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B-roll ratio

The share of your runtime covered by cutaways.

By Thomas Linck, founder · Updated June 2026

B-roll ratio is the share of a video's runtime covered by cutaway footage instead of the primary A-roll. There is no universal standard, but talking-head and vlog content often sits around 20–40%, tutorials and demos run higher, and podcast video runs lower. The ratio is a sanity check, not a quota.

WHY IT MATTERS

The ratio catches both failure modes at once. Too little b-roll and the viewer stares at one static face for minutes while attention drains; too much and the video turns into b-roll wallpaper — pretty clips that hide the point and the person making it. Every cutaway should do a job: show what you describe, cover an edit, or give the eye somewhere new to land.

TARGET · STANDARD
Talking head / vlog≈ 20–40%the host stays the anchor
Tutorials & demos50–70%the screen is the lesson
Podcast video10–25%people came for the talk
How CutScore measures it CutScore measures the share of runtime covered by cutaways, the length of each insert, and the gaps where the picture sits still too long — all with timestamps, so you can see at a glance whether your edit is starved or wallpapered.
Get this measured automatically See a sample report
RELATED TERMS
How much b-roll should a video have?Average shot length (ASL)Make your edit feel more dynamic
QUESTIONS

Frequently asked.

When clips stop doing a job. If every other shot is a slow-motion clip with no connection to what is being said, the video turns into a mood board. If you could remove a cutaway and lose nothing, it was too much.
Not much. People came for the conversation, so podcast video sits comfortably around 10–25% — a little b-roll on tangents helps, while a lot turns the episode into a clip reel.