AI VIDEO · THE COST OF CREATING

An expensive GPU
can cost less.

A JPY 500,000 GPU—
could it really be cheaper?

If you keep creating AI video,
it could be.

JPY 100 for 10 seconds sounds affordable.
But what if you generate dozens of clips every day?

Pay-per-generation cloud video compared with owning a local GPU production setup — Pay the cloud for every generation.Own your production equipment.

2026-09-25: estimates based on the dated research. JPY 500,000 is an illustrative budget. Cloud makes sense for light use with no upfront hardware investment. This is not a ranking of quality or speed. All yen amounts are in JPY.

01 / SMALL COST, MANY TIMES

JPY 100 for 10 seconds.
Does that sound cheap?

For a single clip, it certainly seems affordable.

10 seconds / 720p

LTX-2.3 Fast

Approx.48 JPY

$0.30 / 10 seconds [8]

10 seconds / Generated video

Runway Gen-4 Turbo

Approx.79 JPY

$0.50 / 10 seconds [4]

10 seconds / 768p

MiniMax H3 API

Approx.127 JPY

$0.80 / 10 seconds [3]

10 seconds / 720p with audio

Veo 3.1 Fast

Approx.159 JPY

$1.00 / 10 seconds [7]

10 seconds / Generated video

Runway Gen-4.5

Approx.191 JPY

$1.20 / 10 seconds [4]

10 seconds / 720p

Adobe Firefly

Approx.317 JPY〜395 JPY

Varies by credit pack size [9][10]

Comparison of pay-as-you-go API rates and extra credits. USD 1 =158.79 JPY. Model quality, audio and resolution differ.

The issue is
how often you generate.

10 seconds × 1 clips

JPY 100

10 seconds × 10 clips

JPY 1,000

10 seconds × 100 clips

JPY 10,000

A simple illustration assuming JPY 100 per clip, not a fixed rate for any particular service.

02 / CREATE. CHECK. TRY AGAIN.

With usage-based pricing,
every attempt adds up.

01Write a prompt
02Generate video
03Review
04Not quite right
05Try again
06Create alternatives
07Compare
08Choose a clip

An AI video may not be usable on the first attempt.
On the cloud, more candidates mean more generation fees.

This workflow does not assume an industry-average number of attempts.

03 / THE MONTHLY PICTURE

Even at JPY 100 a try,
daily use changes the picture.

900 attempts / month10-second candidate clips

Assumes one 10-second clip every two minutes on average, 30 days of use and no extra retries. This is an illustrative cost scenario, not an industry average.

Six models: monthly costs versus equipment budgets

Horizontal lines: JPY 320,000 illustrative GPU budget (not a Japanese retail price) and JPY 500,000 whole-PC budget. They compare monthly spending with an upfront purchase.

LTX-2.3 Fast 720pApprox. JPY 43,000

Runway Gen-4 Turbo Generated videoApprox. JPY 71,000

Veo 3.1 Lite 720p with audioApprox. JPY 71,000

MiniMax H3 API 768pApprox. JPY 114,000

LTX-2.5 Fast 720pApprox. JPY 129,000

Veo 3.1 Fast 720p with audioApprox. JPY 143,000

Runway Gen-4.5 Generated videoApprox. JPY 171,000

MiniMax H3 API 2K, official hosted versionApprox. JPY 186,000

Adobe Firefly 720pApprox. JPY 285,000

Adobe Firefly 1080pApprox. JPY 570,000

Veo 3.1 Standard 720p / 1080p with audioApprox. JPY 572,000

Vertical reference lines: JPY 320,000 illustrative GPU budget and JPY 500,000 whole-PC budget. They compare monthly spending with an upfront purchase.

Values preserve the research’s rounded monthly estimates. Adobe uses a bulk-credit equivalent. Quality, audio and resolution differ between models.[3][4][7][8][9][10]

04 / A DIFFERENT WAY TO PAY

A JPY 500,000 GPU—
could it really be cheaper?

For occasional use, the cloud makes a lot of sense.
No upfront investment or GPU. Use it when you need it.

But at high volumes,
paying for every generationcan become a major expense.

Cloud

Generate↓Pay

More generations mean more spending.

Local

Buy a GPU / PC ↓

Generate+ electricity

Buy the equipment once, then use it repeatedly.

