Snapchat Commercials: 3-6 s or 7-180 s, a 6.5 s cut fits neither

Snapchat describes Standard Commercials as 3 to 6 seconds and Extended Play Commercials as 7 to 180 seconds, and in both only the first 6 seconds are non-skippable. A 6.5-second video falls in the gap between the two ranges as the page words them, so cut to 6.0 or 7.0 seconds, not in between. Video trim with precision exact lets you ask for that length.

The two ranges

Both formats share one requirements block on Snapchat's ad format page.

Cutting to an exact length

Video trim takes video_url, start, and one of end or duration. Duration can be 0.2 to 900 seconds, and the source can be up to 1,800 seconds. Precision exact is the default and is frame-accurate. Precision keyframe is a stream copy and the cut can start a GOP early, so the length can drift from what you asked for (Sume docs, read 2026-10-08). For a length that must land on a boundary, use exact.

• Standard cut: start 0, duration 6.
• Extended Play cut: start 0, duration 7 or more.
• Run video inspect with frames false afterwards and read duration_seconds.
• Remember that a probe can show a duration slightly different from the request; check it falls inside the range, not just that it is close.

What each choice costs

Using Sume's list prices (catalog read 2026-10-08), trimming is the cheaper way to produce one cut. Timeline billing rounds up to a whole minute, so even a 6-second render is billed as one minute.

Cost of producing the cuts, computed 2026-10-09, as listed below.

• Video trim, one cut: working 1 job x $0.02; cost $0.02
• Trim 6 s, 7 s and 15 s cuts: working 3 jobs x $0.02; cost $0.06
• Timeline render, 6 s: working ceil(6 / 60) = 1 min x $0.10; cost $0.10
• Timeline render, 180 s: working ceil(180 / 60) = 3 min x $0.10; cost $0.30

Resolution

Snapchat lists 720x1280, and Timeline 1.0 accepts even sizes from 256 to 2160. Set output width 720 and height 1280 instead of the 1080x1920 default if you want the file to match the listing exactly. Trim can conform output to width and height too, but only with precision exact.

Why the gap matters in a batch

If you cut ads in a loop from a list of start and end times, rounding is the usual source of a 6.5-second file. A trim with an end time computed from a probe, or with a duration taken from a spreadsheet cell, can drift by a fraction of a second. Pass an explicit duration and treat anything between 6 and 7 seconds as a failure in your own check, before the file leaves your pipeline.

Snapchat's page does not say what happens to a file in that gap, so do not rely on a platform to round it for you. The page only gives the two ranges and the non-skippable first 6 seconds.

A Standard Commercial ends inside the non-skippable window, so a viewer sees all of it. An Extended Play Commercial gives a viewer the option to skip after 6 seconds, so the first 6 seconds have to carry the message on their own. If you have one 30-second master, you can trim a 6-second version from its first seconds and keep the 30-second version as the Extended Play file, which is two trim jobs or one trim and the original.