How much it costs to make a video with a neural network: Veo, Kling and Seedance
- The cheapest second: Veo 3.1 Fast on a Google AI Pro subscription, about $0.05 with the credits fully spent.
- Maximum quality costs an order of magnitude more: Veo 3.1 Quality is about $0.25 a second, Sora 2 Pro up to $0.70.
- Sora has been closed since 26 April 2026 and the API will be switched off on 24 September. You cannot build a process on it.
- A realistic 30-second clip: $4.80 to $13.50 in generations alone, plus the subscription.
- Paying from Russia adds 5 to 27%. Ruble aggregators charge 2 to 4 times more than the native prices.
- A first clip takes a beginner 5 to 10 hours. If your hour costs more than $11 to $14, ordering a finished clip is cheaper.
- The prices were taken on 24 July 2026. Tariffs will change, and we will update the article.
A second of finished AI video costs $0.05 to $0.70, depending on the model and the quality. That figure is in no price list: services sell subscriptions and credits, and the real rate of a credit is buried deep in the tariff grid. We converted the tariffs of Veo, Kling and Seedance into a price per second and worked out what a 30-second clip costs with rejects and redos. The way it works in practice, not the way tariff advertising presents it.
We at Blind Chameleon generate clips in these models every day, so what follows is our working accounting, with dates and primary sources. All prices were taken from the official sites on 24 July 2026.
Why AI models have no price per second of video
Not one generator sells seconds directly. Money leaves your account in three ways:
- a subscription with credits (Veo in the Flow app, Kling): you pay a fixed sum per month and get a batch of credits;
- pay as you go through the API (Seedance, Sora, Veo for developers): a charge for every generation;
- discounted token packages (Seedance): prepayment in exchange for a lower price.
A credit is the internal currency of a service, and every service has its own rate. In Google Flow a clip takes 10 to 100 credits depending on the mode, in Kling the count runs per second. You cannot compare them head on, so we brought everything to one measure: the price of a second of finished 720p video in dollars.
How we counted. For subscriptions the price of a second comes out of division: the cost of a month by the number of credits, the credits by the seconds of video. That figure is honest on one condition, that you use the whole subscription. Price lists say nothing about that condition, and they should. Credits almost nowhere roll over to the next month. If you do not spend the batch to the end, the remainder burns, and the real price of your second goes up.
What happened to Sora and what to replace it with
With Sora it is simple and sad: the service is gone. OpenAI switched off the app and the site on 26 April 2026, and on 24 September it will switch off the API too, with the sora-2 and sora-2-pro models deleted (OpenAI deprecation schedule). The company offered no replacement. Credits already bought can be spent in other OpenAI products or refunded through the standard procedure.
While the API is still running, the prices are these: sora-2 costs $0.10 per second at 720p, sora-2-pro from $0.30 to $0.70 per second. In the tables below Sora is kept with a footnote, as a reference point for the transition period.
What to replace it with. The closest on price is Veo 3.1 Fast through the API, the same $0.10 per second. For picture quality on complex scenes go to Veo 3.1 Quality or Kling 3.0 at 1080p. Guides on how to pay for Sora from Russia are still hanging in the search results, but there is no point buying access to a service that closes in two months.
How much a generation in Veo 3.1 costs
A second of Veo 3.1 costs from $0.05 on a subscription to $0.40 through the API at maximum quality. That is an eightfold spread, and here is where it comes from.
Google's current line is called Veo 3.1 and lives in three modes: Quality, Fast and Lite. The previous Veo 3 and Veo 2 were switched off on 30 June 2026. If you see them in someone's price list, the price list is out of date.
