How much does an AI video cost per second?

As of mid-2026, hosted AI video generation costs between roughly $0.04 and $0.50 per second depending on the model: budget tiers like Vidu, Wan 2.6 and Runway Gen-4 Turbo sit around $0.04–0.05/s, mid-tier options like Sora 2 and Kling 3.0 around $0.10/s, and premium tiers like Veo 3.1 Standard and Sora 2 Pro from $0.30 to $0.50 per second.

Why do real AI video costs exceed the listed price?

Because of retakes. Most creators generate each shot 1.5 to 3 times before keeping one, so real spend is the listed per-second rate multiplied by your retake ratio. This calculator includes a x1.5 retry buffer by default.

PRICES VERIFIED · JULY 2026

REC · 00:00:00:00 · EST. COST

What will your AI video actually cost?

Q: How much does a 10-second Sora 2 clip cost?

At OpenAI's rate of $0.10 per second, a 10-second Sora 2 clip costs $1.00 — or about $1.50 including a typical retake. Sora 2 Pro at 1024p costs $5.00 per 10-second clip before retries.

Verified pricing for 11 models. Pick one, drag the timeline, and see the real price of your clip — including the retakes nobody budgets for.

Model

Clip length — 10 seconds

Resolution

Number of clips

Include retry buffer (×1.5) Most shots take more than one generation to get right. This is the gap between the listed price and your real bill.

Rates shown at each model's base tier, verified July 2026 from official vendor pricing pages and documentation. Vendors change prices without notice — see methodology.

Why AI video costs are so confusing

Every vendor prices differently: OpenAI bills Sora 2 per second, Runway sells credits at $0.01 each, Kling mixes cheap subscriptions with a pricier API, and Google runs three Veo tiers. Comparing them means converting everything to one honest metric — dollars per second of finished video. That's what this site does, with sources listed in the methodology.

The second thing nobody tells you: the listed price is not what you'll pay. Generation is probabilistic — hands glitch, physics breaks, lip-sync drifts. Most creators keep one out of every 1.5 to 3 generations, which is why the retry buffer above is on by default.

Deep dives per model

Sora 2 pricingOpenAI's flagship video model with synced audio, billed per second via API.from $0.10/s Veo 3.1 pricingGoogle's top model: native audio and best-in-class lip-sync, priced accordingly.from $0.05/s Gen-4.5 pricingBenchmark-leading quality inside the industry's best creative toolset.from $0.05/s Kling 3.0 pricingStandout character consistency and multi-minute clips at a mid-range price.from $0.042/s Seedance 2.0 pricingTop-5 benchmark quality with fast generation, priced by resolution.from $0.065/s Wan 2.6 pricingThe budget floor of the hosted market — and open-source if you have the GPU.from $0.05/s

Frequently asked questions

How much does a 10-second Sora 2 clip cost?

At $0.10 per second, a 10-second clip costs $1.00 — about $1.50 with a typical retake. Sora 2 Pro at 1024p is $5.00 per clip before retries. Full breakdown on the Sora 2 pricing page.

What's the cheapest way to make a 1-minute AI video?

Stitch short clips from a budget tier — Vidu, Wan 2.6 or Gen-4 Turbo run roughly $2.40–$3.00 per raw minute — and add voiceover separately. A premium model with native audio can cost $24+ per minute before retries. See the 60-second breakdown.

Do subscription plans beat API pricing?

At high volume, usually yes — Kling's Standard plan works out near $0.04/s versus $0.10/s on its API. The break-even math is in the pricing guide.