The honest answer has four parts, because there are four ways to get a short edited: pay a freelancer per video, put a freelancer on a monthly retainer, hire an agency, or use an AI video editor. Each has a different price and a different amount of your own time attached.
Every figure below is a published range, with sources and dates listed at the end. Most rate guides are written by companies that sell editing, so read them as market guides, not surveys.
What each option costs at a glance
A finished short costs anywhere from about two dollars with software to $250 or more through an agency. The table shows the typical range for each option, what is usually included, and who does the work.
| Option | Typical cost | What you get | Turnaround | Who does the work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offshore freelancer | $10–$40 per video | Cuts, basic captions, stock music. Quality varies by editor. | 24–72 hours | One editor. You brief and review. |
| US or UK freelancer | $50–$150 per video | Cuts, styled captions, text overlays, music, one or two revision rounds. | 2–4 days quoted, 2–5 days in practice | One editor. You brief and review. |
| Freelancer on retainer | $800–$3,000 a month for about 8–12 videos | A fixed monthly batch, agreed revisions, a consistent style. | Set by the agreement | One editor who learns your preferences. |
| Editing subscription service | $500–$2,000 a month | A request queue with template-led edits. | 1–3 days | A pooled team of editors. |
| Boutique agency | $100–$250 per video, or $1,500–$5,000 a month | An editor plus an account contact, brand guidelines, revision rounds, a delivery commitment. | 24–48 hours | A team. You approve. |
| AI video editor | $15–$49 a month for an entry paid plan | Automatic cuts, captions and b-roll. Limits on videos or minutes per month. | No hand-off to another person | Software. You review or finish the edit. |
| RealTake | $0 for 5 watermarked shorts a month, or $49 a month for around 16–32 shorts | One raw take becomes a finished short with cuts, captions, b-roll, zooms and sound. | No hand-off. You review and render yourself. | Software plans and builds the edit. You approve it. |
Ranges from the sources listed at the end of this article, read October 3, 2026. RealTake prices are from our pricing page.
Freelance editors: what you pay per video
A freelance editor in the US or UK typically charges $50 to $150 per short, and an offshore freelancer $10 to $40. Those are the per-reel ranges in Increditors' 2026 price guide, last updated September 30, 2026.
Experience moves the price more than location does. Pixflow's 2026 rate guide puts beginners at $25 to $75 per short, editors with one to three years of experience at $75 to $200, and senior editors at $200 to $500. Upwork lists a single short-form edit at $75 to $300 per project, and hourly rates for video editors between $10 and $60.
What the money buys changes with the tier. Increditors describes three levels:
- Basic, $25 to $75. Simple cuts, minimal captions, stock music, one revision.
- Standard, $75 to $200. A worked hook, branded captions, text overlays, music cut to the beat, basic motion graphics, two revisions.
- Premium, $200 to $500 or more. Custom motion graphics, colour grading, sound design, several hook variations.
Per-video pricing suits you if you post a few times a month or your volume is uneven. The cost is your time: you write the brief, send the footage, wait, and give notes. Increditors' turnaround guide reports that mid-tier freelancers quote two to four days and often deliver in two to five, with one or two revision rounds.
Monthly retainers: a fixed fee for a fixed batch
A freelance retainer for short-form video typically costs $800 to $3,000 a month. Increditors' retainer guide, updated September 30, 2026, puts entry-level freelancers at $800 to $1,200 a month for roughly 8 to 12 short or medium-length videos, mid-tier freelancers at $1,500 to $3,000 for similar volume, and senior editors at $3,000 to $5,000.
A retainer makes sense once you post every week. The editor gets to know your preferences and you get a place in their calendar. Check three things before you sign: how many videos and revision rounds are included, what an extra video costs, and whether unused videos roll over.
Agencies and editing subscriptions
An agency typically charges $1,500 to $5,000 a month for short-form editing, and more for large volumes. Increditors gives $100 to $250 per reel for a boutique agency, or $1,500 to $5,000 a month for 15 to 20 reels, and $200 to $500 or more per reel for a full-service creative agency.
Skapo's 2026 pricing guide for agencies, updated September 1, 2026, describes the tiers agencies sell: $1,500 to $2,500 a month for 8 to 12 clips, $3,000 to $5,000 for 20 to 30 clips, and $6,000 to $12,000 for 50 or more.
The premium over a freelancer pays for management: an account contact, a brand guide and a delivery commitment. Increditors notes that licensed music, premium stock footage and 24-hour rush delivery are usually not included in a retainer, so ask.
Subscription editing services sit between the two: a flat $500 to $2,000 a month for a request queue, with one to three day turnaround and template-led edits.
