How Much Does AI Video Generation Cost per Second in 2026?

Before the levers, the billing frame. SociaLover bills video generation pay as you go: there is no seat subscription, you buy tokens and each generated second consumes them at the model's rate, with 1 token worth $0.01. That makes the cost of a campaign a pure function of what you render, which is why this page is organized around the price of one second: every budget below is that unit multiplied by a duration and a number of takes.

Three variables set the bill: the model you pick, the resolution you render at, and whether the clip carries audio. The model is the biggest lever, because every provider ships several tiers of the same engine. Veo 3.1 bills 53 tokens per second ($0.53/s) while Veo 3.1 Lite bills 7 tokens per second ($0.07/s) in 720p, more than seven times less for the same prompt box and the same duration slider. Kling runs a similar ladder: Kling 3.0 and Kling 3.0 Turbo both bill 19 tokens per second ($0.19/s) with audio included, while Kling 2.6 renders a silent clip at 9 tokens per second ($0.09/s). All figures here and below are the prices as billed in SociaLover, pay as you go, where 1 token equals $0.01; they are not the rates the providers publish for their own APIs.

Resolution is the lever people underestimate. On Seedance 2.5 the same second costs 14 tokens in 480p, 31 tokens in 720p and 75 tokens in 1080p, so the top resolution multiplies the price by more than five compared with the draft one, and by almost two and a half compared with 720p. Seedance 2.0 follows the same curve at 9, 20 and 49 tokens per second. Other models price the jump gently: Veo 3.1 Fast moves from 13 to 16 tokens per second between 720p and 1080p, three tokens more. Knowing which curve your model sits on decides where you can afford to iterate.

Audio is the third lever, and the least uniform. Seedance 1.5 Pro doubles with it, from 3.5 to 7 tokens per second in 720p and from 8 to 15 in 1080p. Kling 2.6 jumps from 9 to 19 tokens per second when audio is on, more than double. Veo 3.1, Veo 3.1 Fast and Veo 3.1 Lite fold native audio into their rate, as do Kling 3.0 and Happy Horse 1.1, and Seedance 2.5 treats it as an option. One practical caveat: Kling's native audio only speaks English or Chinese, and any other language is translated into English, so a French or Spanish ad is usually generated silent and voiced in the edit. The live rate card for every model sits on the SociaLover pricing page.

The table below lists every video model available in Studio Video with its price per generated second at each resolution, in tokens and in converted dollars, as billed in SociaLover, pay as you go. A cell marked not offered means the model does not output that resolution. Four models bill a flat rate per second whatever the resolution, Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, Kling 3.0 Turbo and Kling 2.6, which is why the same figure appears in both of their resolution columns.

One name is deliberately missing. Sora 2 billed 13 tokens per second in 720p, and Sora 2 Pro between 40 and 93 tokens per second, until OpenAI retired the model: the shutdown was announced on March 24, 2026, the app closed on April 26, 2026, and the API was cut on September 24, 2026. A price table that still quotes Sora 2 in late 2026 is quoting a product you cannot buy. If a workflow was costed around Sora 2's former 13 tokens per second, the closest per second equivalents in the table are Veo 3.1 Fast and Wan 2.6 or 2.7, both at 13 tokens per second in 720p; the quality trade offs are a separate question, covered in our model comparison.

Two reading notes. Seedance 2.5 is the only model in the table that renders up to 30 seconds in one generation, where the others produce short clips, and it can return the last image of a clip so the next one starts exactly where the previous one ended. And the dollar figures are not a second price list: each one is the token figure multiplied by $0.01, nothing else, so a model quoted at 20 tokens per second always means $0.20 per generated second.

Read column by column, the spread is wide enough to change how you brief. In 480p the table runs from 8 tokens per second on Seedance 2.0 Fast to 14 on Seedance 2.5. In 720p it runs from 3.5 tokens per second on Seedance 1.5 Pro to 53 on Veo 3.1, a factor of more than fifteen for the same duration. In 1080p it runs from 8 tokens per second, again on Seedance 1.5 Pro, to 75 on Seedance 2.5. The same 10 second brief can therefore bill 35 tokens ($0.35) or 750 tokens ($7.50) depending on where you point it, before any difference in quality enters the discussion.

