AI ad cost calculator

How much does it cost to make an AI ad?

On the presets below, one 30-second ad costs $0.12 (JoggAI Starter, pro rata) to $8.64 (Runway Standard). That is at list price, every take kept and every credit used.

Plan price ranks tools badly. Runway Standard (Gen-4.5) costs less a month than Google AI Pro, yet more per 30-second ad than Veo 3.1 Fast. Of the four plans below at $29 a month, Synthesia Starter’s ad costs 12 times JoggAI Starter’s (JoggAI pricing, checked 24 September 2026). If JoggAI bills by the started minute, that halves to 6.

Compare rows within one kind of video. Runway and Veo bill generated clips. Captions’ Prompt to Video makes an edited talking video with a generated actor (help page). The rest bill a presenter reading your script.

D-ID meters seconds of video where the others meter credits, so its row counts the 30 seconds billed out of 900 a month (D-ID pricing).

Four rows spread a per-minute rate pro rata, since their vendors publish no rounding rule (how to read them). Billed by the started minute, JoggAI Starter’s ad would cost $0.24, HeyGen Creator’s $1.50, HeyGen Pro’s $1.52 and Argil Pro’s $4.50. Both HeyGen plans would then fall behind D-ID and Synthesia, and Argil behind Creatify and Captions.

The model moves the order too. On Creator (price checked 24 September 2026), HeyGen’s 30-second ad costs $0.10 to $1.16 pro rata, from Avatar III Video Look to Avatar V (credit article). On Avatar III it costs less than JoggAI Starter at either rounding: $0.10 against $0.12 pro rata, $0.19 against $0.24 by the started minute.

How to read the result

Keep rate and versions are your numbers

Keep rate starts at 100 per cent because none of the pages we read states one; at 50, the cost per ad doubles.

Versions multiply the same way: three hook variants of a 30-second ad bill as three full renders. Render the body once and all the hooks as one video, then splice them in an editor, so the hooks share billing blocks. The calculator has no 5-second length: see how short hooks bill.

Presets without a rounding rule charge pro rata

HeyGen, JoggAI, Argil and Captions publish a rate but no rule for a part block, so their presets charge pro rata. Captions’ 16 credits every 6 seconds fits a 30 or 60-second ad exactly. Billed by the started 6 seconds, a 15-second ad would take 48 credits against the preset’s 40.

HeyGen’s presets bill Avatar IV Video Look at 7.75 credits per 15-second block. For Avatar III Video Look, open “Use your own plan” and set credits per block to 1; for Avatar V, to 12 (credit article).

Captions lists its Prompt to Video rate in a column headed “Costs Based On Average Use” (AI usage), so one render can bill more or less than the preset shows.

JoggAI’s cards disagree: Starter’s works out at about 100 credits a minute, the Free card’s at 200 (pricing page). The preset uses Starter’s; at 200, the cost per ad doubles.

Argil’s rate table gives 160 credits a minute of Atom video and 20 of voice: 90 for 30 seconds. Its worked example charges 80 for the same 30 seconds, B-roll aside (Argil docs). The preset uses the table’s 90.

To price whole-minute billing, open “Use your own plan” and set the block to 60 seconds. Credits per block is then the rate a minute: 4, 31 or 48 on HeyGen, 100 on JoggAI Starter, 180 on Argil.

Do unused AI video credits roll over?

Not on Runway Standard, Flow, D-ID or Synthesia: monthly credits lapse at renewal, raising the cost per ad. HeyGen, Creatify, JoggAI and Captions carry credits forward within limits, listed in AI UGC price per ad.

Runway resets Standard and Pro credits “within 24 hours of your billing date” (pricing page). Flow’s monthly credits “do not roll over” (Flow help), and D-ID’s “unused minutes become void” (pricing FAQ).

Synthesia’s unused videos “do not roll over to the next billing period” (pricing FAQ). Argil’s Pro card lists “Monthly plan credits (non-stacking)” (pricing page), which we read as lapsing too.

Spend half a month’s credits and the cost per ad doubles: set unused to 50.

Why can a 5-second hook bill as a longer video?

Tools that bill in blocks round each render up: Creatify bills a 5-second hook as 15 seconds. Ten hooks rendered one by one use 50 of Starter’s 100 monthly credits. Rendered as one 50-second video and cut apart, they use 20 (credit rules).

Arcads bills its talking-actor models 800 credits a minute per actor and says “Length is always rounded up” (credits article, 29 April 2026). Its one worked example bills a two-actor video of 1 minute 45 seconds as 2 minutes, 3,200 credits.

