Three ways editors quote
Editors usually quote in one of three ways, and they can be converted into each other once you know how long the job takes.
| Quote type | What it means | When it is fair |
|---|---|---|
| Per hour | You pay for editing time | Uncertain scope, ongoing work |
| Per finished minute | Price scales with final length | Long talking-head content, podcasts, courses |
| Per video | Fixed price for a defined video | Repeatable formats with clear limits |
A per-minute price is really an hourly price in disguise: the editor has estimated how many hours a finished minute takes for your type of content.
Finished minutes vs raw minutes
Always check which minute a quote refers to. Ten finished minutes might come from 12 minutes of raw footage (a clean, scripted talking head) or from three hours of footage (a vlog shot through the day). The second takes far longer just to watch, sort and choose. If an editor quotes per finished minute, tell them how much raw footage you will send; if they quote per raw minute, ask what finished length to expect.
How much editing time a minute takes
Time per finished minute varies a lot by style:
- Simple cut: removing mistakes and pauses from a single-camera talking head, adding basic captions. Fast, because there are few decisions.
- Standard YouTube edit: tight pacing, zooms, b-roll, music, on-screen text. Several times slower than a simple cut.
- Retention or story edit: restructuring the video, sound design, custom graphics and animation. The slowest and most expensive.
Veedyou Media's rule of thumb of roughly an hour per finished minute for vlog-style videos is a sensible middle estimate, not a law. Simple cuts can be much faster; motion-graphics-heavy work can be much slower.
Turning a quote into a budget
Use this quick method before you accept any quote:
- Write down your typical finished length and raw footage length.
- Decide which style you need: simple, standard or retention.
- Ask the editor for their estimated hours, not just the price.
- Divide the quote by the hours to get an implied hourly rate.
- Compare that rate with market ranges, for example Upwork's typical $6–$25 an hour with medians of $10, $40 and $100 an hour across entry, mid and senior tiers.
If the implied hourly rate is very low, ask what's left out. If it's very high, ask what you're getting that justifies it.
Extras that change the per-minute price
- Captions: often included now, but some services charge extra. VidChops, for example, lists subtitles for long-form at $95 a month on top of its plans.
- Stock footage and music: included in many services; freelancers may ask you to pay licences.
- Rush delivery: 24-hour turnaround usually costs more.
- Revisions: extra rounds add time.
- Formats: resizing for vertical, square and horizontal can be an add-on.
When per-minute pricing works against you
Per-minute pricing rewards longer videos, so it can quietly encourage padding. It also doesn't reflect messy footage: ten minutes of clean footage and ten minutes rescued from bad audio cost the editor very different amounts of time. For short, repeatable talking-head videos, a fixed per-video price is usually simpler and fairer to both sides.
How DoneEdit prices
DoneEdit, our own service, uses a fixed per-video price instead of per minute: $27 during the founding offer for the first 20 customers, then $67, for up to 10 minutes of raw footage and up to 5 minutes finished, with 2 revisions and 48-hour delivery. That keeps the price predictable for short talking-head videos. Longer or more complex projects are better quoted by a freelancer or agency on an hourly or per-minute basis.
Questions to ask before you agree on a per-minute price
- Is the price per finished minute or per raw minute?
- How many revision rounds are included?
- Are captions, music and stock footage included?
- What happens if the finished video runs longer than planned?
- What turnaround does the price assume?
Worked example: same video, three pricing models
Take a video with 30 minutes of raw footage that becomes 10 finished minutes. To compare quotes, put them on the same basis:
- Per finished minute: multiply the rate by 10.
- Per raw minute: multiply the rate by 30. This is why raw-minute pricing looks cheap until you film a lot.
- Per hour: ask how many hours the editor expects. Veedyou estimates around 1 hour of editing per finished minute for typical work, though simple talking-head edits can be faster.
Whichever model you choose, write down the assumptions so the final bill matches the quote.