Commercial prices in 2026, option by option, with airtime

Ask "how much does a commercial cost" and you usually hear "it depends." It does, but on a short list of things, and the ranges are knowable. This post goes through them with the source and the date we checked each number (November 4, 2026). If you want the summary with a calculator, our guide to what a commercial costs has it. This is the long version, in plain words; in ad talk, "creative" means the ad itself, as opposed to the money you spend to show it.

The short answer

Every outside number is from the seller's own page or a published guide, not an audited survey, and production companies publish ranges as marketing. Treat the table as the shape of the market, not a quote.

What a 30-second commercial costs from a production company

A production company sells the whole thing: the idea, a script, a crew, actors, a location and the edit afterward. Vidico, a production company with a public cost guide, puts a 30-second spot (the industry's word for one ad) at $5,000 to $50,000 and more; simple digital-first spots start around $5,000 and broadcast quality around $15,000. The parts add up fast: day rates of $2,500 to $8,000 for a small crew, editing at $100 to $300 an hour, project minimums of $5,000 to $15,000, then actors, a location fee, music and extra versions.

A freelance video producer is the cheaper road to real footage: Upwork lists US producers at $61 to $150 an hour, Vidico puts freelance day rates at $600 to $1,200, and the typical project minimum is $1,000 to $3,000, with the script, talent and location yours to bring. Our page on an AI commercial versus a production company covers what you give up and keep with each.

What a local TV commercial costs: production and airtime are two bills

A TV commercial costs money twice. First you make it. Then you pay the station to show it, which is called airtime. Most questions about local TV ad costs mix the two.

Making it: Adwave, citing Moonb's 2026 guide, puts a simple local spot from a local production company at $1,500 to $10,000 (a small crew, one location, one day) and mid-range work at $10,000 to $50,000.

Showing it: the same guide puts local broadcast airtime at $500 to $10,000 a month, regional cable at $1,000 to $20,000, and streaming TV (ads inside apps like Hulu or on devices like Roku) from $500 to $1,000 a month. Market, time of day and the show set the price. Our TV commercials page explains what a station needs from the file itself.

Why the station's free AI spot isn't free

Spectrum Reach, working with a company called Waymark, offers a no-cost creative package when you buy airtime, and Waymark also runs at Gray Television (113 stations), CBS, Fox, Scripps and Cox. The spot is a template with an AI voice, made in minutes.

Read the terms. In Waymark's case study the free spot came with the airtime order, and Spectrum Reach averaged about $4,000 of ad spend per AI-made spot in 2023. The spot lives with that seller: you cannot take it to another station, to YouTube or to your website. Those figures are from 2022 and 2023, so ask your rep what you may do with the file today.

What an online video ad costs: freelancer, creator, done-for-you

A UGC ad (short for user-generated content: an ad that looks like a happy customer filmed it on their phone) from a real creator costs about $88 to $200. Billo starts at $99 for a 15-second video, and its blog puts the average 2026 creator rate at $198. Insense says creator fees start at $100 plus a 7 to 20 percent marketplace fee. Icon charges $1,000 a month for six ads, about $167 each, delivered 12 to 16 days after the creators get your product.

Done-for-you AI is newer. Creatify Studio, Creatify's own done-for-you service, is listed in Creatify's comparison table at $100 to $200 a video, for buyers who need 25 or more videos a month. On Fiverr, the first page of results for "AI commercial video ad" showed 49 gigs with a median estimated price of $125 and the middle half between about $55 and $245. Upwork's guide says five vertical ads of 15 to 30 seconds typically cost $300 to $800, so $60 to $160 each.

What do-it-yourself AI tools really cost per usable ad

The cheapest sticker price is a subscription to an AI video tool such as Creatify, HeyGen, Captions or Higgsfield. Plans run $15 to $280 a month, and working from each vendor's own credit examples, a raw 30-second ad costs about $1 to $12 of credits.

Raw is the key word. You write the script, pick a presenter, generate clips, throw out the ones that fail, generate again, then cut it together yourself. One reviewer estimated that 40 to 60 percent of outputs get discarded, which roughly doubles the cost per usable ad; that is one reviewer's estimate, not a study. Our post on what an AI commercial is walks through the whole process.

What changes the price

Whichever route you pick, five things move the number.

• Length. A 60-second spot needs twice the footage and twice the edit.
• People on camera. Every actor is a fee, a contract and a schedule.
• Locations. Each place is a permit, travel and a setup.
• Versions and shapes. Most campaigns need a cut-down (a shorter version of the same ad) and three shapes: wide 16:9 for TV and YouTube, vertical 9:16 for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, square 1:1 for feeds.
• Usage rights. With human creators the quote often covers the video but not the right to run it as a paid ad; Motionbox, a rate guide for AI UGC work, says usage rights add 30 to 100 percent of the base rate.

How much should a small business spend on ad creative?

