Veo 3 pricing — how much does it cost per video through the API instead of a subscription?

Veo 3 pricing consists of two parts: subscriptions (Google AI Pro / Ultra and Flow credits) and usage-based API billing per video. When called through the API, at Kunavo Veo 3.1 Lite is $0.18+, Veo 3.1 Fast is $0.36+, and Veo 3.1 Quality is $1.60+ (720p, per video), with no monthly fee or Google Cloud project required. Which is better depends on one division — monthly price ÷ per-video price = break-even number of videos —.

When you search in Japanese for “veo3 料金,” most articles end with a comparison of subscription plans. That is correct in itself, but the other half — how much it costs to pay per video through the API — is left blank. This page fills that half with numbers.

Veo 3 has two pricing systems

Subscription prices and credit amounts change frequently, so we do not reproduce them here. Check the latest terms on Google's official page. For comparison, all you need is the one division shown later.

API pricing — per-video price by tier

The prices below are loaded from the model catalog. If pricing changes, this table changes with it.

The “+” in a price means “starting at.” These are minimum prices for creating one 720p video and may be higher at higher resolutions. Model IDs remain in the veo-3 family, while the underlying models are the current generations shown in the table. Billing is in USD and deducted one video at a time from your prepaid balance.

Break-even point — monthly price ÷ per-video price

Whether a subscription or the API is cheaper depends on how many videos you make per month. Convert the subscription's monthly price to dollars and divide it by the price of the tier you use to get the break-even number of videos. In months below that number, the API is cheaper; if you consistently make at least that many each month, the subscription is advantageous. As a reference, we list the number of videos equivalent to $10 per month.

Multiply by how many times your monthly price is $10 to get your plan's break-even point. There is one more number to consider. If the number of videos your subscription credits can produce is lower than the break-even point, the API is always cheaper. Conversely, if you create videos almost every day in Flow and use all your credits each month, choosing a subscription is the straightforward option. If you also use benefits beyond video, include them in your decision.

The biggest saving — mix tiers

The most effective way to reduce the total cost is to use different tiers for prototyping and production. Iterate repeatedly in Veo 3.1 Lite until the prompt is finalized, then generate the finalized prompt once in Veo 3.1 Quality. For example, with 10 prototype videos plus one production video, creating everything in Veo 3.1 Quality costs $17.60, while sending the prototypes to Veo 3.1 Lite costs $3.40. The code difference is only one model-name string.

How to call it — just remember that it is asynchronous

Unlike text, video is an asynchronous job. Send POST /v1/videos, receive a job ID first, then poll GET /v1/videos/{id} and wait for it to become completed or failed.

# クリップを 1 本生成して、完成まで待つ最小の例。
# サブスクも Google Cloud プロジェクトも不要。キー 1 本で呼べます。
import os, time, requests

KEY = os.environ["KUNAVO_API_KEY"]
H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}"}

# 1. 投入 — すぐにジョブ ID が返ってきます（status は "queued"）。
job = requests.post(
    "https://api.kunavo.com/v1/videos",
    headers=H,
    json={
        "model": "veo-3-lite",  # 試作は Lite、本番だけ "veo-3-quality"
        "prompt": "雨上がりの京都の路地、提灯の灯り、カメラがゆっくり前進",
        "aspect_ratio": "16:9",
    },
    timeout=60,
).json()

# 2. 動画生成は非同期 — ジョブ ID で完了までポーリングします。
while True:
    r = requests.get(
        f"https://api.kunavo.com/v1/videos/{job['id']}", headers=H, timeout=30
    ).json()
    if r["status"] in ("completed", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)

print(r["output"]["url"] if r["status"] == "completed" else r["error"])

Failed requests are not charged. However, regenerating because you dislike the result is a successful generation, so it is charged per video. Response formats, image-to-video generation, and webhook notifications are covered in the Video API documentation (English).

Be honest — when this route is not a good fit

A gateway lets you start without Google account setup or a Cloud project, but it uses shared capacity rather than a dedicated project allocation. If you need guaranteed quota or a contractual SLA at scale, applying directly to Google is the right choice. This page does not claim to replace that option.

Payment is made through Stripe Checkout, which supports cards including JCB, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Link. It uses a prepaid balance system with a minimum top-up of $10, and balances do not expire. Convenience-store payments and PayPay are not supported.

The detailed English explanation is in the Veo 3 API guide; comparisons with other video models are in the text-to-video API overview. Per-second-billed video models that use the same endpoint are covered in How to use the Seedance API.

Frequently asked questions