AI video tools sell the same thing in very different units. Some charge a monthly plan and hand out credits, some bill per second through an API, and some do both. This guide puts the official numbers side by side so you can compare what a second of video actually costs.
Every price below was checked on the vendor's own pricing page or docs on October 19, 2026, and is linked inline. Prices are in US dollars unless noted, and they are as of October 2026. Kling and Vidu show introductory and launch discounts right now, so check the linked page before you pay. For what each model is good at, see our guide to the best AI video generators in October 2026.
How to read these prices
- Plan prices are what the pricing page shows for monthly billing, with the annual option noted where the page lists one.
- Credits are converted to seconds only where the vendor states both the credits in a plan and the credits a model uses. We show the arithmetic each time.
- API prices are the vendor's listed per-second rates. Where a vendor lists a per-clip price or a credit rate instead, we divide it out and say so.
- If a vendor does not publish a number, we say that and leave it out. We did not estimate any price ourselves.
Entry plan prices at a glance
The cheapest paid plan that includes video generation, at monthly billing, for each tool whose pricing page lists plan details in US dollars:
- Google AI Plus: $4.99 per month (US), with limited access to Gemini Omni Flash in the Gemini app.
- Kling Standard: $6.99 for the first month, then $8.80 per month, 660 credits per month.
- Pika Starter: $10 per month, 900 credits per month.
- Runway Standard: $15 per month, 625 credits per month.
- Luma Plus: $30 per month, 10,000 credits.
Kling (Kuaishou)
Kling's membership page sells credits through four paid tiers. All four list 1080p/4K video generation, brand watermark removal, and "Generated content is for commercial use". The free Basic tier shows a dash for those rows.
Monthly billing:
- Standard: $6.99 for the first month (30% off a $10 list price), then $8.80 per month. 660 credits per month.
- Pro: $25.99 for the first month (list $37), then $32.56 per month. 3,000 credits per month.
- Premier: offered with 8K, 18K, 28K or 38K credits. At 18,000 credits per month it is $135 for the first month, then $181.99 per month.
- Ultra+: $402 for the first month, then $544.99 per month. 57,000 credits per month.
Yearly billing:
- Standard: $79.20 per year (list $120), 660 credits per month.
- Pro: $293.04 per year (list $444), 3,000 credits per month.
- Premier (18,000 credits per month): $1,490 for the first year, then $1,639.99 per year.
- Ultra+: $4,457 for the first year, then $4,902.99 per year.
The page prints a price per 100 credits for each tier. On monthly billing it shows $1.06 for Standard and $0.87 for Pro, which matches the first-month price divided by the credits ($6.99 / 660 credits and $25.99 / 3,000 credits). After the first month, Standard works out to $8.80 / 660 credits, or about $1.33 per 100 credits.
For Kling 4.0, the plan table shows a limited-time 10% Kling 4.0 discount for Pro, Premier and Ultra+, and a dash for Basic and Standard. The public pricing page does not say how many credits Kling 4.0 uses per second, so we cannot convert Kling plans into seconds of Kling 4.0 video.
Credit rules from the same page's FAQ: monthly credits are valid for 31 days, and purchased credits are valid for 2 years. The FAQ says paid subscribers may use generated content for commercial purposes, "provided that such content is not used to develop products or services that compete with Kling AI."
Kling's developer API price table lists Kling 3.0 but not Kling 4.0. Kling 3.0 without native audio costs $0.084 per second at 720P, $0.112 at 1080P and $0.42 at 4K. With native audio (no voice control) it is $0.126 at 720P and $0.168 at 1080P. Kling 3.0 Turbo with native audio is $0.112 at 720P and $0.14 at 1080P.
Google: Gemini Omni Flash and Veo 3.1
Google AI plans
Google sells video access inside its general Google AI plans. The US plan table lists:
- Google AI Plus: $4.99 per month, 200 Google Flow credits per month.
- Google AI Pro: $19.99 per month, 1,000 Google Flow credits per month.
