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What does podcast clipping cost?

GuideUpdated September 2026

Short answer

Between a few dollars and a few thousand a month, depending on whether you are buying software, or someone to run it and stand behind the result.

Open Loop is $450–$1,470 a month, which works out around $36 a clip.

OptionRoughlyWho reviews the output
AI toolsLittle to nothingYou
Freelance editorTens of dollars a clipDepends on the brief
Managed service
Open Loop
Hundreds a monthA person, before you see it
Full agencyThousands a monthA team, plus strategy
Why the same job costs a few dollars or a few hundred

Reframing to vertical, burning in captions, trimming dead air and even reading the transcript for good moments are all solved problems — software does them in minutes and does them well.

What you pay above the software price is the review. Someone has to go through the candidates, kill the ones that should not go out, fix the timings, and be willing to come back with three clips instead of ten when the episode was thin. That is slow, it does not get faster with volume, and it is the part you would otherwise be doing yourself.

How to work out your real cost per clip
  1. Take the monthly price.
  2. Divide by the clips you would genuinely publish — not the number generated.
  3. Add your own time at whatever your hour is worth.

A cheap tool where you post six of thirty and spend two hours reviewing costs you very little in subscription and two hours of your week, every week. Whether that beats a managed service depends entirely on what those two hours are worth to you.

Our pricing, and the maths behind it
TierClipsPricePer clip
Starter12$450$37.50
Growth24$870$36.25
Scale40$1,470$36.75

Every clip is one a person reviewed and expects you to post. We are not padding the count with near-misses.

Three reasons not to pay for this
  • You are not publishing consistently yet. Clips amplify a show that exists. Fix the schedule first — it is free and matters more.
  • You enjoy the editing. That instinct is worth more than anything we bring, and a cheap tool handles the mechanical half fine.
  • Your budget is small. At the low end, a tool plus your own review is honestly the better use of the money.
Questions worth asking any provider
  • Who reviews the output before it reaches me — and do they ever deliver fewer?
  • Do I approve the picks before you cut?
  • What happens in a month when an episode is thin?
  • Who owns the footage, and will you use my clips as samples?
  • Is there a minimum term, and how do I cancel?

The answer to the fourth should be "you do, and not without asking." If a provider hesitates on that, keep looking.

Check before you buy. Tool pricing moves fast. Go to the source before committing money on the basis of any table on any website, including this one.

Want to know what your episode would yield?

Bring one to a 20-minute call. If the honest answer is "not much", we will tell you that instead.

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