ClipCost · Last checked Oct 18, 2026 · Prices from verified data (JSON)

AI video generator pricing comparison 2026

Every plan, every credit price and every verified per-second rate for the 12 AI video tools ClipCost tracks — turned into one number you can compare: what a 30-second clip costs, once as a single try and once as a usable clip with 2 retries.

Run your own numbers Compare at 30s and 60s Cheapest ranking

Quick answer

The cheapest verified AI video rate in 2026 is Kling 2.6 Standard mode, no audio: $0.90 per 30-second try, $2.70 per usable clip with 2 retries. The cheapest with native audio is Veo 3.1 Lite 720p on the Gemini API ($0.05/sec: $1.50 try, $4.50 usable). The popular all-in-one, Runway Gen-4.5, is $6.91 per 30s try and $20.74 usable on Standard annual credits — and Standard’s 625 monthly credits cover only one 30-second try. At the top end, Veo 3.1 with audio inside Runway or Seedance 2.0 Pro 1080p inside Runway costs $23.04 per try ($69.12 usable). Sticker prices hide a 3× multiplier: every retry is billed.

Basis: every number below is computed from assets/data.js, the same verified data the calculator uses, so the two always match. Credit tools are valued at the entry paid plan’s price per credit (annual billing where offered), assuming you use all your credits. “Usable” = 1 try + 2 retries (3 attempts). Rates were checked on official pages: Runway, Veo, Pika and MiniMax re-checked Oct 18, 2026; Kling Oct 17; the rest Oct 16. Anything we could not verify says check official pricing — we never fill gaps with third-party numbers. Cost only, no quality ranking.

Cheapest per usable 30-second clip (verified rates)

Text/image-to-video models with a verified official rate, ranked by the cost of a usable 30-second clip (3 attempts). Ties share a rank.

Not ranked: estimates (Luma Ray3.2, Hailuo 2.3 Fast — see below), Vidu and Descript generation (not verified), and non-generators (Aleph 2.0 editing, HeyGen/Hedra presenters, OpusClip repurposing — separate table). Plan rows above a plan’s monthly credits are an effective cost at the plan credit rate, not cash the plan alone covers. The cheapest tier is not always licensed for commercial use (Pika Starter has no commercial licence) — check each tool page.

Every tool and model, side by side

Rate, the price per credit we used, 30s cost before and after retries, and what the plan actually covers in a month.

Maths (identical to the calculator): credits/sec × 30 × $ per credit for credit plans; $/sec × 30 for APIs; usable = single try × 3. Example: Runway Gen-4.5 = 12 × 30 = 360 credits × $0.0192 = $6.91; × 3 = $20.74. Pika is valued at Starter ($8/mo annual, 900 credits); Kling at Standard ($6.60/mo annual, 660 credits); Luma at Plus; HeyGen at Creator; OpusClip at Starter monthly ($15, 150 credits) because Starter has no verified annual price. Bigger plans lower the price per credit — see the plan table.

Plans and price per credit

$ per credit = plan price ÷ monthly credits, assuming you use them all before they reset. “Check official pricing” = not verifiable on an official public page when we checked. API tools (Veo, Seedance, MiniMax, Hedra API) have no subscription: you pay per second or per video.

Editing, presenters and repurposing

These are priced per second or minute too, but they are not text-to-video generators, so they are not in the ranking above.

OpusClip charges per minute of source video processed, so a 30s clip cut from a 60-minute podcast costs 60 credits, not 0.5 — the figure above understates real cost when your source is long. Aleph 2.0 is priced per second of the video you edit. HeyGen and Hedra make talking-presenter videos, not B-roll scenes.

Estimates and “check official pricing”

• Vidu — plan prices and per-generation credits could not be verified on an official public page: check official pricing.
• Descript — plans are verified (Hobbyist $16/mo annual, 400 AI credits), but the credit cost of AI video generation is not published: check official pricing.
• Kling Ultra (26,000 credits/mo), Hedra Studio tiers and HeyGen Pro/Business annual prices — check official pricing.
• MiniMax consumer Hailuo app plans — not verified; we price the official API instead.

New: Seedance 2.0 inside Runway

Re-checked on runway.com/pricing on Oct 18, 2026: Seedance 2.0 Pro 1080p is 160 credits per 4 seconds (40/sec) and Seedance 2.0 Fast is 116 credits per 4 seconds (29/sec); the Runway Academy credits page lists the same 40/sec (1080p) and 29/sec. On Standard annual credits that is $23.04 and $16.70 per 30-second try ($69.12 and $50.11 usable) — Standard’s 625 credits cover about 15 seconds of Pro or 21 seconds of Fast. The same model family on the BytePlus API is $4.56 (720p) or $11.22 (1080p) per 30s without video input. Both new rates are in the calculator under Runway.