Per second rates only become concrete once you multiply them by a real brief. Here are three jobs we actually run, with the arithmetic written out, all as billed in SociaLover, pay as you go. None of them needs anything beyond multiplication, which is the quiet virtue of per second billing: the quote and the invoice are the same number.

First, a 10 second UGC style clip on Seedance 2.0 Fast in 720p. The model bills 16 tokens per second, so 10 seconds come to 160 tokens, exactly $1.60 for the take. That tier is quick enough to try several hooks in one sitting, which is the whole logic of UGC video without an actor: volume of takes rather than one precious take.

Second, a series of three episodes of 8 seconds each on Seedance 2.5 in 720p. At 31 tokens per second, each episode bills 248 tokens ($2.48), and the set of three bills 744 tokens, $7.44 in total. Seedance 2.5 hands back the last frame of a clip so the next episode can start from it, which is the mechanic behind Series. One constraint is worth knowing: the provider refuses a photo of a real person as a start image, but accepts images generated inside its own ecosystem. That is why the 30 ready creators added to UGC Creators in October 2026, fictional people delivered as finished UGC images, are Seedance compatible by construction, and every episode animates that exact image.

Third, a 6 second hero spot on Veo 3.1 standard. At 53 tokens per second, the spot bills 318 tokens, $3.18, with native audio already folded into the rate, so there is no separate line for sound.

Another way to hold the scale in mind is to flip it: $10 is 1000 tokens, as billed in SociaLover, pay as you go. At 16 tokens per second, Seedance 2.0 Fast in 720p, that buys 62 full seconds of footage, six of the UGC clips above with tokens to spare. At 53 tokens per second on Veo 3.1 it buys 18 full seconds, three of the hero spots. At 75 tokens per second, Seedance 2.5 in 1080p, it buys 13 full seconds. The same ten dollars lands anywhere between one finished clip and six, depending on the tier you point it at.

The honest caveat is that these are single take prices. A usable second costs more than a generated second, because the keeper is rarely take one: on the accounts we run, a finished ad usually sits on top of a few discarded takes. That multiplier, not the per second rate, is the real budget line, and it is exactly what the next section compresses.

Iterate at a resolution you will throw away, then finalize once at the one you ship. On Seedance 2.5, a 10 second draft costs 140 tokens ($1.40) in 480p and 750 tokens ($7.50) in 1080p, so five full drafts in 480p, 700 tokens in all, still bill less than one single 1080p master. Lock the motion, the framing and the timing at 14 tokens per second, then spend 75 tokens per second exactly once.

Keep clips as short as the idea. Billing is strictly per second, so a 6 second cut of a 10 second idea on Veo 3.1 bills 318 tokens instead of 530, and that 212 token gap ($2.12) repeats on every take you discard along the way. Short is also how hooks behave in feed placements, so the cheaper cut is very often the better ad.

Finally, match the model to the job instead of defaulting to the premium tier. A motion test runs on Seedance 1.5 Pro at 3.5 tokens per second, which makes a 10 second silent try cost 35 tokens ($0.35), or on Veo 3.1 Lite at 7 tokens per second. Background b-roll sits comfortably on Wan 2.6 or 2.7 at 13 tokens per second in 720p, or on Grok Imagine 1.5 at 11 tokens per second in 480p. Keep Veo 3.1 at 53 tokens per second, or Seedance 2.5 in 1080p at 75, for the clip that actually ships. And do not pay for audio you will mute: Kling 2.6 drops from 19 to 9 tokens per second without it, and most ads replace native sound with a voiceover and music in the edit anyway.

Budgeting a test batch becomes straightforward once those rates sit in front of you. Ten UGC takes of 10 seconds on Seedance 2.0 Fast in 720p bill 1600 tokens, $16.00, before any premium model is touched. Promote the two best hooks to a 1080p master on Seedance 2.5 at 8 seconds each and you add 1200 tokens, $12.00. The whole experiment, twelve generations, closes at 2800 tokens, $28.00, as billed in SociaLover, pay as you go.