How AI video pricing actually works (and why one bundled subscription beats five separate ones)

AI video pricing is opaque on purpose. Every provider wants you on their own subscription, because subscriptions are predictable revenue. The problem: if you want Sora and Runway and Veo andKling, you're suddenly paying four subscriptions to use four models — none of which talk to each other.

Here's how each provider charges in 2026, what that math looks like when you stack subscriptions, and how Vivix's one-subscription-for-everything model compares.

How the underlying providers price compute

Every AI video provider — OpenAI, Google, Runway, Kling, Pika — charges by seconds of output × resolution. The math:

• Sora 2 (1080p, 10s) — ~$0.30 wholesale to API resellers
• Sora 2 Pro (1080p, 10s) — ~$0.60 wholesale
• Veo 3.1 (1080p, 8s + audio) — ~$0.45 wholesale
• Veo 3.1 Fast (720p, 8s) — ~$0.20 wholesale
• Kling 3.0 (1080p, 10s) — ~$0.20 wholesale
• Runway Gen-4.5 (1080p, 10s) — ~$0.35 wholesale

These are real numbers — pulled from Runware's wholesale rate card, which aggregates the model APIs.

How subscriptions hide the math

Sora.com sells $20/mo (Plus) and $200/mo (Pro) tiers. The $20 plan gives you 50 "priority" generations. So you're paying $0.40 per generation — but only if you use all 50. Use 10? You paid $2 each. Use 0? You paid $20 for nothing.

Runway sells $15/mo (Standard) → $35/mo (Pro) → $95/mo (Unlimited). Same problem: unused credits expire monthly. Most users hit ~30% utilization, which means the effective cost is ~3× the headline rate.

Veo doesn't even sell to consumers directly — you need a Google Cloud project, billing account, and IAM roles set up. The list price is reasonable, but the setup cost in time + accounting friction is brutal.

Why one bundled subscription wins

Take a content creator who wants access to Sora 2, Runway Gen-4.5, and Kling 3.0 for testing different shots. Stacking three separate subs vs. one Vivix subscription that includes all of them:

Vivix is also a subscription. The difference: one Vivix subscription gives you all the models — Sora, Veo, Kling, Runway, FLUX, ElevenLabs, etc. — instead of needing a separate sub for each provider.

How Vivix credits work

Each Vivix subscription tier includes a monthly credit allotment that you spend on generations. The credit ledger:

• Each generation shows the exact credit cost before you click run, so you always know what a render will cost. Exception: for LLM (text) models, the cost is calculated from output tokens, so the deduction lands when the model finishes streaming the response.
• New users get 30 free credits + 1 free clip credit on signup, plus 30 credits dropped daily on the free tier.
• Subscription credits expire 30 days from the day you subscribed and do not roll over. Re-subscribe and you get a fresh 30-day allotment.
• Gift cards are available through approved resellers (list coming soon) and stack on top of your subscription wallet.

Subscriptions are month-to-month — cancel any time from your account settings. All purchases are final and non-refundable.

Vivix pricing tiers

Don't want a recurring sub? Buy gift cards in any amount instead — $5, $10, $25, $50, your call. Credits stack onto your wallet and don't expire.

What about Caption Studio (clip credits)?

Caption Studio is the in-house podcast clipper. It uses Whisper transcription + ffmpeg rendering, not a third-party API, so its compute profile is different from text-to-video. We track it as a separate "clip credit" — 1 clip credit = 1 captioned 9:16 export.

Free signup gets 1 clip credit. Standard = 80, Pro = 120, Ultimate = 400. See Podcast Clipper for details.

Frequently asked

Can I see exactly what I'm being charged?

Yes. Every model card shows credit cost before you click generate. The one exception is LLM (text) models — output is billed by tokens used, so the final cost lands once the response finishes streaming. /history shows every transaction with the exact credit debit.

Do credits expire?

Subscription credits don't expire while your tier is active. If you cancel, you keep what's in your wallet through the end of the billing cycle. Gift-card credits never expire.

Are there refunds for failed generations?

Yes — if a model errors out before producing a finished asset, the credit deduction is reversed automatically.

Sign up free — 30 credits + 1 clip credit, no card. See the credit cost on every render before you spend.