Outsourcing video editing can free up massive amounts of your time and supercharge your productivity as a creator. After all, instead of worrying about cuts, transitions, and color grading, you get to focus on what you do best – creating more amazing content.
However, before you start outsourcing, it’s important to figure out whether it works out well with your budget. One way of answering that question is by taking a look at the average cost of video production per minute.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Quick Facts
- Cost per minute of video is a good comparison metric because it only depends on the rate.
- This lets you compare editors and companies across many pricing models and discount practices.
- Social media video editing is in the range of $30-$100 per minute of finished video.
Keep reading for the full scoop!
Contents
What Does Video Editing Cost Depend On? 💸
First off, it’s critical to understand that there is no fast and easy way of estimating the overall cost of video editing on a per-minute basis. The main reason for that is that the pricing of freelance video editors and video editing services differ massively from each other. On top of that, pricing depends on factors such as:
- The complexity of edits. Do you want straightforward jump cuts? Or complex color grading, audio enhancements and VFX?
- The length of your raw footage. Will your editors have to go through 20 minutes of footage? Or two hours?
- The size of your raw footage. How tricky will the files be to transfer and work with?
- The pricing model. Will you opt for hourly pricing, project-based pricing, or video editing subscriptions?
These are just some of the aspects that will determine how much you’ll pay for a minute of your final video. That said, let’s take a closer look at three specific cases to give you an idea of how much you could end up paying for a minute of finished video.
How much does a minute of video cost to edit? 🎞️
Above, we talked about some of the general aspects that determine how much you’ll pay for a minute of your final video.
That said, let’s now take a closer look at three specific cases to give you an idea of how much you could end up paying for a minute of finished video.
Case 1: You find a freelancer on Upwork who offers hourly rates, opting for someone with solid reviews and medium-range pricing, at $60/hour. Your raw footage is 45 minutes long and has solid audio and video quality so that no major enhancements will be necessary. You want a final video that’s 5 minutes long and requires medium-range edits. All in all, your editor is efficient and takes 7 hours, plus another hour for the revisions you request on the first draft. You pay them $480 all in all.
Total: $96 per minute
Case 2: You want the same 5-minute video edited, but opt for a video editing service with project-based pricing, such as Tasty Edits. Since it’s your first time purchasing a video edit, you don’t take advantage of the bulk discount and pay $316.
Total: $63.20 per minute.
Case 3: You want to produce a vertical video for YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok, based on an existing long-form video. Duration: exactly 2 minutes. Since you’re already familiar with Tasty Edits this time round, you go for bulk package pricing, get a 16% discount, and end up paying $71.
Total: $35.50 per minute
The Bottom Line
The cost of per-minute video editing varies considerably, based on what you’re starting out with and what you want. Extremely broadly speaking, though, you can expect to pay between $30 and $100.
