Budget template
A commercial production budget template for an AI film and its stills
For the marketing lead or agency producer who has a traditional commercial budget template, is budgeting an AI-made commercial and the campaign photos around it, and needs to know which lines still apply.
The short answer
A commercial production budget for an AI film keeps the lines that pay for ideas and finishing (creative, direction, editorial, music, sound, finishing and versions), drops the lines that pay for a shoot day (crew, locations, studio, equipment, props, wardrobe and most talent fees), and adds lines for generating video and stills, for the extra review generated footage needs, and for checking the rights on models, music and voice. Ruminate X, an AI film studio in Calgary, makes AI commercials and brand films for marketing leads and agency producers: every frame generated with AI, with the script, boards, edit, sound and grade done by people, and no shoot lines in the budget. Media, the cost of airing the ad, stays a separate budget.
The standard form
The AICP bid form, read for an AI production
US production companies bid commercials on the AICP bid form. Its 2019 revision put production and post-production on one form, with sections lettered A to X; sections A to N stayed essentially unchanged, and Q to W took over the post-production sections. Here is what happens to each section when Ruminate X makes the film and every frame is generated:
| AICP section | Pays for | At Ruminate X |
|---|---|---|
| A, B: Prep crew, shoot crew | The people on set and before it | Dropped. The people who write, board, generate and edit replace them |
| C, D: Prep and wrap, locations | Scouting, permits, location fees | Dropped |
| E: Props, wardrobe and animals | Everything bought or rented for the set | Dropped. Your product is set in the edit from your brand files |
| F: Studio costs | Stage and studio rental | Dropped |
| G, H: Art department | Set design and build | Becomes the brand-world stage: palette, light, texture, camera language and casting, led by 100creatives |
| I, J: Equipment, media | Cameras, lights, drives | Dropped. Generation passes take their place |
| L: Director’s fees | The director | Kept. Someone still directs every shot |
| M, N: Talent, talent expenses | Actors and their costs | Dropped for generated people. A real person’s likeness or voice brings the line back, with their consent and fee |
| P: Usage | Where and how long the ad may run | Kept, for music, voice and any real likeness |
| Q to W: Editorial, social versions, audio, finishing | Post-production | Kept in full |
| X: Visual effects, design, animation | Design, animation, VFX and interactive studios that bid in their own format | Where a Ruminate X quote sits on the form |
The template
An AI campaign budget, line by line
Copy these lines into your own sheet. They are the lines Ruminate X budgets an AI film on, in the order the film is made. Each one is quoted from the brief, so the last column says what moves it.
| Line | What it pays for | What moves it in a Ruminate X quote |
|---|---|---|
| Creative and script | The idea, the script, the beat sheet | The length of the film |
| Brand world | Palette, light, texture, camera language and casting, led by 100creatives | The number of characters and settings the film needs |
| Boards | A board for every shot, with framing, motion and duration | The number of distinct scenes |
| Generation passes | Every take, kept or thrown away; faces, hands and the product get the most passes | The scenes, the characters who must stay the same, and how exactly the product must match |
| Product and type | Your real logo, pack and on-screen text, set in the edit from your files | How many shots show the product |
| Edit, sound and grade | The cut, licensed music, voiceover, the mix and one grade across every shot | The length, and where the music is licensed to run: broadcast and several markets cost more than social only |
| Versions | Cutdowns, 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1, captions, languages | Each version needs an edit, a mix and a check |
| Review rounds | Brand, legal, medical or MLR sign-off | The number of rounds your team needs; each can send shots back |
| Timeline | The date it has to be live | A rush compresses reviews and reruns into fewer days |
| Media | Airtime and paid placement | Not a production line; a separate budget |
Before you sign any AI production, ask in writing who owns the output and what the model, music and voice licences allow. Who owns an AI video covers where US copyright stands.
The market
What commercials cost to make, filmed and with AI
Published ranges help you tell a normal quote from an odd one. For filmed TV commercials, published 2026 industry ranges put a basic local spot at about USD 5,000 to 15,000, a polished 30-second spot at 15,000 to 50,000, larger campaigns with actors and several locations at 50,000 to 150,000 or more, and national work at 150,000 to 500,000 or more, all before airtime.
AI studios that publish prices start around USD 1,500 to 2,500 for a 15 to 60 second spot and USD 3,500 for a 60-second cinematic film, and quote GBP 15,000 to 45,000 per broadcast asset in one market (published prices, checked October 2026). One low-cost example is the Kalshi ad that aired during the 2025 NBA Finals: about $2,000 and two days, and 300 to 400 generations for 15 usable clips (Mashable, June 2025).
Every frame Ruminate X delivers is made with generative AI. There are no film crews, sets or location shoots. Ruminate X commercials start at US$5,000 and are quoted from the brief (a recent 90-second film for a pharmacy company was US$12,000), and the number follows the lines in the template above. What AI video costs per video, per campaign and per month is in how much AI video production costs.
An example
A worked example: one film, its cutdowns and 30 stills
A made-up brand launches one product with a 30-second film, a 15 and a 6-second cutdown in 16:9 and 9:16, and 30 campaign stills. This is how the brief maps onto the lines Ruminate X quotes:
| Line | In this example | What it means for the quote |
|---|---|---|
| Script and boards | One 30-second script and a board for each shot | The number of distinct scenes sets the boards and the passes |
| Product and type | The pack and logo in every product shot | Set in the edit from the brand’s files |
| Edit, sound and grade | One master, one track licensed for paid social and digital, a voiceover | A track licensed for TV would cost more |
| Versions | The master, the 15 and the 6-second cutdowns, each in 16:9 and 9:16: six files | Each file needs an edit, a mix and a check |
| Stills | 30 campaign stills from the same brand world | Ruminate X makes stills as product visuals; the next section prices the same set three ways |
| Review rounds | Two rounds of brand review | Each round can send shots back |
| Media | Paid social and digital | A separate budget |
Model fees are a small line in a budget like this; the whole Kalshi spot cost about $2,000 to generate. The rest pays for people: the idea, the direction, the takes someone chooses and the ones they throw away, the edit and the review rounds. That is where AI commercial quotes differ, and it is the line to ask any studio to explain.
