RenderDrama

What a second of AI video costs, channel by channel

Which published figures come with a string attached

Six channels here attach something to their own figures. Two publish a discount a buyer can capture by waiting, two warn that the number moves with settings, and two make the cheap figure conditional on a commitment or a promotion with no end date. As of 2026-09-22.

Conditions worth capturing against conditions that only qualifyTwo channels publish a halving in exchange for latency, which most of a serial pipeline can afford. One publishes a struck-through cell with no end date. One qualifies every figure with a clause about unenumerated settings. One reaches its cheapest figure only on an annual commitment, and one prints the average clip its comparison assumes.A buyer can capture itIt only qualifies the numberWhat it isA batch tier, or an off-peak windowA clause, a promotion, or an assumptionWhat it costsLatency, which most of a pipeline canaffordCertainty, which cannot be bought backEffect on the figureHalf, across every model and resolutionEvery number becomes an exampleHow many channelsTwoFourWhat the register doesRecords it as a condition, not a rateRecords both halves of a struck-throughcellA printed condition beats one discovered on an invoice
Fig. 1 On two of these channels the realistic planning rate is half the advertised one, and the advertised one is the price of impatience.
The condition each channel prints beside its own rate, and what it does to the figure. Recorded 2026-09-22.
ChannelThe condition as publishedWhat it does to the figure
SoraA batch tier at half the standard figureHalves every model and resolution at once
ViduOff-peak generation at half the normal priceHalves the whole resolution curve, window unnamed
RunwareOne cell reading five cents struck through, then two and a halfCuts one model's rate, with no end date
DreaminaA plan figure billed annuallyReaches the cheapest Seedance second only on commitment
falAn estimated average video of five seconds at 720pReconciles per-clip and per-second rows on one page
WaveSpeed AIPrices may vary with resolution and generation parametersQualifies every figure on the page

Inclusion rule. Channels printing a condition on the same page as the rate: a discount, a tier, a commitment or a statement that the figure varies. A bare figure with nothing attached is not listed. Order. Conditions a buyer can capture first, then the ones that only qualify the number.

1Two of these conditions are worth capturing and cost nothing but patience

A batch tier and an off-peak window both halve a rate in exchange for latency. Most of a serial pipeline does not need latency: character sheets, scene plates and first passes can all queue overnight, and nobody has to watch them.

So for a production the realistic planning rate on those two channels is half the advertised one, and the advertised one is the price of impatience. That is the opposite of how a rate card is usually read.

2Two of them make the figure unusable as a commitment

A blanket clause saying prices may vary with unenumerated parameters makes every number on the page an example. A struck-through cell with no date makes one number a promotion that can end without any page visibly changing.

Both are still better than a plain figure that silently varies. The clause is printed rather than discovered, and this register records both halves of the struck-through cell so that a promotion is never quoted beside unconditional rates.

3An assumption is a condition too

One channel prints the basis of its own comparison: an average video of five seconds at 720p. That assumption is doing real work, because every per-clip figure on the page is being divided by five to sit beside the per-second ones.

Naming it is the honest move and it transfers the assumption to the reader. A production working in three-second beats or twelve-second scenes has inherited a reconciliation that is wrong in one direction or the other, and can correct it only because the page said so.

  • The batch tier
    Half the standard figureon every Sora model and resolutionOpenAI, API prices / recorded 2026-09-12
  • Conditional discount
    Off-peak generation is half the normal pricestated on the same pageVidu, API prices / recorded 2026-09-12
  • MiniMax H3
    $0.046 per second on H3 Fast; on H3 Max the cell reads $0.05 struck through, then $0.025, labelled Save ~50%with list and discounted figures in one cellRunware, model prices / recorded 2026-09-22
  • Seedance 2.5 at 720p on the Advanced plan billed annually
    $0.097 per secondDreamina, Seedance 2.5 price page / recorded 2026-09-12
  • The assumption printed under the comparison
    Figures rest on an estimated average video of 5 seconds at 720p, and the page says actual output may vary by model, resolution and prompt complexityfal, pay-per-use prices / recorded 2026-09-22
  • The condition the page attaches to every figure on it
    Prices may vary based on resolution and generation parametersWaveSpeed AI, prices / recorded 2026-09-22

4Inside a generated second

Price aside, what goes into the seconds behind “Strings attached” is described in SceneMixer's guides:

A SceneMixer segment comes out with its sound already in it: each line spoken in that character’s voice, the speaker’s lips moving with the words, and the ambience of the place — rain, traffic, a clock.

SceneMixer, Dialogue and Sound in One Generation (read 2026-10-13)

Each character is matched to a preset voice sample that is attached to every segment, so the character's voice identity is stable across episodes.

SceneMixer, Native-Language Dialogue vs. Dubbing in AI Video (2026): Why the Cast Should Speak the Line — “Does the character keep the same voice across languages?” (read 2026-10-13)

5Sources

Each figure is read from the vendor page linked in the ledger, checked 2026-09-22. How a figure qualifies is on method; what a rate leaves out is on limits and unspent credits and parallel generations. Nearby: Reseller or source, Asked, not answered, Parallel generation.