Promo video prices in 2026: agency, freelancer or AI

Short answer: A promo video's price is set by its line items, not its length: shoot days, crew, location, actors, drone, voiceover, music licensing and revisions. Turkish price guides published in 2026 put a simple one-minute film with a freelancer in Türkiye at 5,000 to 15,000 TL. A 60-second AI film made from your website costs 131,251 tokens, about $0.79 at the Basic rate; the plan fee is separate.

Imagine you send the same brief out for three quotes. One is several times the price of another, the third says "let's meet first", and all three describe themselves as "a one-minute corporate promo film". Length does not explain the difference; the lines of the quote do: how many shoot days, how big a crew, whether there are actors, whether the music is licensed, how many revisions are included. This article opens those lines one by one, shows which ones disappear with AI, and calculates, token by token, the cost of a promo film generated from your website.

Which line items set the price of a promo video?

The main item that sets the price is the shoot day; crew, equipment, location and actors all hang on it. Post-production comes next: editing, color, sound, music and motion graphics. The screenplay and revision rounds look small on a quote, but they are the items that grow the budget. A one-minute film that needs two shoot days and a crew of four costs many times more than a one-person shoot of the same length.

Most of the AI column in the table says "none"; that is as much a limit as an advantage. When the shoot day goes, so do the real location, the real face and the real product. Which one matters more to you depends on what the film is for.

How much does a promo video cost in Türkiye in 2026?

In price guides published in Türkiye in 2026, quotes for a simple one-minute promo film with a freelance crew range from 5,000 to 15,000 TL. Price roundups dated 2026 also put a full day of corporate drone filming in Türkiye from 10,000 TL. These ranges describe the bottom tier: one location, a small crew, no actors, stock music.

On the agency side there is no consistent published price range; the budget comes out of a quote based on the brief. Once a writing team, more than one shoot day, actors and usage rights, licensed music, color correction and several revision rounds are added, the figure reaches several times the bottom tier. A well-known face is an economy of its own: the actor's fee alone can exceed the rest of the production. The only honest way to compare quotes is to break them all down into the line-item table above.

Should you go to an agency or do it yourself?

If something real stands in front of the camera, such as your facility, your team or a product held in the hand, an agency or a freelancer is the right route. If what you want to say is already on your website, such as your services, your product pages and your call to action, doing it yourself with AI shrinks both the timeline and the budget. Let us put the three routes side by side:

If you are starting from a story or an idea from scratch rather than a website, the how to make videos with AI guide covers the text to video and story-to-film routes separately.

How do you make a promo film from your website with AI?

Website Promo in Yeşilçam Studio reads your site address, produces a scene plan and builds a film from real footage of the site. Your job is to approve the plan, fix the copy, and choose the voice and the music. The flow has six steps, and tokens are deducted only at the screenplay and production steps:

1. Open Website Promo in Yeşilçam Studio and enter the site address; choose the language, the length (15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 seconds) and the format (Horizontal 16:9, Vertical 9:16, Square 1:1, Portrait 4:5, Cinematic 21:9). Vertical and portrait formats are captured from the site's mobile view.
2. Sam, the in-app assistant, reads the home page, sharpens your description and suggests pages to focus on. The first 3 uses each day are free.
3. The site scan and the screenplay usually take 1-3 minutes.
4. Review the scene plan: the opening card, the site capture scenes, a cinematic shot and the end card with your call to action and address. Edit the copy, reorder or delete scenes; the first rewrite is free.
5. Choose one of six narrator voices (warm female, warm male, energetic female, energetic male, calm narrator, deep trailer voice) and one of six music moods; the music is generated to the film's length. When you prepare a Turkish voiceover script, the rules for Turkish AI voiceover prevent number, abbreviation and circumflex errors.
6. Choose the quality: Standard works with real footage of the site and motion graphics; Cinema adds extra cinematic shots. The exact token cost is shown on screen before production.

How many tokens does a 15-, 30-, 60- or 90-second promo film cost?

As of October 2026, the Yeşilçam pricing page lists Website Promo at 58,334 tokens for the screenplay and 72,917 tokens for 60 seconds of production. Added together, a 60-second film comes to 131,251 tokens. The calculation below assumes Standard quality, no extra cinematic shots and no improvements beyond the first free rewrite.

