Video editing rates in 2023: An Insider's View (2024)

If you are wondering about the the hourly rate of a freelance video editor or about how much it will cost you to get your video edited, you are in the right place.

We are going to give you real-life numbers.

Before we move of, let me tell you that with us, Veedyou Media, the average video editing rate in 2022 was 325 USD.

With that said, the cost of video editing or video production will depend on the specifics of each project and can vary A LOT.

If you’re looking to produce animated videos that’s totally different. You should check out our video animation costs article instead.

If you are a freelancer looking for ways to make money editing videos you probably want to read this article.

But please, do read on as we talk about the different types of videos and how this number may vary depending on your situation.

How much does in cost to edit a video?

In general, this is a difficult question to answer.

There are a whole lot of different things that will determine the final cost of a video edit, such as:

• the total raw footage duration
• the total duration of the finished edit
• is there any motion graphic work involved
• are there any text overlays
• color grading
• image stabilization
• and the level of complexity of the work in general.

With that being said though, I do have a number for you that you can factor in to your total video production costs.

There you have it.

We actually have a cost estimator here, which lets you put in the details of your project and automatically calculates the estimated cost of your video project.

So that’s how much it would probably cost you to edit a video with us.

I would say we are priced somewhere in the middle, maybe a little bit below average for the simple fact that our internal costs might not be as high as in other countries.

So depending on your location, or better said on the location of your video editor the price might vary a little bit.

Paying a Fixed fee vs. Hourly

Here at Veedyou we always work on a fixed fee per project. Or on a monthly retainer that includes a certain number of videos.

So with a fixed rate you always know upfront how much you are going to end up paying for your video.

As opposed to hourly rates, where you kind of guess how much the total will be, but you never know.

Me personally, I feel like creative work such as video editing should never be priced per hour. You can always come up with a different idea on how a cut, a transition or the color grading should be made and you can just keep going on and on forever.

So I don’t feel that charging per hour on video editing is fair, to be honest.

That’s why we provide a fixed quote upfront based on the requirements that we get from the client.

Video editor hourly rate

If you decide to hire a YouTube video editor that charges hourly, here is a very informative list with the average video editing hourly rates charged by video editors and producers.

Based on the above data, the hourly rate of a video editor will be between 25 USD and 45 USD, for a beginner video editor, between 45 USD and 70 USD for an advanced video editor and for an expert video editor the hourly rate varies between 60 USD and 120 USD.

Now, the time spent by an editor on a video really depends on the specifics of each project.

But I found that most of the time, for a YouTube vlog-style video, for each minute of finished edit we need roughly 1 hour of work in post-production. More or less.

So a 5 minute finished edit would take 5 hours to edit (on average) and it should cost anywhere between 225 and 550 USD if you are hiring an advanced or expert video editor.

That sounds about right I’d say.

Like I mentioned at the very beginning of the article, the average cost of a video edited by Veedyou Media is 325 USD.

We don’t have a record of the average editing time per video, but a ballpark estimate would be around 5-6 hours per video. That includes everything such as the revision process.

So if you divide 325 USD by 5 or 6 you will get an hourly rate of around 60 USD per hour.

That numbers are right at the top end of the advanced video editor’s hourly rates. So the numbers are pretty accurate.

Not to mention that by hiring a video editor or a video agency you save costs with video editing software licenses, templates, plugins, stock video.

Basically, you cut out any costs with 3rd party assets and licensing.

How much does a video editor make?

Based on that data in should be easy to determine how much a video editor can make a month.

It’s simple math.

There are a couple of aspects we need to factor in.

First, in house video editors will not make as much per hour as freelance video editors.

Second, the location plays an important role in how much a video editor will make. Video editors that live in more expensive areas will have higher fees, while overseas video editors will charge a bit less.

However, with the majority of the video editors working remotely, the location is not such an important factor nowadays.

According the US Bureau of Labor Statistics a video editor makes 59,500 USD a year.

Here in Romania where we’re at, an experienced video editor working for a local TV station makes around 15,000 USD a year.

A good freelance video editor can make around up to 90,000 USD pe month depending on how good he’s at marketing this services on how many clients he has.

I would say the future looks good for video editors, as more and more organizations produce and distribute video content these days, therefore video editors will be in demand.

Specialzing in editing videos for YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms might not be a bad idea.

Not everyone has to cut films or TV productions.

Video editing rates per type of video

We work on a wide variety of different videos ranging from GoPro videos to family videos, weddings, branded videos, corporate, animation, and so on and so forth.

And I can tell you that the cost varies slightly from one type of video to another.

Personal videos

I think we’re safe to put the GoPro & family videos in the same bucket as these are probably the easiest to edit. So these should be the least expensive ones.

Here the cost will depend mainly on how much source footage the client has and how long the final video will be.

So for really short personal videos, we end up charging just 100 USD or so. But on the opposite side, we had a few very long vacations or trip videos that were over 1,000 USD.

And, of course, you can have everything else in the middle. You can get a quick cost estimate here.

Weddings

Next, we have weddings which are a totally separate category.

Wedding filmmaking it’s a big industry.

Wedding videos always need to have a nice and polished look. These generally need more attention to detail and have a cinematic look.

Everything needs to look nice and smooth, the colors should be perfect and you need to have a bit of a storyline.

Now the good part about wedding videos is that you as an editor (almost) always work with professional videographers.

This means that they use nice equipment and they know how to use it.

So the shots are steady, they use the correct settings, the framing is right, they get the right scenes. All this makes editing much easier as the quality of the finished edit will always depend a lot on how good the source footage is.

And then there is also the storyline or the order of events, which is more or less the same in each wedding.

So all these things really make things easier in post-production

And that’s why I believe the cost of editing a wedding video is really not that high.

Make sure to check out our wedding video editing page for more information on pricing and packages.

Feel free to check out our wedding video editing page for the different packages that we offer.

Look at our portfolio or read more about our wedding video editing services

Branded & Corporate videos

In this category, you have to work with a given script, follow specific directions and a branding guideline. Maybe match a certain look and feel.

From my point of view these are probably the most demanding type of videos. And in general the most expensive ones.

The prices vary so much that I can’t really give you a number that would be accurate and that would reflect your situation.

But feel free to reach out and I would be happy to help you out.