Do AI Video Credits Expire? Kling, Google Flow, Pika, Vidu and Runway Compared
Credits and specs follow TWno1's live billing settings. Last checked: 2026-10-05
Kling subscription credits expire 1 month after they land, while credits you buy separately last 2 years (checked October 2026).
That gap is the whole story for most people. Nearly every AI video platform now runs two buckets of credits: the ones your plan drops in each month, and the ones you pay for on top. Plan credits tend to vanish at the end of the period. Bought credits tend to stick around. Price comparisons usually stop at "credits per dollar" and never look at the expiry date, which is how a cheap plan turns expensive.
Everything below comes from official pages read on 2026-10-05. Where a cell says "not found," the page we read did not state the rule. That is not proof the rule does not exist.
The rules, platform by platform
| Platform | Plan or daily credits | Credits you buy | Failed generations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kling | Valid 1 month from distribution; 7-day membership credits last 7 days | Valid 2 years; standard rate 66 credits per US$1 | Refunded |
| Google Flow | 50 daily credits and monthly plan credits do not roll over | Help page says expiry is set at purchase; a search snippet says 12 months from last purchase | Gemini API bills only successful videos; Flow rule not found |
| Pika | Refresh each billing period, no rollover | Expire 365 days after purchase; 60 credits per US$1; usable only on pika.art | Not found |
| Vidu | Subscription credits valid 30 days | Purchased and bonus credits valid 2 years | Not found |
| Runway | Free plan gets 125 credits once; only Max states a 1-month rollover | Not found | Not found |
| Luma | Not found | Not found | Not found |
| Midjourney | GPU hours, not credits (Basic: US$10 for 3.3 fast hours) | Not found | Blocked jobs cost nothing |
Two rows deserve a second look.
Runway's pricing page mentions rollover only for Max. For Standard and Pro, we could not confirm the rule from the sources we read. Unconfirmed is not permission. If you sign up for a mid-tier Runway plan, assume nothing carries over unless support tells you otherwise in writing.
Luma's page lists plan prices (Plus US$30 for 10,000 credits, Pro US$90 for 40,000, Ultra US$300 for 150,000) and nothing about expiry. Ask before you prepay a year.
When a subscription actually saves money
The usual advice: plan credits are cheaper per credit, so subscribe. That holds only if you burn enough of them.
Here's the test. Divide the monthly fee by the top-up price per credit. The result is your break-even usage. Spend fewer credits than that in a month and you would have paid less buying top-ups.
| Plan (list price) | Per plan credit | Per top-up credit | Break-even per month | Share of plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kling Standard, US$6.99 / 660 credits | ~US$0.0106 | 1/66 ≈ US$0.0152 | 6.99 × 66 ≈ 461 | ~70% |
| Kling Pro, US$25.99 / 3,000 credits | ~US$0.0087 | same | 25.99 × 66 ≈ 1,715 | ~57% |
| Pika Starter monthly, US$10 / 900 | ~US$0.0111 | 1/60 ≈ US$0.0167 | 10 × 60 = 600 | ~67% |
| Pika Starter annual, US$8/mo / 900 | ~US$0.0089 | same | 8 × 60 = 480 | ~53% |
| Pika Creator monthly, US$35 / 3,150 | ~US$0.0111 | same | 35 × 60 = 2,100 | ~67% |
Kling's plan prices come from its own credit-cost guide, which carries no date. Pika's come from its pricing page.
Seconds are easier to picture than credits. Kling's guide puts Kling 3.0 at 12 credits per second for 1080p with native audio. So Standard's 660 credits buy 55 seconds (660 ÷ 12). The 461-credit break-even is about 38 seconds. If you won't finish 40 seconds of 1080p video with sound this month, Standard costs you more than top-ups would.
Pika is similar. Its pricing page lists a 5-second 720p Seedance 2.5 clip at 122 credits. Starter's 900 credits cover 7 of those. Break-even is just under 5.
"Pay annually, save 20%" is half right. On Pika it lowers break-even from 67% to 53%. It does not change the rule that plan credits reset each period. A slow month on an annual plan still burns money.
One thing the break-even math misses. Some plans also sell features. Kling's credit policy lists 1080p, watermark removal and video extension as member functions. A Kling marketing page contradicts it by offering free image-to-video in 1080p, so the two pages disagree. If you need clean, watermark-free output, part of that monthly fee pays for the feature.
Four clauses people skip
Kling's 7-day membership credits last 7 days. That is what its credit policy page says. They do not join your 2-year bucket.
