The cheapest five-second clip from a named model in September 2026 is 20 cents. That is Pika 2.2 at 720p. Hailuo 02 Standard lands at 22.5 cents for the same length at 768p. From there the price climbs to a dollar for Veo 3.1 at 1080p with the sound switched off, and two dollars with it on.
Most pages answering this question quote a monthly subscription and a credit balance. Credits are not comparable between vendors. One Kling credit and one Pika credit buy different things, and both vendors move the ratio when they feel like it. So the table below prices every model the other way, through fal.ai, which resells all of them on one bill in dollars per second.
One five-second clip, audio off, at each model's priced resolution.
Five Seconds, Audio Off, Checked 24 September 2026
| Model | Resolution priced | 5-second clip | Each extra second |
|---|
| Pika 2.2 | 720p | $0.20 | $0.04 |
| Hailuo 02 Standard | 768p | $0.225 | $0.045 |
| Kling 2.5 Turbo Pro | Pro tier | $0.35 | $0.07 |
| Luma Ray2 | 540p | $0.50 | quoted per clip |
| Kling 3.0 Pro | audio off | $0.56 | $0.112 |
| Seedance 1.0 Pro | 1080p | about $0.62 | quoted per clip |
| Veo 3.1 | 1080p, audio off | $1.00 | $0.20 |
Prices read from the fal.ai model pages on 24 September 2026.
Runway is missing on purpose. Gen-4.5 is not sold per clip through this route, so there is no honest per-second number to set beside the others. Runway sells a subscription, 12 dollars a month on annual billing.
What Moves the Price
Resolution, and it is not linear
Luma prices 540p as the base, charges double for 720p and four times for 1080p. The same Ray2 clip that costs 50 cents at 540p costs two dollars at 1080p. Pika goes from 20 cents at 720p to 45 cents at 1080p.
Sound
Veo 3.1 doubles from 20 cents a second to 40 cents a second when audio is on. Kling 3.0 goes from 11.2 cents to 16.8 cents, and 19.6 cents with voice control. A five-second Kling 3.0 clip with audio and voice control costs 98 cents, which is most of the way to Veo.
Length
Every model charges by the second past the first clip. A ten-second Kling 2.5 clip is 70 cents rather than 35.
The Seedance Discrepancy
The Seedance 1.0 Pro page quotes two different numbers in two places. The result panel says a 1080p five-second clip is roughly 62 cents. The readme on the same page says 74 cents. Both were live on 24 September 2026. Budget for the higher one. Seedance Lite is 18 cents for 720p at five seconds, which would top the table if you count it separately.
Per Clip or a Subscription
Below ten clips a month, per-clip pricing wins for every model here. Ten Veo clips at a dollar each is still under the cheapest subscription in the group. Past roughly thirty clips a month a Runway or Kling subscription costs less than buying Kling 2.5 clips one at a time.
The break-even moves every time a vendor reprices, which during 2026 has been at least once each.
Cheapest Is Not the Same as Usable
A 20-cent clip you throw away costs more than a 60-cent clip you keep. The models lower down the table hold a face together better across five seconds, which is what matters when the input is a photo of a person. The ones at the top do fine on scenery, product shots and anything where a face drifting slightly does not ruin the take.
Count the retries. Two attempts at Kling 2.5 costs 70 cents and beats four attempts at Pika on the same photo.
We ran one photo through five of these models with the same prompt. The clips sit side by side in best AI image to video generators in 2026, and the reason they diverge is explained in temporal consistency.
Questions People Ask
- Is there a free way to do this?
- Every vendor runs some free tier. Luma watermarks free output at 480p. Pika gives 80 credits once, at 480p only. Kling and Hailuo hand out a small daily allowance. Free tiers are for working out whether a model suits your photo, not for producing anything.
- Why does the same photo cost different amounts at different tools?
- The pricing unit is video seconds at a resolution, and the models default to different resolutions. Compare at a fixed resolution and a fixed length or the comparison means nothing.
- Do these prices hold?
- No. Every vendor here changed its pricing at least once during 2026. This page was checked on 24 September 2026. Read the vendor page before you commit to volume.
- What does a clip cost if I am not running an API?
- You pay a subscription and spend credits, and the effective per-clip price depends on which plan you are on and what resolution you pick. The table above is the floor, since it is what the model costs before anyone adds a margin.
One Photo, One Clip
Every price above assumes you are opening an API account or committing to a plan. If you have one photo and want one video, Picto.Video runs it through Kling and gives you the clip back, from $1 with no subscription.