Editing one 30 to 60 second short costs about $10 to $25 from a budget freelancer, $25 to $80 from an experienced one, and $80 to $200 from a senior editor. Editing subscriptions work out to roughly $16 to $33 per short if you send them 10 or more a month. Agencies that also post for you charge around $40 to $55 per video in their published packages, and more for custom work.
If you want one number for a first hire, budget $30 to $60 per short for someone reliable. At three shorts a week, that's roughly $400 to $800 a month.
Those ranges come from current marketplace data, the published price lists of editing services, and what creators and editors report paying on Reddit. The rest of this post shows where each number comes from, what pushes a quote up, and how to hire without paying for things you don't need.
What each hiring route costs per short
Here's what you'll pay for a simple vertical video: one speaker, cuts, captions, some zooms or B-roll, 30 to 60 seconds long.
| Route | Price per short | Typical monthly bill | What you usually get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget freelancer (Fiverr, Upwork entry level) | $10 to $25 | $120 to $300 for 12 shorts | Cuts, captions, stock music. You supply the direction. |
| Experienced freelancer | $25 to $80 | $300 to $960 for 12 shorts | Hook pacing, zooms, B-roll, sound. Some input on what to cut. |
| Senior freelancer | $80 to $200 | $960 to $2,400 for 12 shorts | Motion graphics, a consistent style, opinions on retention. |
| Editing subscription | About $16 to $33 | $295 to $999 | A set number of shorts, a dedicated editor, 1 to 2 day turnaround. |
| Agency that edits and posts | About $40 to $55 in published packages | $500 to $2,500 | Editing plus scheduling and reporting. Higher tiers add a writer. |
| Full-time in-house editor (US) | Depends on volume | About $6,300 in salary alone | Someone on your team every day. |
Where these numbers come from:
- Freelancer tiers. Freelance editor Hammad J., who says he has edited over 3,000 videos, publishes a 2026 pricing guide with short-form rates of $5 to $25 at entry level, $20 to $80 mid-tier and $80 to $200 senior. His own rate is $20 per Reel. We raised the bottom of the budget range to $10, because very few $5 edits are usable (more on that below).
- Upwork. Upwork's own rate guide from May 2026 lists video editors at $10 to $60 an hour.
- Fiverr. Fiverr's video editor cost guide puts social media videos at "$10 a minute and up" and calls that "a low-end baseline." The short-form gigs featured on that page started at $10 to $45.
- Subscriptions. Editvideo.io charges $295 a month for 10 shorts, $495 for 25 and $795 for 50. VidChops charges $495 a month for 16 shorts. ShortVids charges $999 a month for 30 to 35, and picks the clips from your long videos for you.
- Agencies. LYFE Marketing lists $500 a month for 12 posts and $800 for 20, including editing, publishing and monthly reporting. ShortVids' Growth plan adds a writer and a project manager for $2,499 a month and 60 to 65 shorts. Many agencies don't publish prices at all and quote after a call.
- In-house. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for film and video editors at $75,420 a year ($36.10 an hour) as of May 2025. That's about $6,300 a month before taxes, benefits and software.
We checked these against the time the work takes. Video project platform Timeliner says a 30 to 60 second talking-head video with captions takes 45 to 90 minutes to edit with a good brief. At Upwork's $10 to $60 an hour, that's about $8 to $90 per short, which lines up with the per-short prices above.
Reddit tells the same story. In an r/NewTubers thread asking "How much do you pay your editors?", the poster had been told $75 per short was "the sweet spot" for an editor who gets the script, voiceover and B-roll handed to them. In r/Entrepreneur, an editing team of 8 in Nepal said they edited 200+ Reels in a month for about $4,000, roughly $20 each, mostly as a subcontractor for other agencies. The top reply said clients who hire directly "would pay $50-150 per reel easily." That gap is the agency markup, and it's why the same edit can cost you $20 or $100 depending on who you buy it from.
What to do with this: pick the row that matches the help you need, then use the middle of its range as your budget. Don't start from the lowest number you've seen.
Why two quotes for the same video can differ by 10x
When quotes vary a lot, it's usually because the editors are pricing different jobs. Before you compare prices, check what each one includes.
| What changes the price | Effect on the quote |
|---|---|
| What the editor decides. Cleaning up a clip you picked is quick. Finding the best 45 seconds in a 40-minute podcast, or writing the hook text, takes much longer. | The biggest single factor. Clip-picking and hook writing can double the time per short. |
| Your brief. Timeliner says a complete brief cuts editing time by roughly 40 to 50%. Without one, their 45 to 90 minute edit becomes 2 to 3 hours. | Hourly editors charge you for that time. Fixed-price editors build the risk into their price. |
| Turnaround. Hammad J. says rush jobs add a 30 to 50% premium. | Ask for 48 to 72 hours unless you really need faster. |
| Revisions. Most freelancers include 2 to 3 rounds. He puts extra rounds at $15 to $50 each. | Agree on the number of rounds before you start. |
| Where the editor lives. Editors in lower-cost regions charge 40 to 70% less, by the same guide's estimate. | A cheaper region works fine for simple, well-briefed edits. |
| Style. Motion graphics, custom sound design and animated text take hours. Clean cuts and captions take minutes. | Our editing time vs views post covers when extra polish is worth paying for. |
⚠️ A $5 starting price is the price of the smallest package
Marketplace prices show the cheapest package, which often covers a 15-second clip with no captions and one revision. Open the package table and price the tier that matches your actual video, including captions, length and revisions. That's the number to compare.
