ClipCost · Pricing comparison · Runway credits · Kling credits · Published Oct 21, 2026 · Rates checked Oct 16–21, 2026 · Prices from verified data

How many credits do I need for a 1-minute AI video?

Credits needed for a 10, 30 or 60-second AI video on Runway, Kling, Pika and Luma — for one try and for a usable clip with retries — what each plan’s monthly credits actually cover, and when a top-up beats upgrading. Every rate from an official page; every total is plain arithmetic.

Calculate my credits All tools compared Get weekly credit changes

Quick answer

Credits needed = credits per second × seconds × attempts. For a 1-minute video, one try costs 720 credits on Runway Gen-4.5 (12/sec), 300 on Runway Gen-4 Turbo, 720 on Kling 3.0 1080p with audio, 180 on Kling 2.6 Standard mode and 396 on Pika Wan 3.0 720p. A usable minute — 1 try + 2 retries, because every discarded attempt is billed — needs three times that: 2,160 Runway credits ($41.47 at Standard annual’s $0.0192/credit), 2,160 Kling credits for 3.0 1080p with audio ($21.60) or 540 for 2.6 Standard mode ($5.40), and 1,188 Pika credits ($10.56). For 30 seconds, halve it: 360 / 1,080 on Gen-4.5.

Plan fit: Runway Standard’s 625 monthly credits are less than one 60-second Gen-4.5 try (about 52 seconds); Runway Pro (2,250) is the smallest plan that covers one usable Gen-4.5 minute. Kling Standard’s 660 cover one usable minute of Kling 2.6 Standard mode; Pika Creator’s 3,150 cover two usable Wan 3.0 minutes. Need a bit more? Runway top-ups ($0.01/credit) are cheaper per credit than Standard or Pro credits; Kling and Pika top-ups cost more per credit than their plans but don’t expire monthly.

Basis: credits/sec from assets/data.js, verified on official pages (Runway re-verified Oct 20, 2026; Pika Oct 19; Kling Oct 17 from its VIDEO 3.0 and 2.6 guides; Luma Nov 2 — Luma rows use the 5s price, since a 10s generation costs 3× as much). “Usable” = 3 attempts, the same maths as our calculator and the pricing comparison. Dollar values use each tool’s entry paid plan on annual billing (Runway Standard $0.0192, Kling Standard $0.0100, Pika Starter $0.00889 per credit) and assume you use every credit before it expires. Cost only — no quality ranking. Some links on ClipCost are affiliate links (see footer); they never change these numbers.

Credits per second, by tool and model

The one number you need. Multiply it by your seconds and your attempts.

Sources: Runway runway.com/pricing, Runway Academy credits page, Runway API pricing, Creating with Gen-4.5, Creating with Gen-4 Video; Kling Kling VIDEO 2.6 guide and Kling VIDEO 3.0 guide; Pika pika.art/pricing (only 5s/720p prices are listed: Wan 3.0 33 credits, Seedance 2.5 122 credits per 5s); Luma lumalabs.ai/pricing (Ray3.2 is priced per 5s/10s generation — 720p is 100 credits per 5s but 300 per 10s — so per-second figures use the 5s price, checked Nov 2, 2026; see Luma cost). Kling 3.0 voice control adds 2 credits/sec. Not covered because no per-second credit rate is published: Descript AI generation and Vidu — check in-product. Credit rates change; every tool shows the charge before you generate.

Credits needed for a 10s, 30s and 60s video

Single try, and usable (1 try + 2 retries = 3 attempts). The last two columns convert a 60-second video to dollars at the entry paid plan’s annual credit price.

Maths: credits/sec × seconds × attempts. Example: Runway Gen-4.5 60s = 12 × 60 = 720 credits; usable = 720 × 3 = 2,160 credits × $0.0192 = $41.47. Dollar columns: Runway at Standard annual ($12 / 625), Kling at Standard annual ($6.60 / 660), Pika at Starter annual ($8 / 900), Luma at Plus annual ($25 / 10,000). Bigger plans make each credit cheaper — see the tables below. Aleph 2.0 is an editing model, priced per second of the video you edit.

What each plan’s monthly credits cover

Seconds of generation per month if every second is a first try, and how many usable (3-attempt) 60s and 30s videos that is. Seconds rounded down.

