What AI video costs per second (October 2026)

AI video pricing is a mess: some vendors bill per second, some per clip and some in subscription credits, and they all change their prices often. This post lists only prices stated on a vendor's or host's own page, converted to dollars per second, each with the date we checked it. It's built straight from the Atlas price tracker (57 supported price rows, last checked 2026-10-11), so the numbers match what your agent gets from Atlas's get_prices.

How we count

• Supported rows only. Legacy, deprecated and discontinued endpoints are left out. Some are still listed on vendor pages, but you shouldn't build on them.
• Per second, as stated. Where a vendor bills per clip, we use their stated per-second equivalent. Subscription prices (for example Kling on Higgsfield's annual plans) and limited-time promotions are marked, because they depend on a plan or a deadline.
• Modes come from the docs. A model counts for a mode (text-to-video, image-to-video, reference, start/end frame, video-to-video, lip sync) only if its vendor or host docs say so.
• Estimates only. Vendors may round, bill minimum clip lengths or charge for failed generations. Check the source link before you commit a budget.

The cheapest option for each mode

Pay-as-you-go prices, lowest first. Plan- or promo-based prices are listed separately below.

Plan- or promo-based prices

These are cheaper per second on paper but depend on a subscription or a deadline:

• Vivix W1 (Vivix API, limited-time discount through Oct 31, 2026): $0.003/s, checked 2026-10-11
• Kling 3.0 on Higgsfield (Higgsfield, Ultra, annual ($99/mo, 3,000 credits); 8s 720p): $0.058/s, checked 2026-10-11
• Kling 3.0 on Higgsfield (Higgsfield, Plus, annual ($47/mo, 1,200 credits); 8s 720p): $0.069/s, checked 2026-10-11
• Kling 3.0 on Higgsfield (Higgsfield, Starter, annual ($19/mo, 270 credits); 8s 720p): $0.12/s, checked 2026-10-11

What a 30-second video costs

Split into six 5-second shots, a 30-second video at the cheapest pay-as-you-go text-to-video rate costs $0.60 (Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Lite, 480p, xAI API); on Veo 3.1 Fast (720p, with audio, Google Gemini API) it's $3.00. These are single takes. If you expect to regenerate shots, multiply by the number of takes you plan for.

All supported prices

Run your own numbers

Use the cost calculator for your clip length and count, or ask your agent: Atlas's recommend_model and plan_shots pick the cheapest model that supports each shot's mode and price it within your budget. Prices are re-checked by our daily routine, and changes show in the weekly digest.