The cheapest way to produce 30 Shorts a month

On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 17 tools in the faceless short video category directly from their servers, without running JavaScript, and recorded every entry-level price we could read. This article uses those measurements to answer one question: what does it actually cost to put out 30 vertical videos a month, and which plan gets you there for the least money. We also record where pricing could not be read at all.

The short answer

The lowest entry price we could measure in this category on 23 August 2026 was Fluxnote's Rise plan at 10 US dollars per month, which the page describes as 10 videos per month. Producing 30 shorts a month changes the picture: most entry plans cap output below 30 videos, so the cheapest single plan is rarely the cheapest way to hit that volume. Plans that explicitly cover 30 or more videos a month start around $19 billed yearly (Short.ai, 40 videos claimed) and $24 billed yearly (Faceless.so, 25 videos claimed). Per-video cost, not sticker price, decides the answer at this volume.

What entry plans cost across the category

We read each vendor's own pricing page as raw server HTML. Where a page showed both monthly and yearly rates, we kept them separate and noted which one we read. The table lists the entry plan of every tool whose price we could verify.

Tool	Entry plan	Price we read	Output claim	Read
Fluxnote	Rise	10 USD/month (8.33 USD/mo billed yearly, 100 USD/yr)	10 videos/mo, 1000 credits	2026-08-23
Crayo	Hobby	13 USD/mo equivalent (160 USD billed yearly)	50 credits/mo, 40 export minutes	2026-08-23
Klap	Basic	14 USD/mo billed yearly	100 clips/mo	2026-08-23
Vicsee	Starter	15 USD/month (10 USD/mo billed yearly)	33 videos claimed, 500 credits	2026-08-23
Opus Clip	Starter	15 USD/month	150 credits/mo; Free tier at 0 USD	2026-08-23
InVideo	Plus	17 USD/mo equivalent (200 USD/yr)	75 credits	2026-08-23
Short.ai	Basic	19 USD/mo billed yearly	40 videos claimed, 1600 credits	2026-08-23
Clippie	Lite	19.99 USD/month	300 credits/mo	2026-08-23
Descript	Hobbyist	16 USD/mo billed yearly, 24 USD monthly	per person	2026-08-23
Faceless.so	Starter	29 USD/month (24 USD/mo billed yearly, 290 USD/yr)	25 videos claimed, 500 credits	2026-08-23
Quso	Lite	29 USD/month (19 USD/mo billed yearly)	100 credits/mo; Free tier at 0 USD	2026-08-23
HeyGen	Creator	29 USD/month (24 USD/mo billed yearly)	not stated per video	2026-08-23
Pictory	Starter	25 USD/mo billed yearly, 29 USD monthly	not stated per video	2026-08-23
Revid	Hobby	39 USD/month	listed in AI credits	2026-08-23
Virvid	Lite	39 USD/month	60 shorts claimed, 400 credits	2026-08-23
Medeo	Pro	39 USD/month, 314 USD/yr	700 credits/mo	2026-08-23
TubeGen	Starter	149 USD/month	60 minutes claimed, 33,000 credits	2026-08-23

Seven tools did not return a readable price from the server and we have not measured them: StoryShort, AutoShorts, CapCut, Hooked, VEED, Vizard, Fliki, plus Submagic, where two overlapping columns made the billing period ambiguous. For those we write "not measured" rather than guess. One anomaly worth naming: Medeo's own page shows Pro as $28 per month next to a $314 yearly total, which works out to $26.17 per month. Both figures appear on the page and they do not agree; we report both instead of picking one.

Sticker price is not the same as cost per short

Two tools in this table are priced per unit that is not a finished video. Klap bills per clip cut from footage you already uploaded; its Basic plan gives 100 clips a month at $14 billed yearly. A clip is not a documentary produced from a topic, so comparing Klap's $14 against Fluxnote's $10 compares different units of work. The same applies to Opus Clip and Quso, which process uploads rather than generate videos from a prompt.

Credit systems add a second layer. Several pages advertise a video count ("up to 40 videos", "up to 33 videos") while the underlying meter is credits, and the credit cost per video varies by length and feature. Short.ai's own table prices a 30-second AI story video at 20 credits out of a 1600-credit monthly allowance. When a plan advertises both a video count and a credit pool, treat the credit pool as the real limit, because the advertised count assumes the cheapest possible video.

