What does it cost to hire a video editor?

Three numbers side by side

Video is bought three ways: per video, on a monthly retainer, or as a full-time person. Here’s how they compare.

For a full team budget, see what a marketing team costs.

The U.S. full-time number

The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median salary for film and video editors at $75,420 in May 2025, the latest federal figure.

How we got the second row: BLS reports that benefits were 30.0% of total compensation for U.S. private-industry workers in June 2026. So salary is 70% of the real cost. We divide $75,420 by 0.70, then by 12.

That BLS group includes film and TV editors. A marketing editor cutting ads and social clips may price lower or higher depending on the city and the motion graphics work you need.

Per video vs retainer vs full-time

This is the choice that decides your budget. Here’s what each model costs today.

Per video. Upwork says video editors on its marketplace typically cost $6 to $25 an hour. It splits them into three tiers from active contracts:

Tasty Edits, an editing service, prices short-form edits from about $50 each, a 5-minute YouTube video from about $250, and a 10-minute video at $500 to $2,000 (updated January 2026). Per video is the cheapest way to get a launch video or a monthly podcast cut.

Retainer. Editing services sell a monthly plan with a set output. Two publish their prices:

Vidpros defines short-form as up to 60 seconds and long-form as up to 15 minutes cut from up to 60 minutes of footage. Its revision rounds count toward your monthly output, and unused output doesn’t roll over.

Full-time. About $9,000 a month for a U.S. hire with benefits, or about $4,000 through us. A full-time editor has no video count. They cut what your team needs that week: the podcast, the ad variations, the captions on a creator’s clip.

Here’s the volume test we’d use:

• Under about 10 videos a month: pay per video. At Tasty Edits’ prices, ten short clips and one 10-minute video cost about $1,000 to $2,500.
• A steady count of one format: a retainer. If you need 30 short-form clips every month and nothing else, Vidpros’ $1,000 Starter plan prices each one at about $25 to $50.
• Mixed formats every week: a full-time editor. Ads, long-form, social cuts, and fast changes from your team don’t fit a video count. At Vidpros’ $4,000 Scale plan, you pay the same as a full-time GrowthPair editor for a capped output from a service’s team.

When a retainer is the better buy: if you produce one format at a predictable volume, like daily short-form clips from a podcast, a retainer costs less than a full-time editor and you never manage anyone. A full-time editor pays off when the brief changes every week and you want the same person on your footage, learning your brand.

Opascope, an agency, needed a video editor fast for a growing client load. We sent three candidates the same day it shared the brief, Opascope ran its own editing test, and it went from brief to signed offer in three days. Within weeks, the editor’s work became Opascope’s internal benchmark. Read the Opascope case study.

The hidden costs of a full-time U.S. hire

The salary is one line. These come later.

• Recruiting fee. Contingency recruiters charge 15% to 25% of first-year base salary, per Dover. On a $75,420 editor, that’s about $11,300 to $18,900.
• Time to fill. SHRM’s 2026 benchmarking puts the median time to fill a nonexecutive role at 39 calendar days. Your footage sits unedited in the meantime.
• Ramp time. A new editor needs time to learn your brand, your formats, and who signs off before they edit at full speed.
• Re-hire risk. Gallup estimates replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary. On a $75,420 hire, that’s about $37,700 to $150,800.

Through us, sourcing and vetting are covered by the monthly rate. Most teams go from agreement to start date in about 3 weeks, and most hires ramp within one week. If the fit isn’t right, we replace your editor for as long as you’re a client.

Where GrowthPair fits

A GrowthPair Video Editor works full-time for your team only, in your time zone, for about $4,000 a month. That covers their pay, payroll, benefits, and HR, billed every two weeks through Stripe, month-to-month with 30 days’ notice. Every editor passed our five-step vetting: resume screen, phone interview, proctored skills assessment, live interview with a marketer, and your interview. About 1.5% of applicants are accepted. Comparing an outside service instead? See in-house vs agency vs freelancer vs staffing.