TL;DR
- With us, an animated explainer is one of two prices: RM2,000 for a template explainer, or from RM8,000 for a 2D explainer made for your project, 60 to 90 seconds long.
- The RM8,000 includes the script (we write it), the storyboard, one AI voiceover and licensed music. A human voiceover adds RM2,000. A piece shorter than 60 seconds doesn't come in under RM8,000.
- Animation has no shoot day, so it isn't priced like filmed work. The money goes into hours: writing, storyboarding, building the scenes, animating every second, and the voice.
- What pushes it higher: running past 90 seconds, more characters or characters drawn just for you, each extra language version, changes beyond what was quoted, and a rush deadline.
- If the explainer is "how to use our software", or the same explanation has to exist in many languages, a cheaper format may be the right buy.
We make two kinds of animated explainer. One costs RM2,000. The other starts at RM8,000. Four times the price, and both are a fair price for what they are.
The difference isn't the seconds. The RM2,000 piece starts from a template you've picked: a design that already exists. The RM8,000 piece is made for your project: the script is written for it, the scenes are storyboarded for it, and the animation is built around what you need explained. That's also why two quotes for "an explainer" can sit far apart without either being wrong.
This page goes through what we charge, what's inside the number, what moves it, and how to read two quotes so they're describing the same job.
How much does an animated explainer video cost in Malaysia?
With us, there are two prices.
A template explainer is RM2,000. You pay in full up front, choose a template on Envato Elements, send us the link, and we make your explainer from it.
A 2D explainer made for your project starts at RM8,000. Here is what that covers:
| The RM8,000 explainer | |
|---|---|
| Length | 60 to 90 seconds. A shorter piece doesn't go below RM8,000 |
| Script | Written by us |
| Storyboard | Included |
| Characters | Can come from a stock vector library at no extra cost |
| Voice | One AI voiceover included. A human voiceover adds RM2,000 |
| Music | Licensed music included |
That's a floor for one defined kind of job, not an estimate for yours. The rest of this page is about what moves it.
Why isn't an animated explainer priced like a filmed video?
A filmed video is built from three levers: people, equipment and time. We've laid those out in what a corporate video costs in Malaysia, so we won't repeat them here.
Animation removes most of that picture. There's no shoot day, no crew on set, no location and no camera package. What's left is time: hours of writing the script, storyboarding it, building the scenes, animating each second, then fitting the voice and the music. The corporate piece notes that motion graphics in a filmed video is mostly a time cost. In a fully animated explainer, that time is most of the budget.
It also means the price isn't counted by the second. With us, a 45-second piece starts at the same RM8,000 as a 90-second one. Length only starts to move the number once the piece runs past 90 seconds.
If you haven't decided yet whether your explainer should be animated at all, that's a separate question, and it comes first. We've written it up separately: animated, filmed, or an AI presenter, and what each is good at.
What pushes an explainer quote above RM8,000?
These are what move the number up from the starting price:
- Running past 90 seconds. Under 60 seconds doesn't bring it down; past 90 brings it up.
- Characters. Characters can come from a stock vector library at no extra cost (we use Envato Elements for this). More characters, or characters drawn specifically for your brand, cost more.
- A human voice. One AI voiceover is included; a human voiceover adds RM2,000.
- Each extra language version. In Malaysia an explainer often needs English, BM and Chinese, and each version after the first is added to the quote.
- Changes beyond what was quoted. Extra rounds of changes are priced on top.
- A rush deadline.
If your brief has none of these, it should sit at the starting price.
How do you compare two explainer quotes?
Most of the gap between two quotes closes once you ask the same questions of both. Here they are, with how ours answers each.
- Is it priced by the second? If one quote is per second and the other per piece, convert them to the length you actually need before comparing. Ours is per piece up to 90 seconds.
- Template or made for you? This is the biggest single difference, as our own two prices show: RM2,000 against RM8,000. Ask which parts start from an existing template or library and which are made for your project.
- Who writes the script, and is there a storyboard? If one quote includes both and the other expects you to bring them, the lower number may simply be less work. Ours includes both.
- Is the voice in the price, and is it human or AI? A human voice and an AI voice aren't the same line. Ours includes one AI voiceover; a human voice is RM2,000 more.
- Is the music licensed and included? Ours is.
- How many rounds of changes, and what counts as one? Ask whether a new scene counts as a revision, and what happens after the included rounds run out.
- What does each extra language cost, and what does a rush cost? Both are added to ours.
How much work a language version is depends on the format, which we cover in the companion piece on animated, filmed or AI-presenter explainers.
When two quotes answer these the same way, the remaining gap is mostly craft: how good the writing, the drawing and the motion are. That's the part you judge by looking at work each studio has made, not by reading the quote.
When is something cheaper than RM8,000 enough?
A made-for-you explainer is the right spend when the viewer has to understand your product, your process or your numbers, and the scenes have to be built around them. Plenty of explainers don't need that.
- A simple message that a ready-made design can carry. If an existing template fits what you need to say, our RM2,000 template explainer is the right buy: you pick the template on Envato Elements, pay up front, and we make it from there.
- The same explanation in many versions or languages. If the explainer has to exist in several languages, for several products, or will be revised often, an AI presenter is usually cheaper to keep up to date. Our AI video work starts at RM4,500 (AI video production), and how AI video is priced is in what AI video costs in Malaysia.
- "How to use our software." A clear screen recording with a steady voiceover usually teaches it better than an animation does, and is often something your own team can make.
What this page can't tell you
It can't price your explainer. RM8,000 is where a defined kind of job starts with us, and the list above is what moves it, but the final number depends on a brief we haven't seen.
If you're budgeting for one, tell us what you need to explain, roughly how long it should be, and how many languages it needs. Those three answers are most of the quote.
Thinking about a project like this?
Tell us what it needs to do — we'll take it from there.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does an explainer video cost in Malaysia?
- With us, a template explainer is RM2,000, and a 2D explainer made for your project starts at RM8,000 for 60 to 90 seconds. The RM8,000 includes the script, the storyboard, one AI voiceover and licensed music; a human voiceover adds RM2,000. Longer pieces, more or custom-drawn characters, extra language versions, extra changes and rush deadlines cost more.
- Is a shorter explainer cheaper?
- Not below RM8,000 with us. A made-for-you piece under 60 seconds still starts at RM8,000, because the price isn't counted by the second. Length starts to matter once the piece runs past 90 seconds.
- Why are two explainer video quotes so far apart?
- Usually because they describe different things. One may be built from a template and the other made for your project; one may include the script, a voiceover and music and the other charge for them; one may allow more rounds of changes. Put both on the same terms and check those points before comparing totals.
Keep reading
- Can We Get Photos From the Same Shoot Day as Our Video?Usually, yes — but the photos come out of the same hours as the film. Frame grabs, stills taken alongside the video, or a separate photo slot: what each gets you, where frame grabs stop being enough, and what to decide before the quote.
- How Many Videos Can You Get From One Shoot Day?A single day can genuinely feed months of content — or produce one film and a pile of unusable offcuts. The difference is decided before the day, and it's physical, not clever.
- Going Direct or Through Your Agency: Which Actually Costs You Less?Going direct looks cheaper on the quote and often is, but the agency was also doing work nobody wrote down. Here's what each route really buys, the line we use to tell which one a project needs, and what usually goes wrong when you go direct.