AI Video Generation API for Electronics and Gadgets

A headphone brand has clean studio photos of a new earbud case in four colorways, but no video, and a shopper scrolling a marketplace listing is far more likely to stop on a clip of the case lid opening and the light catching the charging contacts than on a static photo grid. Booking a videographer for every SKU variant costs more than most electronics brands budget for a single product refresh, and it has to happen before any clip can go into the listing or a paid social campaign. Turning existing product photos into short feature-showcase clips via API answers the "what would this cost per SKU" question before booking a shoot.

Direct answer: GenRelay's video models bill either per second of output or per generation, and a 5-second gadget showcase clip costs between $0.05 and $0.30 depending on the model and resolution — low enough to generate a clip for every SKU variant rather than reserving video for a single hero shot.

How Much Does a Single Product Showcase Clip Cost?

A 5-second clip's cost depends entirely on which model and resolution generate it, since per-second models scale with duration while per-generation models charge a flat fee regardless of length. As of September 2026, GenRelay's video pricing: Grok Imagine 1.0 (text-to-video) $0.010/s, Grok Imagine 1.5 (image-to-video) $0.022/s, Veo 3.1 Lite $0.060/s at 720p or $0.120/s at 1080p, and Gemini Omni Flash a flat $0.10 per generation at 720p or $0.15 at 1080p.

Model	Mode	Billing	5s clip cost (720p)	Native audio
Grok Imagine 1.0	Text-to-video	Per second	5 × $0.010 = $0.050	No
Grok Imagine 1.5	Image-to-video	Per second	5 × $0.022 = $0.110	No
Veo 3.1 Lite	Image-to-video	Per second	5 × $0.060 = $0.300	Yes
Gemini Omni Flash	Image-to-video	Flat per generation	$0.10 (720p)	No

For a finished product photo with no existing footage, image-to-video is the relevant mode — it animates the photo itself into a case lid opening or a light catching a metal edge, rather than generating a scene from a text description alone.

Which Model Fits Electronics and Gadget Clips?

Grok Imagine 1.5's lower per-second rate fits a full SKU-lineup rollout where every colorway or variant gets a short clip regardless of how likely it is to convert a browsing shopper into a buyer; Veo 3.1 Lite's native audio is a better fit for a smaller set of hero clips meant for paid social or a product-launch page, where a click of a button or the snap of a case closing adds to the scene rather than playing silently.

Gemini Omni Flash's flat per-generation price becomes cheaper than Grok Imagine 1.5 once a clip runs past roughly 4.5 seconds at 720p, which matters for electronics brands standardizing on a fixed clip length across a multi-SKU catalog rather than varying duration per product.

How Do I Generate a Feature Showcase Clip From a Product Photo?

Submit the product photo with a prompt describing the intended motion — a lid opening or a light sweep across a surface reads better than trying to animate the whole product, including background elements, at once.

import requests, time

API_KEY = "YOUR_KEY"
BASE = "https://genrelay.ai/v1"

def generate_clip(model, image_url, prompt, duration=5, resolution="720p"):
    r = requests.post(
        f"{BASE}/videos/generations",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
        json={
            "model": model,
            "image": image_url,
            "prompt": prompt,
            "duration": duration,
            "resolution": resolution,
        },
    )
    return r.json()["id"]

job_id = generate_clip(
    "grok-imagine-1.5",
    "https://cdn.example.com/earbud-case-mint.jpg",
    "case lid slowly opening, light catching the charging contacts, static camera, studio lighting",
)

Poll the job until it completes, since video generation is asynchronous:

def wait_for_result(job_id, timeout=180):
    start = time.time()
    while time.time() - start < timeout:
        status = requests.get(
            f"{BASE}/videos/generations/{job_id}",
            headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
        ).json()
        if status["status"] == "completed":
            return status["output_url"]
        if status["status"] == "failed":
            raise RuntimeError(status.get("error"))
        time.sleep(3)
    raise TimeoutError(f"Job {job_id} did not finish in {timeout}s")

video_url = wait_for_result(job_id)

How Do I Batch a Full SKU Lineup?

Loop over every SKU variant's product photo and submit each as its own job, holding concurrency low enough to stay under the account's rate limit — see the image-to-video pipeline guide for the async polling and error-handling pattern this batch relies on at larger catalog sizes.

skus = [
    ("earbud-case-mint.jpg", "case lid slowly opening, light catching the charging contacts"),
    ("earbud-case-black.jpg", "case lid slowly opening, light catching the charging contacts"),
    ("earbud-case-white.jpg", "case lid slowly opening, light catching the charging contacts"),
]

jobs = []
for filename, prompt in skus:
    image_url = f"https://cdn.example.com/{filename}"
    job_id = generate_clip("grok-imagine-1.5", image_url, prompt)
    jobs.append((filename, job_id))

results = [(name, wait_for_result(j)) for name, j in jobs]
for name, url in results:
    print(f"{name}: {url}")

What Does a Full Lineup Cost?

A ten-SKU catalog on Grok Imagine 1.5 at 5 seconds per clip costs 10 × $0.110 = $1.10. Adding two hero clips on Veo 3.1 Lite with audio for the launch page adds 2 × $0.300 = $0.60.

Package tier	Composition	Cost
Full lineup clips (Grok Imagine 1.5)	10 × 5s	$1.10
Hero clips with audio (Veo 3.1 Lite, 720p)	2 × 5s	$0.60
Combined rollout	Both above	$1.70
Flat-rate alternative (Gemini Omni Flash)	10 × $0.10	$1.00

At $1.70 for a ten-SKU lineup with two audio-enabled hero clips included, adding a showcase clip to every colorway or variant costs less than a single hour of a videographer's time, without scheduling a shoot around each SKU's final sample arriving. See the AI video generation API for game trailers and cutscenes guide for the adjacent hero/filler shot tiering pattern this workflow pairs with.

Internal Links

• Veo 3.1 on GenRelay
• AI video generation API for game trailers and cutscenes
• How to build an image-to-video pipeline with API

FAQ

Can the API animate an exploded-view or internal-components shot?
Not reliably from a single external product photo — image-to-video works best animating visible surface motion (lids, buttons, light) rather than inferring internal components the reference photo never showed.

Is per-second or per-generation billing cheaper for gadget clips?
It depends on clip length — Grok Imagine 1.5 stays cheaper than Gemini Omni Flash's flat $0.10 (720p) up to roughly 4.5 seconds; past that, the flat rate wins regardless of duration.

Does Veo 3.1 Lite's audio track require a separate API call?
No. Audio generates synchronized with the video in the same request when using Veo 3.1 Lite — there's no separate audio generation step or additional endpoint.

How fast can a ten-SKU batch finish?
Individual clips typically complete within a few minutes; a ten-clip batch submitted with bounded concurrency finishes well within a same-day turnaround for a catalog update.

Is there a free tier to compare models before committing to a full lineup rollout?
Yes. GenRelay includes free credits on signup, enough to generate sample clips across Grok Imagine 1.5 and Veo 3.1 Lite before choosing a model for the full lineup.

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As of September 2026. Pricing subject to change — verify current rates at genrelay.ai.