Every week someone emails us asking the same thing: what’s the explainer video cost going to be for their business? And every week we give them the same honest answer — it depends. Not the answer anyone wants, we know. But if you’ve spent an afternoon searching “how much does an explainer video cost” and landed on five different websites with five wildly different numbers, you already know the problem.
So here’s our attempt to actually fix that. No vague ranges pulled out of thin air, no “contact us for pricing” dodge. Just the real numbers we see in the U.S. market in 2026, why they swing so much, and how to figure out where your project lands.
The Quick Numbers (Read This If You’re in a Hurry)
| Video Style | Typical Cost (USD) | Who It Fits |
| Whiteboard animation | $800 – $3,500 | Bootstrapped startups, quick launches |
| 2D animated explainer | $2,000 – $8,000 | SaaS products, apps, most small businesses |
| Custom animated explainer video | $5,000 – $15,000 | Brands that want their own visual style, not a template |
| 3D animated explainer | $8,000 – $25,000+ | Product demos, medical, complex tech |
| Live-action explainer | $3,000 – $20,000+ | Testimonials, service businesses, real people on screen |
These are for the standard 60–90 second video most companies actually need. Go longer and the price climbs with it, which we’ll get into below.
Why the Cost of an Explainer Video Swings So Much
There isn’t one flat price because an explainer video isn’t one type of product. A 45-second whiteboard sketch and a 90-second 3D character piece are almost different services wearing the same name. Once you see what’s actually driving the cost of an animated explainer video, the wide ranges stop feeling random.
Animation style comes first. Whiteboard drawings are quick to produce. A rigged 3D character that walks, gestures, and reacts takes a different level of skill and hours entirely. That gap alone explains most of the spread you’ll see between quotes.
Length matters more than people expect. We’ve had clients assume a 2-minute video costs “about the same” as a 60-second one. It doesn’t. Every extra 15–20 seconds means more script, more scenes to animate, and more voiceover recording — the costs of explainer videos scale almost linearly with runtime.
Then there’s script and storyboard complexity. A single-product, single-message story is simpler to shoot than something with three characters, a subplot, or multiple settings. Complexity is time. Time is the bill.
Custom work versus stock assets is where the cost of custom animated explainer video projects really separates from templated ones. Off-the-shelf characters and backgrounds are faster to assemble. Custom illustration matched to your brand colors takes longer — but it also means your video doesn’t look like six other companies’ videos.
Voiceover and sound design usually add another $150 to $1,000, depending on whether you’re hiring an experienced voice actor or using a budget option. And revisions — most studios include two rounds in the base price. Ask for a third or fourth round and expect that to show up as a line item.
Who You Hire Changes Everything
This is honestly the biggest lever on price, more than most people realize.
Freelancers tend to land in the $500–$3,000 range for a full explainer. You’ll find talented people this way, but availability and consistency vary a lot from person to person.
DIY tools like Vyond or Powtoon are the cheapest route on paper — sometimes under $500 in subscription costs. The catch is obvious: you’re doing the animation, and it shows unless you already know your way around motion design.
Studios and agencies run higher, typically $2,000 to $25,000+, because you’re paying for a full team — scriptwriter, illustrator, animator, sound engineer — working together instead of one person juggling every role. If you want to see what that looks like in practice, our explainer video production process walks through it from first script draft to final render.
Are Low Cost Explainer Videos Actually Worth It?
Budget is real, especially if you’re a startup counting every dollar before your next funding round. Low cost explainer videos aren’t a scam or a trap — they genuinely make sense in certain situations: testing a rough idea before committing to a bigger budget, an internal training video nobody outside the company will see, or a simple message that doesn’t need custom characters at all.
Where it gets risky is when a bargain video ends up on your homepage or in an investor deck. Cheap templates and rushed voiceovers tend to look exactly like what they are, and that homepage video is often the first impression a visitor gets of your entire company. A mid-range, properly produced explainer usually earns back its cost through better conversion on the landing page it sits on.
Explainer Video Cost by Industry in the U.S.
Pricing shifts depending on the industry too, mostly because of how much review and compliance goes into the script.
SaaS and tech startups usually land around $3,000–$12,000 for a 2D animated explainer video. Healthcare and finance run higher, often $5,000–$20,000, because legal and compliance review adds extra rounds before anything gets animated. E-commerce brands tend to keep things shorter and punchier, landing around $2,000–$8,000. Nonprofits and educational groups often go the whiteboard or simple 2D route, usually $1,500–$6,000.
What a Real Budget Looks Like, Broken Down
To make this less abstract, here’s roughly how a $6,000 custom 2D explainer budget tends to break down in practice:
| Stage | Share of Budget |
| Script and storyboard | ~15% |
| Custom illustration and design | ~25% |
| Animation | ~35% |
| Voiceover and sound | ~10% |
| Revisions and project management | ~15% |
Seeing it split out like this makes it easier to ask the right questions when you’re comparing quotes from different studios, instead of just eyeballing the bottom-line total.
Getting a Quote That’s Actually Accurate
Vague requests get vague quotes. If you email a studio saying “how much for an explainer video,” you’ll get a wide range and not much else. Come in with your target length, preferred style, rough timeline, and whether a script already exists, and the number you get back will actually mean something.
Want to see finished examples before you commit to a number? Our animation portfolio has a range of styles side by side, from whiteboard to fully custom 2D. When you’re ready to talk specifics, our team can put together a custom quote based on what you actually need, not a one-size package.
We also handle 2D and 3D animation and whiteboard animation as standalone projects, in case a full explainer isn’t the right fit just yet.
Bottom Line
Explainer video cost isn’t really about chasing the lowest number on the page. It’s about matching production quality to what your audience expects and what your budget allows. A $1,000 whiteboard video can do exactly what a scrappy startup needs. A $15,000 custom animated explainer might be what gets a funded SaaS company past a skeptical buyer. Figure out the goal first — the budget tends to sort itself out after that.
More pricing breakdowns and behind-the-scenes posts live on our blog if you want to keep reading.
FAQs
1. How much does an explainer video cost on average?
Most 60–90 second explainer videos run $2,000–$8,000, depending on animation style and studio.
2. What’s the cheapest way to get an explainer video made?
Whiteboard animation or DIY software tools are the lowest cost route, often under $3,000 total.
3. Does video length really affect explainer video cost?
Yes — every extra 15–20 seconds adds script, animation, and voiceover work, raising the price.
4. Is a custom animated explainer video worth the higher cost?
Often, yes. Custom visuals build brand recognition and tend to convert better than stock templates.
5. How do I get an accurate explainer video quote?
Share your target length, style, and timeline. Detailed briefs get far more accurate quotes than vague ones.