AI Video Generators Compared: Price per Second and Length (2026)

Updated: November 2026 · Prices checked: November 2026

Two years ago, AI video was a toy. Now businesses use it for product teasers, ad variations and B-roll for posts. The quality gap between tools has narrowed. What separates them today is price per second, how long one clip can be, whether it makes sound, and how much control you get. This guide compares the main options with prices in euros, so you can pick one and stop testing.

The main tools side by side

Dollar prices are converted at about €0.86 per dollar. API prices are what you pay per second of finished video. App plans give a monthly pool of credits.

Price per second, explained

Every vendor now bills video by the second. The price changes with three switches: resolution, sound, and model tier. Here is the detail.

• Veo 3.1 (Gemini API, with audio): Lite about €0.043/s at 720p and €0.069/s at 1080p. Fast about €0.086/s at 720p, €0.10/s at 1080p, €0.26/s at 4K. Standard about €0.34/s at 720p or 1080p and €0.52/s at 4K. There is no free tier for Veo in the API.
• Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash: about €0.06 per second at 720p. Google cut the price by 30% versus the previous version. I covered the launch in Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash: 15-second AI video.
• Kling (API): Kling 4.0 uses 1 unit per second at 720p and 1.5 units at 1080p. Kling’s own docs price 0.9 units at $0.126, so one unit is about $0.14. That makes Kling 4.0 about €0.12/s at 720p and €0.18/s at 1080p. Kling 4.0 Flash and Kling 3.0 without audio cost 0.6 units/s at 720p, about €0.07/s.
• Kling (app): on Kling 3.0, a second of 720p video without native audio costs 6 credits, and 1080p with audio 12 credits. The Standard plan’s 660 credits buy roughly 55 to 110 seconds a month.
• Runway: Gen-4.5 uses 12 credits per second. In the app, Standard is $15 a month ($12 billed yearly) for 625 credits, so about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5. On the API, credits cost $0.01, which is about €0.10 per second.
• Pika: Starter is $10 a month ($8 yearly) for 600 credits. A 5-second Pika 2.5 clip at 720p costs 20 credits. Pika also hosts other vendors’ models; a 5-second Seedance 2.5 clip costs about 122 credits.

The maths: you want 20 ten-second clips a month for social media, so 200 seconds of finished video. On Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash that is 200 × €0.06 = about €12. On Veo 3.1 Fast at 1080p, 200 × €0.10 = about €21. On Kling 4.0 at 1080p, 200 × €0.18 = about €36. Now be honest about waste. If half your generations miss, double it: €24, €42 and €72. That is still less than one afternoon of a videographer, but it is not free.

Two cost rules. First, draft at 720p and only render the final at 1080p or 4K. Second, turn off sound when you will add music or a voiceover later anyway. Native audio raises the per-second price on both Kling and Veo.

Clip length and sound

Length matters more than people think. A 30-second ad made from four 8-second clips needs four prompts, four chances for the product to change shape, and editing work to hide the cuts.

On sound: Kling 4.0 and Veo 3.1 generate dialogue, effects and ambient sound with the picture. That saves a step for short social clips. For anything with a brand voice, I still prefer a separate voiceover, because you control every word. A tool like ElevenLabs for AI voiceover gives you that control for a few euros a month.

What each tool is best for

Kling: ads and product stories. The 30-second limit is the big one. You can describe a short scene with a beginning, middle and end, and keep the same product and character through it. Plans are cheap to start. My earlier piece on Kling 4.0 for 30-second video ads walks through the launch details.

Veo 3.1: realistic footage and developer projects. Google’s model is strong at realistic motion and lighting. The API is clear and billed per second. The Lite tier makes test runs cheap. Inside the Gemini app and Flow, you get access through a Google AI subscription you may already have.

Gemini Omni Flash: fast, cheap, editable clips. It is built for generating and editing in one model. At about €0.06 a second, it is the cheapest way to get 15-second clips with sound through an API. Google Vids also lets any Google account make up to three 15-second videos a month at no cost, which is enough to try it.

Runway: creative control and editing. Runway is more of a video studio than a single model. You get tools to edit, restyle and extend footage in one place. It suits people who already edit video and want AI inside their process. Free plan videos carry a watermark; Standard and up remove it.

Pika: quick social clips and many models in one app. Pika’s own models are cheap per clip, and the app now also offers other vendors’ models. Paid plans include a commercial licence and no watermark. Good for creators who post daily and want variety.

If you want something closer to an interactive world than a clip, Google is testing that too with Genie 4. It is not a tool for ads yet.

What happened to Sora

OpenAI discontinued the Sora web and app experience on April 26, 2026. The Sora API followed on September 24, 2026. OpenAI asked users to export their content. Many guides online still list Sora prices, so be careful with older comparisons.

The lesson is bigger than Sora. AI video tools can disappear or change pricing within months. Keep your source files, prompts and finished videos on your own drive. Don’t build a business process that only works inside one vendor’s app. The same advice applies to text models, as I wrote in the AI price-war playbook.

How to make a 30-second ad without wasting credits

1. Write the script first. Three to five shots, one sentence each. Hook in the first two seconds, product clearly visible, call to action at the end.
2. Make a still image of each shot. Images cost cents. Fix the look, the product and the colours here, not in video.
3. Animate the stills (image-to-video). Starting from an approved image gives far more predictable results than text alone.
4. Draft at 720p without sound. Check motion and timing. Only then render the keepers at 1080p.
5. Add voice and music separately. You control the message and can reuse the same clips in other languages.
6. Label it. If the ad shows realistic people or scenes, a small “AI-generated” note protects you under the EU’s transparency rules and with ad platforms.

For short loops on product pages, you may not need video at all. ChatGPT can now turn a photo into an animated GIF, which loads faster and costs less.

Read also: AI Image Generators Compared: Price per Image and Rights (2026) · Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash: 15-Second AI Video at $0.07 a Second · Kling 4.0 Makes 30-Second AI Video Ads – Plans From $8.80/Month

Sources: Kling API pricing · Kling 4.0 user guide · Kling plans · Gemini API pricing · Veo 3.1 docs · Google: Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash · Runway pricing · Runway Gen-4.5 · Pika pricing · OpenAI: Sora discontinuation

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Ivan Ivanov

Founder ofHawkValue

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