How Long Should Your Video Be?
Duration — How Long Should Your Video Be?
LongStories lets you pick a target duration before generating, from ~15 seconds up to ~15 minutes. Here's how to think about it:
Duration | Good for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
~15–30 seconds | Quick tests, social clips | Fastest render, cheapest on credits |
~1–3 minutes | Short-form stories, explainers | Good balance of depth and speed |
~5–10 minutes | Story episodes, deep dives | More credits and generation time |
~15 minutes | Full episodes | The longest formats unlock on higher plans (Creator Max, Studio) |
Options above your plan's limit show an Upgrade label in the duration picker.
Two things worth knowing about how duration works:
- Duration drives your shot count. LongStories plans roughly one scene per three seconds of video — so a 1-minute video is about 20 shots, and a 10-minute one is around 200.
- If you start from a script or audio, you don't set a duration at all — it's derived automatically from your material. The duration picker applies when you start from an idea.
Why duration matters beyond length
Longer videos:
- Take longer to generate — typical generation is 4–15 minutes, and long, complex videos sit at the top of that range.
- Use more credits, roughly in proportion to length.
- Are harder and more expensive to fix if the style or script isn't right — a mistake in a 15-minute video costs 30x more render time than the same mistake in a 30-second test.
Recommendation for beginners: start with 30–90 second videos. Validate your universe, characters, and script first, then scale up once the output quality meets your expectations.
Storyboard mode as a duration shortcut
Instead of generating a full animated video to test an idea, set the animation level to Storyboard:
- Generates static frames instead of animation — much faster and cheaper.
- Shows you shot compositions, character placement, and scene flow at any duration.
- Lets you confirm the style is working before committing to a full render.
And it's not a throwaway test: when the storyboard looks right, hit Animate remaining scenes on the same project to turn the approved frames into the final video.
Updated on: 11/08/2026
Thank you!