Cheapest Published Per-Second Rates for AI Video (2026)
Seven channels publish a price per second of generated video. This page orders them by that number and nothing else. The cheapest published second is $0.035 at 540p; the dearest entry-level rate here is $0.12. Resolution differs between rows, so the order answers what a second costs, not what a second is worth.
Ranking
Positions follow this list’s method (below), not the mean; the mean and "#n this issue" are site-wide figures.
Vidu Video generation model / creation platform#=10 of 16 this issue
The lowest published rate in this set, $0.035 a second at 540p, rising to $0.075 at 1080p. Off-peak generation is documented at half price, which is the only conditional rate published as a rate rather than as a plan benefit.
- From
- Consumer plan prices are not shown on the public pricing page (the plan table does not render for signed-out visitors); API credits $0.005 each: Q3 reference-to-video $0.035 / $0.06 / $0.075 per second (540p / 720p / 1080p)
- Free tier
- Free credits (per site)
Hailuo (MiniMax) Video generation model / creation platform#=3 of 16 this issue
$0.05 a second at 480P on H3-Max and $0.08 at 768P, with the wider H3 line at $0.08 and $0.13. The cheap end buys the narrowest input set: H3-Max is documented as text-to-video and image-to-video only.
- From
- Memberships advertised from $9.99/month on hailuoai.video; the plan table is not shown to signed-out visitors
- Free tier
- Free credits (per site)
Veo / Flow (Google) Video generation model / creation tool#=3 of 16 this issue
$0.05 a second for Veo 3.1 Lite through the Gemini API, with every account also given 50 Flow credits a day. The Lite tier is the cheapest published Veo rate and not the one most output is generated on.
- From
- Google AI Plus +200, Pro +1,000, Ultra +10,000 ($100 plan) or +25,000 ($200 plan) Flow credits a month; plan prices vary by region; Gemini API from $0.05/s (Veo 3.1 Lite)
- Free tier
- 50 Flow credits per day for every account (no rollover); non-subscribers may be unable to generate video at peak hours
SceneMixer End-to-end AI short-drama pipeline#1 of 16 this issue
About $0.06 a second at 480P, billed in credits with the conversion stated on the vendor's own page. Compositing an episode is charged separately at one credit per second of finished output, which does not appear in the per-second figure.
- From
- Credit packs from $1.49 (100 credits); memberships from $7.99/mo (Pro, 700 credits), 5 paid tiers, cheaper quarterly / yearly
- Free tier
- 50 credits on sign-up; first project includes 15 concept sheets + first storyboard free; video is billed per second
Kling AI Video generation model / creation platform#7 of 16 this issue
$0.084 a second at 720p, doubling to $0.168 at 1080p and $0.42 at 4K. Resolution is the single largest cost lever published on this channel.
- From
- Standard $10, Pro $37, Premier $92, Ultra $180 per month at list (660 / 3,000 / 8,000 / 26,000 credits); first-month and billing-cycle discounts were shown on 2026-09-12
- Free tier
- Free Basic plan; its plan table lists no monthly credits, no 1080p/4K and no commercial use
LTX Studio AI narrative production workstation#2 of 16 this issue
$0.09 to $0.39 a second for LTX-2.5. The vendor publishes a band rather than a rate per resolution, so the low end of this row is not comparable with the fixed rates above it.
- From
- Lite $15/mo ($12 billed yearly) 8,000 credits; Standard $35 ($28) 28,000; Pro $125 ($100) 110,000
- Free tier
- 800 one-time credits, personal-use license
Runway Video generation model / creation platform#=10 of 16 this issue
$0.12 a second, published as 12 credits per second at $0.01 a credit. The credit price is on the same page as the credit rate, so the conversion introduces no assumption.
