Cheapest on the AA video board: $2.40 a minute; Sume's floor is $3.75

The cheapest entry on the top 12 of Artificial Analysis's text-to-video board is Agnes-Video-2.5 at $2.40 per minute (1,057 Elo, tenth). Sume's video docs do not list it. Among the board's models that Sume does list, the lowest rate is $3.75 per minute, available on three ids at 480p: wan-3.0, minimax-h3 and minimax-h3-max, each at $0.0625 per second.

The board's low end

Four board entries list under $10 per minute. Only three of them have a Sume id.

Sume's lowest rates

Each rate below is the provider list x 1.25. A minute is 60 seconds of output.

Why $2.25 is on the table

Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 at 360p is $2.25 per minute on Sume, which is below Agnes's board price. It is a draft size, and the model takes 3 to 10 second clips in 16:9 or 9:16 only, so a minute is six 10 second jobs. At 360p the picture is a preview, not a final.

The lowest price is the wrong thing to chase for a final. Wan 3.0 ranks first on the board, but the board page does not say its scores were measured at 480p. Check a 480p clip yourself.

A cheap workflow that fits Sume

Draft at the lowest size, pick a take, and re-run it at the final size. A 5 second Wan 3.0 clip costs $0.3125 at 480p and $0.625 at 720p, so a draft is half the price of a final at 720p. Three drafts and one final cost 3 x 0.3125 + 0.625 = $1.5625. The draft-then-final recipe covers longer clips.

Draft cost for a ten-clip test

Ten 5 second drafts at the lowest size cost 10 x 5 x $0.0625 = $3.125 on Wan 3.0, H3 or H3 Max at 480p. Ten Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 drafts at 360p cost 10 x 5 x $0.0375 = $1.875.

A draft shows framing and motion, not final texture. Use drafts to choose the prompt and the model, then render the winner once at the final size. If the final is Wan 3.0 at 720p, each 5 second take adds $0.625, so five rejected finals cost $3.125, the same as the whole draft round.

A board price is a list price per minute, and a minute is not how you will buy. Most jobs are 5 to 15 seconds, and each job has a floor: Wan 3.0 starts at 2 seconds and H3 at 5 seconds, so H3 cannot make a 2 second bumper at all: its shortest clip is $0.375 at 768p, against $0.25 for 2 seconds of Wan 3.0 at 720p.

Compare on the clip you need, not on the per-minute figure. For a 3 second bumper, Wan 3.0 at 480p costs 3 x $0.0625 = $0.1875 and Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 at 360p costs 3 x $0.0375 = $0.1125.