Credits held while a generation runs
A credit hold moves credits out of the spendable balance when a task is submitted, then settles when the task ends: kept as a charge if it delivered, returned if it failed. Five vendors here publish a rule for the failure side, and they do not agree. As of 2026-10-25.
| Vendor | When the meter commits | What comes back |
|---|---|---|
| Kling | Not described | Credits refunded when a generation fails |
| PixVerse | A credit figure at creation; the account ledger settles it | Qualifying failed, moderated or timed-out tasks may be refunded, and a refund counts once it shows in the ledger |
| Runway | Not described | Moderated generations on the developer API are still charged |
| SceneMixer | Held on submit, charged on delivery | Returned on failure; held for review when the outcome is unclear |
| Veo | Charged only on success | A failed generation is not charged |
Inclusion rule. Vendors that publish what happens to credits or charges when a generation fails or is refused. A vendor that is silent on failure is not given a row. Order. Alphabetical by vendor name.
1A hold is a promise about failure, not about price
Every vendor here prices a delivered second the same way whether or not it holds credits first. What a hold changes is the bad path: credits that never left the account cannot be lost when the provider times out, and a balance that shows held amounts tells the user what is in flight.
Without a published failure rule, a hold is just bookkeeping. With one, it is the mechanism that makes "you were not charged" true.
2The third outcome is the one worth reading
Delivered and failed are easy. The case that separates the policies is a result nobody can confirm: a connection dropped mid-generation, a provider that never reports back. One vendor states that it leaves those credits held until a person checks, and then refunds or charges.
That is slower for the user and honest about the cost: refunding blindly would pay the provider twice when the work was in fact done.
3Moderation splits the vendors most sharply
A filtered generation did run. One vendor states that it still charges for that on its developer API; another refunds a moderation block the provider confirms, up to twelve in a day for one account. A third states that qualifying moderated tasks may be refunded and does not say which qualify. For a production writing anything a filter might stop, the difference between those sentences is a budget line.
4Where to find the rule
Only one of the five puts its answer on the page that carries the rate. The others answer in a user guide, an API document, an FAQ or a refund guide, which is why a comparison assembled from price pages alone will say that most vendors have no rule.
5Pages these figures were read from
A definition entry: what the term means, and the figures vendors put in public about it, each figure read on 2026-10-25. Related: Draft pass, Credit billing.