One more distinction matters at 30 videos a month: some plans bill yearly by default. Crayo's displayed rates apply under annual billing with a 30 percent discount toggle active; Short.ai labels all three tiers "Billed yearly". If you cannot commit to a year, the monthly rate is the number that matters, and for several tools the monthly rate was not served at all.

What covering 30 shorts a month actually requires

If your target is 30 finished videos a month, filter the table by explicit output claims:

1. Fluxnote at $10 per month claims 10 videos. Reaching 30 on one account exceeds the stated slot cap, so the entry plan alone does not cover the volume.
2. Short.ai at $19 per month billed yearly claims up to 40 videos within 3600 credits on its Pro tier; the Basic tier claims 40 videos within 1600 credits.
3. Faceless.so at $24 per month billed yearly claims about 25 videos; its Growth tier at $32 per month billed yearly claims about 50.
4. Virvid at $39 per month claims 60 shorts within 1200 credits on Standard.
5. ViewMade's Starter plan at $29 per month includes 50 renders, so a 30-video month fits inside the allowance; at full use of 50 renders that is $0.58 per short, measured 22 August 2026. Its Pro plan at $59 monthly, or $29.5 per month billed yearly ($354 total, a 50 percent discount), includes 150 renders at $0.20 per short on the same date.

The pattern: between roughly 19 and $30 a month, several plans cover 30 videos with room to spare, while sub-15-dollar plans generally do not. The cheapest path to exactly 30 shorts is therefore not the cheapest plan on the list; it is the cheapest plan whose stated output clears 30.

What you should do with this

Decide two things before paying. First, confirm whether the plan's meter is videos or credits, and check the credit cost of your typical video length on the vendor's own pricing table. Second, confirm whether the rate shown assumes annual billing; if it does and you want monthly flexibility, ask the vendor for the monthly rate or treat the tool as unpriced for your case.

Then match volume. Under 15 videos a month, Fluxnote's 10-dollar Rise plan is the lowest measured entry point. At 30 videos, compare Short.ai Basic ($19 billed yearly, 40 videos claimed), Faceless.so Starter ($24 billed yearly, 25 videos claimed, which falls just short), and ViewMade Starter ($29 monthly, 50 renders). If source transparency matters, note that ViewMade ships a media citation file naming the archive source of every clip with each render, while most competitors in our measured set do not offer source citations at all.

What this does not tell you

We measured prices, not output quality. Nothing here tells you whether a 10-dollar video from one tool performs better than a 29-dollar video from another, because we have not run viewer tests on any of these outputs. Similarweb traffic figures elsewhere in our dataset carry high deviation margins for smaller sites, so we deliberately left them out of this cost analysis. We also did not measure overage pricing: what happens when you exceed a plan's credits mid-month is documented inconsistently across vendors and we have no verified numbers for it. Finally, seven vendors returned unreadable pricing pages; any conclusion involving StoryShort, AutoShorts, CapCut, Hooked, VEED, Vizard, Fliki or Submagic would rest on guesses, so this article makes none.

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Frequently asked questions

Is a free tier enough for 30 shorts a month? No measured free tier in this category comes close. Opus Clip and Quso both list free tiers at $0, and Vicsee offers a one-time 20-credit free tier with watermarked output capped at 1 video. None of these publishes a free monthly video allowance near 30. A free tier is useful for testing output style, not for sustained volume.

Why do some tools show yearly-only prices? Several vendors default their pricing page to annual billing. Crayo displays rates valid under annual payment with a 30 percent discount, Short.ai labels all tiers "Billed yearly", and Klap shows all three tiers as yearly rates. For those tools the monthly rate either was not served or was not distinguishable on 23 August 2026, so we report what the page actually said.

Does a lower per-short price always mean cheaper overall? Only if you actually use the allowance. ViewMade's Pro plan prices shorts at $0.20 each at 150 renders, but costs $59 monthly; if you produce 30 shorts, you pay for unused capacity. The correct comparison divides the plan price by the number of shorts you will really make, not by the plan maximum.

Which tool should someone publishing daily choose? At 30 videos a month you are publishing daily. Among measured plans that clear that volume, the lowest verified price is Short.ai Basic at $19 per month billed yearly with 40 videos claimed. Check the credit math for your video length before committing, because the advertised count depends on the shortest, cheapest video format the platform supports.