Is a 1:1 AI clip cheaper than 9:16? Only at 480p, by about 4%

On Sume's Seedance rows, a square 1:1 clip costs a little less than a 9:16 clip at 480p and exactly the same at 720p and 1080p. For eight seconds on Seedance 2.5 the 480p prices are $2.06 (1:1) and $2.15 (9:16), about 4 percent apart. Wan 3.0, Kling 3 and the MiniMax H3 rows accept 1:1 but have one price for every ratio.

The numbers

Billable prices for an 8-second clip.

Reading the table

The 480p gap is 9 cents on 2.5, 6 on 2.0, 5 on Fast and 3 on Mini. As a share of the 9:16 price: 9 / 215 = 4.2 percent, 6 / 141 = 4.3, 5 / 113 = 4.4 and 3 / 71 = 4.2. The catalog does not say why; it lists a lower price for the 1:1 shape at 480p only.

At 720p and 1080p the prices match to the cent, so the ratio is a creative choice there, not a billing one. Wan 3.0, Kling 3, MiniMax H3 and MiniMax H3 Max accept 1:1 and price on seconds and resolution alone.

Which ratio the platform wants

Choose the ratio from the destination. TikTok's non-Spark ad page lists 9:16 at 540x960 or larger, 16:9 at 960x540 or larger and 1:1 at 640x640 or larger. A square clip is a listed shape there.

The 480p saving is small, and 480p is a resolution label in Sume's docs rather than a promised pixel size. Probe the file before you compare it with TikTok's 640x640 minimum.

A batch example

The saving is small per clip, so only a batch makes it visible. For 100 clips of 8 seconds on Seedance 2.0 Mini at 480p, 9:16 costs 100 x 71 = 7100 cents ($71.00) and 1:1 costs 100 x 68 = 6800 cents ($68.00), a $3.00 difference. On Seedance 2.5 at 480p the same batch is $215.00 against $206.00, a $9.00 difference.

Compare that with the cost of a wrong ratio: a clip made at 1:1 and then cropped to 9:16 loses a third of its width, since the 9:16 crop of a square keeps 9/16 = 56 percent of the width. For a vertical placement, make vertical clips.

Rows with no ratio price

Wan 3.0, Kling 3, MiniMax H3 and MiniMax H3 Max take 1:1, and their catalog entries have no aspect-ratio price key, so the same prompt costs the same at 9:16 and 1:1. Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 takes only 16:9 and 9:16, so a square clip from it needs a crop afterwards. If you pick a model only for a square deliverable, the model's rate card, not the ratio, decides the price.

For example, an 8-second 720p clip is $1.00 on Wan 3.0 at any ratio, $1.52 on Seedance 2.0 Mini and $4.63 on Seedance 2.5. The 1:1 saving on 480p is a rounding-level effect next to differences like those.