- Google AI Ultra 5x: $99.99 per month, 10,000 Google Flow credits per month.
- Google AI Ultra 20x: $199.99 per month, 25,000 Google Flow credits per month.
All four list Omni Flash under video generation model access. The UK version of the same page lists £4.49, £18.99, £79.99 and £189.99 per month for the same four plans.
Google's Flow credits help page says every user, with or without a subscription, also gets 50 Google Flow credits per day, and that unused monthly credits do not roll over. It lists the cost per generation:
- Gemini Omni Flash at 720p: 7 credits for 4 seconds, 10 for 6 seconds, 12 for 8 seconds, 15 for 10 seconds.
- Gemini Omni Flash at 360p: 4, 5, 6 and 7 credits for the same lengths.
- Editing an uploaded or generated video with Gemini Omni Flash: 40 credits.
- Veo 3.1 Quality, 8-second video: 100 credits.
- Veo 3.1 Fast: 20 credits for non-Ultra subscribers, 10 for Ultra.
- Veo 3.1 Lite: 10 credits for non-Ultra subscribers, 5 for Ultra.
What the monthly credits buy, using only the plan credits (not the 50 daily credits): Google AI Pro's 1,000 credits cover 66 ten-second Omni Flash clips at 720p (66 x 15 = 990 credits), or 660 seconds. That is $19.99 / 660 seconds, about $0.03 per second. The same 1,000 credits cover 10 Veo 3.1 Quality clips of 8 seconds (80 seconds). Google notes that one request in Flow may produce 2 videos, and each counts as a generation.
Gemini API
The Gemini API pricing page lists Veo 3.1 per second of video with audio, on the paid tier only (the free tier column says "Not available"):
- Veo 3.1 Standard: $0.40 at 720p and 1080p, $0.60 at 4K.
- Veo 3.1 Fast: $0.10 at 720p, $0.12 at 1080p, $0.30 at 4K.
- Veo 3.1 Lite: $0.05 at 720p, $0.08 at 1080p. 4K output is not supported.
The page adds that you are only charged if your video is successfully generated. Gemini Omni Flash (gemini-omni-1.1-flash) is billed by tokens: $17.50 per million video output tokens, at 5,792 tokens per second of 720p video, which Google says equals "approximately $0.10 per second."
Runway
Runway's pricing page states how many seconds of Gen-4.5 each paid plan's credits buy:
- Free: $0, 125 one-time credits.
- Standard: $15 per month, or $12 per month billed annually. 625 credits per month, which Runway says equals 52 seconds of Gen-4.5. Lists no watermarks and 4K upscaling.
- Pro: $35 per month, or $28 per month billed annually. 2,250 credits per month, or 187 seconds of Gen-4.5.
- Max: $95 per month, or $76 per month billed annually. 9,500 credits, or 791 seconds of Gen-4.5. Up to one month of unused credits rolls over.
Gen-4.5 uses 12 credits per second. Per second of Gen-4.5 on monthly billing, that is $15 / 52 seconds (about $0.29) on Standard, $35 / 187 seconds (about $0.19) on Pro, and $95 / 791 seconds (about $0.12) on Max. On Standard and Pro, monthly credits do not roll over. Extra credits have a minimum purchase of 1,000 and never expire.
Runway plans also run other labs' models. Each paid plan lists access to all AI video and image models, and the plan cards name Kling 3.0 on every tier and Seedance 2.5 on Pro and Max. The comparison table prices Seedance 2.0 Pro at 160 credits per 4 seconds at 1080p.
The Runway API sells credits at $0.01 each. Gen-4.5 is 12 credits per second ($0.12). Veo 3.1 with audio is 40 credits per second ($0.40), and Gemini Omni Flash text to video is 10 credits per second ($0.10).
Seedance (ByteDance)
ByteDance sells Seedance 2.5 to developers through BytePlus ModelArk. The price is set per million tokens, and token use depends on duration, resolution and frame rate. For Dreamina Seedance 2.5 the token rate is $10.70 per million tokens at 480p and 720p, and $11.7 at 1080p, when the input has no video. BytePlus gives these estimated prices for a 5-second 16:9 clip with no video input:
- 480p: $0.514 per video, $0.103 per second.
