Render a 20-minute Reel in one Timeline call: 1200 seconds, $2.00

Reels run up to 20 minutes, Timeline up to 1800 seconds. How to declare 1200 seconds, what chunked rendering does past 12 slots, and the math at $0.10 a minute.

5 min readSume
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A 20-minute Reel is 1200 seconds, which fits Timeline's 1 to 1800 second range. At $0.10 per ceil output minute it renders for $2.00. A third-party size guide, Postfa, read on 2026-10-06, lists 20 minutes as the Reels maximum and notes that Reels over three minutes are not recommended to new audiences.

What does the body need?

A voice file as audio.url with duration_seconds: 1200, or audio.mode: "silence" for a music-only piece, and up to 200 video[] slots whose starts increase from 0. Coverage can stop at most 0.5 seconds before the end of the spine; beyond that the compiler holds the last frame and warns.

Will a long render time out?

The default mode is async, so the submit returns a job. render.strategy defaults to auto, which chunks past 12 segments, and single above 12 is refused with render_strategy_unsafe. Poll GET /v1/jobs/:id/status or use the webhook.

Is 20 minutes the right length?

The last row shows the ceil rule: one extra second bills a whole extra minute.

Cost by length at $0.10 per output minute (read 2026-10-06)
LengthBillable minutesCost
3 minutes3$0.30
10 minutes10$1.00
20 minutes20$2.00
20 min 1 s21$2.10

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Written by Sume