- From
- Standard $15/mo ($12 annual) 625 credits; Pro $35 ($28) 2,250; Max $95 ($76) 9,500
- Free tier
- 125 one-time credits
Score table
The 7 integer scores in list order, so the reasons for the order are visible.
| # | Tool | Parsing | Consistency | Storyboard | Video | Audio | Compositing | Cost | Mean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ViduVideo generation model / creation platform | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2.7/5 |
| 2 | Hailuo (MiniMax)Video generation model / creation platform | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 3.4/5 |
| 3 | Veo / Flow (Google)Video generation model / creation tool | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3.4/5 |
| 4 | SceneMixerEnd-to-end AI short-drama pipeline | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4.4/5 |
| 5 | Kling AIVideo generation model / creation platform | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3.0/5 |
| 6 | LTX StudioAI narrative production workstation | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3.7/5 |
| 7 | RunwayVideo generation model / creation platform | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2.7/5 |
How we ranked
FAQ
Is the cheapest rate the cheapest finished minute?
No. A rate says nothing about how many attempts a usable take costs, and no vendor publishes that figure. A channel at half the price with a third of the usable takes is dearer in practice. The rate is the only part that can be checked, so it is the only part ordered here.
Why are subscription plans not converted into a per-second price?
Because the result depends on the buyer rather than the product. Dividing a monthly price by a monthly credit grant assumes the whole grant gets used, and a production that uses half of it pays twice the figure that arithmetic produces.
Do these rates include audio?
Not consistently. Some rows are for video with native audio and some are not, and the vendors document it differently. Each tool page states what its rate covers.
Sources
Official pages opened while writing; current pricing and features are always as shown on the vendor site.
- https://www.vidu.com/pricing — Vidu
- https://platform.vidu.com/docs/reference-to-video — Vidu
- https://platform.vidu.com/docs/image-to-video — Vidu
- https://platform.vidu.com/docs/pricing — Vidu
- https://hailuoai.video/ — Hailuo (MiniMax)
- https://platform.minimax.io/docs/guides/video-generation — Hailuo (MiniMax)
- https://platform.minimax.io/docs/api-reference/video-generation-v2-create — Hailuo (MiniMax)
- https://platform.minimax.io/docs/guides/pricing-paygo — Hailuo (MiniMax)
- https://www.minimax.io/blog/minimax-h3 — Hailuo (MiniMax)
- https://pixverse.ai/ — Hailuo (MiniMax)
- https://support.google.com/flow/answer/16526234 — Veo / Flow (Google)
- https://support.google.com/flow/answer/16352836 — Veo / Flow (Google)
- https://one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans — Veo / Flow (Google)
- https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/veo — Veo / Flow (Google)
- https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing — Veo / Flow (Google)
- https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/ultimate-prompting-guide-for-veo-3-1 — Veo / Flow (Google)
- https://runway.com/pricing — Veo / Flow (Google)
- https://scenemixer.com/ — SceneMixer
- https://scenemixer.com/pricing/ — SceneMixer
- https://scenemixer.com/api/pricing — SceneMixer
- https://scenemixer.com/llms.txt — SceneMixer
- https://kling.ai/quickstart/klingai-video-3-model-user-guide — Kling AI
- https://kling.ai/blog/kling-video-3-multi-shot-guide — Kling AI
- https://kling.ai/quickstart/klingai-video-3-omni-model-user-guide — Kling AI
- https://kling.ai/dev/pricing — Kling AI
- https://kling.ai/app/membership/membership-plan — Kling AI
- https://kling.ai/blog/kling-video-3-0-credit-cost-guide — Kling AI
- https://runway.com/pricing — Kling AI
- https://lumalabs.ai/pricing — Kling AI
- https://ltx.io/studio — LTX Studio
- https://ltx.io/studio/pricing — LTX Studio
- https://ltx.io/api — LTX Studio
- https://ltx.io/blog/getting-started-with-elements — LTX Studio
- https://runway.com/pricing — Runway
- https://runway.com/workflows — Runway
- https://docs.dev.runwayml.com/api/ — Runway
- https://docs.dev.runwayml.com/guides/pricing/ — Runway