Timeline 1.0 rounds up by the minute: 61 seconds is $0.20, 60 is $0.10

The short answer

Sume's Timeline 1.0 charges $0.10 for each output minute, rounded up. A video up to 60 seconds long costs $0.10; one second more costs $0.20, because the rounding takes 61 seconds to two minutes. For 100 videos, 45 seconds each costs 100 x $0.10 = $10.00, and 61 seconds each costs 100 x $0.20 = $20.00. Trimming 1 second from each of the 61-second videos halves the assembly bill.

Price by output length

The docs give the public rate as $0.10 per ceil(output minute), and the render reserve is ceil(audio.duration_seconds / 60) minutes. The job uses no provider inference, only worker ffmpeg.

Preview the cost before you render

POST /v1/timeline-1.0/plan is unbilled. It runs the schema and Sume-host URL checks and the compiler, then returns duration_seconds, segment_count, billable_minutes and estimated_cost_usd_micros. It does not create a job, reserve credits or download media. So you can check whether a 61-second program is really worth two minutes before spending anything. A plan cannot predict short-source pad or loop warnings, so the final render can still carry soft warnings, which the docs say are not failures.

The render accepts an audio.duration_seconds from 1 to 1,800 and up to 200 video slots. At the maximum 1,800 seconds the price is 30 x $0.10 = $3.00.

Worked batch examples

Rounding is per render, so batch totals are easy. 250 renders of 30 seconds: 250 x $0.10 = $25.00. 250 renders of 75 seconds: 250 x 2 x $0.10 = $50.00. 250 renders of 125 seconds: 250 x 3 x $0.10 = $75.00. A single 10-minute explainer (600 seconds) is 10 minutes and $1.00; at 601 seconds it is 11 minutes and $1.10.

The reserve is taken from audio.duration_seconds at submit, so the number you put in that field decides the minutes. The docs say to confirm the live rate in GET /v1/catalog before relying on this table.

Using the rounding in your favor

Plan to land at or just under a minute mark. Short-form platforms already cluster there: a Shorts-style video of 58 seconds and a 120-second explainer cost $0.10 and $0.20. If a cut runs at 62 seconds, either tighten it by 2 seconds for $0.10 or accept $0.20. Across 1,000 videos that choice is $100 against $200.

Timeline is the assembly step of a finished video. Clips, voice-over and music are billed separately, and the Timeline line is usually the smallest of them: for a 30-second ad it is $0.10 beside $3.75 for three 10-second Wan 3.0 clips at 720p. The Timeline 1.0 page has the request schema.