Three-minute Shorts vs 60-second avatar clips: how to build one

A three-minute Short is 180 seconds, and one Sume avatar video job covers at most 60, so you need three jobs and a join. On the standard tier that comes to $33.12 for the avatar plus $0.30 for the Timeline render, $33.42 in total.

YouTube's help page on three-minute Shorts, read on 2026-10-04, says square or vertical videos up to three minutes long are categorized as Shorts. Videos uploaded after October 15, 2024 fall under that rule. Nothing forces you to use the full three minutes, but longer scripts are now allowed.

Build it from three 60-second parts

The avatar video guide caps one video at 4 to 60 seconds and tells you to split longer scripts. Write three scripts of about 60 seconds each, submit three jobs with the same avatar and a 9:16 aspect ratio, then join them with a Timeline render. Timeline bills $0.10 per output minute, rounded up, so 3 minutes is $0.30.

Where the seams show

Each job renders its own avatar take, so the person resets at each join. Write the scripts so each part ends on a finished thought, and use a short transition such as fade in the Timeline. Check the first test render on a phone before you spend $44.

If the content does not need a full three minutes, a single 60-second job costs $11.04 on standard and avoids the join. Length should follow the script and not the platform's ceiling.