Local generation also involves hardware, electricity, storage and maintenance costs.

05 / SUBSCRIPTION ≠ UNLIMITED

Does a monthly plan mean
unlimited AI video?

In many cases, it does not.

A limited allowance inside a monthly plan

AI credits

Each video generation uses part of your balance.

Firefly Standard / example: 720p, 10 seconds

Before generation2,000 cr
After 1 clips1,500 cr
After 4 clips0 cr

[9][10]

Runway Max

$95 / month

Approx. JPY 15,085 / month

9,500 credits / month

Gen-4 Turbo: 5 credits/second → about 31.7 minutes. Gen-4.5: 12 credits/second → about 13.2 minutes.

[5][6]

Adobe Firefly Standard

JPY 1,580 / month

2,000 credits / month

720p: 50 credits/second → about 40 seconds total. 1080p: 100 credits/second → about 20 seconds total. Check resolution and other conditions behind advertised maximum clip counts.

[9][10]

Adobe Premiere

JPY 3,280 / month

Annual plan, paid monthly

Editing software fees are separate from high-volume AI generation. Extra credits may be needed as generation volume increases.

[11]

Filmora Advanced

$59.99 / year

Approx. JPY 9,526 / year

1,000 AI credits / month

Veo 3.1 Text-to-Video: 450 credits/generation → about 2 generations. The credit table does not specify clip length, so no 10-second rate is inferred.

[12][13]

Filmora Premium

$99.99 / year

Approx. JPY 15,877 / year

2,000 AI credits / month

Veo 3.1: 450 credits/generation → about 4 generations. Extra AI credits are sold separately.

[12][13][14]

CapCut

Pricing and allowances vary

1 credit = $0.01

Pro prices vary by region, account and purchase channel. Credit usage also varies by feature and model, so no fixed monthly or 10-second rate is shown.

[15][16]

06 / OUTPUT IS THE PRODUCT

A cheaper model may work for text AI.
Video is not always that simple.

Small automated text tasks contrasted with a creator reviewing the quality of finished video

Text generation AI

Decisions that get the job done.

Classification, summarization, extraction, routing, routine chat, agent decisions and subagents.

Some tasks can run on inexpensive small language models.

GPT-5.4 nanoExample request: approx.0.16 JPY [22]Per million tokens: input $0.20 / output $1.25

Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteExample request: approx.0.29 JPY [23]Per million tokens: input $0.30 / output $2.50

Example routine task: 2,000 input and 500 output tokens. This is not a flat fee; long inputs, search, tools and retries can change the cost.

Video generation AI

The image itself is the deliverable.

PeopleMotionTextureCamera workRealismBrand identity

An inexpensive clip
is not necessarily a usable clip.

The actual footage is what people judge as a film, ad or social media asset.

These are different approaches to managing costs for different tasks, not a per-task price comparison. Lower-cost video models can also make sense for rough drafts and testing ideas.

07 / WHAT CREATORS VALUE

Some creators cannot
choose on price alone.

In this survey: output quality 68%, price 29%.

Arcade, “State of AI Video 2026”: 243 US marketing and creative professionals who used AI video at work in the previous six months.[21]

68%

Prioritize output quality when choosing tools

29%

Prioritize price when choosing tools

54%

Would choose the most realistic output if one thing were guaranteed

60%

Find AI-looking output a challenge

51%

Need many attempts to get usable results

Some AI video users find it difficult to choose a model on price alone. These figures do not represent all AI video users, including hobbyists.

08 / SAME MODEL FAMILY. DIFFERENT PLACE.

With the MiniMax H3 family,
compare where you generate.

One model family, different ways to pay.

MiniMax H3

Cloud API / 768p

User
API → cloud GPU
MiniMax H3
Video → generation fee

Approx.127 JPY/ 10 seconds

$0.80/ 10 seconds[3]

Local GPU / H3-Base

User
Your GPU
MiniMax H3
Video → electricity cost

API fee 0 JPY

Under the reference assumptions:electricity only, approx. JPY 1–3 / 10 seconds[26][27]

The same family does not mean identical conditions.

