AI video cost per second in 2026: what a finished scene actually bills

I'll give you the number first, since that's what you came for. As of mid-October 2026, voiced AI video at 720p runs from about ten cents a second on the cheap end (Veo 3.1 Fast) to about twenty-three cents a second on Seedance 2.5, with Kling 3.0 in between at roughly thirteen cents. Those are the providers' own list rates. That's the number every "AI video cost" blog puts in a table and leaves there.

The number I actually care about, running a studio that ships serialized character videos every week, is different. It's the cost of one finished 30-second scene with a locked character, including the retakes, the shot caps, the audio multiplier and the reference overhead. That number isn't a per-second rate. It's what you'll actually spend to put something on your feed.

So I'm going to give you both, in order. The per-second rates, dated. The hidden costs the blogs don't do the math on. Then one worked example: a 90-second vertical video with one character across six scenes, on three different engines, and what each one lands at.

The per-second rates, as of 2026-10-15

Pulled from each provider's documentation and from the pricing posts that cite primary sources. The spread between resellers is real; these are the provider list rates, and they move every quarter, so re-check before you plan a budget around them.

engine	voiced 720p, per second	notes
Kling 3.0	about $0.13	silent is about a third cheaper; one shot caps at 15 seconds
Seedance 2.5	about $0.20 to $0.23	audio always on; 1080p is more than double
Seedance 2.0 Fast	about $0.04	the floor, if 2.0 quality is enough for the shot
Veo 3.1 Fast	about $0.10	clips are 4, 6 or 8 seconds only; 1080p costs the same as 720p

Two things to notice before you keep reading. First, Veo 3.1 Fast at ten cents a voiced second is now cheaper than Kling and roughly half of Seedance 2.5. That's a bigger story than most pricing posts are telling. Second, Seedance 2.5 at 1080p is several times the price of Veo 3.1 Fast at 720p, for a difference the audience will not see on a phone screen.

The hidden costs nobody prices

A per-second rate is the sticker price. Here's what you actually pay when the scene is finished.

Shot caps. Kling renders one shot at fifteen seconds, maximum. Veo renders at four, six or eight seconds, nothing else. A 30-second scene on Kling is two fifteen-second shots joined; a 30-second scene on Veo is four eight-second clips, trimmed to thirty. The per-second math stays honest but you're paying for the trim. Only Seedance 2.5 renders a single 30-second shot in one generation.

Retakes. In my own six-scene workflow I keep the best take and re-render a shot about one time in three. That's a 1.3x multiplier on the sticker rate across a whole scene. Count on it.

References. Kling takes five elements per generation at no extra cost. Seedance 2.5 takes up to thirty reference images; the count doesn't change the per-second rate but it does change the generation time. Veo 3.1 takes three images, and a reference render is pinned to eight seconds whatever you asked for: a four-second reference render on Veo bills eight.

Audio. On Kling, voiced is more expensive than silent; that's a real toggle. On Seedance, audio is always on and billed by resolution, so silent costs the same. On Veo 3.1 Fast, voiced is one and a half times silent. If your scene doesn't need audio and the engine lets you turn it off, you save a third.

Resolution. 1080p on Seedance 2.5 is more than double the price of 720p. On Veo 3.1 Fast, 1080p is the same price as 720p. On Kling, there is no 1080p in the studio at all. You will not see the difference between 720p and 1080p on a phone and you will see it on your bill.

One worked example: a 90-second video with one character

Six scenes, fifteen seconds each, one locked character, voiced, 720p, delivered 9:16. The question creators actually ask me. Here's what each engine costs end to end at provider list rates, with the shot caps, one retake per three scenes, and the reference overhead included.

engine	rate	90 raw seconds	plus one retake per three scenes	finished
Kling 3.0, six 15-second shots	$0.13	$11.70	$3.90	about $16
Seedance 2.5, six 15-second shots	$0.23	$20.70	$6.90	about $28
Veo 3.1 Fast, twelve 8-second clips trimmed	$0.10	$9.60	$3.20	about $13

Three real numbers for the same deliverable. Veo 3.1 Fast is the cheapest finished second you can buy today for a voiced character video; Kling is the most forgiving on character hold across the shot; Seedance 2.5 is the most expensive but the only one that renders fifteen seconds in a single generation, which saves you from the stitching artefacts the other two can produce at the cut.

That's the real trade-off. Not "which engine is cheapest per second" but "which engine costs least to finish this specific scene, at the quality you need".

The same example in credits, inside the studio

ReelDouble bills every engine in credits, and the rate per second is printed on the engine picker before you press render. At 720p, voiced:

engine	credits per second	the 90-second example, with retakes
Kling O3 Pro	30 (24 silent)	about 3,600 credits
Seedance 2.5	70	about 8,400 credits
Veo 3.1 Fast	30 (20 silent)	about 3,850 credits (96 seconds billed, trimmed to 90)
Seedance 2.0 Fast, for drafts	50 (25 at 480p)	about 2,250 credits at 480p

On the Creator plan that's 6,000 credits for $45 a month, so the Kling version of that 90-second video is around $27 of credits and the Veo version around $29; Seedance 2.5 is the premium take at around $63. A character sheet is 20 credits and an export is 20.

How I actually spend it

I don't budget per second. I budget per finished clip, in three passes:

• Draft pass. Seedance 2.0 Fast at 480p for every scene. 25 credits a second, so a fifteen-second shot is 375. If the storyboard works, I keep going; if it doesn't, I've spent a little finding out.
• Hero pass. Kling O3 Pro or Veo 3.1 Fast for the character scenes, 720p, voiced. 450 credits per fifteen seconds, plus a retake now and then.
• Signature shot. Seedance 2.5 for the one shot the whole clip hangs on: the first frame of the piece, the beat people will share. 1,350 credits per fifteen seconds at 720p. One per ninety seconds, not every scene.

A 90-second finished video lands around 5,000 to 7,000 credits on that ladder, most of it in the hero pass. The draft pass is what keeps the number down: you find out the storyboard is wrong for 375 credits instead of 1,050.

The honest part

The per-second rate is the easiest part of making an AI video. The hard part is making one worth watching. Our own 9.7 million views over thirty days on @cevrico came from leaning into the characters, writing stories that justified the medium, and shipping on a cadence instead of waiting for the engine that doesn't look AI. Own results, not a projection; your numbers will depend on what you make.

The provider table above is accurate as of October 15, 2026. Veo 3.1 Fast at ten cents is the most mobile number on it, so if you're reading this months from now, re-check it before you plan around it. The credit rates are the ones printed in the studio today and change only when the picker does. A free account comes with 300 of them: a character sheet, a draft pass on a scene, and your first voiced eight-second shot, before you spend a dollar.