What is the cheapest AI video generation API?

At 720p, Veo 3.1 Lite is the cheapest we track at $0.05 per second, so a 10-second clip costs about $0.50. Veo 3.1 Standard costs $0.40 per second. OpenAI removed Sora 2 from its API on September 24, 2026.

What is the cheapest AI image generation API?

Grok Imagine Image is the cheapest per-image price we track at $0.02. OpenAI’s GPT Image models are priced per token, so their cost per image depends on size and quality.

How much does AI transcription cost per hour?

Grok Speech to Text is the cheapest at about $0.10 per hour of audio. OpenAI Whisper costs $0.006 per minute ($0.36 per hour).

AI image, video and voice API pricing

A 10-second 720p video costs from $0.50 with Veo 3.1 Lite. Images start at $0.02 each with Grok Imagine Image. Transcription starts at about $0.10 per hour with Grok Speech to Text.

Prices from official pricing pages, verified October 17, 2026.

Image generation

Price per generated image at about 1K resolution where the provider publishes a per-image figure.

Model	Official prices	Price per image	100 images
Grok Imagine Image xAI · `grok-imagine-image`	Per image: $0.02 xAI does not list a resolution for this price.	$0.02	$2.00
Nano Banana 2.1 Google · `gemini-nano-banana-2.1`	1K image: $0.0336 2K image: $0.0504 4K image: $0.113 An update to Nano Banana 2 with better image quality, character consistency and text rendering. Image output is priced at $30 per 1M tokens; per-image figures are Google’s equivalents. Batch pricing is half.	$0.0336	$3.36
Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) Google · `gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image`	1K image: $0.0336 Image output is priced at $30 per 1M tokens. Batch pricing is half.	$0.0336	$3.36
Grok Imagine Image 2.0 xAI · `grok-imagine-image-2.0`	Per image: $0.04 xAI does not list a resolution for this price.	$0.04	$4.00
Grok Imagine Image (Quality) xAI · `grok-imagine-image-quality`	Per image: $0.05 xAI does not list a resolution for this price.	$0.05	$5.00
Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) Google · `gemini-3.1-flash-image`	0.5K image: $0.045 1K image: $0.067 2K image: $0.101 4K image: $0.151 Image output is priced at $60 per 1M tokens; per-image figures are Google’s equivalents. Batch pricing is half.	$0.067	$6.70
Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) Google · `gemini-3-pro-image`	1K or 2K image: $0.134 4K image: $0.24 Image output is priced at $120 per 1M tokens. Batch and Flex pricing is half.	$0.134	$13.40
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst OpenAI · `gpt-image-2.5-sunburst`	Image input / 1M tokens: $8.00 Image output / 1M tokens: $30.00 Text input / 1M tokens: $5.00 Priced per token; the cost per image depends on size and quality. Cached image input costs $2.00 per 1M tokens.	—	—
GPT Image 2.5 Flare OpenAI · `gpt-image-2.5-flare`	Image input / 1M tokens: $8.00 Image output / 1M tokens: $30.00 Text input / 1M tokens: $5.00 Priced per token; the cost per image depends on size and quality. Cached image input costs $2.00 per 1M tokens.	—	—
GPT Image 2 OpenAI · `gpt-image-2`	Image input / 1M tokens: $8.00 Image output / 1M tokens: $30.00 Text input / 1M tokens: $5.00 Priced per token; the cost per image depends on size and quality. Batch pricing is half.	—	—
GPT Image 1 Mini OpenAI · `gpt-image-1-mini`	Image input / 1M tokens: $2.50 Image output / 1M tokens: $8.00 Text input / 1M tokens: $2.00 Priced per token; the cost per image depends on size and quality. Batch pricing is half.	—	—

Video generation

Price per second of generated video at 720p, the resolution every provider here supports.

Model	Official prices	Price per second	10-second clip
Veo 3.1 Lite Google · `veo-3.1-lite-generate-preview`	720p, with audio: $0.05 / sec 1080p, with audio: $0.08 / sec 4K output is not supported.	$0.05	$0.50
Veo 3.1 Fast Google · `veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview`	720p, with audio: $0.10 / sec 1080p, with audio: $0.12 / sec 4K, with audio: $0.30 / sec	$0.10	$1.00
Gemini Omni Flash Google · `gemini-omni-1.1-flash`	720p (Google’s equivalent): ~$0.10 / sec Video output / 1M tokens: $17.50 Input / 1M tokens (text, image, video, audio): $1.50 A multimodal model that generates video as tokens. 720p video uses 5,792 tokens per second. Text output costs $9.00 per 1M tokens.	$0.10	$1.00
Veo 3.1 Google · `veo-3.1-generate-preview`	720p or 1080p, with audio: $0.40 / sec 4K, with audio: $0.60 / sec Only charged when the video is generated successfully.	$0.40	$4.00
Grok Imagine Video xAI · `grok-imagine-video`	Per second: $0.05 / sec xAI does not list a resolution for this price, so it is not ranked against 720p prices.	resolution not listed	—
Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Lite xAI · `grok-imagine-video-1.5-lite`	Per second: $0.02 / sec xAI does not list a resolution for this price, so it is not ranked against 720p prices.	resolution not listed	—
Grok Imagine Video 1.5 xAI · `grok-imagine-video-1.5`	Per second: $0.08 / sec xAI does not list a resolution for this price, so it is not ranked against 720p prices.	resolution not listed	—

Speech to text

Price per minute of transcribed audio.