Google top-ups may count from your last purchase. A search snippet says Google AI Pro and Ultra top-ups (US$25 for 2,500, US$50 for 5,000, US$200 for 20,000) last 12 months from the last purchase. The help page itself only says credits may expire as set at purchase. If the snippet is right, a small top-up now and then pushes back the expiry of your older credits. Check the purchase screen before relying on it.
Pika top-ups are locked to the web app. They work in Pika Create on pika.art. They do not work in the API, MCP or the iOS app. Buy the wrong bucket for a scripted batch job and you will watch it expire.
Credits do not outlive the product. OpenAI shut the Sora app on 2026-04-26 and the Sora API on 2026-09-24. A snippet of OpenAI's help article says purchased Sora credits can be used for Codex instead. Fine if you code. Useless if you only came for video.
Failed generations: who refunds
Expiry is the slow leak. Failed jobs are the daily one.
- Kling's consumer credit policy refunds failed generations. Its developer API does not charge for them.
- Google's Gemini API bills Veo only for videos that generate successfully.
- BytePlus does not charge Seedance API tasks that fail or get rejected by moderation.
- Midjourney does not charge for blocked jobs.
"Not charged" and "refunded" end up the same on paper. They are not the same mechanism. A refund debits first and credits back later. Which bucket the credits return to, and under whose expiry date, is something none of these pages spell out. If the debit came from plan credits about to expire, the refund could land after the reset. That is our inference, not a vendor statement. Ask support if it matters to you.
Limits: when prepaid credits are a bad fit
- Irregular usage. If some months you make nothing, skip the subscription. Buy long-dated credits instead. Kling and Vidu both give 2 years.
- API-first work. Confirm the bucket works in the API. Pika's top-ups do not. Kling's API resource packages lose any unused balance when the package expires.
- Shared team accounts. We did not research team plans for this article. Read your contract.
- Platform risk. Sora shows that a long expiry date cannot promise the service survives. Prepay roughly what you are sure to use within six months.
TWno1 sells prepaid points only. There is no monthly fee, so there is no subscription bucket that lapses at the end of the month, and nothing is charged if you don't generate. The downside, stated plainly: sold points are non-refundable. Overbuy and the money sits there, so the six-month rule above applies to TWno1 too. Expiry and package rules are whatever the pricing page says. A double charge or miscalculation reported to cs@twno1.ai within 30 days gets corrected; other questions are in the FAQ. For high-volume API access to one vendor's model, buy direct from that vendor.
Related reading: Veo 3.1 Lite vs Fast vs Standard: Which Tier for Drafts and Which for Finals; Seedance Draft Mode: When a 480p Preview Before 1080p Actually Saves Money.
FAQ
How long do Kling credits last?
As of 2026-10-05, Kling's credit policy says subscription credits are valid for 1 month from distribution, purchased credits for 2 years, and 7-day membership credits for 7 days. The standard purchase rate is 66 credits per US$1, and failed generations are refunded.
Do Google Flow daily credits roll over?
No. Google's Flow help page (checked 2026-10-05) says users without a subscription get 50 daily Flow credits, and that unused daily and monthly Flow credits do not roll over to the next period.
How long do Pika top-up credits last?
Pika's pricing page (checked 2026-10-05) says top-up credits expire 365 days after purchase and cost 60 credits per US$1. They work only in Pika Create on pika.art, not in the API, MCP or iOS app. Monthly plan credits reset each billing period and do not roll over.
When is an AI video subscription cheaper than buying credits?
Divide the monthly fee by the top-up price per credit to get break-even usage. With list prices checked 2026-10-05, Kling Standard (US$6.99 for 660 credits) needs about 461 credits used per month, and Pika Starter monthly (US$10 for 900 credits) needs 600, before the subscription beats buying top-ups.
Do unused Runway credits carry over to next month?
Runway's pricing page (checked 2026-10-05) states a 1-month rollover only for the Max plan. We could not confirm the rule for Standard or Pro, and the Free plan's 125 credits are a one-time grant. Assume mid-tier Runway credits do not carry over unless Runway confirms otherwise.
References
- Kling credit policy (checked 2026-10-05)
- Kling 3.0 credit cost guide (checked 2026-10-05)
- Google Flow credits help (checked 2026-10-05)
- Google One AI credits help (checked 2026-10-05)
- Pika pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- Vidu pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- Runway pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- Luma pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- Midjourney plan comparison (checked 2026-10-05)
- OpenAI: Sora discontinuation (checked 2026-10-05)
- Gemini API pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- BytePlus ModelArk model pricing (checked 2026-10-05)