API prices

MiniMax H3 API: $0.13 per second at 2K, $0.08 per second at 768P. Reference images cost $0.04 per image after the first five free. Source: MiniMax API pricing — https://platform.minimax.io/docs/pricing/overview

Runway Gen-4.5 API: $0.12 per second (12 credits per second at $0.01 per credit). Source: Runway API pricing — https://docs.dev.runwayml.com/guides/pricing/

Google Veo 3.1 API: Standard $0.40 per second; Fast $0.10–$0.12 per second depending on resolution; no free tier. Source: Gemini API pricing — https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing

Subscription credits, evaluated separately

Subscription credits are not API rates, and the two should not be mixed. Hailuo's app credits, in particular, cannot be converted into MiniMax H3 API seconds without a model-specific credit schedule, so they are listed here for reference rather than ranked against the API table.

Runway plans: Standard $12/month includes 625 credits; Pro $28 includes 2,250; Max $76 includes 9,500. Gen-4.5 consumes 12 credits per second, so even 60 generated seconds requires 720 credits, and this page's 90-second budget requires 1,080. Among these three individual plans, only Max permits up to one month of unused monthly credits to roll over; purchased credits do not expire. Sources: Runway pricing — https://runwayml.com/pricing ; Runway credit guide — https://docs.dev.runwayml.com/guides/pricing/

Google Flow: Quality mode costs 100 credits per eight-second generation — per generation, not per request, and some requests generate multiple videos. Google AI Pro ($19.99/month) adds 1,000 monthly Flow credits; users also receive 50 daily credits. Twelve Quality generations (96 seconds of footage, billed in eight-second units) cost 1,200 credits, so the monthly allotment alone falls short of this page's scenario; daily credits or purchased credits change that arithmetic. Source: Google Flow help — https://support.google.com/flow/answer/16526234

Hailuo subscription: Hailuo's subscription terms (dated July 14, 2025) list Standard at $14.99/month for 1,000 credits, purchased credits at $1 per 70 credits, and automatic credit refunds for failed or rejected generations; membership credits expire monthly. These are the published terms, not independently verified current checkout prices — Hailuo's pricing page has also advertised $9.99 Standard pricing during 2026, and its own documents disagree. Source: Hailuo payment policy — https://hailuoai.video/doc/payment-policy.html

The worked example

Sixty finished seconds, keeping two of every three takes, means paying for 90 generated seconds. At API rates: MiniMax H3 at 2K, 90 × $0.13 = $11.70. Runway Gen-4.5, 90 × $0.12 = $10.80. Veo 3.1 Standard, 90 × $0.40 = $36.00. These are generation costs only — subscriptions, top-ups, editing and your own time are excluded, and a worse keep rate raises every figure proportionally.

Commercial rights

Hailuo / MiniMax: the paid-plan terms say Hailuo does not claim ownership of content generated and downloaded under a paid subscription; as between the user and Hailuo, the user retains any applicable intellectual-property rights, including commercial-use rights. That does not guarantee copyright protection or exclusivity. MiniMax separately keeps a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to operate, improve and promote the service, which survives termination. Free-tier output is watermarked. Source: Hailuo terms, paid-output IP clause — https://hailuoai.video/doc/payment-policy.html

Runway: output is yours; Runway's FAQ names advertising and festival use as allowed. The consumer terms include no indemnity. Source: Runway — https://runwayml.com/pricing

Google (Veo / Flow): Google does not claim ownership of generated content. It may generate similar content for other users, so there is no exclusivity, and every Veo output carries a SynthID watermark. Separately, human-authorship limits on copyright apply to AI output generally, on every provider. Source: Gemini API pricing and terms — https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing

Change log

2026-10-12 — Initial source check against the providers' own pages. Flagged: Hailuo checkout pricing discrepancy ($14.99 in its subscription terms vs $9.99 advertised on its pricing page); Hailuo subscription terms are dated July 14, 2025. When a provider changes pricing or terms, this page gets a dated note here rather than a silent edit.

Sources

  1. [1] MiniMax API pricingRead source
  2. [2] Runway pricingRead source
  3. [3] Runway API pricing guideRead source
  4. [4] Hailuo payment policy and termsRead source
  5. [5] Gemini API pricing (Veo 3.1)Read source
  6. [6] Google Flow help (credits)Read source