AI video generator pricing: plans and usable clip costs (2026)

Magic Hour publishes this comparison and is one of the listed platforms. These are dated provider-documentation and billing-view snapshots, not a quality ranking. Primary pricing pages remain linked in each row; the separate annual-plan snapshot below was checked October 8. Do not treat an older row as a fresh checkout quote.

Magic Hour publishes this guide and includes its own product in the comparison. Treat the recommendations as editorial guidance from a vendor, and verify the linked first-party product details and your own output requirements before choosing a tool.

Platform subscriptions at a glance

Confirm the displayed offer at checkout. With Monthly selected, the hydrated Synthesia pricing page checked October 10, 2026 showed Starter at $19 and Pro at $89 per month. A static/source-page retrieval instead listed Starter at $29 with monthly billing. These public quotes disagree. The retained $19 observation reflects the checked monthly card; it is not a guaranteed offer for every account. Confirm your billing period, region and final checkout total before buying.

Pika’s $10 entry in this table is monthly; $8 is an annual-billing equivalent. Invideo’s $20 entry is the monthly view observed October 10. Other explicitly marked annual equivalents require the full annual commitment. Compare that commitment separately from a cancellable monthly bill, including taxes, renewal rates and any promotion.

For detailed plan and credit breakdowns, review Pika pricing, Runway pricing, Runway Gen-4.5 pricing, Seedance 2.0 pricing, HeyGen pricing, VEED pricing, and the Sora migration guide. Each page separates subscription invoices, credits, API billing and accepted-output costs.

Annual video-platform plans: October 8, 2026 snapshot

An annual plan’s monthly equivalent is not a cancellable monthly price. Record the full commitment, included allowance and exact generation settings before comparing plans. These observations describe advertised retail plans, not paid tests or accepted-output costs. Credits and compute units are different currencies; equal balances do not buy equal video output.

Sources checked October 8, 2026: Magic Hour pricing, OpenArt pricing, and Krea pricing. This selected three-platform USD snapshot is not an exhaustive market comparison. Annual billing selection was verified in the retained source HTML. Regional currency, taxes, checkout terms, renewal pricing and active promotions can differ.

This is the first dated retail-plan observation in this series. It does not establish historical price changes, and it does not reverify every row in the separately dated overview above. Future comparisons must match the same provider, plan, allowance, billing period and currency. Reference prices displayed beside promotions are not evidence of a previous observed price.

For your budget, define the model, duration, resolution, audio and required finished clips; include rejected attempts and unused subscription capacity. Start with one representative project in Text-to-Video or Image-to-Video, review the complete export, and calculate cost per accepted clip before committing to a larger plan.

The cheapest plan may not fit the job

A scripted presenter, a generated cinematic shot, and an edited product demonstration are different deliverables. Choose the workflow first. Avatar platforms can be appropriate for training; a scene generator is relevant when you need footage from a prompt or image.

Google Gemini API pricing page, captured September 25, 2026. Billing selection, currency and any promotion are shown in the screenshot; recheck the live page and checkout before buying. View official source

Runway pricing page, captured September 25, 2026. Billing selection, currency and any promotion are shown in the screenshot; recheck the live page and checkout before buying. View official source

For Magic Hour, start with text-to-video for a new scene or image-to-video to animate a reference. Check the actual model, settings, quote, and commercial terms before generating.

Calculate cost per usable clip

Use this formula: total relevant charges divided by the number of accepted outputs. Include rejected generations, required feature charges, and extra purchases. If allocating a subscription cost, state how much of the allowance you used.

Example: a $30 monthly subscription produces ten accepted clips during a month with no additional purchases. Allocating the whole invoice gives $3 per accepted clip. If you accept only five, it becomes $6. This hypothetical example explains the accounting; it does not predict a tool’s acceptance rate.

API rates need a separate comparison

Consumer subscriptions do not automatically include API credit. Direct APIs may bill per second, generation, token, or another unit. Use our AI video pricing index for defined API examples and compare exact settings rather than generic credit counts.

Is Sora still a purchase option?

OpenAI closed Sora’s app and web experience on April 26, 2026, and lists September 24, 2026 as the API discontinuation date. It should not be recommended as a new long-term subscription or integration. See OpenAI’s shutdown guidance.

What should you buy first?

Choose the lowest plan that satisfies one representative project, complete the export, and inspect the result. Write down the required model, input, duration, resolution, watermark conditions, commercial terms, and number of accepted clips. Compare the full monthly invoice and required extras with an annual commitment separately.

Use the video-cost worksheet to record rejected attempts and unused capacity. For a product workflow, start with one copyable shot prompt. Buy more capacity when the completed workflow and your measured usage justify it.

Three budgets that expose the real price

Budget 1: one social clip. Define six finished seconds, three candidates, one selected export and no extension. Compare the exact model, duration, resolution, watermark and whether audio is included. A monthly plan is poor value when only one job is needed and unused credits do not fit future work.

Budget 2: a six-shot product video. Assume three candidates per shot, eighteen initial generations, two repaired shots and one final upscale path. Require product geometry, label, color and camera behavior to pass. This scenario exposes platforms that look cheap per generation but require many retries.

Budget 3: weekly production. Define clips per week, candidate rate, team seats, storage, queue priority, API needs and revision volume. Compare subscriptions, purchased credits and API billing separately. Include operator time for prompt changes, downloads, transfers and cleanup.

Avoid four pricing mistakes

Do not compare a platform subscription with one underlying API model. Do not treat credits as equal across products. Do not divide plan price by the maximum theoretical outputs when your settings cost more. Do not count generated clips as usable clips.

Run a small representative sample and retain every candidate. Calculate total spend divided by accepted outputs. If the job begins from a written brief, test Magic Hour Text-to-Video. If a reference image must remain recognizable, test Image-to-Video.