For an ordinary user, generation runs in the Flow app on a Google AI subscription:
| Plan | Price per month | Credits | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| No subscription | $0 | 50 a day | 2 Fast clips or 5 Lite a day |
| Google AI Pro | ~$20 | 1,000 | 50 Fast clips of 8 seconds |
| Google AI Ultra | $100 | 10,000 | 500 Fast clips, a discount on Lite and Fast |
| Google AI Ultra | $200 | 25,000 | a pipeline: 1,250 Fast clips |
The main trick of the tariff: a Fast clip costs 20 credits at any length, whether 4 seconds or 8 (Flow help). Generate the eight-second ones. That works out at 2.5 credits per second, or $0.05 on the Pro subscription with the credits fully spent. Quality mode takes 100 credits for an eight-second clip, which is $0.25 per second. The upscale to 1080p is free from Pro up, 4K is available on Ultra only.
For developers there is an API with pay as you go: Lite at $0.05, Fast at $0.10, Standard at $0.40 per second of 720p.
How much a generation in Kling 3.0 costs
A five-second clip in Kling 3.0 costs $0.40 without sound and $0.80 at 1080p with sound. The count runs per second: 720p without sound takes 6 credits, 1080p with sound 12 (the VIDEO 3.0 model guide).
The popular Standard plan costs $10 in the first month and $8.80 on renewal for 660 credits. That is enough for 22 five-second clips at 720p or 11 with sound at 1080p. Converted: $0.08 per second at base quality, $0.16 at maximum.
The plans above it, Pro at $37 and Premier at $92, give more credits, but the rate of a credit barely changes: around 66 credits per dollar (the Kling membership page). Subscription credits live for a month. There is also 4K at 30 credits per second, only credits melt so fast there that the mode is good for short final inserts alone.
How much a generation in Seedance 2.0 costs
Seedance 2.0 charges 0.99 yuan per second through the API, about $0.15 (Volcano tariffs). Packages are cheaper, around $0.09. This is our main working model: the marmalade and lemonade clips in our portfolio were made in it.
Seedance is sold through the Volcano/BytePlus cloud, and entry is a deposit from 200 yuan, about $30. The lightweight mini version takes half of what the base one does, 0.50 yuan, or about $0.07 per second. Prepaid token packages cut the price by 39%, down to $0.09 per second. A package lives 90 days. Did not manage to use it, it burns, same as everywhere.
Rejects are a normal part of production, not a failure. One accepted shot takes us three to five retakes: the camera move went wrong, or the logo warped, or the character has an extra finger. Anyone who budgets one generation per shot is fooling themselves several times over. The production team at Blind Chameleon
What you can generate for free
With no money you can realistically get two clips a day. Google Flow credits 50 credits daily: that is 2 Veo 3.1 Fast clips or 5 Lite clips. Quality mode is not available at all on the free plan, videos carry a watermark, and the terms of commercial use depend on the plan.
If you save them up, a week gives you 14 Fast clips. That is enough for a draft of a 30-second clip in one take, but not for a realistic three takes. There is no free tier on the Veo API: the Gemini API gives out video models on the paid tier only.
Kling and Seedance have free limits too, but they change from promotion to promotion and are visible only after registration. It is not worth building a budget on them, the free tier does not carry working volumes. It is good for one thing, testing a model on your own product before you buy a subscription. Generate a couple of test clips in Flow, and it will be clear whether the model can handle your task.
Price table for popular AI video generators
A second of AI video costs from $0.05 with Veo 3.1 Fast to $0.70 with Sora 2 Pro. Below is the whole line-up in one table. The subscription figures are amortised, that is, they hold if the credits are fully spent within the month. Paying from Russia adds 5 to 27% on top, more on that below.
| Model and mode | Access | $ per 5-second clip | $ per second |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veo 3.1 Fast | Google AI Pro subscription | clip of 4 to 8 s: $0.40 | 0.05 (at 8 s) |
| Veo 3.1 Lite (API) | pay as you go | ~$0.25 | 0.05 |
| Kling 3.0, 720p | Standard subscription | $0.40 | 0.08 |
| Seedance 2.0 mini | Volcano API | $0.35 | 0.07 |
| Sora 2, 720p * | API, until 24.09.2026 | $0.50 | 0.10 |
| Seedance 2.0, 720p | Volcano API | $0.75 (package $0.45) | 0.15 (package 0.09) |
| Kling 3.0, 1080p with sound | Standard subscription | $0.80 | 0.16 |
| Veo 3.1 Quality | Google AI Pro subscription | clip of 8 s: $2.00 | 0.25 |
| Sora 2 Pro, 1080p * | API, until 24.09.2026 | $3.50 | 0.70 |
* Sora is closing, the prices are given as a reference point for the transition period.
