Grok Imagine Lite draft plus Sume upscale: what a 10 s clip totals

A 10-second clip made with Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Lite at xAI's listed $0.020 per second costs $0.20, and Sume video upscale at $0.009 per input second adds $0.09, so the two steps total $0.29. The same 10 seconds on the full 1.5 model at the listed $0.080 per second is $0.80 at xAI.

Sume does not list the Lite model. Its video router lists grok-imagine-video-1.5 and ten others, so this is a plan where you generate at xAI and finish on Sume. The xAI numbers below come from its pricing page, read 2026-10-10.

What xAI says

xAI's pricing page lists grok-imagine-video-1.5 at $0.080 per second and grok-imagine-video-1.5-lite at $0.020 per second. The Lite model page says it takes text and image inputs, produces video, lists the same $0.020 per second, and supports the batch API.

This page quotes only those facts. It makes no claim about Lite's resolution, quality or maximum length, because the pages read for this article are the only basis, and a price list is not a quality statement.

What Sume adds

Sume's video upscale route accepts a public HTTPS video_url, a scale_ratio of 1.1 to 4 (default 2), an enhancement_tier of fast, standard or pro, and a duration_seconds hint from 1 to 30 for the reservation. The rate is $0.009 per input second, and omitting the hint reserves 5 seconds.

Because the route takes a public URL, a clip from another vendor does not have to be imported first. The tools that need a media.sume.com clip, such as trim and filter, are a different matter; see the Media inputs page for the fetch rules.

The arithmetic

Check one row: 10 s x $0.020 = $0.20, 10 s x $0.009 = $0.09, and $0.20 + $0.09 = $0.29. The upscale step is a bit under half of the Lite cost, so the combined total stays well below the full model's listed price. That says nothing about which output looks better; test one clip before you scale.

When the combination is worth it

It makes sense when the draft cost dominates and the destination wants more pixels than the draft provides. It makes less sense when the clip is already large enough, because upscaling then buys little. It also makes less sense above 30 seconds, since one Sume upscale job is capped at a 30-second reservation.

For 60 seconds of finished video in 10-second pieces, six Lite clips cost 6 x $0.20 = $1.20 and six upscales cost 6 x $0.09 = $0.54, for $1.74. The same minute on the full 1.5 model is 60 x $0.080 = $4.80 at xAI.

What stays open

Prices on both sides can change, so confirm the xAI page and the live Sume rate in GET /v1/catalog before a big run. Do not mix this up with Sume's own grok-imagine-video-1.5 row, whose price you read from the catalog and not from xAI's page. If you would rather keep every step on Sume, price the listed row there and compare the totals yourself.