Last updated: August 2026
The cheapest published AI video clip we could price costs 17 cents, the most expensive costs $4.37, and two of the five tools we checked will not show you a price at all. Sticker price is also not what you pay — the rules attached to the credits decide that, and those rules differ more between vendors than the rates do.
TL;DR — what AI video costs in 2026. Priced from each vendor's own rate card: a 5-second talking-avatar clip runs $0.17 on Hedra Creator and $0.67 on Kling Avatar V2; a general clip is $0.21 on DeeVid Pro and $0.28–$1.94 on Hedra depending on model; current-generation Kling runs $1.01–$2.69 and native 4K $4.37. Vidnoz and Akool publish no price at all. Ignore price-per-credit — DeeVid's credit costs 7.4× Hedra's and its clips land within four cents. What actually moves your bill: credits that expire, credits that freeze when you cancel, per-seat charges, and overdraft billed without notice.
Every number below is arithmetic on a published rate card, read on 5–6 August 2026. Where a vendor publishes no rate, that is stated rather than estimated — none of these figures are guesses at a hidden price.
What One 5-Second AI Video Costs
Grouped by what you are actually buying. A talking head and a 4K cinematic shot are not the same AI video purchase, and a flat league table would pretend they are.
| Tool · plan | Model | Per 5s clip |
|---|---|---|
| Hedra · Creator $30 | Character-3 | $0.17 |
| kling4.co · Starter $19.90 | Kling Avatar V2 | $0.67 |
| DeeVid · Pro $25 | tier-wide, 1080p cap | $0.21 |
| Hedra · Creator $30 | Kling 2.5 Turbo | $0.28 |
| Hedra · Creator $30 | Sora 2 Pro | $1.94 |
| kling4.co · Starter $19.90 | Kling O3 | $1.01 |
| kling4.co · Starter $19.90 | Kling 4.0 | $2.69 |
| kling4.co · Starter $19.90 | Kling 3.0 4K | $4.37 |
Two things the table makes obvious. Talking-avatar work is the cheapest thing in AI video by a wide margin — it is a smaller AI video job than rendering a whole scene. And nobody in this set publishes a rate for current-generation Kling or for native 4K except us, so those two rows have no comparison column, not because we won the race but because the race has no other entrants.
Two Tools Will Not Show Their AI Video Cost
Both publish credit allowances and feature ladders. Neither publishes an AI video cost you can read before signing up.
Vidnoz: the dollars are not in the page
Save vidnoz.com/pricing and search the HTML. You get $ /mo and $ /credit with the numbers missing — whatever fills them in, it is not in the page source, and the slots sit under a rotating "25% OFF First Month" badge. What is in the page is the credit allowance: 450/month on Starter, 900 on Business, both plus 30 free daily. Two add-on prices are published in plain text — Voice Clone at $9.99/month and a custom avatar at $299/year — which together add $418.88 a year on top of whatever the plan turns out to cost.
Akool: four of five tiers render $0
Akool prices per seat. Fetch the pricing page and Starter, Pro, Pro Max and Business all render as $0 /seat /mo; Enterprise says Contact Sales. The one concrete figure Akool publishes is inside its Terms, as a worked example of seat charging: "if the owner pays $30 a month for a PRO Plan, any added admins or editors will also be charged $30/month (per added member)."
On Akool's own arithmetic, a three-person team is $90/month, not $30.
Why Price Per Credit Is Not Your AI Video Cost
Every AI video tool here sells credits, which invites you to compare price per credit. Doing that misleads you every time, because a credit buys a different amount of AI video work at each vendor.
| Tool | Price per credit | Credits per 5s clip | Actual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hedra · Creator | $0.0056 | 30 | $0.17 |
| kling4.co · Starter pack | $0.0135 | 50–325 | $0.67–$4.37 |
| DeeVid · Pro | $0.0417 | 5 | $0.21 |
DeeVid's credit costs 7.4× Hedra's — and a DeeVid clip comes out within four cents of a Hedra Character-3 clip. The per-credit number carried no information at all.
The only number worth comparing is AI video cost per finished output at the quality you actually need. Everything else is packaging.
