Same AI Video Model, Different Price: What Resellers Charge for Veo 3.1 and Seedance 2.5
Credits and specs follow TWno1's live billing settings. Last checked: 2026-10-05
The same Veo 3.1 cost US$0.40 per second on Google's API in October 2026, and about US$0.84 through Luma's Plus plan.
Same model. Twice the price. Yet some resellers match the vendor exactly, and a few undercut it on certain plans. The model is not the variable. The credit conversion is, along with whether you actually spend the credits you prepaid.
Below we take the public list prices from 2026-10-05 and convert each into dollars per second. The math is ours, built only on vendor numbers, and every formula is shown so you can redo it.
One model, seven ways to buy it: Seedance 2.5 at 720p
Seedance 2.5 is a good test case because so many platforms resell it. BytePlus, the vendor, bills by video token. At 720p it charges US$10.70 per million tokens. One second of 720p is about 21,600 tokens (1280 × 720 × 24 ÷ 1024). That makes roughly US$0.231 per second, which matches the US$1.156 five-second example BytePlus publishes.
| Channel (list price, 2026-10-05) | How it's quoted | Per second |
|---|---|---|
| BytePlus API (vendor) | US$10.70 per million tokens | ~US$0.231 |
| Runway API | 30 credits/s at US$0.01 | US$0.30 |
| Luma Plus (US$30 for 10,000 credits) | 78 credits/s × US$0.003 | ~US$0.234 |
| Luma Pro (US$90 for 40,000) | 78 credits/s × US$0.00225 | ~US$0.176 |
| Luma Ultra (US$300 for 150,000) | 78 credits/s × US$0.002 | US$0.156 |
| Pika top-up (60 credits per US$1) | 122 credits per 5 s | ~US$0.407 |
| Pika Starter monthly (US$10 for 900) | 122 credits per 5 s | ~US$0.271 |
So much for "resellers always charge more." Luma Plus is within a fraction of a cent of BytePlus. Luma Pro and Ultra come in below it.
There's a catch, and it's big. The Luma and Pika rows assume you spend every subscription credit. Use half of a US$300 Luma Ultra month and your real cost doubles to US$0.312 per second, more than Runway. The BytePlus and Runway API rows are pay-as-you-go. No unused credits, no hidden doubling.
The same exercise for Veo 3.1, Wan 3.0 and Grok Imagine
| Model and setting | Vendor API, per second | Runway API, per second | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veo 3.1 with audio | Google Standard US$0.40 | 40 credits = US$0.40 | Luma 280 credits: Plus US$0.84, Pro US$0.63, Ultra US$0.56 |
| Veo 3.1 without audio | Not offered on Google's page | 20 credits = US$0.20 | Luma 140 credits: Plus US$0.42 |
| Veo 3.1 Fast with audio | Google US$0.10 (720p), US$0.12 (1080p) | 15 credits = US$0.15 | — |
| Wan 3.0 720p | Alibaba Cloud Singapore US$0.10 | 10 credits = US$0.10 | Pika 33 credits per 5 s: ~US$0.11 at top-up rate |
| Grok Imagine 1.5 720p | xAI US$0.14 | 16 credits = US$0.16 | — |
| Seedance 2.5 1080p | BytePlus ~US$0.569 | 68 credits = US$0.68 | — |
Notes on reading this:
- Luma's table just says "Veo 3.1." It does not say Standard or Fast. We compared against Standard's US$0.40. If Luma's row is actually Fast, the gap is far wider.
- Google always generates audio with Veo 3.1 and lists no silent price. Runway and Luma both list one. If you score and mix sound yourself, Runway sells Veo 3.1 at half Google's with-audio rate. That's a rare case of a reseller offering something the vendor's own price page does not.
- Runway matches the vendor on Veo 3.1 Standard with audio and on Wan 3.0 at 720p. Veo 3.1 Fast with audio is another story: 15 credits (US$0.15) against Google's US$0.10 at 720p, 50% more. Its widest gap here is Seedance 2.5 at 480p: US$0.20 against roughly US$0.103 direct, close to double.
Same company, different credit
Even inside one company, a "credit" is not one price. A Runway API credit costs US$0.01. On the consumer Standard plan, US$15 buys 625 credits, so each one is US$0.024.
Runway's own Gen-4.5 costs 12 credits per second on both sides. The result:
| How you buy Gen-4.5 | Price per credit | Per second |
|---|---|---|
| API | US$0.01 | US$0.12 |
| Standard monthly (US$15 / 625) | US$0.024 | US$0.288 |
| Pro monthly (US$35 / 2,250) | ~US$0.0156 | ~US$0.187 |
| Max monthly (US$95 / 9,500) | US$0.01 | US$0.12 |
Standard costs 2.4 times the API per second. Max, fully used, lands exactly on the API price. Before you compare credits across platforms, check which credit you are holding.
What the extra money buys
Not every cent of the gap is padding. Resellers do real work, and whether it's worth paying for depends on you.
