Credits explained across AI video tools

On 23 August 2026 we pulled the pricing pages of 23 AI video tools over plain HTTP, without executing JavaScript, and could read an actual price from 17 of them. This article reports what those pages state about credits, monthly billing and annual billing, in the exact form each page presents it. Where a page does not publish its price in a readable form, we say so instead of guessing.

The short answer

A credit is not a standard unit across tools. One tool sells credits against finished videos, another against minutes of export, another against seconds of generated footage, so two plans at the same dollar figure can differ several times over in output. On 23 August 2026, entry prices among the readable pages ranged from $10 per month (Fluxnote, billed monthly) to $149 per month (TubeGen, billed monthly). Before comparing any two tools, convert both to cost per finished short using each vendor's own stated ratio, and note whether the rate shown is monthly or annual.

What one credit actually buys

The readable pricing pages attach three different meanings to a credit.

Vicsee sells generation by credit and publishes a credit pack table where larger packs carry a lower per-credit price. Its Starter plan includes 500 credits per month at $15 monthly, or $120 billed yearly. Quso's Lite plan carries 100 credits per month at $29, and its page states that annual billing doubles the credit allocation: 300 monthly versus 600 under annual payment. Klap bills per clip rather than per video, with 100 clips per month on its Basic plan, and its own page notes that clip-based pricing cannot be compared directly against video-based pricing. TubeGen is the only page in the set that publishes a real per-minute cost: $2.47 per published minute on its Starter plan, calculated as actual credit spend divided by video length for its median user.

ViewMade avoids credit arithmetic entirely by publishing a fixed render count per month: 50 renders on the Starter plan at $29 per month, which works out to $0.58 per render, measured on 22 August 2026.

Monthly versus annual: what each page actually states

Every readable page was checked for whether the displayed rate is monthly or annual. Mixing the two is the most common way readers misjudge cost, because an annual rate written as a monthly amount looks identical to a true monthly rate.

Tool	Entry tier	Rate as stated on the page	Billing basis
Fluxnote	Rise	$10/month ($8.33/month annual)	Both stated
Crayo	Hobby	$13/month equivalent	Annual only
Opus Clip	Starter	$15	Monthly
Vicsee	Starter	$15 ($10 annual)	Both stated
Descript	Hobbyist	$16 annual, $24 monthly	Both stated
InVideo	Plus	$17/month equivalent	Annual only
Short.ai	Basic	$19/month equivalent	Annual only
Clippie	Lite	$19.99/month	Monthly
Quso	Lite	$29 ($19 annual)	Both stated
Faceless.so	Starter	$29 ($24 annual)	Both stated
Pictory	Starter	$25 annual, $29 monthly	Both stated
HeyGen	Creator	$29 monthly, $24 annual	Both stated
Revid	Hobby	$39	Monthly
Virvid	Lite	$39	Monthly
Medeo	Pro	$39 monthly, $314 annual total	Both stated
Klap	Basic	$14/month equivalent	Annual only
TubeGen	Starter	$149	Monthly

One page contradicts itself and both figures belong in print. Medeo shows $28 per month for its Pro tier alongside an annual total of $314, which divides to $26.17 per month. We report both numbers and do not reconcile them.

Pages that do not publish a readable price

Seven pages returned no usable price over plain HTTP on 23 August 2026. Submagic renders every plan in two columns, a base tier and a "Magic Clips" variant, and the monthly-versus-annual split could not be determined in one pass; its price is not published in a readable form. Fliki returns tier names and credit counts, including a free tier of 3 credits per month, but leaves the dollar fields empty; its price is not published in a readable form. Hooked returns 776 words of server-rendered text containing no price at all. Vizard renders every tier as $0 server-side because the slider computes the price client-side; its page does state that the free tier carries 60 credits per month and that 1 credit equals 1 minute of uploaded video. For StoryShort, AutoShorts, CapCut and VEED the same pattern holds: the tiers exist but the figures arrive only through JavaScript.

StoryShort's four tiers, $39, $69, $129 and $199, are known from TrustMRR's Stripe-verified data dated 18 August 2026, not from the vendor's own pricing page.

What to do before you pay

Three steps, using only what the vendor's own page states.

1. Identify the billing basis. If the page says "billed yearly", treat the figure as annual even when it is written as a monthly amount. Crayo, Short.ai and Klap all display annual-equivalent figures.
2. Find the vendor's own conversion line. Faceless.so states "Video generation starts from 20 credits". Short.ai states that a 30-second AI story video costs 20 credits. Vizard states 1 credit equals 1 uploaded minute. Use these lines, never an outside estimate.
3. Divide your monthly fee by the videos you will actually make, using each page's own claimed output count. Faceless.so's Starter claims 25 videos per month against 500 credits; Fluxnote's Rise claims 10 videos per month against 1000 credits. Run that division yourself before subscribing, and compare the resulting per-video figure across tools.

If a tool hides the conversion, ask support for it in writing before subscribing. A plan whose credit-to-video ratio is unpublished cannot be compared on cost.

What this does not tell you

We measured what pricing pages state, not what the products produce. We did not measure output quality, caption accuracy, voice quality or how many generations fail and consume credits anyway, and none of the comparisons above account for wasted renders. Vendors change plans; every figure here reflects the August 2026 reading named next to it. We also have not measured renewal behavior, refund terms or what happens to unused credits at the end of a billing period. If you need those answers, this article does not supply them.

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Frequently asked questions

Why do two tools with the same monthly price deliver different amounts of video? Because their credits buy different things. Quso's Lite plan includes 100 credits per month at $29, while Faceless.so's Starter includes 500 credits per month at $29, and Faceless.so states generation starts from 20 credits per video. Same dollar figure, different output ceiling, both read from the vendors' own pages on 23 August 2026.

Is annual billing always cheaper? Among the readable pages, yes, wherever both rates are stated. Descript drops from $24 to $16 per person per month, Pictory from $29 to $25, HeyGen from $29 to $24, Quso from $29 to $19. The exception to check is whether annual locks a lower credit count; Quso is the only page in this set that explicitly increases credits under annual payment, from 300 to 600.

Which tool has the lowest entry price? Fluxnote, at $10 per month on its Rise plan, or $8.33 per month billed annually, read from fluxnote.io/pricing on 23 August 2026. Its page describes the video count as a fixed slot cap. The highest readable entry price belongs to TubeGen at $149 per month, which also publishes the category's only real per-minute figure, $2.47.

How can I verify a price myself if a site hides it? Load the pricing page with JavaScript disabled. If no dollar figure appears in the raw HTML, the vendor is rendering prices client-side, and the figure may depend on a slider or region. That is the situation we found at Submagic, Fliki, Hooked, Vizard and four others. In that case the honest comparison is to request the price from the vendor directly, since a screenshot after JavaScript runs can reflect a promotional state that changes.