For use under: Niche Rate Calculator & Equipment Depreciation Calculator — Video Editor niche
What video editors actually charge
Freelance video editing in India typically runs ₹300–2,000/hour for domestic clients, based on a detailed experience-tiered industry source, with complexity (basic cuts versus motion graphics/color grading/VFX) being the main driver of where you land in that range.
The equipment that actually drives your costs
Video editing is one of only two niches on this site (photography is the other) with genuinely mixed depreciation treatment — some of your gear is a "computer," some of it isn't, and getting this split right matters for an accurate tax calculation:
- Editing workstation (high-spec computer, often with a dedicated GPU) — Computer block, 40% WDV
- External storage/RAID drives — Computer block, 40% WDV, and often replaced/expanded more frequently than the computer itself, since footage volume tends to grow faster than any other cost in this niche
- Camera body + lenses (if you also shoot, not just edit) — this falls under Plant & Machinery, 15% WDV, not the computer block — a common mistake is lumping camera gear in with computer equipment, which overstates your first-year depreciation
- Lighting equipment — Plant & Machinery, 15% WDV
- Audio/microphone equipment — Plant & Machinery, 15% WDV
A worked example
Consider a video editor who also shoots: a ₹2,00,000 editing workstation (bought this year, used more than 180 days), a ₹1,20,000 camera + lens kit (bought two years ago), and ₹40,000 in lighting equipment (bought this year, used less than 180 days).
Workstation, Year 1: ₹2,00,000 × 40% = ₹80,000.
Camera kit, now in Year 3: Year 1: ₹1,20,000 × 15% = ₹18,000, closing ₹1,02,000. Year 2: ₹1,02,000 × 15% = ₹15,300, closing ₹86,700. Year 3 (this year): ₹86,700 × 15% = ₹13,005.
Lighting, Year 1, half-rate applies (used less than 180 days): ₹40,000 × 15% × 0.5 = ₹3,000.
Total depreciation this year: ₹80,000 + ₹13,005 + ₹3,000 = ₹96,005 — notice the camera kit, despite costing less than the workstation, is still contributing meaningfully in its third year because Plant & Machinery depreciates more slowly than computer equipment, not because it's a bigger asset.
Handling client pushback on your rate
Clients who've only ever hired editors without production gear sometimes don't understand why your rate is higher than a pure-editing freelancer's. The equipment breakdown gives you a genuinely concrete answer: a ₹1,20,000+ camera and lens investment, maintained and insured, is a real ongoing cost that a pure post-production editor simply doesn't carry — worth naming specifically rather than leaving it as an unexplained rate gap.
Using both calculators for this niche
This is the niche where the Equipment Depreciation Calculator's category split matters most — with a mix of 40% and 15% assets, your actual first-year deduction depends heavily on getting each item classified correctly, not just totaling up your equipment spend, as the worked example shows.
For the Niche Rate Calculator, remember that camera/lighting gear tends to have a longer realistic replacement cycle than a laptop (often 5+ years for lenses and lighting versus 3 years for a computer) — adjust the replacement-cycle input per item rather than using one blanket number across all your equipment.
Related tools: Equipment Depreciation Calculator · Niche Rate Calculator