Google video resolution upcharge: Standard 0%, Fast 20%, Lite 60%

Moving from 720p to 1080p adds nothing on Veo 3.1 Standard, 20% on Fast, 60% on Lite, and 50% on Gemini Omni Flash through Sume. That means the question of which resolution to buy has a different answer on each model.

Percentages are computed from Google's per-second prices and Sume's billing table, both read 2026-10-06 or taken from the repo.

The ladder

Standard lists $0.40 a second at 720p and 1080p, so the upgrade is free, and $0.60 at 4K, so 4K adds 50% over 1080p. Fast lists $0.10, $0.12 and $0.30, so 1080p adds 20% and 4K adds 150% over 1080p. Lite lists $0.05 and $0.08, so 1080p adds 60% and there is no 4K row.

Sume's Omni goes $0.0375, $0.125, $0.1875 and $0.375, so each step adds 233%, 50% and 100%.

What it means

On Standard, always use 1080p. On Fast, 1080p is a cheap upgrade for a clip you will publish. On Lite the 60% matters if you make thousands of clips, because Lite's appeal is cost.

For 4K, Fast and Omni on Sume both cost three times their 720p rate. Standard's 4K costs 1.5 times its 720p rate, but starts from a rate four times Fast's.

Resolution is not the only change

Google's tiers differ in more than price, and a cheaper tier at a higher resolution is not a copy of a dearer tier at a lower one. We did not compare picture quality. The ladder is a cost statement only.

Sume's Omni is one model at four resolutions, so the only thing that changes with the step is pixels and price. That makes the Omni ladder a cleaner test of what resolution is worth to you.

A volume example

At 1,000 seconds a month, the 720p-to-1080p step costs nothing extra on Standard, $20.00 more on Fast ($100 to $120), $30.00 more on Lite ($50 to $80), and $62.50 more on Omni through Sume ($125 to $187.50). The percentages look large on Lite and Omni, but the dollar amounts are modest until volume grows.

That is the point of the ladder: the percentage tells you how steep the step is, and your monthly seconds tell you whether the step is worth negotiating.

Sume note

Sume does not list a Veo model. Its Google video model is gemini-omni-flash-1.1, which takes 3 to 10 seconds at 360p, 720p, 1080p or 4K, in 16:9 or 9:16, with audio always on. Sume bills the provider list rate times 1.25 for each output second, so its rates are $0.0375, $0.125, $0.1875 and $0.375 a second.