What a short video edit costs in 2026, per clip and per month
Freelance rates for Reels and Shorts run $100 to $500 a clip, $15 to $40 an hour at the low end. The per-clip number is fine. The monthly number is what breaks content plans.
Alexey ShmidtProduct and marketing at MontyNobody abandons a content plan because one edit was expensive. They abandon it because thirty edits were. The per-clip price is the number people research, and the monthly total is the number that actually decides whether you keep posting.
The going rates
- Short-form clips for TikTok, Reels and Shorts: roughly $100 to $500 per video, depending on graphics and turnaround.
- Hourly work on marketplaces spans $10 to $60, with beginners at $20 to $40, mid-tier around $45 to $75, and specialists with motion graphics or grading at $80 to $150.
- Shorts specifically sit at the low end, around $15 to $40 an hour, while vertical ads command $60 to $120.
- A single simple edit starts near $75; an ongoing batch retainer with motion graphics and brand consistency runs to $3,000 a month or more.
Do the multiplication before you commit
| Cadence | At $100 a clip | At $250 a clip |
|---|---|---|
| 3 a week | $1,200 a month | $3,000 a month |
| Daily | $3,000 a month | $7,500 a month |
| Daily, two platforms with reframes | $4,000+ | $10,000+ |
The second column is not an exotic rate. It is an average editor with captions, music and a reframe for vertical, delivered in two days.
What you are paying for, line by line
The hidden line item: your own hours
Editing it yourself reads as free. At one to two hours per clip, a daily habit costs thirty to sixty hours a month. Priced at whatever your own hour is worth, that is usually the most expensive option on the page, and it is the one that quietly ends the posting streak.
When a human is worth it
- Launch films, brand pieces, anything shot with a crew and a storyboard.
- Formats where the edit itself is the joke or the craft.
- One-off work where a fresh pair of eyes matters more than throughput.
Where Monty changes the arithmetic
Monty takes one raw take and returns a finished short video: dead air, retakes and filler words cut, captions synced to speech, music ducked under the voice, b-roll chosen by meaning, audio cleaned, a version built per platform, then posted to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok and Telegram. It does not replace the filming or the thinking. It replaces the mechanical middle of the invoice, which is most of it.
FAQ
What is a fair price for one Reel edit in 2026?
Between $100 and $500 for short-form work, or $75 for a simple single edit. Below that you are usually buying a template pass rather than an edit.
Why are Shorts rates lower than vertical ad rates?
Ads carry performance expectations, revisions and brand review, and are priced at $60 to $120 an hour against $15 to $40 for organic Shorts.
Retainer or per clip?
Per clip while you are testing formats. A retainer once the cadence is fixed, because a matured retainer is materially cheaper than the same volume bought one at a time.
Is editing it yourself actually free?
Only if your hours are free. One to two hours per clip means thirty to sixty hours a month at a daily cadence.
What does automation not cover?
Filming, the idea, and any edit where the craft is the point. It covers the repeated mechanical pass: cuts, captions, music, reframes, exports, publishing.
Sources
Hey Monty. Make me a reel.
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