Veo 3.1 API pricing: Lite vs Fast vs Quality, per clip

Through API Stock, one Veo 3.1 clip costs $0.11 on Lite, $0.21 on Fast and $1.80 on Quality at 720p or 1080p — a flat price per generation, whatever the prompt. Because Veo returns a fixed 8-second clip, that works out to roughly $0.014, $0.026 and $0.225 per second of video, which makes Lite and Fast among the cheapest ways to get Google-quality video with sound, and Quality one of the most expensive. Prices below are from the live catalog as of 27 September 2026.

How much does Veo 3.1 cost per clip?

Veo 3.1 is billed per generation, not per second: you pay the same for a quiet landscape as for a busy crowd scene, and on every tier 720p costs exactly what 1080p does — the resolution you pick does not change the price.

4K is available on all three tiers ("resolution": "4k") and is billed as its own, higher tier — the model page shows the current 4K price next to the others.

Lite, Fast or Quality: which tier should you use?

The difference between the tiers is less about sharpness than about control and consistency.

• Lite takes a prompt and nothing else. There is no reference image and no first frame, so you cannot pin a product, a face or a brand colour — the model decides. For stock-style B-roll, backgrounds, mood shots and anything generated by the hundred, that is fine, and at $0.11 it is cheap enough to generate three and keep the best one.
• Fast adds images: pass urls with generationType: "frame" to animate from a first (and optionally last) frame, or "reference" to keep a subject consistent. This is the tier for e-commerce, ads and anything a client has already approved as a still. It is still under a quarter of a dollar per clip.
• Quality has the same inputs as Fast and spends far more compute per frame: steadier motion, fewer artefacts in hands and text-like details, better prompt adherence on complex scenes. At $1.80 it only pays off when a clip is final — a hero video, a paid campaign — not while you are still iterating.

A practical workflow is to iterate the prompt on Lite, lock the composition with a still and Fast, and render the final cut on Quality only once.

How does Veo 3.1 compare with Sora 2, Kling and Seedance?

Most other video models are billed per second of output, so the fair comparison is the price of the same 8-second clip at 720p:

Two things stand out. Per clip, Veo 3.1 Lite and Fast undercut every per-second model in the catalog at this length — and a Veo clip comes with generated sound, where Kling, for example, charges half as much again for audio. And the comparison flips for short or long clips: a 4-second shot on a per-second model costs half of the figure above, while Veo still bills the full clip — and if you need 10–15 seconds in one take, Veo cannot do it at all, while Kling, Seedance and Sora can. The compare page lines up any two models side by side.

What does a Veo 3.1 request look like?

One request creates the task; the result arrives by polling or by webhook. The model id picks the tier:

curl -X POST https://api.api-stock.com/api/v1/generation/create \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_STOCK_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "veo3.1-fast",
    "input": {
      "prompt": "Slow dolly-in on a ceramic coffee cup on a wooden table, morning light, steam rising",
      "aspectRatio": "16:9",
      "resolution": "1080p",
      "urls": ["https://example.com/cup-first-frame.jpg"],
      "generationType": "frame"
    }
  }'

The response carries a taskId; GET /api/v1/task/status/{taskId} returns finished with the file URL, or pass a webhook in the request and skip polling. The price is debited when the task is created and refunded automatically if every provider fails. The full lifecycle — statuses, webhooks, retries — is in the task docs, and the text-to-video guide covers prompting.

How to keep the Veo bill down

• Prototype on Lite. Twenty prompt variations cost $2.20 on Lite and $36 on Quality.
• Use 720p for review copies. It costs the same as 1080p, so this is about delivery weight, not money — but it keeps review loops quick.
• Don't pay Quality for motion you will cut. If the edit uses two seconds of the clip, Fast is almost always enough.
• Pick per-second models for short shots. Under ~4 seconds, Seedance 2.0 Mini or Grok Imagine usually cost less than a full Veo clip.
• Watch the balance, not invoices. API Stock is prepaid: one balance for every model, no minimums, and a failed generation is refunded rather than billed. See pricing for top-up options.

FAQ

How much does the Veo 3.1 API cost?

Through API Stock, Veo 3.1 costs $0.11 per clip on Lite, $0.21 on Fast and $1.80 on Quality at 720p or 1080p, as of September 2026. Each generation is one 8-second clip; 4K is billed as a separate, higher tier.

Is Veo 3.1 priced per second or per video?

Per video. Each generation returns one fixed-length clip and costs the same regardless of the prompt or of choosing 720p versus 1080p. Most competing models (Sora 2, Kling 3.0, Seedance) are billed per second of output instead.

What is the difference between Veo 3.1 Lite and Veo 3.1 Fast?

Lite is text-to-video only and costs $0.11 per clip. Fast costs $0.21 and also accepts images — a first and last frame or reference images — so you can animate a specific product or keep a subject consistent across shots.

Is Veo 3.1 cheaper than Sora 2?

For an 8-second clip, yes: Veo 3.1 Lite costs $0.11 and Fast $0.21, while Sora 2 at $0.09 per second costs about $0.72 for the same length. Veo 3.1 Quality, at $1.80, is more expensive than Sora 2.

Do I need a Google Cloud account to use Veo 3.1?

No. With API Stock you call Veo 3.1 with one API key and a prepaid balance — the same key works for Sora, Kling, Seedance and every other model in the catalog.