How Much to Charge for Raw Footage on a Brand Deal

A brand approves your draft, then asks if you can also send the raw footage, and you are not sure whether to charge. Here is how much to charge for raw footage in 2026: a starting add-on of 30% to 50% of the fee, plus the reply to send.

Why should you charge for raw footage at all?

Because the finished video is one ad, and the raw files are every ad the brand can make from your work later. With your takes, hooks and B-roll in a folder, their editor can cut ten new versions without asking you, and without paying you for any of them.

The files are also yours to sell. Under US law, a freelancer's video only becomes the brand's "work made for hire" if both sides sign a written agreement saying so, per the US Copyright Office's Circular 30. Otherwise the copyright is yours, and it lasts for your life plus 70 years. UK copyright in a film also runs 70 years after the last of the director, screenwriter and composer dies, per GOV.UK. Either way, that is a long time for a brand to hold your files with no end date, which is why the price and the window go together.

What counts as raw footage, and what does not?

Get this straight before you quote, because brands use "raw" loosely.

Raw footage is:

• every usable take of the script, as shot, not trimmed
• alternate hooks and lines you filmed but did not use
• B-roll: product close-ups, hands, packaging, setting shots
• the original audio, before music or voiceover

Raw footage is not:

• A clean export of the final edit. The approved video without captions, text or music is a version of the finished piece. Send it free or for a small fee.
• Extra edited cuts. A 15-second version or a new hook is editing work, priced per cut.
• Your project file. The editing timeline is your craft, and most creators never send it.

In practice, asking "do you mean the clean version or the source clips?" often turns a raw-footage request into a free export.

How much to charge for raw footage on your next deal

A starting point, not a law: add 30% to 50% of the content fee for raw files on that video. That matches the figure in how much UGC creators charge, and it is a share of the fee, not a flat number, so it grows as your rate does.

1. Start from your base fee. At 10k to 50k followers the usual band is US$1,000 to US$4,000 per video, and average views count when they beat followers. Price follows quality, scope and usage, so the Creator Rate Calculator gives you a sharper figure.
2. Pick your percentage. Go nearer 30% for a few takes and little B-roll, nearer 50% for a full shoot with lots of usable clips.
3. Pair it with a usage window. Raw files follow the same window as the main video. Paid ads add about 30% for 30 days or 40% to 60% for 90 days. The full ladder is in usage rights for creators.
4. Quote it as its own line. Never fold it into the base.

For example, take a US$1,000 video with raw files at 40% (US$400) and 30 days of paid use at 30% (US$300). Total: US$1,700.

Why must raw files come with a usage window?

Raw files without a usage limit are effectively perpetual rights. The brand holds a folder of your face and voice, and nothing says when it stops. As a result, a year later your clips can turn up in a new ad, and you have no renewal to quote.

For that reason, the raw-files line always points at a window: "new cuts may run for the same 30 days as the main video, renewable at the same rate." When the window ends, every cut from your files stops too, or the brand pays to renew.

How should you deliver raw footage?

Keep it simple and on your terms.

• Once the last invoice clears. Not with the draft. First brand deal step by step explains why early files get used before anything is signed.
• One folder link, original filenames, full quality, no re-compression.
• A short note naming the clips and the window, so their editor knows the limits.
• Keep your own copy. It is your proof of what you sent.

What should the agreement and the reply say?

Add this line to the agreement:

Raw footage (unedited takes, alternate hooks, B-roll and original audio) is delivered by folder link once the final invoice has been paid, for US$400 on top of the content fee. The brand may edit new cuts from it under the same usage terms as the main video: its own channels, plus paid ads for 30 days from first use as licensed separately. Use after that window is renewable at the same rate. The editing project file is not included.

If you use the Creator Workspace, the agreement goes to the brand as one link to sign, so this line is signed rather than buried in a DM. There is a 14-day free trial, then a monthly plan (pricing).

And the reply to copy:

Hi [Name], happy to send the raw files. They are US$400 on top of the US$1,000 video and cover every usable take, the alternate hooks and B-roll. Any new cuts follow the same usage terms as the video, so 30 days of paid ads at the US$300 we discussed, renewable after that. If you only need the final video without captions, I can send that clean version at no extra cost. Which would you like?

What mistakes cost creators the most here?

• Sending raw files with the draft. The brand can use them before anything is paid.
• Saying yes in a DM. If the raw files are not in the agreement, nothing limits them.
• No usage window. That is the perpetual-rights trap.
• Pricing a clean export as raw footage. You overcharge and look unsure of the difference.

What are the key takeaways?

• Charge for raw footage: about 30% to 50% of the content fee as a starting point.
• Raw means source clips, not a caption-free version of the final edit.
• Tie the raw files to the same usage window as the video.
• Deliver by one folder link, and only once you have been paid in full.
• Put the line in the agreement and the price in your rate card.

One action today: add a raw-footage line to your rate card, so the next "can you also send the raw files?" gets a number in one reply.