Captioning 100 short videos: Sume's $20 per-job price vs minute packs

Sume bills a standalone caption job a flat $0.20 for a video up to 60 seconds, so 100 videos cost $20 whether each runs 10 seconds or 60, before the 5.5% agent fee that applies by default. A per-minute price turns the other way: Submagic's API packs list $0.10 to $0.23 per minute, so 100 videos of 20 seconds (33.3 minutes) are $3.33 to $7.67.

Sume's price is from the Video captions docs. Submagic's pack prices are from its pricing page, read 2026-10-01. This post is about billing units and not caption quality.

Why does clip length decide which unit is cheaper?

A flat per-job price is the same for every clip up to its cap, while a per-minute price scales with seconds. The shorter your videos, the larger the gap in favor of the per-minute unit; at a full 60 seconds the two are close. Sume's docs state the $0.20 figure for videos up to 60 seconds under the current fixed estimate.

What do 100 videos cost at three lengths?

Arithmetic from the stated prices. Submagic is shown at its lowest and highest per-minute pack rate on the page.

What do I check before choosing?

Check what each price includes. Sume's docs say captions inside an avatar video are a separate add-on on that estimate, and that the live figure is in GET /v1/catalog. Submagic's page lists plans with 10 to 100 API minutes included, which changes the first minutes' cost. For videos over 60 seconds, read add captions to a long video before assuming the flat price.