Every AI video pricing page tells you what a generation costs. None of them tell you what a usable clip costs, and that's the number that hits your card.
The gap is the keeper rate. If one in five takes is good enough to use, your real price is five times the sticker. I checked the official pricing and help pages of eight tools on September 28, 2026 to put numbers on it.
The one formula
cost per usable clip = (plan price ÷ generations per month) × takes per keeper
"Takes per keeper" is the part nobody publishes. It depends on the shot: a talking head might land in two takes, liquid or hands can take ten. So I ran it at three rates.
Cheapest paid plan, 5-second clip, monthly billing
| Tool, plan | Model / clip | Per generation | Keep 1 in 3 | 1 in 5 | 1 in 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pika Starter, $10 | Pika 2.5, 720p, 5s | $0.22 | $0.67 | $1.11 | $2.22 |
| Luma Plus, $30 | Ray3.2, 720p, 5s | $0.30 | $0.90 | $1.50 | $3.00 |
| Hailuo Standard, $14.99 | H3, 768p, 5s | $0.37–0.52 | $1.11–1.56 | $1.85–2.62 | $3.70–5.25 |
| Kling Standard, $8.80* | Video 3.0, 720p, 5s | $0.40 | $1.20 | $2.00 | $4.00 |
| Google AI Pro, $19.99 | Veo 3.1 Fast, 8s | $0.40 | $1.20 | $2.00 | $4.00 |
| Higgsfield Starter, $19 | Kling 3.0, 720p, 5s | $0.53–0.70 | $1.58–2.11 | $2.64–3.52 | $5.28–7.04 |
| Dreamina Basic, $15** | Seedance 2.0 Fast, 720p, 10s | ~$0.79 | $2.37 | $3.95 | $7.89 |
| Runway Standard, $15 | Gen-4.5, 720p, 5s | $1.44 | $4.32 | $7.20 | $14.40 |
*Kling lists $10 and bills $8.80/month after a discounted first month. **Dreamina's first month is 90% off until Oct 9; the per-clip cost is derived from its own "19 videos a month" estimate. Ranges mean the published credit cost for that clip varies between official sources. Veo clips are 8 seconds, so it's not a perfect match. I checked from outside the US and some pages show regional promos, so treat the numbers as ±20%. Full sources at the end.
Two things stand out:
- The spread is huge. The same 1-in-5 keeper rate costs $1.11 on one tool and $7.20 on another.
- Quality settings multiply everything. 1080p, audio or a "quality" model tier usually costs 2–5x the base credits. Veo 3.1 Quality is $2.00 per generation before any rerolls.
Rejected takes are billed everywhere
I looked for each tool's refund policy. The pattern is the same everywhere I could find it: failed generations (errors, blocked content) get credits back, finished-but-unwanted ones don't. Runway's help center says it directly: credits come back only when a generation "ends in a generation error".
That's fair from the provider's side, since the GPU time was spent. But it means the table above is the real cost, not a worst case.
Other things that raise the effective price:
- No rollover. Unused credits expire at the end of the month on every plan I checked except Runway Max (one month of carryover).
- "Unlimited" mostly went away. Runway ended its Unlimited plan for new subscribers on June 1, 2026 (legacy plans keep it until November 30). Other "unlimited" or "relaxed" modes I found are limited to specific models, time windows, or are just a discount.
- Intro promos. Several tools show first-month discounts. Budget for month two.
How to lower your cost per keeper
The formula has two levers: price per generation and takes per keeper. Most people only shop the first one. The second one is usually bigger.
- One action per clip. Most wasted takes I see try to fit two things into five seconds ("she picks up the cup and walks to the window"). Split it.
- Say the camera. "Static shot", "slow push in", "handheld" removes a whole axis of randomness.
- Describe the subject the same way every time across shots. Changing adjectives changes faces.
- Lead with the action, not the scenery. Models spend the first second on what you mention first.
I packaged these checks as a free, open-source agent skill that turns a one-line idea into a shot list with one prompt per shot: ai-film-crew (MIT, works with any model). In one test, replanning a single prompt this way took a spill shot from "barely happens" to landing in 10 out of 10 generations.
The other option: stop counting
Disclosure: I work on Ludyte, an AI video app with no credits. Paid plans are a flat monthly price ($39 Creator, $59 Pro, $99 Max), with no cap on how many videos you generate. The terms say so. The tiers change speed and how many run at once, not how many you get.
The trade-off is time, not money. The Creator plan runs one generation at a time, and a 15-second "Better" clip can sit in the queue for a while when servers are busy. If you need 50 clips by tonight, a credit plan with fast queues may be the better tool. If you reroll a lot and hate watching a counter, flat pricing changes how you work: you try the weird idea.
There are 9 free videos with no card if you want to test it against the numbers above: share.ludyte.com/junfoi
Sources (checked September 28, 2026)
- Runway: pricing · Gen-4.5 credits · credit refunds · Unlimited is switching to Max
- Kling: plans · Video 3.0 credit guide · Video 3.0 user guide
- Higgsfield: pricing · failed generations
- Luma: pricing · billing policy · credit system
- Hailuo: plans · payment policy
- Pika: pricing · Pika 2.5 (credit cost shown on the generate button)
- Google: Google AI plans · Flow credits · failed generations
- Dreamina: pricing
Prices change often and some pages show regional discounts. If you spot a number that's out of date, tell me in the comments and I'll update the table.
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