FIELD GUIDE · 7 MIN READ
How AI video pricing actually works
Three pricing systems, one hidden multiplier, and a simple formula for when a subscription beats the API.
The three pricing systems
1. Per-second API pricing
The cleanest model: a fixed rate for every second generated. Sora 2 ($0.10/s) and Veo 3.1 ($0.05–0.40/s across tiers) work this way. The math is transparent — seconds × rate = cost — and it's the pricing you want when volume is unpredictable.
2. Credit systems
Runway, Kling and most consumer tools sell credits. A credit has no fixed meaning: Runway's Gen-4.5 burns 25 credits per second while Gen-4 Turbo burns 5, from the same wallet. Always convert: credits per second × price per credit = $/s. If a vendor makes that conversion hard to find, that tells you something.
3. Subscriptions with pooled generation
Flat monthly fee, generation allowance. Excellent value at volume, terrible for two clips a month. The break-even: monthly fee ÷ realistic monthly seconds of output. Below the API rate for the same model? Subscribe. Above it? Pay per use. Example: Kling's $6.99 plan at ~165 standard seconds works out to ~$0.04/s versus $0.10/s on its API — a clear subscription win if you actually use it.
The hidden multiplier: your retake ratio
The biggest budgeting mistake is planning with the listed price. Generation fails in ways you can't fully control — broken hands, drifting physics, mangled text. Most creators keep one of every 1.5 to 3 generations.
Measure yours for a week: total generations ÷ clips kept. Multiply every listed price by that number and your budget suddenly matches your bill. The calculator applies ×1.5 by default for exactly this reason.
Costs that sneak in
- Resolution tiers. Sora 2 Pro jumps from $0.30 to $0.50/s between 720p and 1024p; Seedance doubles between 480p and 720p. Check the rate at the resolution you'll actually publish.
- Audio. Native-audio models (Veo 3.1, Sora 2) charge for sound in every take, including failed ones. Separate voiceover bills once.
- Watermarks. Free and entry tiers often watermark output; the real price is the tier where it disappears.
- Aggregator margin. fal.ai, Replicate and friends offer many models behind one API — convenient, but compare against direct pricing before building a pipeline on it.
- Minimum spends. OpenAI requires a $10 top-up before Sora API access unlocks; Google's free $300 credit needs a new Cloud account.
A worked example
For a typical faceless YouTube video (8 minutes, ~40 shots of 6 seconds), a mixed-tier strategy lands around $37 per video — budget B-roll, two premium hero shots, drafting buffer, realistic retakes. The full breakdown lives in the YouTube budget guide, and the equivalents for other formats in the 60-second breakdown and cost per minute.
Run your own numbers. The cost calculator applies your clip length, resolution and a realistic retake buffer across every model at once.