- 720p: $1.156 per video, $0.231 per second.
- 1080p: $2.843 per video, $0.569 per second.
Inputs that include video cost more: an estimated $3.062 to $11.907 for a 5-second 1080p clip, depending on input length. BytePlus says you are only charged for successfully generated videos.
Seedance 2.5 is also sold inside other tools, at their own rates:
- Runway API: 20 credits per second of output at 480p, 30 at 720p and 68 at 1080p ($0.20, $0.30 and $0.68 at $0.01 per credit), plus a charge for input video and an 80-credit minimum per generation.
- Pika: 122 credits for a 5-second 720p video.
- Luma: 36 credits per second at 480p, 78 at 720p and 191 at 1080p.
We left out Dreamina's consumer plans. Its pricing URL opened the generator with a promotional banner and no plan table we could verify. For how Seedance 2.5 compares with Kling 4.0 on features, see our Kling 4.0 vs Seedance 2.5 comparison.
Luma
Luma's pricing page lists three individual plans:
- Plus: $30 per month, or $300 billed yearly. 10,000 credits. Lists commercial use.
- Pro: $90 per month, or $900 billed yearly. 40,000 credits.
- Ultra: $300 per month, or $3,000 billed yearly. 150,000 credits.
Luma's own Ray3.2 model costs 100 credits for 5 seconds at 720p and 400 credits for 5 seconds at 1080p, for SDR text to video or image to video. HDR costs 2x and HDR with EXR export costs 3x. So Plus's 10,000 credits buy 25 five-second 1080p SDR clips (125 seconds) or 100 five-second 720p clips (500 seconds). The same table prices Veo 3.1 at 140 credits per second without audio and 280 with audio.
The Luma API lists Ray3.2 per clip: $0.15, $0.30 and $1.20 for 5 seconds at 540p, 720p and 1080p, and $0.45, $0.90 and $3.60 for 10 seconds. That works out to $0.03, $0.06 and $0.24 per second for 5-second clips. Luma says API prices "are approximate and based on billing tokens."
Pika
Pika's pricing page lists:
- Free: $0, no monthly credits (credit packs only). No watermark, no commercial license.
- Starter: $10 per month, or $8 per month on annual billing. 900 credits per month. No watermark, no commercial license.
- Creator: $35 per month, or $28 on annual billing. 3,150 credits per month. Includes a commercial license.
- Fancy: $95 to $880 per month, or $76 to $704 on annual billing. 8,550 credits and up. Includes a commercial license and a priority queue.
Pika estimates what a month of credits makes. For Seedance 2.5 at 720p and 5 seconds (122 credits), that is 7 videos on Starter, 25 on Creator and 70 on Fancy. On Creator, that is 125 seconds for $35, or $0.28 per second. Credit packs cost 60 credits per $1, and top-up credits cannot be used with the API. Plan credits do not roll over.
On the Pika API, Pika 2.5 text to video and image to video both start at $0.04 per second.
Grok Imagine (xAI API)
xAI's video docs list per-second prices for three models:
grok-imagine-video-1.5: $0.08 at 480p, $0.14 at 720p, $0.25 at 1080p.grok-imagine-video-1.5-lite: $0.02 at 480p, $0.03 at 720p, $0.14 at 1080p. Its 1080p output is upscaled from 720p.grok-imagine-video(editing and extension): $0.05 at 480p, $0.07 at 720p.
We cover the xAI API here, not consumer Grok subscriptions.
MiniMax (Hailuo)
The MiniMax API pricing page lists MiniMax H3 at $0.08 per second at 768P and $0.13 per second at 2K. MiniMax-H3-Max is $0.05 per second at 480P and $0.08 at 768P. Regenerating a 768P video into 2K costs $0.05 per second of output. The first 5 reference images are free on H3, then $0.04 per extra image.
