Veo 3.1 Lite, Fast or standard: how to choose

Pick standard Veo 3.1 for the widest feature set, Fast when speed matters, and Lite when you need image-to-video or text-to-video and can live without 4K, extension and video input. Google lists all three as Preview. Sume does not list Veo, but its Seedance 2 family has the same tier idea: seedance-2, seedance-2-fast and seedance-2-mini.

Google's details are from its Veo page; Sume's are from Video generation and price code, read 2026-09-29.

What differs between the three Veo 3.1 models?

Google says Fast versions keep quality while optimizing for speed and business use, such as programmatic ads and rapid A/B tests.

How does Sume tier the same idea?

Sume's Seedance 2 family lists three price points on one request shape. Below are reserved amounts for a 5-second 720p 16:9 clip, before the agent fee, from the estimate code.

How do I test which tier is enough?

Run the same prompt and first frame on the cheapest tier, then move up only if the frames you care about fail: faces, text, hands. Keep the request identical so the difference is the model, and send an Idempotency-Key on each run so a retry does not bill twice.