AI Video Generation Cost: What Models Charge in 2026

AI video generation is priced per second of output. As of July 2026, Google lists Veo 3.1 at $0.40 a second with audio included, and Veo 3.1 Fast at $0.10. OpenAI lists Sora 2 at $0.10 a second and Sora 2 Pro at $0.30 to $0.70 depending on resolution. An eight second clip therefore costs $0.80 to $5.60 at list.

Those numbers are real, published, and easy to check. They are also the reason most AI video budgets are wrong, because almost nobody ships the first take.

A 30 second ad is not 30 seconds of generation. It is four shots, five or six takes each, at eight seconds a take, before an editor cuts it down. The list price prices a clip. Your invoice prices the takes.

This breaks down what each model charges as of July 2026, every rate taken from the provider’s own pricing page, then reframes the cost around the unit that actually governs the spend: seconds generated per finished second.

Key Takeaways

• Video is priced per second of output, everywhere. Google lists Veo 3.1 at $0.40 a second and Veo 3.1 Fast at $0.10; OpenAI lists Sora 2 at $0.10 and Sora 2 Pro at $0.30 to $0.70 by resolution (ai.google.dev, developers.openai.com, July 2026).
• Veo 3.1’s quoted rate already includes audio. Google’s pricing page frames it as the “video with audio price (default)” and documents no separate audio-free rate (ai.google.dev, July 2026).
• Veo 3 and Veo 2 are marked deprecated with a June 30, 2026 shutdown on Google’s own pricing page (ai.google.dev, July 2026). Any guide still quoting Veo 3 rates is pricing a model that is being retired.
• The take ratio is the real multiplier. Generating 160 seconds to deliver a 30 second cut is normal, and it turns a $12 estimate into a $64 one.
• Credit systems hide the per-second rate, they do not remove it. Runway prices Gen-4.5 at 12 credits per second, so a 625 credit plan buys about 52 seconds a month (runwayml.com, July 2026).
• Video costs far more than stills, by design. In DesignerBox an image is 5 credits and 8 seconds of Veo 3 with audio is 6,400, which is more than the entire monthly allocation on the $75 Premium plan.
• Third-party pricing trackers are unreliable here. Rates and model lineups move monthly. Every figure below is from the provider, dated, and worth re-checking before you commit budget.

How much does AI video generation cost per second?

Every major provider bills video the same way: a rate per second of finished output, multiplied by duration, with resolution as the main lever. There are no seats and no per-project fees at the model layer. You pay for seconds.

Rates published on the providers’ own pricing pages, accessed July 2026:

Veo rates: Gemini API pricing (ai.google.dev, July 2026). Sora rates: OpenAI API pricing (developers.openai.com, July 2026). Sora 2 Pro also lists a 1024p tier at $0.50 a second. Both providers publish discounted batch rates for non-interactive jobs: Sora 2 drops to $0.05 a second at 720p in batch.

Two details in that table are worth pulling out.

Veo’s rate includes audio. Google’s page labels these figures the “video with audio price (default)” and documents no cheaper audio-free option. Guides that describe Veo audio as a paid add-on are describing something the pricing page does not show.

Veo 3 is on the way out. Google’s pricing page marks both Veo 3 and Veo 2 as deprecated with a June 30, 2026 shutdown date. If a comparison article is quoting Veo 3, it is quoting a retiring model, which is a fair signal to check when the rest of its numbers were last touched.

DesignerBox includes Veo 3.1 and Sora 2 Pro among its 13 built-in models, so the choice between them is a per-shot decision rather than a second subscription.

Why the clip price is not your budget

The per-second rate answers “what does this clip cost”. It does not answer “what does this ad cost”, and the gap between those two questions is where creative budgets break.

Generative video is non-deterministic. The same prompt returns a different take every run. You are not buying a clip, you are buying attempts until one is usable. Directors have always worked this way. The difference is that film stock used to be the expensive part and now the takes are metered.

A workable planning ratio: assume you generate three to six times your final runtime. A clean product shot on a simple move might land in two takes. A shot with a specific hand gesture, a legible label, and a camera push might take eight.

So the unit to budget in is seconds generated per finished second, not clip price.