The Hailuo app advertises plans from $9.99 a month but did not show plan details or credit counts to a signed-out visitor, so we do not list them.
Vidu
Vidu's API platform pricing uses credits at a standard rate of $0.005 each. Vidu Q4 Preview, with image or reference input, costs 9 credits per second at 540p, 19 at 720p, 24 at 1080p, 38 at 2K and 78 at 4K. At the standard rate that is $0.045, $0.095, $0.12, $0.19 and $0.39 per second. Launch packs cut the rate to $0.0035 per credit (for example, 30,000 credits for $105), and items marked off-peak bill at half the standard price. Vidu calls these figures estimates and points to its console for live pricing.
Sora is no longer an option
OpenAI's Sora page says that as of April 26, 2026, the Sora product is no longer available. The help center says the Sora web and app experiences were discontinued on that date and lists September 24, 2026 as the API discontinuation date. Past users can export content at sora.chatgpt.com/sunset.
Which is cheapest for...
Each answer uses only the figures above.
- Lowest API price per second: Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Lite at $0.02 at 480p. Next come Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Lite at 720p and Luma Ray3.2 at 540p ($0.15 / 5 seconds), both $0.03.
- Lowest API price at 1080p: Veo 3.1 Lite at $0.08 per second, among the 1080p rates in this guide. Next are Kling 3.0 without audio at $0.112, then Veo 3.1 Fast and Vidu Q4 Preview at $0.12 (Vidu: 24 credits x $0.005).
- Lowest API price at 4K: Veo 3.1 Fast at $0.30 per second. Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 at 4K on the Runway API matches it at 30 credits per second ($0.30, plus charges for references and input video). Then come Vidu Q4 Preview at $0.39 (78 x $0.005) and Kling 3.0 at $0.42.
- Cheapest way in: Google AI Plus at $4.99 per month, with limited access to Omni Flash in the Gemini app. Kling Standard is $6.99 for the first month, but its plan table does not list the Kling 4.0 discount.
- Lowest cost per second on a plan: Google AI Ultra 20x. Its 25,000 Flow credits cover 1,666 ten-second Omni Flash clips at 720p (16,660 seconds), so $199.99 / 16,660 seconds is about $0.012 per second. Ultra 5x is about $0.015 ($99.99 / 6,660 seconds) and Pro about $0.03 ($19.99 / 660 seconds). Runway Max is about $0.12 per second of Gen-4.5 ($95 / 791 seconds).
- Seedance 2.5 at 1080p: BytePlus's estimate of $0.569 per second is below Runway API's $0.68 (68 credits x $0.01).
- Commercial use on a budget: Pika Creator ($35) is Pika's cheapest tier with a commercial license. Every Kling paid tier lists commercial use, and Luma Plus lists it at $30.
Credit rules that change the math
- Rollover: Runway Standard and Pro credits reset each cycle; Max rolls over up to one month. Pika plan credits do not roll over. Google Flow monthly credits do not roll over. Kling monthly credits last 31 days.
- Top-ups: Runway's extra credits never expire. Pika top-ups expire 365 days after purchase. Kling purchased credits last 2 years.
- Failed generations: Google (Veo) and BytePlus (Seedance) both say they charge only for videos that are generated successfully.
- Introductory prices: Kling's first-month prices, and its first-year prices on Premier and Ultra+, are discounts. Budget on the renewal price.
If you also pay for text models through APIs, our LLM API pricing comparison uses the same approach for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and DeepSeek.
Sources
- Kling AI membership plans
- Kling API pricing: video
- Google AI plans (US)
- Google Flow Help: Manage your Google Flow credits
- Gemini API pricing
- Runway pricing
- Runway API pricing
- BytePlus ModelArk pricing
- Luma pricing
- Luma API pricing
- Pika pricing
- Pika API: Pika 2.5
- xAI docs: Grok Imagine video overview
- MiniMax API pricing
- Hailuo AI
- Vidu API pricing
- OpenAI: Sora
- OpenAI Help Center: What to know about the Sora discontinuation
