Video Production Cost Calculator
Price a whole production stack before you commit to it: per video, per month, per year.
List prices checked 2026-09-10
Compare production stacks
The same video length and volume, priced three ways.
Cheapest setup that still produces a watchable video.
- Voice OpenAI TTS
- Visuals Free libraries
- Music Free
What most working faceless channels actually run.
- Voice PlayHT
- Visuals Stock footage
- Music Licensed
Generated visuals and the most natural narration.
- Voice ElevenLabs
- Visuals Fully AI generated
- Music Licensed
The visuals line, priced properly
Visuals are the line most people underestimate, because a generated clip and a stock clip cost nothing alike. These three sit at genuinely different budgets — a finished template edit, a paid stock library, and free stock.
- InVideo
Free tier with watermark · paid plans from about $20/mo
Getting a complete first cut fast when the visuals are illustrative rather than the point
Free tier Yes, with a watermark and export limits
Visit InVideo → - Storyblocks
Subscription, from roughly $15/mo annually
Channels publishing often enough that footage sameness becomes a problem
Free tier None
Visit Storyblocks → - Pexels
Free
Most faceless b-roll, most of the time
Free tier Everything
Visit Pexels →
Two lines decide your whole bill
Scripts cost almost nothing — a full ten-minute script is a few cents of tokens. What actually moves the number is narration and visuals, and they scale differently. Narration is priced per character, so it tracks your script length almost exactly. Generated video is priced per second and climbs faster than anything else on the list.
The monthly figure is the one that matters
Three dollars a video sounds like nothing. Publishing daily, that is ninety dollars a month against a channel that may earn nothing for its first six. Set the volume to what you will realistically upload rather than what you hope to, then compare the result against a realistic month of revenue.
Where you can cut without it showing
Narration is the easiest saving: the gap between the cheapest usable voice and the most natural one is roughly eight times the price, and for a documentary-style channel most viewers do not notice. Visuals are the opposite — that is where viewers do notice, and where generated video earns its cost if the topic genuinely needs it.
Common questions
Does this include editing software or my own time?
No. These are per-video running costs only. Editing subscriptions are a flat monthly fee, so add yours to the monthly figure rather than the per-video one — and your own hours are the largest cost of all, but only you can price those.
Why is fully AI-generated video so much more expensive?
It is billed per second of output and most generations get discarded. These figures assume roughly three takes per usable clip, which is realistic — a calculator that assumes a perfect first render will understate your bill by two thirds.
Are these the prices I will actually pay?
They are list prices. Annual billing, volume tiers and promotional credits all reduce them, so treat this as an upper bound for comparing stacks rather than an invoice.
What does a realistic faceless channel cost to run?
A balanced stack publishing three videos a week generally lands between twenty and sixty dollars a month. The premium stack at the same volume can pass three hundred, which is why the monthly figure matters far more than the per-video one.
How much does a 60 second explainer video cost?
That depends entirely on who makes it, and the two answers are not close. A studio explainer with a scripted concept, custom animation and a hired voice actor is quoted per finished minute and normally runs into the thousands, because you are paying for other people’s time. Producing the same length yourself with the stacks priced here costs a few dollars, because you are paying for narration characters and generated seconds instead. Set the length to one or two minutes to price the second route. This calculator does not estimate agency or studio rates.