AI video production cost: a line-item breakdown

AI video production cost is the sum of every step, not only the generated clips: the clips, a voiceover, a music bed, captions, any upscale and the final assembly render each have a price. On Sume, a 30-second video made from three 10-second 720p clips with a voiceover, music and captions comes to about $4.20 before the 5.5% agent fee, and the clips are 89% of it.

Each rate is read from Sume's pricing code, which the API pricing rate card also reads, and from its Video generation, Timeline 1.0 and Video captions docs, read 2026-09-28. TTS and upscale are documented in the API reference.

What goes into the cost of an AI video?

Five lines for a finished short video, plus an optional sixth. The example uses a 450-character voiceover script and one music track; swap in your own script length and model.

Which line costs the most?

The clips, and the model you pick moves that line the most. The same three 10-second 720p clips come to $0.38 on grok-imagine-video-1.5 (each clip starts from an image), $3.75 on wan-3.0, and $17.33 on seedance-2.5 at 16:9. The other lines don't depend on the video model. How much does AI video cost per second through an API? has every model's rate.

How do retakes change the budget?

Multiply the clip line by your own takes per kept clip. A completed generation is captured whether or not you use it, while a failed one, or one canceled before capture, is refunded. Why are AI videos so expensive? covers ways to cut the retake bill.

After production, GET /v1/usage with a job_id or run_id sums what each piece cost; AI video cost per run walks through it.

What are the limits?

• Sound: a Timeline render takes its sound from the audio spine and the optional soundtrack, and each clip's own audio is dropped in current code, so the voiceover is the spine and the music is the soundtrack.
• Captions: in current code the caption job refuses a video longer than 60 seconds or one with no audio stream, so caption the finished render, not the silent clips.
• Voiceover: one TTS request takes up to 20,000 characters.
• Upscale: priced per input second, up to 30 seconds per request.
• Assembly: a Timeline render runs 1 to 1,800 seconds, and every media URL in it must be Sume-hosted, such as your earlier jobs' outputs.