A team trials an AI video generator, queues a few dozen clips in one session, and finds the monthly credit allowance nearly gone by the end of the day. The pricing page said 625 credits, or 10,000, or 900. It did not say how many seconds of footage that is, because the answer depends on the model, the resolution and what you ask the tool to do.
The afternoon that spent the month
A credit total on a pricing page is a balance in a currency whose exchange rate changes with every setting. This piece does conversion arithmetic only. It does not rank generators, gives no verdict on which tool is better, and says nothing about output quality.
Every figure below was read from the vendor’s own page on 2026-10-09. Where a page did not publish a figure, the text says so rather than filling the gap. followedapp is published by the team behind RecurPost. RecurPost plays no part in this piece beyond that disclosure.
The conversion, step by step
The formula has three parts. Price per credit is the plan price divided by the plan’s monthly credits. Credits per second is what the vendor charges for your chosen model and resolution. Cost per generated second is the product of the two.
Worked example, read from Runway’s pricing page on 2026-10-09. The Standard plan is $15 per month at the monthly rate and includes 625 credits. The page’s model table lists Seedance 2.0 Pro at 1080p as 160 credits for 4 seconds.
- Price per credit: $15 / 625 = $0.024.
- Credits per second: 160 / 4 = 40.
- Cost per generated second: $0.024 x 40 = $0.96.
- Generated seconds per month: 625 / 40 = 15.625.
That is generated seconds, not usable ones. A usable second is a second that survives review. This post does not know any vendor’s real keep rate, so treat it as a placeholder you fill in: cost per usable second equals cost per generated second divided by your keep rate. At an illustrative keep rate of 50 percent, the $0.96 above becomes $1.92. At an illustrative 25 percent it becomes $3.84. Both rates are illustrative, not measured.
Inputs that move credits per second, as the fetched pages show them: the model, the resolution, the action (Luma lists video-to-video at higher rates than text-to-video and image-to-video for the same model), and clip length, since some Luma rows are priced per 5 or 10 second block.
Three vendors, converted
The first table uses 1080p, the resolution the Runway example used. Prices are the monthly-billing prices shown on each page. Pika’s page publishes a 720p, 5 second figure and no 1080p figure, so its rows appear in the second table.
| Vendor | Plan | Monthly price | Credits per month | Credits per second (model, resolution) | Cost per generated second | Fetched | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runway | Standard | $15 | 625 | 40 (Seedance 2.0 Pro, 1080p) | $0.96 | 2026-10-09 | runway.com/pricing |
| Runway | Pro | $35 | 2,250 | 40 (Seedance 2.0 Pro, 1080p) | $0.6222 | 2026-10-09 | runway.com/pricing |
| Luma | Plus | $30 | 10,000 | 191 (Seedance 2.5, 1080p, audio listed as Yes) | $0.5730 | 2026-10-09 | lumalabs.ai/pricing |
| Luma | Pro | $90 | 40,000 | 191 (Seedance 2.5, 1080p, audio listed as Yes) | $0.4298 | 2026-10-09 | lumalabs.ai/pricing |
| Pika | Starter | $10 | 900 | No 1080p figure published | Not calculated | 2026-10-09 | pika.art/pricing |
| Pika | Creator | $35 | 3,150 | No 1080p figure published | Not calculated | 2026-10-09 | pika.art/pricing |
The second table uses Seedance 2.5 at 720p, which both Luma and Pika list. Pika gives 122 credits for a 5 second clip, which is 24.4 credits per second. Runway’s page publishes no 720p rate for a video model, so it has no row here.
| Vendor | Plan | Monthly price | Credits per month | Credits per second (Seedance 2.5, 720p) | Cost per generated second | Fetched | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luma | Plus | $30 | 10,000 | 78 | $0.2340 | 2026-10-09 | lumalabs.ai/pricing |
| Luma | Pro | $90 | 40,000 | 78 | $0.1755 | 2026-10-09 | lumalabs.ai/pricing |
| Pika | Starter | $10 | 900 | 24.4 (122 credits per 5 s) | $0.2711 | 2026-10-09 | pika.art/pricing |
| Pika | Creator | $35 | 3,150 | 24.4 (122 credits per 5 s) | $0.2711 | 2026-10-09 | pika.art/pricing |
Expiry, rollover and refunds: the three rules that decide a tier
Runway’s pricing page FAQ, read 2026-10-09, says: “monthly credits don’t roll over” on Standard and Pro, and that they reset within 24 hours of the billing date each cycle. For Max it says “up to one month of unused credits rolls over to the following month”. It also says “Any additional credits you purchase never expire.”
