How much does a corporate video cost?

Because a video has no catalogue price: it has a scope, and the scope is what costs. Two suppliers who do not include the same preparation, the same number of shooting days and the same number of revision rounds are not pricing the same project, even if the quote carries the same title.

So I am not going to give you a price list. And be wary of anyone who does before talking to you. The most useful thing I can do is show you how to read a video quote, so you compare things that are actually comparable.

The price of a corporate video breaks down into four items: preparation, shooting, post-production, and versions and rights. A quote that only shows two of them is not doing half the work: it is simply not telling you.

1. Preparation. Defining the objective, writing the running order, scouting locations, lining up the people on camera. This is the item most often missing from the cheapest quotes, and it is the one that decides whether the video will be good for anything. A badly prepared shooting day produces footage, not a message.

2. The shoot. The number of days, the number of people, the equipment. This is the most visible item and the easiest to compare. Beware the reflex of “half a day will do”: calling a crew back because one shot is missing costs more than the half-day you saved.

3. Post-production. Editing, graphics, music, sound mix, colour grading, subtitles. This is where the gap between two quotes really opens up: an edit is counted in days, not in hours, and the number of revision rounds included changes everything. A quote that does not say how many versions are covered is setting up an awkward conversation.

4. Versions and rights. A video is rarely published in one place only. Exports per channel (website, LinkedIn, Instagram, trade show), short cuts, music rights: all of it has a price, and you are better off knowing before than after.

The right variable to adjust is not quality, it is scope. A shorter video, a single location, fewer people on camera: that is what brings a budget down cleanly. Cutting into preparation or into approvals brings it down badly.

The other lever: make every shooting day work more than once. A well-planned day can produce the main video and its short cuts for social media. That is decided during the framing conversation, not in the edit.

You will come across three billing models, and they are not judged the same way.

A fixed project fee: one price for a defined scope. This is the clearest for you, provided the scope is written down in black and white: that is exactly what the framing conversation is for. It is the model I use for one-off projects.

A shooting day plus post-production on time spent: common among freelancers. Honest, but the total depends on estimates, so ask for a binding upper figure.

A monthly retainer: a recurring volume of production, for instance short-form videos every month, for a fixed amount. Relevant when you publish regularly, because it smooths the cost and installs a production routine.

So let us play the game, with the calculation on the table. A simple two-minute video starts at €900 excl. VAT: my day rate is €600, and this kind of project takes at least a day and a half of real work.

What that floor contains: a framing conversation to set the objective and the running order, half a day of light filming in a single location with one or two people on camera, the edit, simple graphics and the sound mix, two rounds of revisions, and delivery in horizontal format plus one vertical cut for social media. What it does not contain: music under extended licence, subtitling in several languages, extra shooting days and travel outside the Île-de-France.

It is an honest floor, not a headline price: below it, someone is cutting somewhere, usually into preparation, and you have read above what that produces. Above it, the price follows the scope: more shooting days, more people on camera, extra versions. The typical run of this kind of project is set out on the brand video page.

No public price list beyond that, because two “company overview videos” can describe projects that differ threefold. Instead, a framing conversation of thirty minutes, free, at the end of which you leave with a written scope and a firm figure, whether you produce with me or not.

The real comparison is not between a low quote and a high one: it is between a video that works and a video that does not. A failed video costs its price, plus the internal time spent for nothing, plus the project you will redo in a year “properly” this time, plus the quietest cost of all: the mediocre video that stays online and works against your image with every prospect who sees it.

That cost weighs all the more now that video has become unavoidable: according to the annual Wyzowl, State of Video Marketing 2026 survey, 82% of marketers who use video report a good return on investment; and according to Vidico, 91% of companies now use it as a marketing tool. In other words, your video is no longer compared to nothing: it is compared to your competitors.

That is also why cutting into preparation is the worst calculation: it is the cheapest item on the quote and the one that decides whether all the others will be good for anything. A successful shoot of a badly framed video produces a beautiful useless video.