They skip the vendor's front door. BytePlus says activating Seedance 2.0 or 2.5 requires an account balance over US$30 or a prepaid pack. Veo 3.1 is not available on the Gemini API free tier at all.
One balance, many models. Runway's API lists its own Gen-4.5 next to Seedance 2.5, Veo 3.1, Wan 3.0, Grok Imagine and Gemini Omni Flash. Pika's single credit balance runs Seedance 2.5, Wan 3.0, Google Omni Flash and its own Pika 2.5.
No code. Vendors mostly sell an API. Resellers sell a web app.
And what you might give up:
- Parameters. BytePlus's Seedance 2.5 has a 480p draft mode and can return the last frame so you can chain the next shot from it. Whether a reseller exposes those switches is up to the reseller. Check before you buy.
- Cropping. Runway's docs warn that third-party models routed through it may crop or resize differently from Runway's own models.
- Where credits work. Pika top-up credits run only in the pika.art web app, not in its API.
How to choose
Ask three questions, in this order.
- One model, high volume, and you can write code? Go direct: BytePlus for Seedance, the Gemini API for Veo. The best a reseller can do here is tie.
- Switching between several models, no code? A reseller makes sense, but price each model separately. Runway ties the vendor on Veo 3.1 Standard with audio and on Wan 3.0, but charges 50% more for Veo 3.1 Fast. Luma's Seedance 2.5 sits near the vendor price on Plus. The gap on one platform can swing a lot from model to model.
- Is Veo 3.1 your main model? Skip Luma Plus. US$0.84 a second is more than twice Google's US$0.40. Runway's API matches Google on Standard, but its Fast tier is US$0.15 a second against Google's US$0.10; if you live on Fast, call Google directly.
Our own habit: estimate the seconds you will really generate in a month, check whether a subscription's credits would get used up, and only then compare per-second prices. Done in reverse, you end up with a plan that looks cheap and isn't.
When a reseller is the wrong call, and limits of this comparison
- You need vendor-only parameters. Draft mode, last-frame return and heavy batch API use are best documented, and most reliably available, at the vendor.
- Your volume is low. Luma's and Pika's low per-second numbers depend on spending the plan's credits.
- These prices expire. Every number is a 2026-10-05 list price. Resellers revise per-model credit costs often, so recompute on their page before you buy. Time-limited promotions are left out.
- We compared price, not output. This article does not test whether the same model gives the same quality through different platforms.
- TWno1 is not in the tables. TWno1 also sells prepaid points, and we did not grade our own homework here; check what it offers and charges on its pricing page yourself.
Related reading: Do AI Video Credits Expire? Kling, Google Flow, Pika, Vidu and Runway Compared; 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
Why does the same AI video model cost different amounts on different platforms?
Resellers re-price models in their own credits. With list prices from 2026-10-05, Veo 3.1 with audio costs US$0.40 per second on Google's Gemini API, 40 credits (US$0.40) per second on Runway's API, and 280 credits per second on Luma, which is US$0.84 at the Plus plan's US$0.003 per credit.
Are AI video models always more expensive through a reseller?
No. As of 2026-10-05, Runway's API sells Veo 3.1 Standard with audio and Wan 3.0 at 720p at the same per-second price as the vendors (Veo 3.1 Fast with audio is US$0.15 there, above Google's US$0.10 at 720p). Luma's Seedance 2.5 at 720p costs 78 credits per second, about US$0.176 on the Pro plan and US$0.156 on Ultra, below BytePlus's roughly US$0.231, but only if every subscription credit gets used.
How much does Seedance 2.5 cost per second at 720p?
BytePlus listed Seedance 2.5 at US$10.70 per million tokens for 720p without video input on 2026-10-05. One second of 720p is about 21,600 tokens, so the cost is roughly US$0.231 per second. Runway's API sold the same model at 30 credits per second, or US$0.30, on the same date.
How much is one Runway credit worth?
A Runway API credit costs US$0.01. Consumer plan credits vary: on 2026-10-05, monthly Standard was US$15 for 625 credits (US$0.024 each), Pro was US$35 for 2,250, and Max was US$95 for 9,500 (US$0.01 each).
Can I skip the reseller and use the vendor's API directly?
Yes, with some setup. BytePlus requires an account balance above US$30 or a prepaid pack before Seedance 2.0 or 2.5 can be activated, Veo 3.1 is not on the Gemini API free tier, and vendor access is mostly API-only, so you need to write code to call it.
References
- Gemini API pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- BytePlus ModelArk model pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- BytePlus: create a video generation task (API) (checked 2026-10-05)
- Runway API pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- Runway plan pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- Runway API input requirements (checked 2026-10-05)
- Luma pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- Pika pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
- Alibaba Cloud Model Studio: Wan 3.0 video (checked 2026-10-05)
- xAI: grok-imagine-video-1.5 (checked 2026-10-05)