How a shot gets quoted

VideoMaker AI does not sell a monthly seat. You buy a pack of credits, and every generation is quoted before it runs. That quote — not a sample price on the marketing page — is the only number that matters.

This post explains how the number is produced, and what happens to your credits at each step.

Three inputs decide the price

Every job is priced from three things:

• Workflow — text to video, image to video, or an effect template.
• Resolution — 480p, 720p or 1080p.
• Duration — 4 to 15 seconds, in whole seconds.

The rate is per second of generated video, and it rises with resolution: 5 credits per second at 480p, 11 at 720p, 27 at 1080p. A 4-second 480p clip is 20 credits; a 10-second 720p clip is 110; a 5-second 1080p clip is 135.

Effects are the exception: their duration and motion come from the template, so they are quoted per template rather than per free-form option.

The quote is locked to the inputs

When you confirm, the server hashes the workflow, prompt, options and any uploaded image into an input fingerprint. The quote is pinned to that fingerprint, the route version and the pricing version.

Change anything — a word in the prompt, a different first frame, one second of duration — and it becomes a different job with a different quote. Quotes also expire after a short window, so a stale tab cannot submit an old price.

Reserve, then settle

Pressing Generate does not spend credits. It reserves them.

1. Quote — the price is computed server-side and shown before you confirm.
2. Reserve — when the job starts, that amount is held against your balance.
3. Settle — credits are deducted only when a video is delivered.

If the job fails, is rejected by the model provider, or never produces a result, the reservation is released and you are charged nothing. The hold is not a fee; it is a ceiling on what the job can cost.

Where the credits go

Credits are one-time, shared across text, image and effects, and they do not expire. Unused credits can be refunded within 7 days of purchase. Failed jobs release automatically, so a bad prompt costs you time rather than credits.

Privacy and the model

Uploaded images are held in private storage and deleted when the job reaches a final state; they are never used as public samples. Video generation currently uses ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 model through a third-party API provider, and every output is labelled as AI-generated.

If you want to see a quote for your own shot, open the console and describe the scene. Nothing is charged until you confirm — and nothing is settled until the clip is delivered.