That example rules out per-second billing and any step of 15 seconds or less. A 5-second hook then bills more than 200 credits, so Starter’s 8,000 a month cover fewer than 40 (allowance article).

A newer model article (2 July 2026) says “Cost is 1 credit per minute” for the same models. Arcads does not say which is current; this page’s examples use 800, the rate the worked example fits.

Ten Arcads hooks cut from one 50-second video can cost less, on two conditions. First, the edit: Arcads’ terms (13.3.1, in force 22 September 2026) allow a closed list of edits, “cropping” among them, and add “Any other modification must be approved in writing by FRESHR”. They do not say whether cutting a video apart counts as cropping.

Second, the billing step. If Arcads bills the started minute, as we read it, the one video bills 800 credits against 8,000 for ten hooks rendered apart. On a 40-second step, it would bill 80 seconds for 50.

Below Ultra, Veo 3.1 Fast in Flow charges 20 credits per clip of 4, 6 or 8 seconds (Flow help). A 4-second hook costs what 8 seconds would, and a 30-second ad takes four clips: 80 credits.

Flow charges “per generation, not per request”, and one request “may generate 2 videos” (Flow help): if yours makes two, set versions to 2.

A 60-second ad can outgrow Runway Standard

A 60-second Gen-4.5 ad takes 720 credits at 60 per 5 seconds, more than the 625 Runway Standard gives in a month (pricing page). The calculator then reads 0 ads a month.

What the calculator leaves out

The result prices credits alone, leaving out:

• How good the video looks: only a bench test can show that, and none has run on these tools.
• Your time writing scripts and reviewing takes.
• Ad spend and taxes.
• Annual billing and discount codes: presets use monthly list prices.
• Flow’s 50 free daily credits, given “With or without a subscription” (Flow help).
• Paid extras. Creatify charges 3 credits per 15 seconds for a revision; under “Pro & Higher Tiers” it says “Revisions are free if you don’t change the script, avatar, or voice” (credit article).
• Watermarks. D-ID’s licence says “All Animations contain a synthetic mark”, which you may not “remove, hide or minimize” without “D-ID’s prior written approval” (clause 4.2). Its Pro plan table lists “AI watermark” (pricing page).
• Whether the terms let you run the video as a paid ad. Synthesia’s Acceptable Use Policy bars stock avatars from “promoted”, “boosted”, or “paid” advertising “on any social media platform or similar media, absent written express consent from Synthesia”. Google’s terms leave ad use of Flow output unclear: none we read grants or bars it as such (Synthesia and Google Veo profiles).

Where every price comes from

Arcads and Kling AI have no price the calculator can use.

Kling AI’s page was checked on 23 September 2026; every other row on 24 September 2026.

The Arcads pricing page returned a 404 on 24 September 2026. Its terms (clause 7.1, in force 22 September 2026) say that for a Standard offer “the details of the Offer will be shown directly on the Platform”.

Quoted an Arcads price? Enter it under “Use your own plan” with 8,000 credits (allowance article) and 800 credits per block. Set a 60-second block for whole-minute billing, as we read the credits article.

Captions says “Features and prices reflect iOS plans only” (pricing page); the Max preset uses that price.

Each preset’s billing rule, from the vendor’s own page:

• Creatify Starter, avatar video, 5 credits per 15 seconds of avatar video, rounded up (source).
• Creatify Pro, avatar video, 5 credits per 15 seconds of avatar video, rounded up (source).
• HeyGen Creator, Avatar IV Video Look, 31 credits a minute; no rounding rule published, so pro rata: 7.75 per 15 seconds (source).
• HeyGen Pro, Avatar IV Video Look, 31 credits a minute; no rounding rule published, so pro rata: 7.75 per 15 seconds (source).
• Synthesia Starter, avatar video, 1,200 credits for 10 minutes, metered by the second: 2 credits per 1-second block (source).
• D-ID Pro, avatar video, 15 minutes = 900 seconds a month, each video rounded up to the nearest 15 seconds (source).
• JoggAI Starter, avatar video, Starter card: about 100 credits a minute of avatar video; no rounding rule, so pro rata: 25 per 15 seconds (source).
• Captions (Mirage) Max, Prompt to Video, 16 credits every 6 seconds; no rule for a part block, so pro rata: 8 per 3 seconds (source).
• Argil Pro, Atom video plus voice, 160 credits a minute of video plus 20 of voice; no rounding rule, so pro rata: 45 per 15 seconds (source).
• Runway Standard, Gen-4.5, 60 credits per 5 seconds of video (source).
• Google Veo, Google AI Pro, Veo 3.1 Fast in Flow, 20 credits per clip of up to 8 seconds; the 50 free daily credits left out (source).