant work to justify the cost and commitment of an employee? Or do you just want to stay flexible?
Then consider hiring someone externally. You can go for freelance video editors or for a dedicated video editing company. Both options have a variety of pros and cons.
Here, we’re interested in the cost above all, so let’s start drilling down.
There are three basic billing schemes: Hourly rates, project and package pricing, and subscriptions. You may also have seen retainers, which work much like subscriptions.
Model 1: Hourly Rates
First off, some freelance video editors charge by the hour. Some, especially if they’re also the videographer, also have day or half-day rates.
Here, the cost of your video edit will depend on just two things:
- how long it takes, and
- the editor’s rate.
How much time your editor needs is less easy to say. It depends mostly on the length of your footage and the complexity of the edit. Some cutting styles are more work than others, enhancing audio and video takes time, and so does every round of revisions.
Nonetheless, as a rule of thumb, you should expect 30 minutes to an hour of editing for each minute of finished video. Highly polished productions may well take twice that long to edit.
Now for part two of the equation: The hourly rate itself. This will roughly correspond to the editor’s experience and skill – and there’s a wide range out there – but also to where they’re based.
You can absolutely find beginner freelancers who’ll do the job for $15 an hour on Fiverr – just don’t expect professional results. Experienced editors with polished portfolios, though, easily charge $50 to well over $100 per hour.
Typically, job boards and freelance platforms take a cut of the editors’ earnings. You might be able to shave off a few percent by working with them directly. That is, if the platform’s terms of service allow it, and you trust each other.
As we’ve hinted before, there’s another thing to consider when comparing rates between freelance editors: location. Someone working in the Philippines simply has much lower living costs than a US-based editor, and might consequently charge less for similar work.
You’ll just have to be okay with the time zone difference, and perhaps the language barrier.
Model 2: Package Deals
Second, many freelance editors and video editing companies offer package deals.
These normally have very clear terms on the of source footage, final video length, and the type of the edit. An entry-level package could be just jump cuts, for example. More typically, you’ll see offers like “a five-minute YouTube video” or “a TikTok clip”. There’s usually also a set turnaround time. And: When you buy packages in bulk, you often get discounts.
That has several consequences: While package deals limit the footage you can submit and the type and quality of the finished videos, they also simplify your work planning and budgeting.
In general, that is. We went down this route in our Upwork video editing review, and in the end, everything still depends on picking the right company or editor. If you’re interested, we also compared that experience with that at a dedicated video editing service.
Video editing companies with package pricing have another advantage: You can get more work done in parallel, rather than getting bottlenecked by a single editor’s capacity or an “unlimited” subscription’s quotas.
You can often get a basic jump-cut edit for around $100, while full editing packages for short videos start at around $250. The latter also about how much you can expect to pay for YouTube video edits, at least the regular horizontal kind.
Shorts, TikTok videos, Reels and similar vertical short video can be much cheaper, starting at about $50.
Model 3: Subscriptions
Finally, you can hire an editor or an editing company on a subscription basis.
This will either give you a certain number of packages a month, or “unlimited” edits (meaning one video at a time, and depending on editor capacity). Occasionally, you’ll also find retainers or “fractional” models that get you a set number of editing hours.
There’s an obvious difference to hourly or package rates: You’ll pay this fee regardless of how much work you actually send in for editing.
Depending on the company and what’s included, monthly costs range between $350 and $2,000 (excluding custom enterprise options).
The advantages of hiring a video editor by subscribing are relatively short turnaround times, guaranteed availability, and clear-cut budgeting for you. The flip side is that they work best if you’ve got a steady, predictable amount of similar work. That’s partly because they work on orders one-at-a-time. If you do bulk orders, it might take quite a while until they’re all processed.
The Bottom Line
Overall, how much it costs to hire a video editor depends on your editing needs, and whether you opt for adding someone to your team or hiring an external editor.
Here are some rough ranges for what each option may cost you:
- employee: $20–$75+ hourly wage (plus benefits, hardware, tools…)
- hourly: $20–$100+
- day rates: $500–$1,500+
- per-video package: $250+ ($50+ for TikToks, Reels…)
- video editing subscription: $350–$2,000+ monthly
In whatever way you hire your video editor, always make sure to vet them to get your money’s worth. Carefully check out a few candidates, and compare their portfolios, locations, reviews, and what exactly is included in their pricing. While it takes some time, money, and effort, it’s also well worth having the editor or company do a test job.
With the right editor by your side, though, you’ll be able to free up more of your time, take a breath, and focus on the creative work you do best.
FAQs
$20 to over $100 per hour of editing, and about 30 minutes to 2 hours per minute of finished video. A 5-minute video edit usually starts at $250.
At 30 minutes to 2 hours per finished minute, an 1-hour video takes 30 to 120 hours to edit closely. As a rule of thumb, a TV episode takes a full week to edit.
The average video editor’s wage is $40 per hour, though hourly rates are usually $20–$100.
A basic, 5-minute YouTube video costs upwards of $250 to edit. The biggest YouTubers hire full-time editors and pay them $60,000 or more a year.
A simple 10-minute video will cost around $500–$2,000 to edit.
A beginner video editor on a salary will make about $40,000 a year.
A moderately experienced freelance video editor bills around $75–$100 an hour, or a day rate of around $500–$1,500.
