ClipCost · Last checked Oct 27, 2026 · Prices from verified data · Counting credits? How many credits do I need

How much does 1 minute of AI video cost?

The honest answer in two numbers: what one 60-second attempt costs, and what a usable minute costs once retries are billed. Both, from verified rates only.

Price your minute Compare 30s & 60s

Quick answer

One minute of AI video on the mainstream 720p/1080p models costs $1.20–$24.00 for a single attempt on verified rates, and about $3.60–$72.00 per usable minute with 2 retries (3 paid attempts). The $72 top is Veo 3.1 Standard 720p/1080p with audio at $0.40/sec (Vertex AI pricing, checked Oct 28, 2026); without audio it is $0.20/sec: $12.00 / $36.00. Higher outliers: Veo 3.1 Standard 4K with audio at $0.60/sec ($36.00 / $108.00) and Seedance 2.0 1080p on the BytePlus API ($34.12 / $102.35). Cheapest verified rate (since Oct 27, 2026) is Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 480p on xAI’s API, with native audio, $0.02/sec: $1.20 / $3.60 (1–15s per generation, so a minute is at least four clips; same price on the Runway API; Grok Imagine cost). Second is Wan 2.6 Flash 720p without audio on the Alibaba Cloud API, $0.025/sec: $1.50 / $4.50 (image-to-video only; Wan API pricing). Next is a tie at $0.03/sec: Kling 2.6 Standard mode (no audio) at 3 credits/sec on Kling Standard annual credits, and Veo 3.1 Lite 720p without audio on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI: $1.80 / $5.40 — and, new Oct 26, LTX-2.3 Fast 720p on LTX’s own API with audio included at the same $1.80 / $5.40 (LTX API pricing), as is, new Oct 27, Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 720p (with audio) on xAI’s API. Then Seedance 2.0 Mini 480p on the BytePlus API ($0.036/sec): $2.16 / $6.48, then Kling 2.6 or 2.5 Turbo 720p without audio on Kling’s own API ($0.042/sec): $2.52 / $7.56 (Kling API pricing). With native audio included, the cheapest is now Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 480p at $0.02/sec: $1.20 / $3.60, then Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 720p and LTX-2.3 Fast 720p at $0.03/sec: $1.80 / $5.40, then LTX-2.3 Pro 720p ($0.04/sec: $2.40 / $7.20) and Veo 3.1 Lite (720p, Vertex AI) at $0.05/sec: $3.00 / $9.00, tied with Wan 2.6 Flash 720p with audio on Alibaba Cloud; MiniMax H3-Max at 480P costs the same ($0.05/sec), but its native audio is not stated. Seedance 2.0 Fast at 480p is $3.36 / $10.08, Kling 3.0 at 720p without audio is $3.60 / $10.80, Seedance 2.0 at 480p is $4.20 / $12.60, MiniMax H3 at 768P is $4.80 / $14.40, Runway Gen-4 Turbo and Wan 3.0 at 480p inside Runway are $5.76 / $17.28 on Standard annual credits (the same Wan 3.0 model on Pika is $3.52 / $10.56 at 720p — see Runway vs Pika), and Runway Gen-4.5 is $13.82 / $41.47. Talking-presenter video is cheaper per minute but is a different product.

Basis: every rate verified Oct 16–22, 2026 in assets/data.js (Seedance 2.0 Fast/Mini on BytePlus and Veo 3.1 on Vertex AI Oct 22; Veo 3.1 with and without audio Oct 20 on Vertex AI pricing; MiniMax H3-Max and Wan 3.0 inside Runway Oct 19) (Kling per-second rates from Kling’s official VIDEO 3.0 and 2.6 guides, Oct 17). “Usable” = 3 attempts (1 + 2 retries), the calculator convention. 60s figures are rate × 60 (or credits/sec × 60 × plan $/credit); usable = single-try × 3. Kling is valued at Standard annual ($6.60/mo, 660 credits = $0.0100/credit). Finished 60s video is usually stitched from short generations. Estimates (Hailuo per-second derived) and unverified tools (Descript generation) are excluded from the ranking tables.

Cost of 1 minute: single-try vs usable

Sorted by single-try price per minute. †Pika credit value $0.00889 applies on both Starter annual ($8/mo, 900 credits) and Creator annual ($28/mo, 3,150 credits); both include a commercial licence (Starter since Oct 2026). ‡Kling Standard annual ($6.60/mo, billed $79.20/yr, 660 credits); Kling Pro annual ($0.0081/credit) is about 19% cheaper per row; Kling monthly-billing prices were not verified. “No audio” rows have no native audio track. Resolution and access differ — read the Rate column before comparing a 480p API row with a 720p subscription row. Full working in the calculator.

