3-minute Instagram Reel storyboard: 18 9:16 stills from 10 cents

Instagram Reels is reported to allow up to 3 minutes now, with a speed-up control and a picture-in-picture mode in test (NapoleonCat's roundup of Instagram updates, read 2026-10-07). A 3-minute piece needs structure before it needs footage: if each beat is about 10 seconds, that is 18 beats, and 18 vertical stills make a cheap storyboard you can read in one scroll.

This post prices exactly that on Sume: 18 images, 9:16, one request each (or a few with n; see the per-model n ceiling in the catalog).

18 beats, six ways

Prices here are Sume's list-times-1.25 figures. The catalog states the billable formula as "list × 1.25 → ceil usd cents", so treat the dollar amounts as the pre-rounding value and read the exact charge from billable_amount_usd_micros in the submit envelope. Failed or cancelled generations are not billed.

Choosing a rung

GPT Image 2.5 at low is cheap enough that you should draft every beat there and keep only the ones worth upgrading. The ladder is $0.00562 at low, $0.013 at medium and $0.04975 at high per frame. Re-run only the beats that carry the hook and the end card at high.

Use the same ratio for all 18 so the board reads as one sequence. 9:16 is listed by every model in the table; the first-frame still for the actual clip can then be one of the same files.

If you plan a final render at 1080x1920, remember GPT custom edges are multiples of 16, so 1088x1920 is the closest legal box and the 8 spare columns get cropped in your editor.

Sources: Sume Image API docs and NapoleonCat (read 2026-10-07). The 3-minute limit is reported by NapoleonCat, not verified against Instagram's own help page.