The Rules That Change Your Real AI Video Cost
Rates are the advertised half of AI video cost. These clauses are the other half, and each is quoted from the vendor's own documentation.
| Clause | Where it applies | Quoted from the vendor |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly credits reset | Hedra, all four tiers | "Monthly Credits Do Not Roll Over" |
| Credits freeze on cancel | Hedra | "You need to have an active subscription to use credits" |
| 12-month shelf life | DeeVid | Credits valid one year from purchase |
| Payments final | DeeVid, Terms §8.1 | "the related fees are not refundable" |
| Overdraft billed unasked | Akool, "Dynamic Billing" | "without additional notice… at any earlier time determined by Akool in its discretion" |
| Per-seat charging | Akool | Every admin or editor invited is charged the owner's rate again |
| Packs never expire | kling4.co | No reset, no shelf life, no freeze |
Separately bought credit packs do carry over at Hedra; it is the monthly allowance that resets. Akool's overdraft charges are also "final and non-refundable."
A $25 plan with 12-month expiry and no refunds is not obviously cheaper than a $30 plan whose packs never expire. That comparison depends entirely on how evenly you work.
Where Kling 4.0 Sits on AI Video Cost
Straight: on raw AI video cost per second we are not the cheapest, and the table above shows it. The rates buy a different shelf of models.
Kling 4.0 at $2.69 a clip and Kling 3.0 4K at $4.37 are the current model generation and native 4K respectively — neither has a published price anywhere else in this comparison. Kling O3 at $1.01 is the tier for volume work, and Kling Avatar V2 at $0.67 handles presenters.
The rules attached are the part worth reading next to the clauses above: credit packs never expire (no monthly reset, no shelf life, no freeze if you stop buying), failed generations are not charged, and the estimated credit cost is shown before you press generate. Packs start at $9.90 for 700 credits. The full rate card is on the pricing page.
How to Estimate Your Own AI Video Cost
Three steps, in order, before you compare a single AI video rate card:
- Decide the output first. Talking head, social clip, or 4K master. The AI video cost gap between those is 25× — far larger than the gap between vendors.
- Convert to cost per finished clip. Not per credit, not per month.
- Read the expiry rules before the rate. Monthly reset punishes bursty work; 12-month expiry punishes slow work; non-expiring packs are neutral.
FAQ
How much does an AI video cost in 2026?
Between $0.17 and $4.37 for a 5-second clip among the tools with published rates. Talking-avatar clips are cheapest, general clips run $0.21 (DeeVid, capped at 1080p) to $0.28 (Hedra on Kling 2.5 Turbo), current-generation cinematic models $1.01–$2.69, and native 4K $4.37. Vidnoz and Akool publish no rate at all.
What is the cheapest AI video generator?
By published per-clip price, Hedra's Character-3 at about $0.17 for 5 seconds — but it is an avatar model rather than a scene generator, so it is only the cheapest if a talking head is what you need. For general clips, DeeVid Pro works out to roughly $0.21.
Why is price per credit different at every AI video tool?
Because a credit is an internal accounting unit, not a standard measure. DeeVid charges about 5 credits for a video while Hedra charges 30 for the same length, so DeeVid's more expensive credit still produces a similarly priced clip. Compare cost per finished output instead.
Do AI video credits expire?
It depends on the vendor, and this is where real money is lost. Hedra's monthly plan credits do not roll over and cannot be spent without an active subscription. DeeVid credits are valid one year from purchase. On kling4.co, credit packs never expire.
Are failed generations charged?
Not consistently, and it is worth checking before you commit. Hedra's billing docs say "A failed request may be refunded automatically" and show the debit and refund as a matched pair. On kling4.co a failed generation is not charged at all. Other vendors in this set do not address it in their published terms.
Why do some AI video tools hide their AI video cost?
Usually because the price is promotional or negotiated. Vidnoz injects its plan prices at page load beneath a rotating discount badge; Akool prices per seat and quotes through sales. Neither is unusual for enterprise software, but it does mean you cannot compare them without signing up.
Resources
- Hedra pricing and credit rate card · billing docs
- DeeVid pricing · Terms of Service
- Vidnoz pricing · Akool pricing
- Our full reviews: Hedra · DeeVid · Vidnoz · Akool
- On this site: pricing and credit costs · Kling 4.0 · Kling 3.0 4K · Kling Avatar V2