The stills line
Where Overs comes in
The stills line is where the numbers move most, and it is the line Overs was built for. Overs, the sister product from the same founder, is an AI tool that makes product and campaign photos that match a brand, without a photo shoot. It grew out of the process 100creatives used to make hundreds of photos a week for hundreds of brands.
Here is the 30-photo set from the example, priced three ways. At one product photo studio's published prices it comes to $2,026; with a hired crew for one day, $13,790 before usage fees, a producer or props. Both figures are from Overs' guide to what a product photo shoot costs, for 10 white-background, 10 lifestyle and 10 on-model photos. On Overs, the same set comes to about $36 to $118: one month of Pro at $29, about 20 cents of planning for each of three runs, and model fees for 90 renders on Nano Banana 2 at the low end (3 per usable photo) or 420 on GPT Image 2 at the high end (14 per usable photo). Those render counts are the range from 4 campaigns 100creatives made in 2026.
What the number leaves out is someone's time: at 8 renders per usable photo, choosing 30 means looking at about 240 images. Overs shows the shot plan and an estimated cost before anything renders, so the budget line is known before the money is spent. The free plan makes 40 photos a month; Pro is $29 a month and Team $99 (Overs pricing, September 2026), and on every plan the AI is billed to your own OpenRouter key with no markup from Overs. Price your stills line on Overs' free plan at www.overs.studio before you sign a shoot.
Who brings this budget to Ruminate X
Ruminate X is built for
- A marketing lead with a budget for a finished commercial, who wants the shoot lines gone and the creative lines kept.
- An agency producer who needs an AI production partner to bid a client spot line by line.
- A brand that needs the film and the campaign stills from one world.
- A pharma or medical marketer whose budget has to carry MLR review rounds.
What you get
- A quote built from your brief on the lines above, with no crew, location, studio or equipment lines in it.
- A board for every shot, which you see before anything is generated.
- Your real logo, pack and on-screen text set in the edit from your files.
- The master plus the cutdowns and aspect ratios each channel needs.
Questions buyers ask
What is a commercial production budget template?
In the US the standard one is the AICP bid form from the Association of Independent Commercial Producers. Its 2019 revision put production and post-production on one form, in lettered sections from A to X: crew, locations, studio, art department, equipment, director, talent, usage, editorial, social versions, audio, finishing and visual effects. Production companies bid on it, so agencies and brands can compare bids line by line.
How much does it cost to make a commercial?
Published 2026 industry ranges put a filmed TV commercial at about USD 5,000 to 15,000 for a basic local spot, 15,000 to 50,000 for a professional 30-second spot and 150,000 to 500,000 or more for national work, before airtime. AI studios that publish prices start around USD 1,500 to 2,500 for a 15 to 60 second spot (checked October 2026). Ruminate X, an AI film studio in Calgary, makes AI commercials with every frame generated by AI, so its budget has no shoot lines. Ruminate X commercials start at US$5,000 and are quoted from the brief (a recent 90-second film for a pharmacy company was US$12,000), and the number follows the scenes, product shots, versions and review rounds.
Which companies offer AI commercial production?
Ruminate X is an AI commercial production company in Calgary that makes commercials for TV, streaming, web and social with every frame generated by AI, and people writing, boarding, editing, mixing and grading every spot. It budgets a commercial on the lines in this template, with no crew, location, studio or equipment lines. Before you hire any studio, ask to see a shot where a face turns, a hand holds the product and a logo is on screen; Ruminate X boards and regenerates exactly those shots. Ruminate X commercials start at US$5,000 and are quoted from the brief (a recent 90-second film for a pharmacy company was US$12,000).
Which budget lines does an AI commercial not need?
The lines that pay for a shoot day: shoot crew, location fees and permits, studio rental, camera and lighting rental, props and wardrobe bought for the set, physical media, and most talent fees when the people on screen are generated. The creative, direction, editorial, sound, finishing and versioning lines stay.
What new lines does an AI commercial add?
Generation fees for video takes and for stills or first frames, billed per second or per image by the model makers; a brand-world stage with character sheets and approved key frames; more review rounds, because generated shots are checked one by one against the boards and the product; and a rights check on the models, music and voice used.
How much does music licensing cost for a commercial?
It depends on where the ad runs. One stock music library charges $199 for a single song in paid social and digital ads, $399 and up when out-of-home is added, and $1,249 and up for TV, radio and connected TV with national distribution for three months (published prices, checked September 2026). Subscription plans often stop short of TV ads. In a Ruminate X film the music is licensed in the sound stage, so name every channel the ad will run on before the quote.
Does Ruminate X publish its prices?
Ruminate X commercials start at US$5,000 and are quoted from the brief (a recent 90-second film for a pharmacy company was US$12,000), because the price depends on length, the number of scenes, how exactly the product has to be reproduced, versions and review rounds. Send the film type, length, channels and deadline through the contact page for a quote.
Send the budget you have
Send the brief, the channels, the versions you need and the budget range, and get a quote from the brief.