How Much to Charge for Raw Footage in a Brand Deal

Charge for raw footage as its own line, separate from the edited video. Published guides from Influee and FluxNote put it at 30% to 50% of your base creation fee, and the final number should follow what the brand will do with the files: how many new edits it can cut, where they'll run and for how long.

Brands ask for raw footage because it turns 1 shoot into many ads. That's worth paying for, and it's also where creators lose control of how their face and voice get used. This guide covers what counts as raw footage, the published rates we verified and the terms that keep the license matched to the price.

What counts as raw footage?

Raw footage is the unedited material behind your finished video: every take, the B-roll and the original audio, before cuts, captions, music or effects. Brands use the phrase loosely, so name exactly what you'll deliver.

The more the brand gets, the more it can make without you. Full raw and project files are worth more than selects, and a clean version usually costs the least, since it's your own edit with the layers taken off.

Prep time counts too. Insense's UGC guide (September 2026) says raw footage pre-separated into distinct segments costs more than a single unbroken clip.

How much do creators charge for raw footage?

The published guides we checked cluster at 30% to 50% of the base creation fee. None publishes a sample behind that range, and 1 says no standard price exists.

Influee's reason for pricing raw clips as an upsell is the time they take to sort, export and deliver. That covers your time, and the license covers what the brand gets out of the files.

Read the 30% to 50% range as the price of the files plus the edits your contract already allows. When a brand wants to cut new ads from your footage and run them for months, price that use as usage, on its own line.

How do you price raw footage?

Price 2 things: the work of handing the files over, and the license for what the brand can make from them. The first is small and fixed, and the second grows with every edit, channel and month.

The handover

Sorting, labeling, exporting and uploading all take time, and big files need storage and a delivery link. Price the handover as a set fee or at the low end of the published range, and put a delivery date on it.

The license

The license is where the value sits. Answer 4 questions before you quote:

1. How many new edits can the brand cut from the footage?
2. What can change: trims, captions and new hooks from your takes, or new voiceovers, new claims and other footage spliced in?
3. Where will the edits run, and for how long?
4. Will they run as paid ads, and from whose account?

Each answer moves the price. A brand that wants 1 shorter cutdown for its organic feed needs a small license, while a brand building 10 paid ads around your face needs a large one, priced like paid usage.

Ads that run from your handle are whitelisting, a separate line covered in our guide to whitelisting and Spark Ads fees.

Who owns the footage

You do, unless you sign it away. The Copyright Act gives the copyright owner the exclusive right to prepare derivative works based on the work (17 U.S.C. 106), and a transfer of ownership isn't valid without a writing signed by the owner (17 U.S.C. 204(a)).

Sending files changes neither of those. The brand's right to re-edit your footage comes from the license you sign, so write the license with care.

A worked example

Here's the arithmetic on a made-up deal. Your base fee for 1 edited TikTok video is $800, and the brand wants your selects plus 3 new cutdowns to run as paid social ads for 90 days.

Then price the paid usage with the same method you'd use for your own post. Our guide to pricing usage rights breaks that down by channel and window.

What should the contract say about raw footage?

It should name the files, the edits allowed, the channels and window, and what happens to the files when the license ends. Write it so a stranger could tell exactly what the brand may make.

• Files: selects or every take, the resolution and file type, project files or none, and a delivery date.
• Edits: what's allowed, such as trims, captions and new hooks from your takes, and what needs your approval, such as new voiceovers, new claims or any change to your face or voice.
• Approval: your right to review each new cut before it runs.
• Use: the channels, territory and window, matched to the usage line, and whether the edits run as paid ads.
• Music: TikTok's Commercial Music Library help page (updated July 2025) says businesses can't use TikTok's general music library for commercial use and should use the Commercial Music Library for branded content. Deliver raw files without music and leave licensing to the brand.
• Other people: anyone else on camera, plus locations and logos in shot, since the brand may need releases for them.
• End of license: the ads stop, and the brand deletes the files or stops using them.
• Ownership: a license, with no assignment or work-made-for-hire language unless the price reflects a full buyout.

Creator licensing, including whitelisting, dark posts and content rights, is part of the work we do for brands, and Legal & Business Affairs is 1 of our 10 services. If you'd like a management team pricing your next licensing request, apply for representation. For every other line in a deal, see our guide to pricing a brand deal.