CREDITS & PRICING • Framework updated · Jul 2026
AI Video Credits Explained: Why a Monthly Plan Is Not a Production Budget
A monthly plan advertises a big credit number, but that number is not a production budget. Credits are a metered currency whose value shifts with the model, resolution, duration, and processing mode you choose, so the same balance can yield very different amounts of finished footage. This guide gives you a working vocabulary and an assumption checklist to convert plan credits into deliverable clips before you pay.
What a credit actually is
A credit is spendable currency inside a tool, not a fixed amount of video. Providers state this directly: Luma's documentation calls credits the currency for creating content in Dream Machine, with an allowance that resets each billing cycle. The catch is that credits are priced per model and per unit of output, so one balance buys very different results. On Runway, a Gen-4.5 video clip costs 60 credits per 5 seconds, a Gen-4 1080p image costs 8 credits, a Nano Banana Pro 2K image costs 20 credits, and text-to-speech costs 1 credit per 50 characters. Before you read any plan's headline number as capacity, translate it into the specific output you need: video seconds at a chosen model, not a generic pool. Treat the credit as a variable price, not a coin of fixed worth.
One-time, monthly, and purchased credits are three different things
The word credit hides three mechanics that behave nothing alike. A one-time allotment is granted once and never refills; Runway's Free plan gives 125 credits this way, while its paid tiers grant recurring monthly credits at 625 on Standard, 2,250 on Pro, and 9,500 on Max. Monthly credits usually expire: Runway's Standard and Pro credits reset monthly rather than rolling over, though its Max plan lets up to one month of unused credits carry forward, and Luma states plainly that monthly credits do not roll over. Purchased credits are the exception that behaves like real money. Luma's top-up credits start at $4 for 1,200 credits, stay valid for 12 months, roll over, and are spent only after monthly credits. Runway says purchased additional credits never expire, and Pika sells add-on credits that roll over. An unused monthly balance is usually forfeited, so it is not a budget you can bank.
Mode, resolution, and duration are the multipliers that break the math
The reason a flat credit number cannot be converted to clips is that four variables move the price: model, resolution, duration, and processing mode. Luma's own figures make this vivid. A Ray2 Flash clip at 720p costs 55 credits for 5 seconds, while a Ray3.14 clip at 1080p HDR costs 1,600 credits for the same 5 seconds, roughly 29 times more for identical length. Duration scales too, with 10-second clips costing about double their 5-second counterparts. Mode matters separately: Luma splits Fast and Relaxed queues, so its Unlimited plan includes 10,000 monthly Fast credits plus unlimited Relaxed generations that run in a slower queue. Unlimited therefore means unlimited slow output, not unlimited fast output. Pika, similarly, caps its Free and Basic tiers at 480p and opens higher resolutions, up to 1080p, from its Standard plan upward. Fix these four variables before dividing.
Watermarks and commercial use decide whether a clip is deliverable
A credit can produce a file that you still cannot ship. Output gating is a separate layer from the credit count, and it usually tracks the paid tier. Runway removes watermarks starting on the Standard plan and above, which implies Free output carries a watermark. Luma's Free plan is more restrictive still: it caps image generations at 720p, uses draft resolution, and marks output as watermarked and non-commercial; even the paid Lite tier keeps watermarks and a non-commercial license, and clean commercial output begins at Plus and higher. Pika takes the opposite line, advertising watermark-free downloads on every plan, including Free, so the pattern differs by provider and you must read the tier table rather than assume. The lesson for budgeting is simple: count only the credits that land on a tier permitting watermark-free, commercially usable output. Credits spent below that line are practice, not deliverables.
A worked way to convert credits into deliverable clips
Turn the glossary into arithmetic with placeholder variables you fill from the official pricing page. Let B be your recurring monthly credit balance on a tier that allows commercial, watermark-free output. Let C be the credit cost of one clip at your chosen model, resolution, duration, and mode, taken verbatim from the provider. Let R be your expected retry rate, the share of generations you discard for prompt misses or artifacts. Your raw clip count is B divided by C. Your deliverable count is that figure multiplied by one minus R, since retries consume credits without shipping. If you rely on the Fast queue, cap B at the Fast allowance rather than any unlimited Relaxed pool. Run this once per model you actually plan to use, because a higher-resolution model can cut the same balance to a fraction of the clips.
Editorial note: This framework is general information, not a vendor endorsement. Check the current pricing, terms, and data-handling details directly with the provider before buying.