E-commerce product video cost per SKU: cutout plus a 5-second clip

A background cutout costs $0.0225 per image on Sume, and a 5-second 9:16 Seedance 2.5 clip at 720p costs $2.889. Together that is $2.9115 per SKU, or $291.15 for 100 SKUs, before retakes.

This post is the calculator for a holiday catalog refresh. Swap in your own SKU count and duration.

The per-SKU recipe

Remove the background from the product photo ($0.0225), place it on a clean scene, and animate a 5-second clip. The clip is 108,000 tokens, and 108,000 x $0.0214 / 1,000 x 1.25 = $2.889.

The cutout rate comes from the public catalog and the clip from the token formula in the video docs.

Retakes and variants

Plan one retake per five SKUs. For 100 SKUs that is 20 extra clips, or $57.78. Three scene variants per SKU triple the clip line to $866.70 while the cutout is billed once, since the cutout is reusable.

Reuse the same cutout across scenes. That is where the per-SKU cost stops growing linearly.

Wan 3.0 as the cheaper lane

At 720p Wan 3.0 is $0.125 a second on Sume, so a 5-second clip is $0.625. Per SKU that is $0.6475 and for 100 SKUs $64.75. The model has a different look, so test a few SKUs first.

Operational notes

• Each submitted job holds its estimate, so 100 SKUs in flight need the whole batch total in the wallet.
• Failed jobs refund their hold.
• A plan with 8 concurrent jobs runs 100 SKUs in 13 waves; 20 jobs run it in 5.