Vidu Q4 after Nov 30: +42.9% per second, and what stays flat on Sume

The cliff

Vidu's release puts 30% off image-to-video and reference-to-video through November 30. When it ends, the price rises from 70% of list to 100%, which is a 42.9% increase (1 / 0.70 = 1.4286). At 540P that moves $0.0315 to $0.045 per second, and at 4K it moves $0.273 to $0.39. Sume does not list Vidu; its video rates are fixed in the catalog and show no end date in the catalog.

What 1,000 seconds costs before and after

A thousand seconds is a realistic quarter of work for a small team: about 66 clips of 15 seconds. The table shows the change for the two published endpoints.

The same 1,000 seconds

At 540P that is $31.50 inside the window and $45.00 after. At 4K it is $273.00 inside and $390.00 after, a $117.00 difference. Against Sume: 1,000 seconds of Omni at 4K is $375.00, Wan 3.0 at 1080p is $250.00, and Wan 3.0 at 720p is $125.00. None of these change on December 1.

The release does not say what happens to pricing after the Preview label is dropped, and nothing else in it promises a rate beyond November 30. Do not assume the list rates persist.

Planning around a date

If you will keep producing after the window, price the project at list and treat the discount as a bonus. If the work is a one-off, the discount is real money at 4K. If a stable unit cost matters for client quotes, a catalog rate with no stated end date is easier to quote. Check a Sume row's current rate in the catalog before quoting. For a trial sized to the window, see the test-batch planner.

Three ways to handle the date

There are 53 days between October 8 and November 30. How you use them depends on what the work is.

The point is not that one vendor is better. It is that a quote written today with the discounted number is wrong from December 1, while a quote written with a catalog rate that shows no end date is on firmer ground.

• Front-load: if a 4K batch is already scripted, run it inside the window. For 300 seconds of 4K image-to-video that is 300 x $0.273 = $81.90 instead of 300 x $0.39 = $117.00, a saving of $35.10.
• Test only: if you are choosing a model, spend the discount on a trial and price the real project at list, which is 42.9% higher.
• Hold flat: if you quote clients per second, use a row whose catalog rate shows no end date. On Sume, Wan 3.0 at 1080p is $0.25 per second and Omni at 1080p is $0.1875 per second, both listed in the catalog with no end date.