How Much Does AI Video Really Cost Per Second? (2026 Numbers)
Per-second pricing for every major AI video model class in 2026 — from $0.05/s budget tiers to $1+/s flagships — plus the duration and resolution levers that cut your bill in half.
2026-09-24 · Data · 8 min read
AI Video Cost Per Second: The Real 2026 Numbers
AI video pricing is quoted in credits, tokens and subscriptions — anything but the number you actually budget with. Here's everything converted to dollars per second, from the budget floor to the flagship ceiling.
All Slloy numbers below come straight from our published price table (credits per 5-second clip at 720p unless noted; $0.008 per credit on subscriptions, less at pack rates). Market context ranges are approximate, from public pricing pages as of September 2026.
Per-second cost by model (Slloy, 720p, 5s clip)
| Model | Credits / 5s | ≈ $ per second | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wan 2.2 Lite (T2V) | 30 (480p) | $0.048 | Prompt drafts, tests |
| Wan 2.2 I2V Flash (480p, fixed 5s) | 30 | $0.048 | Cheapest photo animation |
| Wan 2.6 I2V (silent) | 40 | $0.064 | Silent B-roll, loops |
| Wan 2.7 T2V | 150 | $0.24 | Value 720p text-to-video |
| Seedance 2.0 Mini | 100 | $0.16 | Social clips, 15s shots |
| Seedance 2.0 Fast | 180 | $0.288 | Balanced quality/speed |
| Seedance 2.0 PRO | 300 | $0.48 | Ad-grade 720p |
| Seedance 2.5 (flagship) | 360 | $0.576 | Hero content with audio |
The resolution lever (where budgets die quietly)
Resolution doesn't scale linearly. At 480p you pay 40–60% of the 720p price (Seedance 2.0 PRO drops from 300 to 150 credits per 5s). At 1080p you pay 2× or more (PRO 1080p is 600 credits; Wan 2.7 1080p is 250). The practical rule: Reels, Shorts and TikTok compress everything to ~720p anyway — rendering those at 1080p is donating money to the encoder. Reserve 1080p for website heroes, client deliverables and YouTube.
The duration lever
Every model on our shelf prices duration linearly: a 15-second clip costs 3× a 5-second clip of the same model and resolution. This makes the draft-then-extend workflow mandatory for anyone over ~20 clips a month: iterate prompts at 5 seconds, and only extend verified winners to 10 or 15 seconds. The impulse to “just render it long and see” is the single most expensive habit in AI video.
How this compares to the rest of the market
Public pricing across major platforms in 2026 puts budget tiers around $0.05–0.15 per second, mid tiers at $0.20–0.50, and flagships at $0.50–1.00+ — with subscription bundles muddying comparisons the same way they do for images (your real per-second cost depends on burning the whole monthly quota). Raw API pricing can look lower until you add the engineering to run it. The per-credit middle path exists precisely because most creators want model variety without ops work.
A worked budget
Target: 20 finished social clips a month, drafted iteratively. Plan: 60 draft renders on Wan 2.2 Lite (60 × 30cr = 1,800cr ≈ $14.40), 20 finals on Seedance 2.0 Mini (20 × 100cr = 2,000cr ≈ $16.00). Total ≈ $30.40/month for a full content pipeline — less than one stock-footage bundle, for clips no one else can license.
Budgeting by the minute: three real projects
Per-second numbers become concrete when attached to deliverables. Here are three common projects priced out with the table above (drafts on Wan 2.2 Lite, finals as noted):
| Project | Build | Credit cost | ≈ USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok/Reels pack (5 clips) | 15 drafts × 5s Lite + 5 finals × 5s Mini 720p | 450 + 500 = 950cr | ≈ $7.60 |
| Product hero loop (site header) | 6 drafts × 5s Lite + 1 final × 15s Wan 2.6 I2V 720p | 180 + 120 = 300cr | ≈ $2.40 |
| Ad campaign (2 cuts at 1080p) | 10 drafts × 5s Lite + 2 finals × 5s PRO 1080p | 300 + 1,200 = 1,500cr | ≈ $12.00 |
Notice the pattern in all three: drafts cost less than finals even though they outnumber them. That's the leverage of the two-tier workflow, and it's the difference between a $10 and a $100 monthly video habit.
Why the same model costs different prices on different platforms
A fair question the per-second table raises: if the model is identical, why does Platform A charge $1.20 for 5 seconds and Platform B $2.90? Three legitimate reasons and one dishonest one. Legitimate: margin policy (platforms price for profit at different points), queue and service tier (priority inference costs more to provide), and bundled extras (storage, editing tools, commercial licenses, refund policies are all costs someone pays). Dishonest: burying the per-generation price behind a subscription so you can't comparison-shop. The defense is the same either way — always convert any offer to dollars-per-second before comparing, and prefer platforms that print the number for you. Ours does: every model page on Slloy lists its exact credit cost per duration and resolution.
One more number worth internalizing: the cost of a regret. Rendering a 15-second final before testing the prompt at 5s means paying 3× to discover a flaw — on the flagship tier that's the difference between .88 and .64 for the same lesson. The cheapest second of AI video is always the one you don't have to re-render. Build the habit: 5s test, judge, then extend.
What's coming for per-second pricing
Two trends worth budgeting around. First, price decay: each model generation delivers the same quality at lower cost — the flagship price of 2024 buys mid-tier quality in 2026, and that deflation continues. Locking into a year-long subscription priced at today's flagship rates is a bet against this curve; per-credit spending rides it automatically. Second, resolution commoditization: 1080p premiums are shrinking as pipelines optimize; within a year or two the 2× surcharge will likely halve. Neither trend requires action today — they just argue for flexibility over lock-in, which is a good principle for every line in your creative budget.