Worked example. A 30 second ad, four distinct shots, five takes per shot at eight seconds a take. That is 4 x 5 x 8 = 160 seconds generated for 30 seconds delivered, a ratio of 5.3 to 1.

Rates as published July 2026 (ai.google.dev, developers.openai.com). A naive estimate of “30 seconds of Veo 3.1” gives $12. The realistic figure is $64. Both use the same correct list price, and only one survives contact with an editor.

This is also the argument for drafting cheap and finishing expensive. Block the ad out on Veo 3.1 Lite or Sora 2 at $0.05 to $0.10 a second, lock the shot list, then spend the $0.40 rate only on takes you already know you want.

How credit systems repackage the same rate

Most tools you buy do not quote dollars per second. They quote credits, and the per-second rate sits underneath, unchanged. Credits are a billing wrapper, not a discount.

Runway publishes both halves openly, which makes it a useful worked example. Gen-4.5 costs 12 credits per second of generated video, and the plans run as follows (runwayml.com, July 2026):

Seconds calculated from the published 12 credits per second figure. Note the two price columns. The annually billed rate is roughly 20% below the monthly one, and quoting the annual number as “the price” is the single most common error in this category. Check which column a comparison page is reading before you trust it.

Read that table as a buyer and the headline price stops mattering. A $15 plan buys under a minute of Gen-4.5 a month. That is one ad, at the 5.3 to 1 take ratio, with nothing left for a second concept.

DesignerBox uses the same credit structure, and the numbers are worth stating plainly because they make the static-versus-video gap concrete. Generating or editing an image costs 5 credits. Nine avatar images cost 25. Video is charged per second of output, and that is where the budget goes:

Plans run from a free tier with 112 credits, through Basic at $15 a month for 500, Pro at $35 for 1,000, Premium at $75 for 2,500, and Ultra at $200 for 8,000. Current allocations are on the DesignerBox pricing page.

Sit with the last row. 6,400 credits is more than the whole monthly allocation on the $75 Premium plan, and AI video needs Premium or higher to begin with. On Ultra’s 8,000 credits, that clip is most of the month.

That is not a quirk of one vendor. Every tool in this category inherits the same shape, because the models underneath charge per second and stills do not. The practical move is to budget static and video as two separate lines. A plan that covers a month of image ads comfortably can be emptied by a handful of premium video takes.

Which model fits which shot

Model choice is a cost decision as much as an aesthetic one, and the right answer changes per shot rather than per brand. If the shot starts from a product photo rather than a text brief, the selection criteria shift again, and six image-to-video models compared for ecommerce covers that case in full. Best-for framing, based on the published rates above:

• Veo 3.1 is the pick when you need audio generated with the picture, since Google’s quoted rate includes it by default. Best for finished hero shots where a separate sound pass would cost more than the rate difference.
• Veo 3.1 Fast at $0.10 a second at 720p is the volume option. Best for concept testing and for the first pass on a shot list.
• Veo 3.1 Lite at $0.05 a second is the cheapest listed way to block out timing and framing before committing.
• Sora 2 at $0.10 a second matches Veo Fast at 720p. Best for drafting when you want a second model’s interpretation of the same brief.
• Sora 2 Pro at $0.70 a second for 1080p is a delivery-grade rate. Best reserved for takes you have already chosen.

The broader point is that no single model wins every shot, which is exactly why paying six separate subscriptions to reach them is the expensive way to find out. DesignerBox puts all 13 models behind one bill, so switching from a draft model to a delivery model is a dropdown rather than a procurement conversation.

Worth being straight about the limit of that argument: DesignerBox is not the only platform that aggregates models, and some competitors carry a larger roster at a lower cost per image. The Higgsfield AI alternatives comparison runs that math with both companies’ published rates, including where we lose.

If the comparison you are running is against traditional production rather than against another tool, the baseline worth reading is what a product photoshoot costs, where the reshoot cycle does to stills what the take ratio does to video. And if you are earlier than model selection, what an AI ad generator is covers the four tool types and the disclosure rules that decide whether the file you generate is allowed to run as an ad.

How to budget for it

Five steps, in order. They take about ten minutes and they beat any per-second comparison table, including the one above.