The dollar figure is calculated from the Basic plan's monthly allowance: 5M tokens for $30, so 1M tokens is about $6. That is the value of the tokens; the Basic plan's monthly fee is paid separately. The same 5M tokens can produce 38 sixty-second films in a month, so instead of a single film it makes sense to plan vertical, square and horizontal cuts, or films for different service pages, together.

In the October 2026 price list, each extra cinematic shot at Cinema quality costs 175,001 tokens. Add two extra shots to the 60-second film and the total becomes 481,253 tokens, about $2.89 at the Basic rate. On the Free plan the multiplier is ×1.3, so the 60-second film costs 170,626 tokens and fits within the monthly 250,000-token allowance, but Free outputs are watermarked. Plan details are on the pricing page and in the tokens and plans guide; if you want to see how raw AI video is priced across platforms, see the four-minute film cost comparison, and if you want to see which items the money goes to in a story film, the real cost of a four-minute film article.

When is an agency or a real shoot the better choice?

A film generated from your website tells what is on your site; it cannot show what is not. If you need to show your factory, your team, your production line or how the product feels in the hand, you need a camera. The trust of a real face, a customer's own words and a craftsperson's hands cannot be generated, and imitating them with a generated face reduces trust.

• Facility, production line, warehouse, store: a shoot on the real location. A cinematic shot shows a beautiful factory, not yours.
• Employee and customer interviews: a real person, a real voice, signed consent.
• A well-known face or voice: the contract, usage rights and term negotiation are an agency's job.
• Television and cinema advertising: broadcasters' technical delivery requirements and approval processes run through a production team.
• The feel of a brand film: work that needs a single idea, direction of actors and an original score comes from a creative team, not from a scene plan.
• If your site is weak: Standard quality uses real footage of the site; an outdated or empty site looks the same in the film. Fix the site first.

For most businesses the answer is both: a brand film with a real shoot at long intervals, and in between, short films generated from the website for every new service and campaign.

What should a promo video brief include?

Whichever route you choose, the brief has the biggest influence on the budget. A vague brief means extra revision rounds; a revision round costs money at an agency and tokens and time with AI. Fill in this list before you ask for quotes or start production:

• A single goal: what the film should make the viewer do (call, fill in a form, visit the store).
• The target audience and where the film will be watched (website, LinkedIn, trade show screen).
• Length and format; every format is a separate job.
• A one-sentence key message and at most three supporting messages.
• What must be shown: product, service, location, person.
• Sound: narration, or only music and text.
• Brand rules: logo, colors, typeface, phrases not to use.
• The close: the call to action and the address.
• Number of included revisions and the delivery date.
• Usage rights: where and for how long the music, actors and footage will be used.

For work with a shoot, putting the film on paper scene by scene also makes the differences between quotes visible; we explain how in the what is a storyboard article.

Frequently asked questions

What is a promo film? A promo film is a video that tells, in a short time, who a business, product or service is and what it does. It differs from a commercial in that it introduces the organization or product rather than a single campaign; it is mostly used on websites, in presentations, on trade show screens and on social media.

Why do commercial shoot prices vary so much? The difference lies in the line items, not the length. The same one-minute film can be shot in half a day by one person, or over several days with actors, location permits, a drone, licensed music and color correction. When comparing quotes, put the items each one includes side by side, line by line.

How many days does it take to make a one-minute promo film? With a shoot, the time depends on the brief, the quote, the shoot day and the editing rounds; it is measured in days or weeks. In Website Promo, the site scan and screenplay usually take 1-3 minutes, and production starts after you approve the scene plan.

Can I use a promo film made with AI commercially? On the Free plan the output is watermarked; on the Basic and Pro plans you get a watermark-free file. Read the terms of use in the terms of service and make sure you own the rights to the logos, text and images in the film, because the film is built from the material on your site.

Are my tokens wasted if I do not like the film? Failed generations are refunded to your wallet automatically. Whether you like it is something you settle before production: in the scene plan you edit the copy, reorder or delete scenes. The first rewrite is free, each further improvement is 8,751 tokens, and the exact cost appears on screen before production.