✦ Summary
What a studio explainer really costs, line by line, and where AI changes the math.
AI video vs. traditional production: a real cost breakdown
"How much does a video cost?" is a fair question with an annoying answer: it depends. So let's make it concrete. Here is where the money actually goes in a traditional explainer, and where AI changes the equation.
This is not a pitch to never hire a studio. For a flagship brand film, a studio is the right call. This is about the everyday video a team needs (explainers, training, product walkthroughs, localized versions), where traditional economics simply do not scale.
The traditional explainer, line by line
A typical 2-minute animated or narrated explainer breaks down roughly like this:
- Scripting. A writer to research, draft, and revise.
- Storyboarding. Turning the script into a visual plan.
- Voiceover. A voice actor, plus studio time and direction.
- Production. Animation, motion graphics, or footage and editing.
- Revisions. Usually two or three rounds, each one a scheduling event.
- Project management. The glue that keeps the above from slipping.
Add it up and a single polished explainer commonly lands in the low-to-mid thousands of dollars, often more. The bigger cost is rarely the invoice. It is time: two to six weeks from brief to final cut, with every revision adding days.
Where the cost really hides
The sticker price is only part of the story. The expensive parts are the ones that compound:
- Revisions. Every change goes back through a vendor. A one-word fix can cost a day.
- Localization. Each new language is a near-full repeat: new script, new voice actor, new studio time. Ten languages can mean ten projects.
- Updates. Your product changed? The footage is now wrong, and re-shooting is a new project, not an edit.
- Volume. A studio that makes one great video does not make twenty cheaply. Cost scales close to linearly.
For a team that needs video continuously, not once, these are the line items that hurt.
How AI video changes the math
AI video does not just shave a percentage off the studio quote. It changes the shape of the cost.
Fixed, predictable pricing. Instead of per-project quotes, you work from credits. On Interlace, a script costs 5 credits, standard narration 10 credits per minute, an image 10, a 1080p render 20. A Creator plan at $29/month includes 1,000 credits, enough for roughly 8 to 12 simple videos. Pro at $79 includes 3,500 credits, around 25 to 35 videos a month. The per-video cost drops as you produce more, not the other way around.
Revisions are free in time. Change a line, regenerate a scene, re-render. There is no vendor in the loop and no calendar to negotiate. The in-browser editor and version history mean edits are minutes, not days.
Localization is nearly free. This is the biggest swing. One source video becomes 30+ localized versions (voiceover and on-screen text) without re-recording a single line. In traditional production, the tenth language costs about as much as the first. Here, it is a fraction.
Updates are edits, not reshoots. Product changed? Update the script, regenerate the affected scenes, re-export. The cost of keeping a library current falls dramatically.
The honest comparison
| Traditional studio | AI video (Interlace) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per explainer | Low-to-mid thousands | Cents to a few dollars in credits |
| Time to first cut | 2 to 6 weeks | Minutes to an afternoon |
| A revision | Days, via vendor | Minutes, in-browser |
| 10th language | ~Full repeat cost | Near-free from one source |
| Updating later | New project | An edit |
The studio still wins on bespoke, big-budget creative. AI wins decisively on speed, volume, localization, and keeping content current, which is most of what most teams actually need.
The real question
The question is not "AI or studio." It is "where does each one earn its cost." Save the studio for the rare film that justifies it. For everything else, the explainers, the training, the thirty language versions, the math has changed.
The fastest way to see the difference is on your own content.
Start for free at Interlace and price a real video against your last studio quote.