1. Count finished seconds, not ads. Six 15 second cuts is 90 seconds of delivery, whatever the campaign brief calls it.
2. Apply a take ratio. Start at 4 to 1 and raise it for shots with hands, text, logos, or specific motion. Lower it once you have your own data.
3. Split the shot list by draft and delivery. Price drafts at the $0.05 to $0.10 tier and deliveries at the $0.30 to $0.70 tier. Most teams find 80% of generation is drafting.
4. Price stills separately. They are one to two orders of magnitude cheaper and mixing them into one number hides both.
5. Re-check the rates before you commit. Veo 3’s June 30, 2026 shutdown is the reminder. This lineup changes on a monthly cycle, not an annual one.

Teams that ship creative repeatedly get a second lever the per-second math does not show: the shot list itself becomes reusable. Scaling creative production is mostly about not re-deriving the brief for every drop.

FAQ

How much does AI video generation cost per second?

Between $0.05 and $0.70 a second at list, depending on model and resolution. As of July 2026, Google lists Veo 3.1 Lite at $0.05 a second at 720p, Veo 3.1 Fast at $0.10, and Veo 3.1 at $0.40, with 4K at $0.60 (ai.google.dev, July 2026). OpenAI lists Sora 2 at $0.10 a second at 720p and Sora 2 Pro from $0.30 at 720p to $0.70 at 1080p (developers.openai.com, July 2026).

Is Veo 3.1 or Sora 2 cheaper?

At 720p they are close at the entry tiers and diverge at the top. Sora 2 is $0.10 a second at 720p, matching Veo 3.1 Fast. Veo 3.1 at $0.40 sits between Sora 2 Pro’s $0.30 at 720p and $0.70 at 1080p, and Veo’s rate includes audio by default while OpenAI’s pricing page does not specify audio in these figures (ai.google.dev, developers.openai.com, July 2026). Compare at the resolution you actually deliver, not at the headline rate.

Does Veo 3.1 charge extra for audio?

Not according to Google’s published pricing. The page presents the per-second figures as the “video with audio price (default)” and lists no separate audio-free rate for Veo 3.1 (ai.google.dev, July 2026). Treat any claim that Veo audio is a paid add-on as needing a source.

Why is AI video so much more expensive than AI images?

Because a video is many frames plus temporal consistency, and the compute scales with duration rather than sitting flat per output. The gap is roughly one to two orders of magnitude. In DesignerBox an image costs 5 credits while 8 seconds of Veo 3 with audio costs 6,400. Every tool in the category inherits this gap, because it comes from the models rather than from vendor pricing choices.

What happened to Veo 3?

Google’s pricing page marks Veo 3 and Veo 2 as deprecated with a June 30, 2026 shutdown date (ai.google.dev, July 2026). Veo 3.1 is the current generation and is the version included in DesignerBox. Comparison articles still quoting Veo 3 rates are working from a lineup that has moved.

How many seconds of AI video does a monthly plan actually buy?

Fewer than most buyers expect. Runway prices Gen-4.5 at 12 credits per second, so its 625 credit Standard plan at $15 a month billed monthly covers roughly 52 seconds of generation, and the 2,250 credit Pro plan at $35 covers about 187 seconds (runwayml.com, July 2026). Divide any plan’s credit allocation by its per-second credit cost before comparing plan prices.

Can I use AI-generated video in paid ads commercially?

Usually yes, though the licence comes from the tool rather than from copyright ownership, and platform disclosure rules apply separately. DesignerBox includes a commercial licence from the Pro tier upward, and AI video generation requires Premium or higher. Read the specific terms of whichever tool you use, and check the ad platform’s current AI disclosure policy before launch. If your video shows a real person re-synced or dubbed with AI, when you actually need AI lip sync covers the extra consent rules.

Model pricing verified against Google’s Gemini API pricing page (ai.google.dev), OpenAI’s API pricing page (developers.openai.com), and Runway’s pricing page (runwayml.com), all accessed July 2026. Kling and Seedance per-second list rates are deliberately not quoted: the vendors’ own pricing pages were not reachable at the time of writing, and third-party trackers conflict. DesignerBox credit costs and plan allocations are current as of July 2026. Rates in this category change monthly; verify before committing budget. Individual results vary.