AI Image & Video Cost Calculator

AI image services charge per image (sometimes per megapixel, or by resolution), and video services charge per second of video made. What catches people out is that you rarely keep every result: you make a few versions to pick the best one, throw some prompts away and try again, and pay for upscaling or edits on top. This calculator counts everything you make, then shares the bill over the images or seconds you actually keep.

The formula

images made = usable images × images per keeper ÷ (1 − retry rate)
image cost = images made × price per image
extras = usable images × upscale price + edits × (price per image + input-image charge)
monthly cost = image cost + extras
cost per usable image = monthly cost ÷ usable images

clips made = usable clips ÷ (1 − retry rate)
seconds billed = clips made × clip length (rounded up to your step, if any)
video cost = seconds billed × price per second
cost per usable second = video cost ÷ (usable clips × clip length)

Worked example

Images: 500 usable images a month on Nano Banana 2.1 at 1K, at $0.0336 each. With one image per keeper and no retries you make 500 images: 500 × $0.0336 = $16.80 a month, $201.60 a year, or $0.0336 per usable image. With Google's Batch API ($0.0168) it halves to $8.40. If you make 2 versions of each and redo 20% of prompts, you make 500 × 2 ÷ 0.8 = 1,250 images, which costs 1,250 × $0.0336 = $42.00, or $0.084 per usable image.

Video: 30 clips of 8 seconds on Veo 3.1 Fast at 720p, at $0.10 a second with audio. That is 30 × 8 = 240 seconds, and 240 × $0.10 = $24.00 a month, or $0.80 a clip. With a 25% retry rate you make 30 ÷ 0.75 = 40 clips, 320 seconds, costing $32.00, which is about $0.133 per usable second.

Plan or API?

A plan is a fixed monthly price with an allowance. It pays off once the images you make would cost more on the API. Midjourney Basic at $10 a month beats Nano Banana 2.1 at 1K ($0.0336 an image) above 10 ÷ 0.0336 ≈ 298 images a month, as long as its 3.3 fast hours cover them. Midjourney doesn't say how many images a fast hour makes, so you set that yourself; every job makes 4 images, extra fast time costs $4 an hour, and Standard and higher plans keep making images in slower Relax mode once the fast hours run out. Runway plans give credits: a Gen-4 Image costs 8 credits, so Standard's 625 credits make about 78 images. Runway sells extra credits in its dashboard but doesn't show the price, so this calculator flags when a plan runs out instead of guessing. Plans have their own terms on commercial use, privacy and speed, and API access isn't included.

Ways to cut the bill

• Draft cheap, finish dear: try prompts on a cheap model (Z Image Turbo, Nano Banana 2.1, Veo 3.1 Lite), then make the final on the better one.
• Use batch: Google's Batch API halves image prices if you can wait for results.
• Lower your retry rate: clear prompts and reference images waste fewer runs. For video this matters most.
• Pick the resolution you need: 4K costs two to four times 1K on most models.

Image prices used

Video prices used (per second)

Plans used

Runway credits: Gen-4 Image (1080p) 8 per image, Gen-4 Image Turbo 2 per image, Nano Banana Pro 1K 11 per image, Nano Banana Pro 2K 20 per image; Gen-4.5 12 a second, Gen-4 12 a second, Aleph 2.0 28 a second, Seedance 2.0 Pro 1080p 40 a second, Seedance 2.0 Fast 29 a second.

Prices checked on 10 October 2026. Standard prices from each provider's own pricing page: Google Gemini API, fal.ai, Midjourney and Runway. OpenAI GPT Image and Sora prices will be added once confirmed; use a custom row meanwhile. Prices are in US dollars, before tax, and change often; volume deals and free tiers are left out.