Runway

Kling AI

Pika

Luma (Ray) — verified Nov 2, 2026 (5s generations)

Partner models inside Luma (Seedance, Kling, Veo, MiniMax H3, Flux 3) are now ranked too — credits/sec and usable costs on Luma partner models cost.

Plans from runway.com/pricing, Kling membership plans, pika.art/pricing and lumalabs.ai/pricing. Runway Free’s 125 credits are one-time; Gen-4.5 text-to-video needs Standard or higher. Kling Ultra’s price could not be verified, so it has no $ value anywhere on ClipCost. Pika Starter ($8/mo annual) includes a commercial licence since October 2026 (re-verified Oct 23); Pika Free does not. Pika Fancy runs from $95/mo ($76 annual) up to $880/mo; only the entry tier is shown. Kling top-up row: 660 credits for $10 at the listed $1 = 66 credits.

HeyGen: avatar credits per minute

Avatar tools bill per minute of finished video, not per second of generation.

Rates from HeyGen’s help centre and heygen.com/pricing, verified Oct 19, 2026. Minutes are single-try minutes per month. Creator is $29 monthly or $24/mo annual; Pro from $49; Business $149 + $20/seat. Full picture: cheapest AI avatar video generator.

When are top-ups cheaper than a bigger plan?

Price per credit = plan price ÷ monthly credits (assuming you use them all). Compare it with the top-up price:

Per credit is only half the story — you pay for whole plans and whole packs. The cheapest way to cover a month’s need, at annual-billing prices:

• Runway: Standard + top-ups beats Pro up to 1,625 credits a month; Pro + top-ups beats Max up to 6,250. Purchased credits never expire and are spent after plan credits (Runway credits help), so a top-up is also the safer buy for a one-off project.
• Kling: purchased credits cost about 1.5× Standard’s, yet Standard + top-ups still beats Pro up to 1,782 credits a month — and purchased credits last 2 years vs 1 month for membership credits. See Kling credits explained.
• Pika: packs ($25 per 1,500) are dearer per credit than any annual plan, but can be bought on the Free plan and last 365 days. For an occasional project, Free + one 1,500-credit pack ($25) is the cheapest way into Pika; past Starter’s 900 credits, Starter + a pack ($33) already costs more than Creator ($28 for 3,150). Free has no commercial licence; Starter and up do (since Oct 2026).
• Luma: top-ups ($4 per 1,200, about $0.0033) cost more per credit than Plus annual ($0.0025) and need an active paid plan.

Mix rules: Runway purchases rounded up to whole 1,000s ($10 each, paid plans only); Kling at $1 = 66 credits rounded up to whole dollars (minimum pack size not verified); Pika in 1,500-credit packs at $25. Annual-billing monthly equivalents; monthly billing costs more (Runway Standard $15, Pika Starter $10). Unused plan credits are lost at reset (Runway Standard/Pro, Kling membership, Pika, Luma), which raises your real price per credit.

No credits at all: pay-per-second APIs

Some models bill dollars per second, so “how many credits” becomes “how many dollars”: no plan, no expiry, but every retry is still billed. Every API rate, 5s to 60s: AI video API pricing per second.

Sources: Google Cloud Agent Platform (Vertex AI) pricing (Veo 3.1, re-verified Oct 20, 2026; the Gemini API’s Veo 3.1 preview models shut down Oct 22, 2026, same prices on Vertex AI); MiniMax pricing (Oct 19); BytePlus ModelArk pricing (Seedance 2.0 price per 5s, re-checked Oct 21, 2026); hedra.com/pricing (Hedra Character-3 API, avatar video). More: Seedance vs Veo cost, Veo 3 cost per video.

Work it out yourself in 4 steps

1. Find the credits per second for your exact model, resolution and audio setting (table above, or the cost your tool shows before you generate).
2. Multiply by the finished length — 60 for a minute. Generations are short (Veo 4–8s, Runway Gen-4.5 2–10s, Kling 3.0 up to 15s), so a minute is several generations.
3. Multiply by your real attempts. We use 3 (1 + 2 retries). Track yours for a week; hooks and faces often take more.
4. Compare with your plan — monthly credits ÷ credits per usable video = videos per month. Short? Price a top-up against the next plan (tables above).