LocaliQ's 2026 survey found that 52 percent of small businesses spend under $1,000 a month on all their marketing. Billo, a creator marketplace, suggests putting 10 to 20 percent of ad spend into the ads themselves, so a business spending $5,000 a month on ads has $500 to $1,000 a month for creative.

Runneth's 2026 benchmark of 6,015 Meta ad accounts found that advertisers spending under $10,000 a month launch about 12 new creatives a month, and only about 5 percent of creatives win. Those counts include image ads, but the lesson holds: you need several tries and most will lose. Twelve tries on $500 to $1,000 is about $40 to $85 per creative (our arithmetic, not a published figure), which is why a cheap ad that says one clear thing beats an expensive one you can afford once.

How to get a quote you can trust

Make whoever you ask write down six things: the finished length, the people on camera, the locations or scenes, the shapes and cut-downs you get, how many rounds of changes are included and what an extra round costs, and what you may do with the video and for how long. A quote that leaves any of these out will grow later.

Check one more thing first: whether your website shows up when people search for your business name, because a commercial sends people to look for you. If it does not, fix that first; our sister product NightShyft keeps a site showing up in Google and AI search.

Where customcommercials.ai fits

We make commercials with AI from a short brief you write. You get a storyboard, a shot-by-shot plan with a preview still (one picture that shows what the shot will look like) for most shots, and it costs nothing. Change any line or shot. When you approve it, you see the exact price for its finished length and pay once; the commercial is priced by its format and finished length, and today's prices are on the pricing page. It comes in all three shapes with reshoots included up to an allowance, and edits and re-renders after delivery are free.

What you do not get is a crew at your location or real footage of your own people. If the ad needs those, hire a production company. If it needs one clear message, your product on screen and a price you can see before you pay, start with the storyboard.

FAQ

How much does a 30-second TV commercial cost?

From a production company, $5,000 to $50,000 and up, with simple digital-first spots from about $5,000 and broadcast quality from about $15,000 (Vidico, 2026). A simple local spot runs $1,500 to $10,000 (Adwave, citing Moonb's 2026 guide). Airtime is a separate bill.

How much does a local TV ad cost per month?

Airtime on local broadcast runs about $500 to $10,000 a month, regional cable $1,000 to $20,000, and streaming TV from $500 to $1,000 a month, per Adwave's local TV guide, checked November 4, 2026. The spot itself is extra unless the station includes a template AI spot with your order.

Is it cheaper to make a commercial with AI?

Yes, by a lot. Do-it-yourself tools cost $1 to $12 of credits per raw ad plus your time, and done-for-you AI services charge roughly $60 to $250 an ad. A filmed shoot starts at $1,000 to $3,000 with a freelancer and $5,000 with an agency. Our price for each format and length is on the pricing page.

Why do quotes vary so much?

Crew days, actors, locations, equipment, editing hours and usage rights all move the number, and a 30-second ad can need ten to fifteen shots. A small agency's day rate is $2,500 to $8,000 and editing is $100 to $300 an hour (Vidico). Each extra version adds hours.

What is a fair price for a video ad?

For a first ad you can afford to replace every few weeks, roughly $40 to $150, which is where a $500 to $1,000 monthly creative budget lands. Pay more when the ad needs real footage of your place or your people, which AI cannot give you.

Sources

• Vidico, video production cost guide, September 21, 2026: https://vidico.com/news/video-production-cost/
• Upwork, hiring guides for video producers and AI video specialists: https://www.upwork.com/hire/video-producers/cost/ and https://www.upwork.com/hire/ai-generated-video-specialists/
• Adwave, local TV ad costs, citing Moonb's 2026 guide: https://adwave.com/resources/local-tv-ad-cost/
• Waymark, Spectrum Reach case study (2022 to 2023 figures): https://waymark.com/marketing/case-study/spectrum-reach
• TV Technology, Gray Television stations and AI-made local ads: https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/gray-television-stations-to-use-generative-ai-video-to-create-local-ads
• Billo pricing and blog: https://billo.app/pricing/ and https://billo.app/blog/how-many-ad-creatives-do-you-need/
• Insense pricing: https://insense.pro/pricing and Icon pricing: https://icon.com/pricing
• Creatify Studio: https://creatify.ai/creatify-studio
• Fiverr search for "AI commercial video ad", first page, November 4, 2026: https://www.fiverr.com/search/gigs?query=ai%20commercial%20video%20ad
• Motionbox, what to charge for AI UGC ads, August 5, 2026: https://motionbox.io/blog/how-much-to-charge-clients-for-ai-ugc-ads
• LocaliQ, small business marketing trends 2026: https://localiq.com/blog/small-business-marketing-trends-report-2026/
• Runneth, creative benchmarks 2026: https://runneth.com/library/research/creative-benchmarks-2026/testing-volume-by-tier
• fast.io, Creatify review, June 2026 (the 40 to 60 percent discard estimate): https://www.fast.io/resources/creatify-ai-review-2026.md