Clipping hourly rate.

Worked example

Say a campaign pays $1.00 per 1,000 counted views, a clip gets 10,000 views, 10% of views are not counted, 80% of clips are approved and a 20% fee is taken. If a clip is approved it pays 0.80 x (10,000 x 0.90 / 1,000 x $1.00) = $7.20. Multiply by the 80% approval rate and the expected pay per submitted clip is $5.76.

At 10 clips a week that is $57.60. A $10 monthly tool subscription costs about $2.31 a week, so net is $55.29. Ten clips at 30 minutes plus 60 minutes of weekly overhead is 6 hours, which gives $9.22 an hour, or about $239.60 a month. Change any number and the result changes with it; these were picked to show the arithmetic.

Results vary. This page is arithmetic on the assumptions you enter. It is not a forecast, offer or guarantee of what any campaign, platform or account will pay, and it cannot say how many views a clip will get.

How it works

The calculator turns each clip into an expected dollar amount, then divides weekly net pay by weekly hours. Rejected clips cost you the same minutes as accepted ones but pay nothing, which is why the approval rate matters as much as the pay rate. Overhead minutes cover work that does not belong to one clip, such as warming up accounts, reading briefs and learning tools.

The pay terms are inputs, not claims. Clipping campaigns and platform programs set their own rates, caps, minimums and approval rules, and those change; copy them from the campaign brief or platform page you are actually working with. Variables: R is the rate per 1,000 counted views, V is views per clip, h is the share of views that are not counted, a is the share of submitted clips that are approved, f is the fee or cut taken from pay, F is a flat bonus per approved clip, a cap limits pay per clip, and a minimum-views rule pays nothing below it.

Formulas: hours per week = (C x T + O) / 60; net weekly = C x expected pay per clip - tool cost x 12 / 52; hourly = net weekly / hours per week. If a minimum-views rule is set and your views per clip fall below it, expected pay is $0.

Tax note: money from clipping is usually self-employment income. This is general information, not tax advice. In the US the IRS describes a 15.3% self-employment tax and a filing threshold of $400 of net self-employment earnings; in Canada the CRA points to Form T2125 for reporting business income and expenses. Both sources are linked below. Figures on this page are before income tax.

Methodology

Pay if approved = (1 - f) x (min(cap, V x (1 - h) / 1,000 x R) + F), and zero when V is under the minimum. Expected pay per submitted clip multiplies that by the approval rate a. Monthly tool costs are converted to weekly by x 12 / 52. The month figure scales weekly net by 52 / 12. The tool uses one views-per-clip number, so it treats every clip as average; real clips differ, and the clip views scenario model shows how much that spread matters. Rates and rules are never filled in for you.

What this does not cover

• What any campaign or platform actually pays. Enter the terms from the source you are using.
• How many views your clips will get, or how likely a clip is to go viral.
• Taxes, payment processing delays, currency conversion or chargebacks.
• Equipment, internet, software you already own, or the value of your learning time.
• Whether a campaign is legitimate; read its terms before you spend time.

Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or stored.

Sources

No pay rate is applied from an outside source; the figures are arithmetic on your inputs. Tax references are for general information: Pages checked 2026-10:

• Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes) - IRS
• Report business income and expenses - Canada Revenue Agency

FAQ

How much do clippers make per hour?

We do not quote an average, because pay depends on the campaign terms, the views each clip gets and how many clips are approved. This calculator shows your own hourly rate from numbers you enter, so you can judge a campaign before you commit hours to it.

What counts as time per clip?

Finding the moment, cutting, captioning, posting and tracking. Count the time you really spend, ideally measured with a stopwatch over several clips, plus weekly overhead such as account setup and reading briefs.

Why does the approval rate change the result so much?

A rejected clip costs the same time as an approved one and pays nothing. At an 80% approval rate, one clip in five is unpaid work, which lowers hourly pay by about a fifth compared with 100% approval.

Is this before tax?

Yes. Clipping pay is generally self-employment income, so set money aside for tax. See the IRS and CRA links in the sources; this is general information, not tax advice.