Notice what the table is really showing: a 13× spread inside general video alone, from $5.40 to $72.00 for the same usable finished minute depending on model and resolution, before you have paid for voice, music or editing. “AI video costs about X per minute” without a model, resolution, access route and retry count is not a price — it is a slogan.

Presenter minutes are a different market

If your minute is a person talking to camera, presenter tools win by an order of magnitude — HeyGen Avatar III works out at about sixteen cents a finished minute on Creator annual credits before retries. If your minute is cinematic B-roll, landscapes, product shots or anything the presenter cannot mime, they are not substitutes at any price. Pick the table that matches the shot, not the cheapest cell on the page. Making short vertical clips instead? See AI video cost for TikTok and Shorts. Presenter costs in detail: cheapest AI avatar video generator.

Single vs usable: why retries dominate

Retries are not a pessimism setting. Hands, faces, text, motion and prompt adherence fail often enough that planning for 1–3 regenerations per keeper is normal. Because every tool in the main table bills per generated second or per credit, a failed attempt costs exactly as much as a successful one. That is why the usable column is simply three times the single-try column — and why a creator averaging four attempts should multiply by four instead.

Plan limits then decide whether the usable price is even purchasable on a given tier. Runway’s Standard plan holds 625 credits: one minute of Gen-4.5 needs 720 credits for a single attempt, so Standard cannot cover even one single-try minute of Gen-4.5, let alone a usable minute at 2,160 credits. Turbo (300 credits per minute-attempt) fits two single attempts, still not one usable minute. Bigger plans and Runway top-ups (minimum 1,000 credits for $10, $0.01/credit, never expire) change the cash story — our Runway cost-per-video page works that blended maths in full. Kling has the same shape: Standard’s 660 credits cannot cover one 60s attempt of Kling 3.0 1080p with audio (720 credits), but fit one usable minute of 2.6 Standard mode (540 credits). Pika’s Wan credits are cheap, and since October 2026 the $8 Starter tier carrying that credit price includes a commercial licence — but its 900 credits cover only about 136 seconds of Wan 3.0 a month.

Traps that make a minute cost more than the table

• Stitching: Gen-4.5 makes 2–10s generations and Veo makes 8s native clips. A minute is an edit, and failed joins cost time and sometimes re-generations.
• Resolution jumps: Veo Standard is 8× Lite per second; Seedance rises from $0.07/sec at 480p to $0.374/sec at 1080p. Price the resolution you will publish, not the demo resolution.
• Access route: the cheapest rows are API prices (Google Vertex AI, BytePlus, MiniMax). They have no monthly minimum, but they assume API workflow and self-editing. Subscription rows are browser-easy and expire monthly.
• Credit expiry: Runway Standard/Pro credits reset, Pika credits refresh monthly, Kling membership credits expire after 1 month. An unused balance raises your effective per-minute cost above every figure above.
• Video-input and add-ons: Seedance’s table rate is the no-video-input rate; video-input is token-priced and higher. MiniMax can bill input media beyond free allowances. Audio, upscaling and expressive-motion add-ons vary by tool — check before generating.
• What is not included: voiceover, music licensing, captions, stock, editing software and your time. For many channels those exceed the generation bill.

Not priced here, deliberately: Descript generation (not verified). Luma joined on Nov 2, 2026 at its verified 5s price — a minute is twelve 5s generations, because a 10s generation costs 3× the 5s price (Luma cost). If a tool matters to you and is missing from the table, that absence is information. (Kling joined the table on Oct 17, 2026 once its per-second rates were verified from official guides — see Kling credits explained.)

Sources & method

Rates verified Oct 16–22, 2026 in assets/data.js against official pages for Kling (VIDEO 3.0 and 2.6 guides), Veo, Seedance, MiniMax, Pika, Runway, HeyGen and Hedra. All minute figures are transparent arithmetic from those rates — no new external price introduced. Try other durations and retry counts in the calculator, compare headline tools on compare, or see the overall cheapest AI video generator ranking and the FAQ.

FAQ

How much does 1 minute of AI video cost?