What to do with this: when you ask for quotes, describe one real video in detail (length, source footage, captions, style, turnaround). Then every editor is pricing the same job.
What your monthly budget actually buys
Most people think in monthly budgets, so here's what each budget gets you at current published prices. Freelancer counts use the midpoints from the table above.
| Monthly budget | What it buys |
|---|---|
| About $300 | 10 shorts on Editvideo.io's Grow plan, or 12 to 15 shorts from a budget freelancer at $20 to $25 each. |
| About $500 | 16 shorts on VidChops Weekly or 25 on Editvideo.io Scale. LYFE's $500 plan gives you 12 posts including publishing. From an experienced freelancer at $60, it's about 8 shorts. |
| About $1,000 | 30 to 35 shorts on ShortVids StartUp (it picks the clips), or 32 on VidChops Pro. From a freelancer, it's 12 to 16 shorts at $60 to $80. |
| $1,200 to $1,700 | Flocksy's plan gives you an editor for 2 hours a day, about 42 hours a month, for $1,199 a month on an annual plan or $1,699 month to month. At Timeliner's 45 to 90 minutes per short, that's roughly 28 to 56 shorts (our estimate). |
| $2,500 and up | ShortVids Growth, with 60 to 65 shorts plus a writer and a project manager, or an agency that also handles strategy. |
Subscriptions win on price per short once you make 10 or more a month. The catch is the limits. Editvideo.io caps finished shorts at 90 seconds with up to 3 minutes of raw footage. VidChops counts one long video as four shorts, so its plans only reach 16 or 32 shorts if you send no long videos. Read the limits before you sign up.
A freelancer costs more per short but adapts better. If you want one person who learns your voice and gives you opinions on hooks, that's usually a freelancer you keep for months.
What to do with this: under 10 shorts a month, hire a freelancer. Above 10 a month with a steady, simple format, get quotes from two subscriptions too and compare the price per short after their limits.
Costs that don't show up in the quote
The price per video is only part of what you'll pay. Budget for these too.
- Marketplace fees. Upwork's pricing page lists a 5% client fee on its Basic plan, while its help center says "up to 7.99%." Eligible US clients who pay from a bank account get 3%. Upwork also charges a one-time contract fee of $0.99 to $14.99 per contract. Fiverr adds its own buyer fee at checkout, so check the final total before you pay.
- Your own time. Someone still has to pick topics, upload footage, write the brief and review the edit. We estimate 10 to 20 minutes per short once you have a routine. It takes longer for the first few weeks.
- Extra revisions and rush jobs. See the table above. These add up quietly if you don't agree on them upfront.
- Music. Ask where the music comes from. Some subscriptions include a royalty-free library. A freelancer using a track they don't have the rights to can get your video muted or blocked.
- Starting over. Replacing an editor who doesn't work out costs you a few weeks of briefing and review. A paid test edit (covered below) is the cheapest way to avoid that.
What to do with this: add 10% to any marketplace quote for fees, and put your own review time into the calculator below.
Work out whether outsourcing pays for you
The real question is whether the hours you get back are worth more than the bill. Enter a quote you received, or click a route to fill in a typical price. The defaults assume 12 shorts a month from an experienced freelancer, and a founder who takes an hour to edit each one alone.
Does outsourcing pay for itself?
Enter a quote you got, or pick a route to fill in a typical price.
The quote
Your time
Monthly cost
$756
$9,072 a year
Hours you get back
9.0
per month
Cost per hour saved
$84
vs $50 / hr for you
Each hour you get back costs $84, more than the $50 your hour is worth. A cheaper route or faster DIY tools will likely serve you better for now.
Monthly cost = videos × price × (1 + fee ÷ 100). Hours back = videos × (your edit time − briefing and review time) ÷ 60. Cost per hour saved = monthly cost ÷ hours back. Preset prices are midpoints of the ranges in the table above, not quotes. Doesn't include rush fees, extra revision rounds or music licensing.
With the defaults, the answer is "not quite." Each hour you get back costs more than the $50 an hour we assumed your time is worth. Click the subscription preset and the result flips. It also flips if your own edits take you two hours each, which is common while you're still learning an editor.
What to do with this: time your next edit with a stopwatch, then enter your real numbers. If the cost per hour saved is below what your hour is worth, outsourcing makes sense.
How to hire an editor without overpaying
This process takes about two weeks and costs you one small paid test.