All 12 tool pages

Guides built on this data

• Cheapest AI video generator — ranked per usable clip, with use-case picks
• Cheapest AI video generator for YouTube — 30s/60s videos and Shorts
• How much does 1 minute of AI video cost? — 60s single try vs usable
• Runway credits explained — credits/sec per model, 625 credits ≈ 52s
• Kling credits explained — plans, expiry and per-second rates
• Runway vs Kling cost per video — head-to-head at 5s to 60s
• Runway vs Kling vs Pika vs Veo — 30s and 60s with retries
• AI video cost FAQ · Calculator · pricing.json · llms.txt

Three things the sticker price hides

• Retries are billed. Every discarded attempt costs the same as the keeper, so a usable clip is usually 2–3× the headline price.
• Plan credits expire. Runway Standard/Pro reset on the billing date, Kling membership credits last 1 month, Pika and Luma monthly credits do not roll over — unused credits raise your real price per credit.
• Generations are short. Most models make 2–15 seconds at a time, so a 30s or 60s video is several generations stitched together, and each one can need a retry.

Sources

Official pricing pages and docs used for each tool (rates in data.js cite these):

• Runway (checked Oct 18, 2026): runway.com/pricing, help.runwayml.com/hc/en-us/articles/15124877443219-How-do-credits-work, help.runwayml.com/hc/en-us/articles/46974685288467-Creating-with-Gen-4-5, help.runwayml.com/hc/en-us/articles/37327109429011-Creating-with-Gen-4-Video, academy.runwayml.com/models-pricing, docs.dev.runwayml.com/guides/pricing
• Kling AI (checked Oct 17, 2026): klingai.com/membership/membership-plan, app.klingai.com/global/quickstart/klingai-video-3-model-user-guide, klingai.com/quickstart/klingai-video-26-audio-user-guide
• Pika (checked Oct 18, 2026): pika.art/pricing
• Veo 3.1 (Gemini API) (checked Oct 18, 2026): ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
• Luma (Ray) (checked Oct 16, 2026): lumalabs.ai/pricing
• HeyGen (checked Oct 16, 2026): www.heygen.com/pricing
• Hedra (checked Oct 16, 2026): www.hedra.com/pricing
• Descript (checked Oct 16, 2026): www.descript.com/pricing
• OpusClip (Opus Clip) (checked Oct 16, 2026): www.opus.pro/pricing
• Seedance (ByteDance / BytePlus) (checked Oct 16, 2026): docs.byteplus.com/en/docs/modelark/model-pricing
• MiniMax / Hailuo (checked Oct 18, 2026): platform.minimax.io/docs/guides/pricing-video
• Vidu (checked Oct 16, 2026): www.vidu.com/pricing

Prices change often. Every tool shows the cost before you generate — confirm in-product before you buy.

FAQ

What is the cheapest AI video generator in 2026?

On verified official rates, Kling 2.6 Standard mode, no audio: $0.90 per 30-second try and $2.70 per usable 30-second clip with 2 retries on Kling Standard annual credits ($0.0100 per credit). The cheapest with native audio is Veo 3.1 Lite 720p on the Gemini API at $0.05 per second: $1.50 per try, $4.50 usable. Kling 2.6 Professional, no audio ties it at $4.50 usable, then come Pika Wan 3.0 720p ($5.28) and Kling 3.0 720p, no audio ($5.40).

How much does a 30-second AI video cost?

Across every verified text/image-to-video rate we track, one 30-second attempt costs from $0.90 (Kling 2.6 Standard mode, no audio) to $23.04 (Veo 3.1 with audio inside Runway or Seedance 2.0 Pro 1080p inside Runway). With 2 retries, which is normal, a usable 30-second clip costs $2.70 to $69.12. Runway Gen-4.5 sits in the middle at $6.91 per try and $20.74 usable on Standard annual credits.

Which AI video generators charge per second instead of credits?

The APIs: Veo 3.1 on the Gemini API, Seedance 2.0 on BytePlus ModelArk, MiniMax H3 and Hedra Character-3 bill US dollars per second or per video, with no subscription and no monthly cap. Runway, Kling, Pika, Luma, HeyGen, Descript, OpusClip and Vidu sell monthly plans with credits, so the real price per second depends on which plan you buy and whether you use all of its credits before they reset.

Is Runway or Kling cheaper per video?

Kling, on official rates. A 30-second Runway Gen-4.5 try is 360 credits, $6.91 on Standard annual ($0.0192 per credit), or $20.74 with 2 retries. Kling 3.0 at 1080p with native audio uses the same 12 credits per second, but Kling Standard annual credits cost $0.0100, so the same 30 seconds is $3.60 per try and $10.80 usable. Runway's own budget model, Gen-4 Turbo, is $2.88 per try.

Is Seedance 2.0 cheaper inside Runway or on the API?

On the API. Inside Runway, Seedance 2.0 Fast is 29 credits per second and Seedance 2.0 Pro 1080p is 40 (runway.com/pricing, re-checked Oct 18, 2026), so a 30-second try costs $16.70 or $23.04 in Standard annual credits. On BytePlus ModelArk, a 30-second Seedance 2.0 video without video input is $4.56 at 720p or $11.22 at 1080p. Runway's Seedance rates include audio and sit inside a subscription, so compare features, not just price.

Why do some tools say "check official pricing"?

Because we could not verify that number on an official public page, and we do not guess. Today that covers Vidu plans and per-generation credits, the credit cost of Descript AI video generation, the price of Kling Ultra, Hedra Studio tiers and annual prices for HeyGen Pro and Business. Luma Ray3.2, MiniMax Hailuo 2.3 Fast and OpusClip are shown as estimates because they are derived from an official bucket or per-video example, not a per-second tariff.