Nobody tells you what 30 AI videos per month actually costs.**
You open Runway's pricing page. It says "125 credits included". You open Kling's page. It says "monthly tokens". Luma says "generations per day". None of them define what a "credit" translates to in dollars for your specific workflow.
So you guess. You launch a project. Three weeks later you get a bill that's 3x what you planned.
I hit this problem enough times that I built a calculator to stop guessing: AI Video Studio Cost Planner.
Here's the math behind it.
How each platform actually charges you
The three platforms have completely different credit models:
Runway Gen-3 Alpha
Charges per second of video generated. Standard rate: ~10 credits/second. At $0.01 per credit, that's $0.10/second. A 10-second clip costs $1. Sounds fine — until you're generating 50 clips for a client project.
Add 4K upscaling and that rate doubles. That's the part nobody reads in the pricing page.
Kling AI (Pro)
Uses a token-per-second model where complex motion prompts consume more tokens per frame. Rate varies but averages around 15 credits/second at $0.015 per credit.
Luma Dream Machine
Flat credit per generation regardless of length (within limits). The most predictable model — easier to budget, but you lose flexibility on duration.
The math for a real workflow
Say you're producing 30 short videos per month, averaging 10 seconds each, at standard quality.
| Platform | Credits Used | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Runway Gen-3 | 3,000 | ~$30 |
| Kling Pro | 4,500 | ~$67 |
| Luma | 3,600 | ~$43 |
Now switch to 4K upscaling. Every number doubles.
At 100 videos/month, you're looking at $100–$300+ depending on platform and quality. The unlimited subscription plans start making sense around that volume.
The GPU equivalent cost
One metric I added to the calculator that people find useful: GPU equivalent cost.
This is what it would cost you to run the same inference on a rented H100 (via Lambda, RunPod, etc.) instead of using the SaaS platform. Typically comes out to about 45% of the SaaS price — meaning you're paying roughly a 2x markup for the convenience of not managing infrastructure.
For hobbyists and small studios, the markup is worth it. For high-volume production (1000+ videos/month), self-hosted inference starts to make financial sense.
The "rates verified" problem
AI video pricing changes constantly. Runway has updated their credit pricing twice in the past year. Kling keeps adjusting their token system.
This made building the calculator annoying: I couldn't hardcode numbers and walk away. So I added a "Rates Verified: [Month Year]" badge per model, and I update the underlying numbers when platforms change their pricing.
It's a small thing, but it means you know whether the estimate is based on current data or something from 6 months ago.
The calculator
Free, no login, opens instantly: bytecalculators.com/ai-video-cost-calculator
Set your model, monthly video count, duration, and quality tier. It outputs monthly cost, total credits, and the GPU equivalent.
If the rates are wrong or a model is missing, leave a comment — I update it when pricing changes.
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