Or let the calculator do it. Next reads: how much 1 minute of AI video costs in dollars, Runway credits explained, Kling credits explained, Runway vs Kling vs Pika vs Veo, the cheapest AI video generator ranking, and tool pages for Runway, Kling, Pika, Luma and HeyGen.

Sources

All rates live in data.js and pricing.json with their source links: Runway runway.com/pricing, Runway Academy credits page, Runway API pricing, Runway credits help (re-verified Oct 19–20, 2026); Kling Kling membership plans, Kling VIDEO 2.6 guide, Kling VIDEO 3.0 guide and the Kling point policy (Oct 16–17); Pika pika.art/pricing (Oct 19); Luma lumalabs.ai/pricing (Nov 2); HeyGen heygen.com/pricing (Oct 19); Google Google Cloud Agent Platform (Vertex AI) pricing; BytePlus ModelArk pricing; MiniMax pricing; hedra.com/pricing. Prices change fast — every tool shows the credit cost before you generate, so confirm in-product before you buy.

FAQ

How many credits do I need for a 1-minute AI video?

Credits = credits per second x 60 x attempts. For one 60-second try: 720 credits on Runway Gen-4.5 (12 per second), 300 on Runway Gen-4 Turbo, 720 on Kling 3.0 1080p with native audio, 180 on Kling 2.6 Standard mode and 396 on Pika Wan 3.0 720p. A usable minute with 2 retries (3 attempts) is three times that: 2,160 on Gen-4.5, 2,160 on Kling 3.0 1080p with audio, 540 on Kling 2.6 Standard mode and 1,188 on Pika Wan 3.0.

How many credits do I need for a 30-second AI video?

Half the 1-minute figure: 360 credits per try and 1,080 for a usable clip (3 attempts) on Runway Gen-4.5; 450 usable on Runway Gen-4 Turbo; 1,080 usable on Kling 3.0 1080p with audio; 270 usable on Kling 2.6 Standard mode; 594 usable on Pika Wan 3.0 720p. Most models make 3 to 15 seconds per generation, so 30 seconds is several generations and every attempt is billed.

How many Runway credits do I need for a 1-minute video?

720 credits per 60-second try on Gen-4.5 or Gen-4 (12 per second) and 2,160 for a usable minute with 2 retries; Gen-4 Turbo needs 300 and 900. Standard's 625 monthly credits do not cover one 60-second Gen-4.5 try; Pro's 2,250 cover one usable Gen-4.5 minute ($28 a month on annual billing). Third-party models burn faster: Veo 3.1 with audio in Runway needs 7,200 credits per usable minute.

How many Kling credits do I need for a 1-minute video?

Kling 3.0 uses 6 to 12 credits per second, so one 60-second try is 360 to 720 credits and a usable minute (3 attempts) 1,080 to 2,160. Kling 2.6 Standard mode uses 3 per second: 180 per try, 540 usable, which fits in Standard's 660 monthly credits ($6.60 a month on annual billing). For Kling 3.0 1080p with audio, Pro's 3,000 credits cover one usable minute.

How many Pika credits do I need for a 1-minute video?

Pika lists Wan 3.0 at 33 credits per 5 seconds at 720p (6.6 per second): 396 credits per 60-second try and 1,188 for a usable minute with 2 retries. Seedance 2.5 at 720p is 122 credits per 5 seconds: 1,464 per try, 4,392 usable. Starter's 900 credits cover about two 60-second Wan 3.0 tries but no usable minute; Creator's 3,150 cover two usable Wan 3.0 minutes.

Are top-up credits cheaper than upgrading my plan?

Sometimes. Runway's purchased credits ($0.0100 each, minimum 1,000) are cheaper than Standard ($0.0192) and Pro ($0.0124) plan credits but dearer than Max ($0.0080), and they never expire; Standard plus top-ups beats Pro up to 1,625 credits a month. Kling ($1 = 66 credits, about $0.0152) and Pika packs ($25 per 1,500, about $0.0167) cost more per credit than their plans, but last 2 years and 365 days, while plan credits expire monthly. Kling Standard plus top-ups beats Pro up to 1,782 credits a month.