On verified rates, one 60-second attempt of general AI video ranges from $1.20 (Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 480p with audio on xAI's API), $1.50 (Wan 2.6 Flash 720p without audio on the Alibaba Cloud API) and $1.80 (Kling 2.6 Standard mode, no audio, on Kling Standard annual credits, Veo 3.1 Lite without audio on Vertex AI, or LTX-2.3 Fast 720p with audio on LTX's API) to $24.00 (Veo 3.1 Standard 720p/1080p with audio, $0.40/sec on Vertex AI pricing, checked Oct 28, 2026) for the mainstream 720p/1080p models in the main ranking. A usable minute with 2 retries is roughly triple: $3.60 to $72.00. Veo 3.1 Standard without audio is $0.20/sec ($12.00 per try, $36.00 usable). Higher outliers: Veo 3.1 Standard 4K with audio at $0.60/sec ($36.00 per try, $108.00 usable) and Seedance 2.0 1080p on the BytePlus API ($34.12 per try, $102.35 usable). With native audio, the cheapest is Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 480p on xAI's API at $1.20 single-try and $3.60 usable ($0.02 per second, checked Oct 27, 2026), then Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 720p and LTX-2.3 Fast 720p on LTX's own API at $1.80 and $5.40 ($0.03 per second), then Veo 3.1 Lite or Wan 2.6 Flash with audio at $3.00 and $9.00. Runway Gen-4.5 is $13.82 single-try and $41.47 usable on Standard annual credits.

Why is a usable minute about three times the single-try price?

Because ClipCost costs a usable video as 1 generation plus 2 retries — 3 paid attempts. Every attempt is billed per second or per credit on the tools listed, so retries multiply the minute linearly. If you average fewer retries, your cost falls proportionally.

What is the cheapest way to make 1 minute of AI video?

By verified rate (re-ranked Oct 27, 2026), Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 480p on xAI's API at $0.02 per second with native audio ($1.20 single-try, $3.60 usable per minute; 1 to 15 seconds per generation; same price on the Runway API). Then Wan 2.6 Flash 720p without audio on the Alibaba Cloud Model Studio API at $0.025 per second ($1.50 single-try, $4.50 usable per minute; image-to-video only, up to 15 seconds per generation). Then Kling 2.6 in Standard mode without audio ($1.80 / $5.40 on Standard annual credits), tied with Veo 3.1 Lite 720p without audio on Vertex AI , LTX-2.3 Fast 720p on LTX's own API and Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 720p on xAI's API, both with generated audio ($0.03 per second). Next is Seedance 2.0 Mini 480p on the BytePlus API ($0.036/sec: $2.16/$6.48), then Kling 2.6 or 2.5 Turbo 720p without audio on Kling's own API ($0.042/sec: $2.52/$7.56, pay per second). With native audio, Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 480p is the cheapest at $1.20/$3.60, then Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 720p and LTX-2.3 Fast at $1.80/$5.40, then LTX-2.3 Pro 720p ($0.04/sec: $2.40/$7.20) and Veo 3.1 Lite at $0.05/sec ($3.00/$9.00) on Vertex AI; MiniMax H3-Max at 480P costs the same, but its native audio is not stated. Seedance 2.0 Fast 480p ($3.36/$10.08), Kling 3.0 720p without audio ($3.60/$10.80), Seedance 2.0 480p ($4.20/$12.60) and MiniMax H3 768P ($4.80/$14.40) follow. Talking-presenter tools are cheaper per minute but make a different kind of video.

Is a 60-second video one generation?

Usually no. Runway Gen-4.5 generates 2–10 seconds at a time, Veo generates 8-second native clips and Kling 3.0 up to 15 seconds, so a finished minute is normally stitched from several generations. The per-second maths still applies, but editing time and failed stitches are extra.

Does Kling cost less for a minute of video?

Not since Nov 2, 2026: Luma Ray3.2 540p on Luma Plus annual credits is now the cheapest subscription ($4.50 usable minute, no audio). Only Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 480p on xAI's API ($3.60 usable minute, with audio) and three $4.50 rates (Alibaba Cloud's Wan 2.6 Flash API without audio, MiniMax H3-Lite 480P and Luma Ray3.2 540p on Plus) are lower than Kling on verified rates, and Veo 3.1 Lite without audio, Luma Ray3.2 540p on the Luma API, LTX-2.3 Fast and Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite 720p with audio tie it at $5.40. Kling 2.6 Standard mode (3 credits/sec) is $1.80 per 60s try and $5.40 usable; Kling 3.0 at 720p without audio (6 credits/sec) is $3.60 / $10.80; Kling 3.0 1080p with native audio (12 credits/sec) is $7.20 / $21.60 on Standard annual credits. Kling's Standard plan holds 660 credits a month and membership credits expire after 1 month. Without a subscription, Kling's own API (checked Oct 25, 2026) is $0.042 per second for Kling 2.6 or 2.5 Turbo at 720p without audio: $2.52 per minute try, $7.56 usable.

What else adds to the cost of a finished minute?

Voiceover, music, editing, captions, stock, upscaling and your time are not in these generation figures. Subscription waste matters too: a plan whose credits expire unused raises your effective cost above the per-second rate.