The latest articles on DEV Community by Ehmad from Qlue Dental (@ehmad_fromqluedental_a1). https://dev.to/ehmad_fromqluedental_a1 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4205541%2F2b045e67-1aeb-435d-a569-407445d511c6.jpg https://dev.to/ehmad_fromqluedental_a1 en Ehmad from Qlue Dental Sat, 24 Oct 2026 22:31:00 +0000 https://dev.to/ehmad_fromqluedental_a1/what-a-minute-of-ai-video-really-costs-the-clip-is-the-cheap-part-2g8p https://dev.to/ehmad_fromqluedental_a1/what-a-minute-of-ai-video-really-costs-the-clip-is-the-cheap-part-2g8p <p>I build Ziztu, an AI studio for micro dramas and anime, so weigh that. I wrote this because comparing AI video prices is harder than it looks, and I had to work out how to do it fairly for our own price page.</p> <h2> Per second is only the clip </h2> <p>Most price lists give you a cost per second. That is the price of the clip and nothing else. A finished episode also needs a script, a shot list, a cast that looks the same in every shot, voices, a score and a cut. If a tool sells only the clip, the rest of the job is billed somewhere else, in other software or in your time.</p> <h2> Five things I check before comparing two prices </h2> <ol> <li>The unit. Per second, per clip and credits are not the same thing. Convert everything to one unit before you compare.</li> <li>The resolution. Most video models bill more for 768P and 1080P than for 480P, so a headline price at 480P tells you little about a 1080P clip.</li> <li>The sound. Some models include audio and some do not. If voices and music are extra, add them.</li> <li>The retakes. A shot that comes out wrong is a second shot. Plan for it.</li> <li>What is outside the clip: the script, the cast and the cut.</li> </ol> <h2> A worked example </h2> <p>From our rate card: 12 shots of 5 seconds at 768P, a cast drawn once, 8 spoken lines, one score cue and 5 Director chats come to about 775 credits. Retakes cost extra. This is a worked example from the rate card, not a quote.</p> <h2> How we try to keep the numbers honest </h2> <ul> <li>The table on the price page is built when the page loads, from the same price list the server uses to charge for a request. Nobody edits it by hand.</li> <li>Provider prices are the raw prices from fal.ai model pages and OpenRouter's pricing API, checked at least once a month.</li> <li>Credits are priced from the provider's published rate, with a small allowance for price changes, and rounded up to a whole credit.</li> <li>The price of a generation is shown before you run it.</li> </ul> <p>It is not the cheapest for everything. For a single clip, some tools sell it for less than we do, and the page says which. If you only need one clip, compare the per-second prices in the table with the tool pages linked from it.</p> <p>The full table, with the date it was last checked, is here: <a href="https://getziztu.com/ai-video-price-index" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://getziztu.com/ai-video-price-index</a></p> <p>If you are choosing between presenter tools and story tools, this page sets out who each one fits: <a href="https://getziztu.com/alternatives/heygen" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://getziztu.com/alternatives/heygen</a></p> <p>If a price on the page is wrong, tell me and I will fix it.</p> ai video pricing discuss