Source check
Every listed row should trace back to an official provider pricing, docs, model, or API page before it becomes a comparison row.
Official prices plus workload math
AI Video API Pricing Calculator
Use the calculator before choosing a video API for social clips, ad creative, product demos, or image-to-video pipelines. Per-second and per-clip rows are kept separate so the estimate stays honest.
Price rows
7
Providers
7
Official sources
7
Last updated
2026-07-04T06:36:11.407Z
Last source check: 2026-07-04
What changed in this update
Refreshed 7 official video price rows.
Grouped rows across 7 providers and 7 official source pages.
Kept workload guidance tied to launch checks, real usage units, and official-source verification.
Monthly clips
Seconds per clip
Retries or rejected jobs
Per-second versus per-clip billing
What the price row misses
The useful number is the cost of a successful workflow, not the cleanest API row.
AI API pricing pages often look simple because they compare one published row at a time. This page keeps the official row visible, then adds the messy assumptions that show up in products: retries, long outputs, cache misses, batches, and review loops.
Unit check
Rows are kept in their original billing units when conversion would hide an important difference, such as per-second video or per-image generation.
Workload check
The calculator starts from product behavior: retries, cache hits, long prompts, output length, batch jobs, and rejected generations.
Launch check
Before a production rollout, reopen the official source because provider prices, cache rules, model names, and eligibility can change quickly.
Pricing validation playbook
Validate the bill with your product workflow before choosing a provider.
Official rows are the starting point. The production decision comes from measuring the unit your users actually complete, the retries they create, and the quality gates you need before an output is accepted.
Define the unit
Cost per accepted clip
Use the finished clip as the cost unit, including duration, failed motion, prompt variants, upscales, aspect ratios, and revisions.
Instrument seconds
Separate clip count from duration
Track seconds per clip, attempts per accepted clip, queue mode, resolution, input media, and whether longer clips use different billing rows.
Compare workflows
Storyboard before bulk generation
Run a small creative set through the whole review flow before estimating monthly volume from a single cheap test clip.
Review rollout
Check latency and quota limits
Video generation often depends on queues, capacity, moderation, and account limits, so official price is only one launch constraint.
Video workflow cheat sheet
Price the finished clip, not the cheapest second.
Video API costs depend on the work required before a clip is approved. Duration, failed attempts, quality mode, aspect ratio, input assets, and queue type can all change which providers still fit.
Workload
Short social clips
What moves the bill
Seconds per clip, rejected attempts, alternate crops, and platform-specific formats.
Measure first
Approved clips per campaign and average seconds per clip.
Workload
Product demos
What moves the bill
Longer duration, brand review, prompt precision, and revision rounds.
Measure first
Approved demo minutes per month.
Workload
Image-to-video creative
What moves the bill
Input assets, motion retries, camera control, and failed generations.
Measure first
Attempts per accepted motion clip.
Workload
High-resolution or premium mode
What moves the bill
Quality tier, output size, queue priority, and longer render time.
Measure first
Premium-mode share of monthly clips.
Workload
Batch render queue
What moves the bill
Monthly volume, delayed processing tolerance, failed jobs, and batch discounts.
Measure first
Rendered clips per batch window.
Workload assumptions
Set expected usage; each row estimates monthly cost from official unit prices.
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Official price table
7 official USD rows - checked 2026-07-04 - sorted by official source order.
| Model | Provider | Published price | Region | Source | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Official price row | OpenAI Official API | $0.10 per second at 720p Batch price is $0.05 per second | $84.80 | Global | OpenAI API pricing Checked 2026-07-04 | Portrait and landscape output dimensions are both listed for 720p. |
 Official price row | Official API | $0.10 per second at 720p with audio 1080p fast is $0.12/sec; 4K fast is $0.30/sec | $84.80 | Gemini API paid tier | Gemini API pricing Checked 2026-07-04 | Preview models can change before becoming stable. |
ROfficial price row | Runway Official API | 5 credits per second; 1 credit = $0.01 Fastest Runway Gen-4 lane | $42.40 | Runway API | Runway API pricing Checked 2026-07-04 | Runway also lists Gen-4.5 at 12 credits/sec and Seedance/Veo routes. |
LAOfficial price row | Luma AI Official API | $0.30 per 720p 5s T2V/I2V clip SDR output; HDR is 2x SDR pricing | $50.88 | Luma API | Luma API pricing Checked 2026-07-04 | 10s and 1080p outputs have separate published prices. |
 Official price row | xAI Official API | $0.07 per second at 720p 480p is $0.05/sec; input image is $0.002/image | $59.36 | xAI API | xAI API pricing Checked 2026-07-04 | Text, image, and video inputs can route to video output. |
 Official price row | MiniMax Official API | $0.19 per 768P, 6s video Also lists 10s and 1080P prices | $26.85 | MiniMax API | MiniMax pay-as-you-go pricing Checked 2026-07-04 | Useful global video baseline because MiniMax publishes direct per-video prices. |
 Official price row | Z.AI Official API | $0.20 per video Video generation model | $21.20 | Z.AI API | Z.AI pricing Checked 2026-07-04 | Vidu Q1 and Vidu 2 variants have separate per-video prices. |
Video production cost traps
Count the unusable clips before trusting the base row.
A real video workflow creates tests, failed motion, alternate crops, quality changes, and review passes before one clip is accepted. Use this section to estimate the whole creative loop.
Seconds are not the only variable
A short clip can still be expensive if the workflow needs premium mode, multiple aspect ratios, upscales, or several rejected attempts before approval.
Failed generations eat budget
Video prompts often need iteration. Count failed motion, bad hands, wrong product details, unusable camera moves, and brand-review rejects.
Per-second and per-clip rows behave differently
A per-second provider can look cheaper for short clips, while a per-clip provider may be easier to estimate when every job has the same duration.
Premium lanes change the decision
Fast queues, higher resolution, longer duration, or better model tiers can turn a cheap test row into a different production decision.
Clip cost workflow
Work backward from approved clips.
A better video pricing decision starts with what the team actually publishes, then works backward through duration, drafts, failed generations, and quality settings.
1Start with approved clips per month, then estimate drafts per approved clip.
2Separate social clips, product demos, image-to-video jobs, and internal batch renders.
3Keep duration, aspect ratio, quality mode, failed attempts, and batch eligibility visible.
4Open the official source before launch because duration limits, credit rules, and model lanes can change.
Video API pricing FAQ
Should I estimate video API cost by seconds or clips?
Use the provider billing unit, then convert it back to your output unit. If your workflow delivers finished clips, track approved clips, average seconds, failed attempts, and quality mode.
Why can video API costs change after launch?
Teams often add longer clips, better quality modes, more retries, different aspect ratios, or faster lanes after launch. Those choices can change the real cost more than the base model row.
When is batch video pricing useful?
Batch video pricing is useful for scheduled campaigns, catalog videos, tests, or offline creative queues. It is less useful for interactive generation unless the provider publishes latency that matches your product.
What should I check before choosing a video API provider?
Check duration limits, resolution, aspect ratios, model availability, queue behavior, failed-job billing, moderation rules, batch eligibility, and whether image-to-video inputs have separate costs.
How many video attempts should I budget for each approved clip?
Use your creative rejection rate. Product demos, ads, and social clips often need multiple motion attempts, prompt variants, or quality modes before one clip is approved.
Why should per-second and per-clip prices stay separate?
Per-second prices scale with duration, while per-clip prices can hide duration assumptions. Keeping them separate prevents a short-clip estimate from being reused for longer production videos.