Regenerate or recast a 15-second ad? $3.00 vs $8.44 at 1080p

For a 15-second ad with a new presenter, H3 Max generates a fresh clip for $1.50 at 768p or $3.00 at 1080p, while H3 Max Recast swaps the person in your existing clip for $5.63 at 768p or $8.44 at 1080p. Recast costs more per second because it keeps your original motion, camera, cuts and soundtrack.

Price side by side at 15 seconds

Both are billed at provider list times 1.25, rounded up to the cent.

What you get for the extra money

Regeneration builds a new clip from a prompt, optional first and last frames, and reference images, videos or audio. It can look like your ad but it is a new take: the camera move, timing and acting are new. Recast starts from the finished ad and only changes who is in it, which is what a tested ad needs.

Use H3 Max when the ad does not exist yet or when a different take is welcome. Use Recast when the cut, pacing and sound have been approved and the new presenter has to sit inside them.

Which limits differ

Both routes handle 15 seconds, but their envelopes differ.

• H3 Max: 5 to 15 seconds, 480p/768p/1080p, native stereo audio always on, up to 9 reference images, 3 videos and 3 audio clips (12 total).
• H3 Max Recast: 5 to 30 seconds, 768p/1080p, one source video, 1 to 4 photos, no shot over 15 seconds.
• H3 Max has no video-to-video edit mode and no person swap; its video references guide a new clip rather than edit yours.

A decision rule

If the cost of an unwanted change matters, such as an approved legal line or a product shot, pay for Recast. If you are still exploring concepts, run H3 Max at 768p for $1.50 per take, three takes for $4.50, which is still less than one 768p recast at $5.63.

A worked comparison

Take a 15-second product ad with a presenter. Option one is to generate three H3 Max takes at 768p with the new presenter's photo as a reference, which costs $4.50, and pick the best. Option two is to recast the finished ad once at 768p for $5.63. Option one gives three different ads, only one of which you may like. Option two gives the same ad with a different person, which is what you need if the ad is already approved. Doing both costs $10.13 and is rarely needed. Pick one route by what must stay fixed.

Both routes share the same wallet, the same job polling and the same download step, so switching between them in a pipeline only changes the model id and the inputs. The Videos API and the Video Router both accept either route. For a quote to a client, show the three-take regeneration price and the single recast price side by side, and let the brief decide.