Model	Official prices	Price per minute	1 hour of audio
Grok Speech to Text xAI · `grok-stt`	REST: $0.10 / hour Streaming: $0.20 / hour	$0.001667	$0.10
GPT-4o Mini Transcribe OpenAI · `gpt-4o-mini-transcribe`	Estimated: $0.003 / min Input / output per 1M tokens: $1.25 / $5.00 Per-minute figure is OpenAI’s estimate.	$0.003	$0.18
GPT Transcribe OpenAI · `gpt-transcribe`	Transcription: $0.0045 / min	$0.0045	$0.27
Gemini 3.5 Transcribe Google · `gemini-3.5-transcribe`	Estimated: ~$0.005 / min Audio input / text output per 1M tokens: $2.00 / $12.00 Per-minute figure is Google’s estimate (25 audio tokens per second, 175 text tokens per minute). Includes speaker diarization and word-level timestamps.	$0.005	$0.30
GPT-4o Transcribe OpenAI · `gpt-4o-transcribe`	Estimated: $0.006 / min Input / output per 1M tokens: $2.50 / $10.00 Per-minute figure is OpenAI’s estimate. A diarization variant (gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize) costs the same.	$0.006	$0.36
Whisper OpenAI · `whisper-1`	Transcription: $0.006 / min	$0.006	$0.36
Gemini 3.5 Transcribe Live Google · `gemini-3.5-transcribe-live`	Estimated: ~$0.009 / min Audio input / text output per 1M tokens: $3.50 / $21.00 Real-time streaming transcription over WebSockets. Per-minute figure is Google’s estimate (25 audio tokens per second, 175 text tokens per minute).	$0.009	$0.54
GPT Live Transcribe OpenAI · `gpt-live-transcribe`	Live transcription: $0.017 / min Real-time streaming transcription. gpt-realtime-whisper costs the same.	$0.017	$1.02

Text to speech

Price per 1 million characters of input text, where the provider prices by character.

Model	Official prices	Price per 1M characters	100K characters
OpenAI TTS OpenAI · `tts-1`	Text input: $15.00 / 1M characters	$15.00	$1.50
Grok Text to Speech xAI · `grok-tts`	Text input: $15.00 / 1M characters	$15.00	$1.50
OpenAI TTS HD OpenAI · `tts-1-hd`	Text input: $30.00 / 1M characters	$30.00	$3.00
GPT-4o Mini TTS OpenAI · `gpt-4o-mini-tts`	Text input / 1M tokens: $0.60 Audio output / 1M tokens: $12.00	priced per token	—
Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS Google · `gemini-3.8-flash-tts`	Text input / 1M tokens: $0.50 Audio output / 1M tokens: $9.00 Audio output (Google’s equivalent): $0.0135 / min Introductory pricing through December 31, 2026. From January 1, 2027 it doubles to $1.00 text input and $18.00 audio output per 1M tokens ($0.027 per minute of audio). Batch and Flex pricing is half.	priced per token	—
Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS Google · `gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts`	Text input / 1M tokens: $0.50 Audio output / 1M tokens: $6.00 Audio output (Google’s equivalent): $0.009 / min Introductory pricing through December 31, 2026. From January 1, 2027 it doubles to $1.00 text input and $12.00 audio output per 1M tokens ($0.018 per minute of audio). Batch and Flex pricing is half.	priced per token	—
Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS Google · `gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview`	Text input / 1M tokens: $1.00 Audio output / 1M tokens: $20.00 Preview model. Batch pricing is half.	priced per token	—

Voice agents

Price per minute of a live speech-to-speech conversation.

Model	Official prices	Price per minute	10-minute call
Gemini 3.5 Live Translate Google · `gemini-3.5-live-translate-preview`	Estimated: ~$0.037 / min Audio input / output per 1M tokens: $3.50 / $21.00 Real-time speech-to-speech translation in 70+ languages, not a general voice assistant. Preview model. Per-minute figure is Google’s estimate at 25 audio tokens per second.	$0.0368	$0.368
GPT-Live 1 OpenAI · `gpt-live-1`	Voice session: $0.05 / min Billed per second. Backend model and tool usage is charged separately.	$0.05	$0.50
Grok Voice (speech to speech) xAI · `grok-voice-think-fast-2.0`	Audio: $0.08 / min ($4.80 / hour) xAI also lists a separate charge for text input.	$0.08	$0.80

Reading these prices

Units differ by provider. Some charge per image, second or minute; others per token. We only rank models on a shared unit and show token prices as published.
Resolution and quality change the bill. 4K images and 1080p or 4K video cost more — see each model’s full price list.
Batch jobs are cheaper. Several providers halve prices for batch requests that don’t need an immediate result.

Sources: OpenAI pricing, Google pricing, xAI pricing. For text models, see API price comparisons.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest AI video generation API?: At 720p, Veo 3.1 Lite is the cheapest we track at $0.05 per second, so a 10-second clip costs about $0.50. Veo 3.1 Standard costs $0.40 per second. OpenAI removed Sora 2 from its API on September 24, 2026.
What is the cheapest AI image generation API?: Grok Imagine Image is the cheapest per-image price we track at $0.02. OpenAI’s GPT Image models are priced per token, so their cost per image depends on size and quality.
How much does AI transcription cost per hour?: Grok Speech to Text is the cheapest at about $0.10 per hour of audio. OpenAI Whisper costs $0.006 per minute ($0.36 per hour).