How many Veo 3.1 clips does $5 buy? Lite 12, Fast 6, Standard 1

Five dollars buys 12 Veo 3.1 Lite clips, 6 Veo 3.1 Fast clips, or 1 Veo 3.1 Standard clip when each clip is 8 seconds at 720p. That is $0.40, $0.80 and $3.20 a clip, from Google's per-second prices of $0.05, $0.10 and $0.40.

The gap between tiers is large enough that the tier matters more than the prompt when you are counting clips, so it is worth doing this sum before you pick.

The per-clip sum

Multiply each per-second price by 8. Lite is $0.05 x 8 = $0.40, Fast is $0.10 x 8 = $0.80, and Standard is $0.40 x 8 = $3.20. Divide $5 by each and drop the remainder, because you cannot buy part of a clip.

Standard leaves $1.80 unspent after one clip, which is more than four more Lite clips. Lite and Fast both spend $4.80 and leave 20 cents.

What Sume ships

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. So on Sume, $5 buys five 8-second Omni clips at 720p, or sixteen at 360p. You cannot buy Veo there, so the first three rows are Google-direct math.

Omni Flash on Sume costs 25% more per second than the Google-direct figure, a gap we break down in a separate post. What you get for it is one Sume key, one balance and the same job format as every other video model.

How to choose

Pick Lite when you want many tries and the look is not the point: storyboards, motion tests, prompt wording. Pick Fast when a clip may go to the client as is. Reserve Standard for the one shot where the extra $0.30 a second shows on screen.

If you only have $5 and need something you can post, six Fast clips give you more chances to get a good one than a single Standard clip does. If your plan needs 10 seconds in one clip, Omni Flash's 3 to 10 second range covers it on Sume.

Limits of this sum

It uses list prices only. It ignores failed generations, which Google's page does not price, and any tax. Google's own Veo page sets the clip lengths and resolutions each tier allows, so check it before you budget. Prices can change, which is why the table caption carries the read date.