- Decide which job you're hiring for. Choose from clean-up only (you pick the clip), clipping (they find clips in your long videos), or strategy (they also suggest topics and hooks). Clean-up is the cheapest and the easiest to judge.
- Write the brief before you post the job. Use the template below. It saves the editor time, which saves you money.
- Shortlist 3 to 5 editors whose portfolios include vertical, talking-head videos similar to yours. A great gaming montage says little about how someone will cut a founder talking to camera.
- Pay for a test edit. Send every editor the same raw clip and pay their full rate. Compare the results side by side, along with how fast they replied and whether they followed the brief.
- Ask one question about performance. A commenter in an r/Entrepreneur hiring thread put it well: editors who care about results "start talking about tension, pattern interrupts, first-frame framing, retention graphs." Editors who don't "just talk about fonts."
- Agree on terms in writing. That means price per short, revision rounds, turnaround, music source, and whether you get the project files.
- Review after four weeks. Look at your retention graphs as well as how the edits look.
Here's a brief you can copy and fill in once. Send the same one with every batch.
EDITING BRIEF: [Your brand] shorts
FORMAT
- Vertical 9:16, 1080x1920, 30 to 60 seconds
- Platforms: TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts
- One clean export with no watermark
STYLE (link 2 or 3 reference videos you like)
- Cut every pause longer than about half a second
- Captions: word-by-word, bottom third, max 2 lines, brand font [name]
- Zoom in on key lines, no more than one every 5 to 8 seconds
- Music: low, royalty-free only, or none
- No transitions or sound effects unless I mark them
EACH VIDEO (I fill this in per batch)
- Raw file: [link]
- Start and end timestamps: [00:00 to 00:00]
- Hook text for the first 2 seconds: [text]
- Words or names to spell correctly: [list]
DELIVERY
- Turnaround: 48 hours
- Revisions: 2 rounds included
- Deliver to: [shared folder], file name YYYY-MM-DD_topic.mp4💡 The brief lowers the price
Filling in timestamps and hook text yourself turns a "find the best part" job into a "clean up this part" job. It takes you about 5 minutes per video. Timeliner's 40 to 50% time saving from a good brief applies here too, so an hourly editor's bill can drop by close to half.
What to do with this: copy the template, fill in the style section once, and use it for your test edit.
Cheaper options before you hire
Outsourcing is one way to save time. For simple talking-head videos, a faster setup of your own can get you most of the way for much less.
- Make the edit simpler. Our post on editing time vs views looks at when heavy editing pays off. For most talking-head shorts, cuts and captions are enough, and that edit takes minutes.
- Automate the captions. CapCut, TikTok and Instagram's Edits app all have free auto-captions. If you want animated, word-synced captions in the same style on every platform, Sycamore does that step for you in a couple of minutes per video.
- Clip long videos with software. If you record podcasts or webinars, OpusClip's paid plans start at $15 a month and suggest clips automatically. Our guide to turning one long video into a week of content shows how to record with clipping in mind.
- Outsource only part of it. You can do the rough cut yourself and pay an editor only for captions and polish, or hire someone just to pick clips from your long videos. A smaller job should get you a smaller quote.
- Batch your filming. Outsourcing works best when you send footage in batches. Our post on batching vs posting daily has a filming schedule, and what one hour a week gets you shows a fast DIY routine.
What to do with this: if the calculator said "not quite," try a faster DIY setup for a month first. Then run the calculator again with your new edit time.
The short version
- A 30 to 60 second short costs $10 to $25 from a budget freelancer, $25 to $80 from an experienced one and $80 to $200 from a senior editor.
- Editing subscriptions cost about $16 to $33 per short at 10+ a month. Check their length and credit limits.
- Agencies that also post charge about $40 to $55 per video in published packages.
- For a first hire, budget $30 to $60 per short, or roughly $400 to $800 a month for three a week.
- Add about 10% for marketplace fees, and count 10 to 20 minutes of your own time per video.
- A detailed brief can cut editing time by 40 to 50%, which lowers your quote.
- Pay 3 to 5 editors for the same test edit before you commit to anyone.
Sources and further reading
- Freelance Video Editor Pricing Guide, Hammad J., April 2026
- How Long Should It Take a Video Editor to Edit One Video?, Timeliner (Noam Tryber and Guy Shirazi), March 2026
- Upwork Hourly Rate: Rates by Skill and Experience, Upwork, May 2026
- How Much Does a Video Editor Cost?, Fiverr Guides
- Upwork pricing for clients and What is the Client Marketplace Fee?, Upwork Help
- Editing subscription price lists: Editvideo.io, VidChops, ShortVids and Flocksy
- Short form video agency pricing, LYFE Marketing
- Film and Video Editors and Camera Operators, US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook
- OpusClip pricing
- Reddit threads: "How much do you pay your editors?" on r/NewTubers, "We edited 200+ reels last month with a team of 8" and "How do I hire a short-form content editor who actually cares about making viral clips?" on r/Entrepreneur
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