H3-Base outputs native video with a 768p short edge. The official 2K workflow includes cloud components. Features, settings and quality are not necessarily identical between open and hosted versions.[1][2]

Approx. 142–395 seconds

Reported time to produce roughly 10 seconds of video

0.7 kW × JPY 35/kWh

Assumed power draw and electricity rate, not measured power consumption

One GPU’s processing capacity

Different conditions from parallel cloud jobs

AIVY: RTX 5090 / H3 Turbo, 1344×736, 243 frames, 24 fps; 141.9–150.6 seconds for about 10.12 seconds of video. Zenn: 720×720, 260 frames, 20 steps; 394.9 seconds for about 10.83 seconds of video, peak VRAM about 30.9 GiB. Electricity examples use 150–395 seconds. Results vary with setup, settings, cooling and load. GPU / PC / SSD purchases, maintenance and idle power are additional.[26][27]

09 / YOUR OWN PRODUCTION FACILITY

Expensive as a PC component.
Seen as video production equipment,
a GPU can look different.

A GPU workstation producing multiple video candidates as a personal video production facility

A high-performance GPU can be
an upfront investment in production
that changes the cost of creating.

10 / HOW OFTEN WILL YOU CREATE?

Whether a GPU is expensive depends on
how often you use it.

Generation volumes where 30 days of savings reach the purchase price.

The research’s approximate break-even table assumes 10-second clips, 30 days and JPY 2 in local variable costs per clip. It does not guarantee processing capacity or profit.

Runway Gen-4 Turbo

JPY 320,000 case: Approx.138 clips / day
JPY 500,000 case: Approx.215 clips / day

MiniMax H3 API

JPY 320,000 case: Approx.85 clips / day
JPY 500,000 case: Approx.133 clips / day

Veo 3.1 Fast

JPY 320,000 case: Approx.68 clips / day
JPY 500,000 case: Approx.106 clips / day

Runway Gen-4.5

JPY 320,000 case: Approx.57 clips / day
JPY 500,000 case: Approx.88 clips / day

Adobe Firefly

JPY 320,000 case: Approx.34 clips / day
JPY 500,000 case: Approx.53 clips / day

Veo 3.1 Standard

JPY 320,000 case: Approx.17 clips / day
JPY 500,000 case: Approx.26 clips / day

JPY 320,000 is an illustrative budget based on the RTX 5090 US MSRP of $1,999 (about JPY 317,000 by direct conversion), not a Japanese retail price. JPY 500,000 represents a whole-PC budget. Actual costs depend on tax, distribution, CPU, RAM, SSD, power supply and other components.[25]

90 H3 clips a day with JPY 500,000 of equipment

Example: 10-second clips, 30 days, JPY 2 electricity per clip. Cloud rate: $0.08/second × JPY 158.79/USD.

━ Cloud┄ Local (hardware + electricity)

Cumulative costs cross after approximately 1.5 months under these assumptions.

1 months

Cloud Approx. JPY 342,986

Local Approx. JPY 505,400

3 months

Cloud Approx. JPY 1,028,959

Local Approx. JPY 516,200

6 months

Cloud Approx. JPY 2,057,918

Local Approx. JPY 532,400

12 months

Cloud Approx. JPY 4,115,837

Local Approx. JPY 564,800

At 85 clips/day, GPU runtime is about 3.5 hours at 150 seconds/clip or 9.3 hours at 395 seconds/clip. At 90 clips/day, it is about 3.8–9.9 hours. This differs from human working time and cloud parallelism.

11 / THE COST OF ANOTHER TRY

If it takes two or three attempts,
the fees multiply too.

Runway Gen-4 Turbo

10 seconds / Generated video

Total attempts: 1 attemptsApprox.JPY 79
Total attempts: 2 attemptsApprox.JPY 159
Total attempts: 3 attemptsApprox.JPY 238

[4]

MiniMax H3 API

10 seconds / 768p

Total attempts: 1 attemptsApprox.JPY 127
Total attempts: 2 attemptsApprox.JPY 254
Total attempts: 3 attemptsApprox.JPY 381

[3]

Veo 3.1 Fast

10 seconds / 720p with audio

Total attempts: 1 attemptsApprox.JPY 159
Total attempts: 2 attemptsApprox.JPY 318
Total attempts: 3 attemptsApprox.JPY 476

[7]

This is a simple comparison of repeated attempts, not an average retry count. Local retries also increase electricity consumption and GPU runtime, even without extra API fees.

