How much to charge for a long-form video
A dedicated long-form video is closer to a production day than a content piece: pre-production, a script, a full shoot, and an edit measured in hours rather than minutes.
It's also the deliverable where creators most often accept a price set by short-form thinking and then lose money on it.
Rate table
Calculated for long-form / dedicated youtube at average engagement, one revision round, no rush and no exclusivity. These are starting points, not market quotes — adjust for your category, your market, and the value the brand is getting.
| Following | Organic only | Paid, 30 days | Paid, 90 days | Paid, 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 5K | $640.00 | $800.00 | $960.00 | $1,280.00 |
| 5K–25K | $800.00 | $1,000.00 | $1,200.00 | $1,600.00 |
| 25K–100K | $1,040.00 | $1,300.00 | $1,560.00 | $2,080.00 |
| 100K–500K | $1,280.00 | $1,600.00 | $1,920.00 | $2,560.00 |
| 500K–1M | $1,600.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,400.00 | $3,200.00 |
| 1M+ | $2,000.00 | $2,500.00 | $3,000.00 | $4,000.00 |
Notice the jump across the columns rather than down the rows: the licence moves the number more than the follower count does.
4 usage tiers are shown here. The rate index prices all eight, including whitelisting, broadcast and perpetual buyout, and the methodology shows how every figure is calculated.
Price your exact briefHow this number is calculated
Every figure on this page comes from one formula: base rate × follower multiplier × (1 + engagement modifier), plus separate add-ons for usage rights, exclusivity, revisions and rush. For long-form / dedicated youtube, that base rate is $800.00.
Take a creator with 5k–25k followers pricing this deliverable with paid usage, 90 days rights, at average engagement. The base multiplies by this tier's 1× follower multiplier for a $800.00 core rate, then the licence adds 50% of that core — $400.00 — for a total of $1,200.00.
Every coefficient in that calculation — all six follower multipliers, all eight usage-rights add-ons, and the engagement, exclusivity, revisions and rush terms — is published in full, with its own worked examples, on the methodology page.
What moves the number
- It's a day, not a task — Price it against what a full production day of your time is worth, then check the calculated figure against that. If the day rate is higher, the day rate wins.
- Pre-production — Scripting, sourcing, and approvals happen before you shoot anything. Bill them or bake them in explicitly.
- Placement matters — A dedicated video is a different product from an integration inside your own content. Be clear which one is being bought.
- Usage rights — Long-form assets have long shelf lives, which makes a term-limited licence more valuable to you and a perpetual buyout more expensive to them.
Questions
Should long-form be priced by the day instead?
Compare both. Calculate the deliverable price, then work out what a full production day of your time needs to earn. Quote the higher of the two — long-form is the deliverable most likely to be underpriced by per-piece thinking.
Is a dedicated video the same as an integration?
No. A dedicated video is entirely about the brand; an integration is a segment inside content you were making anyway. They're different products and should carry different prices.
Put your rates somewhere brands can see them
Save a rate card, publish a media kit, and stop rebuilding the same PDF every time a brand asks what you charge.
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