Veo 3 API Pricing: Cost Per Second Explained (2026)
You're building a feature that generates short video clips — product demos, social content, in-app animations — and you need to estimate the API cost before writing integration code. This article breaks down Veo 3.1 API pricing via GenRelay: what you pay per second at each resolution, how billing is calculated, example monthly costs for different app scales, and how Veo 3.1 compares in price to the other video generation APIs on GenRelay.
How Is Veo 3 API Billing Structured?
Veo 3.1 Lite on GenRelay is billed per second of output video duration, not per inference minute or compute time. A 5-second clip costs 5× the per-second rate regardless of how long the model took to generate it. A 7-second clip costs 7×. The resolution you request determines the per-second rate.
Failed generations — due to server errors, content policy violations, or timeouts — are not charged.
What Does Veo 3.1 API Cost Per Second?
As of August 2026, Veo 3.1 Lite pricing on GenRelay:
| Resolution | Price per second of output | 5-second clip | 8-second clip |
|---|---|---|---|
| 720p | $0.060/s | $0.30 | $0.48 |
| 1080p | $0.120/s | $0.60 | $0.96 |
| 4K | $0.180/s | $0.90 | $1.44 |
Veo 3.1 Lite supports clips of 5–8 seconds per generation. Duration is specified in whole seconds in the API request — you cannot generate a 6.5-second clip, and you cannot extend beyond 8 seconds in a single call. For the API request format, see the Veo 3.1 API tutorial.
What Does a Veo 3.1 API Integration Actually Cost at Scale?
Here is the monthly cost for three realistic app workloads:
Social clip generator — 1,000 clips/month at 5 seconds:
| Resolution | Per-clip cost | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|
| 720p | $0.30 | $300 |
| 1080p | $0.60 | $600 |
| 4K | $0.90 | $900 |
Product demo generator — 500 clips/month at 8 seconds:
| Resolution | Per-clip cost | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|
| 720p | $0.48 | $240 |
| 1080p | $0.96 | $480 |
| 4K | $1.44 | $720 |
High-volume consumer app — 10,000 clips/month at 5 seconds, 720p:
| Resolution | Per-clip cost | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|
| 720p | $0.30 | $3,000 |
For most consumer apps and SaaS products, 720p at $0.060/s is the right starting resolution. Video at 720p plays acceptably on mobile, web, and most social platforms. Move to 1080p when output is embedded in video players shown on desktop, integrated into video editing workflows, or displayed at sizes larger than a thumbnail.
How Does Veo 3.1 Pricing Compare to Other GenRelay Video APIs?
GenRelay offers three additional video model families alongside Veo 3.1. Full pricing comparison as of August 2026:
| Model | Billing model | 5-second clip (720p or equivalent) | Best use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veo 3.1 Lite | Per second: 720p $0.060 · 1080p $0.120 · 4K $0.180 | $0.30 | Cinematic quality, native audio, i2v, ref2v |
| Grok Imagine 1.5 (i2v) | Per second: $0.022/s | $0.11 | Image-to-video, cost-efficient animated clips |
| Grok Imagine 1.0 (t2v) | Per second: $0.010/s | $0.05 | High-volume text-to-video at lowest cost |
| Gemini Omni Flash | Per generation: 720p $0.10 · 1080p $0.15 | $0.10 (flat) | Fast generation, fixed cost per clip |
Key observations:
Veo 3.1 is the quality leader for cinematic motion, coherent physics, and fine detail. It also supports native audio output and three generation modes (text-to-video, image-to-video, reference-to-video). For creative tools, premium content platforms, and marketing video where output quality directly affects user perception, Veo 3.1 at $0.060/s (720p) is typically the right call.
Grok Imagine 1.0 at $0.010/s is 6× cheaper than Veo 3.1 Lite at 720p on a per-second basis. A 5-second clip costs $0.05 vs $0.30 — if your use case tolerates lower visual fidelity, Grok 1.0 dramatically reduces cost at volume. 10,000 clips/month costs $500 instead of $3,000.
