Guide
How much does an explainer video cost?
Anywhere from free to $15,000+ — which is another way of saying the question is badly posed. The real question is what you're paying for at each level, and which part of the budget you can take off the table before you spend it.
The short answer
| Option | Typical price | What you're buying |
|---|---|---|
| Agency / studio | $3,000–15,000+ | Full service: discovery, script, storyboard, animation, voiceover, revisions |
| Freelance animator | $500–3,000 | Production only — you supply the script and brief, quality varies with both |
| DIY maker tools | $0–60/month | Templates and stock assets; your time, and a look shared with everyone else on the template |
| Script-first (this site) | €29–79 one-time | A production-ready script and brief you can hand to any of the above |
What actually drives the price
- Length — but less than you'd think. A 90-second video isn't 3× the price of a 30-second one; setup and style development dominate.
- Style: whiteboard and flat 2D sit at the bottom, character animation in the middle, 3D and mixed media at the top.
- Voiceover, music licensing and localization — per language.
- Revision rounds. The quiet budget-killer, and the one you control.
Where budgets actually die
Rarely on the animation. Budgets die in revision loops that trace back to a vague brief: the client couldn't say who the video was for or what it should claim, the studio guessed, the guess missed, and every correction round costs days and money. Agencies know this, which is why uncertainty is priced in from the start. A tight script and brief is the single cheapest thing you can bring to the table.
The script-first strategy
Lock the script before you hire anyone. With a scene-by-scene document — voiceover, on-screen text, visuals, animation direction, timecodes — animators and studios can quote precisely instead of padding for unknowns, you can compare quotes on production alone, and the revision rounds you do pay for are about polish, not direction. If the direction turns out wrong, you found out for €29–79 instead of at invoice three.
Reference point: a 60-second 2D animated explainer from a US agency typically lands between $4,000 and $8,000 — and the discovery/script phase is commonly 20–30% of that number.
Take the script off the invoice
Answer eight creative-director questions, watch the script generate, and hand a production-ready brief pack to whoever you hire — or read the concept and opening scenes free first.
Script it first — free to try