Pika’s pricing page FAQ, read the same day, says: “Plan credits refresh each billing period and do not roll over. Credits you buy as top-ups carry over and expire 365 days after purchase.” Pika’s terms of service say prepaid credits “expire 365 days after purchase unless otherwise specified”.
Luma’s pricing page, read the same day, does not state an expiry or rollover rule for monthly credits, and Luma’s terms of service contain no such wording in the text checked. For Luma this is a finding: not stated on the pages checked.
Failed or moderated generations: none of the pages or terms documents checked states a refund or re-credit rule for them. Runway’s terms say fees are non-refundable except as stated or required by law. Luma’s terms say “All Fees are final and non-refundable unless otherwise determined by Luma.” Pika’s terms say subscription payments are non-refundable. Those clauses concern fees, not individual generations, so the answer for failed generations is not stated. Runway’s help centre returned HTTP 403 to automated requests and was not used.
Why this decides the tier: if plan credits reset each billing period without rollover, a larger tier bought for one heavy month is spent or lost on the reset date. On the rules quoted above, that describes Runway Standard and Pro and Pika’s plans. Where a rule is not stated, as with Luma, you do not know, and the question is worth putting to the vendor before paying.
What the entry plan withholds
Footage you cannot post is not usable footage, so the entry plan’s limits belong in the conversion. As stated on each page on 2026-10-09:
- Runway. Standard lists “No watermarks”. The pricing page does not state a watermark rule for the Free plan, or a maximum resolution per plan. Runway’s terms say that, subject to compliance with the agreement, the company “does not restrict your commercial use of your Outputs”, without tying it to a plan.
- Luma. The pricing page lists Plus as the first individual plan, with “Commercial use” among its features. It states no watermark or maximum resolution per plan. Luma’s terms say it “reserves the right” to embed watermarks, content credentials, provenance metadata or other identifying information in Output, and that Outputs may be used commercially only if produced during an active paid subscription allowing it.
- Pika. The plan comparison lists “No watermark” as Yes on Free, Starter, Creator and Fancy. Commercial license is No on Free and Starter, and Yes on Creator and Fancy. No maximum resolution per plan is stated.
A watermark or resolution cap changes the conversion. Footage at a lower resolution than the one in the table is a different product, priced at a different credits per second, so the table’s figure does not carry over to it.
Arithmetic or marketing: a check before the next tier
Run four steps with your own numbers. First, count the seconds you delivered last month after review. Second, divide credits spent by that number to get your real credits per usable second. Third, compare that to the credits per second in the table, and the gap is your effective keep rate. Fourth, divide the next tier’s price by its credits and compare that price per credit to your current one.
That last step separates a better rate from more volume. From the fetched numbers, Pika’s monthly prices work out to the same $0.0111 per credit on Starter ($10 for 900), Creator ($35 for 3,150) and Fancy ($95 for 8,550), so on credits alone the higher tiers buy volume. Runway’s per-credit price falls from $0.024 on Standard to about $0.0156 on Pro, and Luma’s from $0.003 on Plus to $0.00225 on Pro, so those upgrades change the rate as well as the volume. Other meters exist for the same need: stock video download caps for B-roll, and AI voiceover pricing per finished minute for the audio track.
Prices verified 2026-10-09 from each vendor’s own pages. This is not Watchdog data and is not on the re-verification schedule, so check the vendor pages again before you buy.
FAQ
How do I convert AI video credits into seconds?
Divide the plan’s monthly credits by the credits per second for the model and resolution you actually use, as in the Runway Standard example above (625 / 40 = 15.625 generated seconds). Credits per second varies by model and resolution on each vendor’s page, so a single credit has no fixed length.
Do unused credits roll over, and are failed generations refunded?
As of 2026-10-09, Runway says monthly credits do not roll over on Standard and Pro and that Max rolls over up to one month. Pika says plan credits do not roll over and top-ups expire 365 days after purchase. Luma’s pricing page and terms do not state a rule. None of the pages checked states a refund rule for failed generations.
Sources
- Runway pricing, fetched 2026-10-09 (HTTP 200)
- Runway terms of use, fetched 2026-10-09 (HTTP 200)
- Luma plans and pricing, fetched 2026-10-09 (HTTP 200)
- Luma terms of service, fetched 2026-10-09 (HTTP 200)
- Pika pricing, fetched 2026-10-09 (HTTP 200)
- Pika terms of service, fetched 2026-10-09 (HTTP 200)