What the table shows. The cheap segment belongs to Veo Fast and Kling, $0.05 to $0.08 per second. The middle is Seedance, $0.07 to $0.15, and in exchange its API behaves more steadily than any other in our pipeline. Maximum quality costs an order of magnitude more than the entry level, and that is the main fork in the budget: for a marketplace product card 720p is enough, for a brand image clip you will have to pay for Quality.
How much a 30-second clip really costs
A realistic 30-second clip costs $4.80 to $13.50 in generations alone. We counted it this way: the video is made of 6 clips of 5 seconds, and with Veo the clips run eight seconds, so there are 4 of them. Then the formula: clips multiplied by takes and by the price of a clip.
The takes are the main variable. An idealist believes every shot comes out right the first time. A realist budgets three attempts per shot. A perfectionist five.
| Model | Ideal, 1 take | Realistic, 3 takes | Perfectionist, 5 takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veo 3.1 Fast (Pro subscription) | $1.60 | $4.80 | $8.00 |
| Kling 3.0, 720p (Standard) | $2.40 | $7.20 | $12.00 ** |
| Sora 2, API 720p | $3.00 | $9.00 | $15.00 |
| Seedance 2.0, API 720p | $4.50 | $13.50 | $22.50 |
| Veo 3.1 Quality (Pro subscription) | $8.00 | $24.00 * | $40.00 * |
| For comparison: a finished clip from an agency | $114 |
* Does not fit into the monthly 1,000 credits of Google AI Pro: you need a second month of the subscription, or Ultra. ** Goes past the 660 credits of the Standard plan: topping up costs about $3.60, or you move to a higher plan.
The awkward fact from the table: a realistic clip at maximum Veo quality does not fit into a monthly Pro subscription. The attractive "from $20 a month" turns in practice into two months of waiting, or the $100 plan.
And that is the price of generations alone, with no editing, no sound and none of your time. For comparison: a finished 30-second clip from an agency costs $114 as a fixed quote, with everything listed above already inside it.
Work out the price of your clip →
How to pay for AI services from Russia and what it adds to the price
Paying from Russia adds 5 to 27% through intermediaries, and ruble aggregators charge 2 to 4 times more than the native prices. Not one of the four services accepts Russian cards, and there are three working routes:
- Intermediary services pay for the foreign subscription on your behalf. The market commission runs from 5 to 27% (our own payments and public write-ups on vc.ru, July 2026). A Google AI Pro subscription turns from $20 into $21 to $25.
- Ruble aggregators of AI models sell generations for rubles over SBP, but at their own rate: a second of Veo Fast comes out at about $0.46 against $0.05 to $0.10 direct. That is a difference of 2 to 4 times, and it is the fee for paying in one click.
- Your own foreign account works with no markup, but with the hassle of opening and topping it up.
Add the entry thresholds. The Volcano deposit starts at 200 yuan, and the Google subscription is sold whole only, even if you need one clip. For a one-off project, thresholds like those often cost more than the generations themselves.
Which is better, making the video yourself or ordering it
A one-off clip is cheaper to order if an hour of your work costs more than $11 to $14. A seller with a flow of three or four clips a month is better off learning to generate them. Here is what those thresholds are made of.
Money. A realistic 30-second clip eats $4.80 to $13.50 of generations, plus a subscription or a deposit, plus the payment markup. That comes to $21 to $36.
Time. A first clip takes a beginner 5 to 10 hours: prompts and references, retakes, editing with sound, and a separate quest with the payment. That is our estimate from experience of teaching people, it differs for everyone, but we have never once seen it under five hours.