Gemini Omni Flash uses flat per-generation pricing regardless of clip length — $0.10 per clip at 720p, $0.15 at 1080p. This is cheaper than Veo 3.1 Lite but more expensive than Grok 1.0. Flat pricing makes budgeting simpler: 10,000 clips at 720p = $1,000 regardless of duration.
Grok Imagine 1.5 is specifically an image-to-video model at $0.022/s. For animating existing images — product photos, UI mockups, character art — it costs $0.11 for a 5-second clip versus $0.30 on Veo 3.1 in i2v mode.
For capability details and access information for Veo specifically, see the Veo model page and the Google Veo API access guide.
What Generation Modes Are Included in the Veo 3.1 Price?
There is no surcharge for using image-to-video or reference-to-video modes. The per-second rate is the same regardless of generation mode.
As of August 2026, Veo 3.1 Lite on GenRelay supports:
- Text-to-video (t2v): Generate from a text prompt. Specify
model: "veo-3.1-lite",prompt,duration, andresolution. - Image-to-video (i2v): Animate a starting frame. Pass
init_imageas base64 or URL. The image becomes the first frame and the model animates forward. - Reference-to-video (ref2v): Use an image to guide visual style or character appearance without animating it directly. Pass
reference_image. Useful for maintaining character or brand consistency across multiple clips. - Audio: Native audio output is available in t2v and ref2v modes via
generate_audio: true. Audio is included in the same per-second rate — no additional charge.
Cost-Saving Tips for Veo 3.1 API Integrations
Default to 720p, upgrade on user demand. Most users watching video on mobile or in a standard web player cannot distinguish 720p from 1080p unless the player is full-screen on a large desktop display. Defaulting to 720p and offering 1080p as an explicit option roughly halves your video API cost.
Enforce duration limits in your request logic. Veo 3.1 supports 5–8 seconds. Generating 8 seconds when 5 is sufficient costs 60% more. Always pass the minimum duration that fits the use case — typically duration: 5 for social clips, duration: 8 for product demos or explainers.
Route high-volume, lower-fidelity use cases to Grok Imagine 1.0. If your product has both premium and standard tiers, route standard users to Grok 1.0 at $0.010/s. Reserve Veo 3.1 for premium output. GenRelay's unified endpoint makes model switching a single parameter change — no integration rework required.
Cache outputs for reusable content. If your app generates similar clips repeatedly — a brand intro, a product animation — generate once, store the MP4 in your own object storage (S3, Cloudflare R2), and serve from cache. Regenerating identical content wastes budget.
Don't auto-retry policy-rejected generations without fixing the prompt. Policy-rejected and failed generations are not charged, but automatic retries on rejection without modifying the prompt will loop indefinitely without producing output. Log the rejection message and surface it to the user or your content team.
FAQ
Is Veo 3.1 billed per second of generation compute time or output video time?
Output video time. A 5-second clip at 720p costs exactly $0.30 regardless of how long the model took to produce it (typically 1–3 minutes of compute). You pay for what you get, not for how long it took.
Are there minimum charges, connection fees, or per-request overhead?
No. You pay only for completed generations billed by output duration. There are no setup fees, per-request overhead charges, or monthly minimums beyond the base plan cost.
Does native audio generation add to the per-second cost?
No. Enabling generate_audio: true does not change the per-second rate. A 5-second clip with audio costs the same as a 5-second clip without audio at the same resolution.
What happens if a Veo 3.1 generation fails mid-job?
Failed generations are not charged. The job status endpoint returns a failed status with an error message. For production integrations, always check the status field before attempting to retrieve the video URL. See the Veo 3.1 API tutorial for error handling patterns.
Is there a free tier to test Veo 3.1 before estimating production costs?
GenRelay provides free credits for new accounts, sufficient to run several test generations at 720p and evaluate output quality before building production cost estimates. No credit card required to start.
How does Veo 3.1 pricing change if I need clips longer than 8 seconds?
Veo 3.1 does not support clips longer than 8 seconds in a single generation. For longer sequences, generate multiple clips and concatenate them client-side using a library like FFmpeg. Each clip is billed independently at the per-second rate.