AI video editors: software instead of a person
An AI video editor costs $15 to $49 a month for an entry paid plan, and several have a free tier. The software transcribes your footage, removes pauses, adds captions and often b-roll, and gives you an edit to adjust. Nobody else is involved, so there is no brief and no waiting on a reply.
Entry prices on the vendors' own pricing pages on October 3, 2026, billed monthly: OpusClip Starter $15, Submagic Starter $19 for 15 videos, Jupitrr Starter $22 for 10 exports, Descript Hobbyist $24, Captions Max $24.99, RealTake Presence $49 for around 16 to 32 shorts. Most are cheaper billed yearly. They are different kinds of tool, and our roundup of AI video editors for talking-head videos covers what each one does.
The trade is real. Software does not know your business, will not catch a claim you should not make, and cannot rescue bad footage. You are the reviewer. If you want someone to own the result, that is a person, and hiring an editor versus using AI goes through that decision.
Where RealTake fits
RealTake is our product, so weigh this part accordingly. It is an AI video editor for one job: you upload one raw talking take, and it builds one finished vertical short with cuts, captions, b-roll, zooms and sound. You review the whole edit in the Studio and nothing renders until you approve it.
The free Starter plan makes up to 5 watermarked shorts a month. Presence is $49 a month for around 16 to 32 shorts, Authority is $99 for around 38 to 76, and Empire is $249 for around 107 to 213. Yearly billing brings those to $29, $59 and $149 a month. The range depends on take length. On a paid plan that is about two dollars a finished short. RealTake Clips turns a long recording into finished clips, with 60, 600, 1,500 or 4,000 source minutes a month on Starter, Presence, Authority and Empire. Finished videos post or schedule to LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, or you can download the file.
See what one of your own takes costs to edit
Free plan: 5 watermarked shorts a month. No credit card.
Worked examples: 4, 12 and 30 videos a month
At 4 videos a month almost any option is affordable, at 12 a retainer or software starts to matter, and at 30 the gap between people and software is thousands of dollars. The table multiplies the published ranges above. It is arithmetic, not a quote.
| Option | 4 videos a month | 12 videos a month | 30 videos a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Offshore freelancer, $10–$40 per video | $40–$160 | $120–$480 | $300–$1,200 |
| US or UK freelancer, $50–$150 per video | $200–$600 | $600–$1,800 | $1,500–$4,500 |
| Freelancer on retainer | Below most retainer minimums. Pay per video. | $800–$3,000 | Above the published 8–12 video band. Expect a custom quote. |
| Agency | $400–$1,000 at $100–$250 per video, if they take small jobs | $1,500–$2,500 | $3,000–$5,000 |
| RealTake | $0 on Starter, watermarked | $49 on Presence | $49 on Presence if your takes are short, otherwise $99 on Authority |
RealTake figures are monthly billing. Yearly billing is $29 a month for Presence and $59 for Authority.
Four videos a month from a good freelancer is $200 to $600, a fair price for having someone else think about the edit. At 12 a month the per-video and retainer ranges overlap, so choose on reliability. At 30 a month a US freelancer at per-video rates runs $1,500 to $4,500, which is the point where people hire offshore, sign an agency, or move to software.
Costs that do not show up in the quote
The quoted price leaves out your own time and a few extras, and those can change which option is cheapest for you.
- Your time on briefs and notes. With a person, every video needs a brief, a review and usually a revision round. With software, you are the one checking every cut and caption.
- Revisions beyond the included rounds. Ask what a third round costs.
- Music and stock footage. Often billed separately by freelancers and agencies. Several AI editors include a stock library in the plan.
- Rush fees. Next-day delivery is usually an extra with people.
- Plan limits. Software plans cap videos, minutes or credits. Check the cap against your real posting volume, and check whether the free tier adds a watermark.
- Recording. None of these prices include filming. If recording is your bottleneck, a faster workflow will save more than a cheaper editor.
Sources
Pages relied on for the figures in this article, all read on October 3, 2026.
- Increditors, Instagram Editing Services: 2026 Price Guide (updated September 30, 2026). Per-reel and monthly ranges by provider type, service tiers.
- Increditors, Video Editing Retainer Cost: 2026 Guide (updated September 30, 2026). Freelance, agency and subscription retainers, and what is usually excluded.
- Increditors, Video Editing Turnaround Times (updated October 1, 2026). Quoted and actual turnaround by provider type.
- Pixflow, Video Editing Pricing Guide 2026 (updated August 18, 2026). Per-short rates by experience.
- Skapo, How to Price Short-Form Video Services in 2026 (updated September 1, 2026). Agency retainer tiers.
- Upwork, short-form video editors and Upwork, video editor hourly rates. Project and hourly ranges.
- Vendor pricing pages: OpusClip, Submagic, Jupitrr, Descript, Captions (its page states that prices reflect iOS plans).