The threshold comes out simply. From the $114 agency quote we subtract the $21 to $36 of costs and divide by 7 to 8 hours of work. That gives the $11 to $14 an hour. Between a one-off order and your own pipeline, what decides it is a free day and the willingness to figure things out.
One clip in our portfolio was made by this pipeline in a single day, on a quote of $86.
The calculator will show the exact price for your job: running time, quantity, voice over, with no requests and no waiting.
How fast these prices will go out of date
Fast. Over the last year the line-up changed twice: in May 2026 Google reshuffled the Ultra plans and added a $100 plan, and on 30 June it switched off Veo 3 and Veo 2 entirely. OpenAI closed Sora on 26 April and will finish off its API on 24 September, after which the rows about it move into the article's archive. Kling rewrites its credit tables for every new version of the model, ruble aggregators change prices without warning, and exchange rates float on top of all that.
That is why the article has a date: all the figures were taken on 24 July 2026, and the date of the last check is visible under the headline. Tariffs will change and we will update the tables. If you arrived here from search six months later, check the key figures against the links below, they lead straight to the tariff pages of the services.
Sources
All prices and facts were taken from the official pages on 24 July 2026:
- Gemini API: Veo 3.1 pricing, and the switch-off of Veo 3 and Veo 2 there too
- Google Flow help: credits by plan
- Google blog: AI Ultra plans, 19.05.2026
- OpenAI: the Sora discontinuation
- OpenAI: sora-2 API pricing and the deprecation schedule
- Kling: membership plans and VIDEO 3.0 credits
- Volcano Engine: Seedance 2.0 tariffs and the international BytePlus edition
- RIA Novosti: labelling of AI content will be voluntary, 03.07.2026
- Intermediary commissions of 5 to 27%: our own payments in July 2026 plus public write-ups on vc.ru, check the figures on the spot
FAQ
Can you generate video with a neural network for free?
Yes. Google Flow gives 50 credits a day: that is 2 Veo 3.1 Fast clips or 5 Lite clips. Quality mode is not available on the free plan, videos carry a watermark, and the terms of commercial use depend on the plan.
Is it true that Sora has closed?
Yes. The app and the site were switched off on 26 April 2026, the API works until 24 September 2026, after which the models are deleted. OpenAI offers to let you spend credits already bought in its other products, or get a refund.
Which AI video model is the cheapest?
On a subscription: Veo 3.1 Fast in Google Flow, about $0.05 per second with the credits fully spent and eight-second clips. On the API: Veo 3.1 Lite at $0.05 per second. Next comes Kling 3.0 at about $0.08 per second.
Why is it more expensive at Russian aggregators?
Because the price has the foreign payment, the risk and the service's margin baked into it. A second of Veo Fast at a ruble aggregator costs about $0.46 against $0.05 to $0.10 direct, 2 to 4 times more. That is the markup for being able to pay with a Russian card in one click.
Is one subscription enough for a month of clips?
It depends on the quality. Google AI Pro gives 50 Fast clips of 8 seconds, which is more than enough for short clips. But one 30-second clip in Quality mode with three takes eats 1,200 credits, and a month of Pro has only 1,000.
Who owns the rights to a generated video?
In Russia a neural network counts as a tool: the rights to the result belong to whoever created it. But the area is still grey, there is little case law, and the terms of services differ. For advertising, check the licence of the specific plan.
Does a video made by a neural network have to be labelled?
Labelling of AI content specifically is voluntary: as of July 2026 a mandatory law is only being discussed. Do not confuse it with advertising labelling: online advertising is labelled through ERIR under the general rules, no matter whether it was shot on a camera or generated.
Which is better, generating it yourself or ordering it?
If you need clips now and then and your hour costs more than $11 to $14, ordering wins: a finished 30-second clip costs $114 against 5 to 10 hours of work and around $30 in costs. If you need three or four clips a month, learn to generate them yourself.
Runs orders at Blind Chameleon studio
Quotes clips and works with Veo, Kling and Seedance every day: the prices in this article come from our own invoices, not from someone else’s round-up. He will help you size a budget for your job and say plainly if the job is cheaper to solve without us.