12 / YOUR NUMBERS. YOUR CHOICE.

For your workload,
is a GPU really expensive?

Enter your generation volume
to compare cloud and local costs.

2026-09-25: estimates based on reference values from this date. Actual bills and processing speed may differ.

Cloud model

Clip duration

seconds

Daily generations before retry multiplier

attempts

Days of use per month

days

Retry multiplier, including the first attempt

GPU / PC purchase price

JPY

Electricity rate

JPY / kWh

2× means the first generation plus one retry. If your entered count already includes retries, use 1×.

Advanced: power, generation time and exchange rate

Average local PC power

Local generation time per clip

seconds

Exchange rate per USD

JPY

150 seconds is a reference time for roughly 10 seconds of H3 output. Changing the clip length or cloud model does not automatically change local generation time. Enter the time per clip for your setup.

View results ↓

YOUR SIMULATION

Monthly generations: 900 attempts

Cloud

Approx. JPY 114,329

per month

Annual:Approx. JPY 1,371,946

Local electricity only

JPY 919

per month, excluding hardware

Monthly difference, excluding hardware: Approx. JPY 113,410
Annual difference, excluding hardware: Approx. JPY 1,360,921
First-year difference, including hardware: Approx. JPY 1,040,921

Time to offset the GPU / PC price:Approx.2.8 months

Difference means cloud cost minus local cost. A negative value means cloud costs less within this comparison. Local generation assumes H3; other models are not assumed to have the same quality or speed.

Estimated local GPU runtime: approx.1.3 hours/day. This is not human working time.

Cumulative costs over time

━ Cloud┄ Local (hardware + electricity)

Cumulative costs cross after approximately 2.8 months under these assumptions.

1 months

Cloud Approx. JPY 114,329

Local Approx. JPY 320,919

3 months

Cloud Approx. JPY 342,986

Local Approx. JPY 322,756

6 months

Cloud Approx. JPY 685,973

Local Approx. JPY 325,513

12 months

Cloud Approx. JPY 1,371,946

Local Approx. JPY 331,025

Local costs include the GPU / PC purchase upfront and electricity during generation only. Extra storage, maintenance, failures, idle power, model loading and human working time are excluded. Cloud costs scale by rate × seconds; actual available clip lengths, billing increments, tax, discounts and base subscription fees are not included.

Formulas and what this comparison includes

Monthly generations = daily generations × days of use × retry multiplier

Monthly cloud cost = USD per second × clip duration × monthly generations × USD/JPY

For JPY rates per 10 seconds = rate × (clip duration ÷ 10) × monthly generations

Monthly local electricity = average PC kW × (generation seconds per clip ÷ 3,600) × JPY/kWh × monthly generations

Months to offset GPU / PC price = purchase price ÷ (monthly cloud cost − monthly local electricity). No break-even if the difference is zero or negative.

Adobe calculations use the research’s rounded JPY rate per 10 seconds. Rounding causes small differences between its monthly estimate table and results recalculated from unit prices.

13 / WHAT THE RESEARCH DOES — AND DOESN'T — SAY

Do people really generate
dozens of clips every day?

Average usage time is not established here.

The research did not identify reliable direct statistics on average time spent specifically using video generation APIs. The 30-minute, one-hour and three-hour cases illustrate how costs change with usage.

Adobe Express

41%

of AI video tool users use them weekly

Survey of 384 US video creators. 71% had used AI video generation or editing; the 41% figure refers to those users. It is not limited to generation APIs.[17]

Adobe Creator Survey

86%

use creative generative AI

16,000 creators worldwide. 38% cited cost as a barrier. Not limited to video generation.[18]

Kontent.ai

39%

use AI daily

610 content professionals. Average content production time was 3.4 hours/day; this is not time spent generating AI video.[19]

NBER

32%

use generative AI for over an hour on usage days

A nationally representative US survey. Time distribution on days when people use generative AI for work. Not limited to video; the reference research does not give the sample size.[20]

Arcade

2.3 tools

Average number of AI video tools used

243 US marketing and creative professionals who used AI video at work in the previous six months. 34% used three or more tools.[21]

14 / FIND YOUR FIT

A few clips a month? Consider the cloud.
For frequent experimentation, there is another option.

A few clips a month

Cloud makes sense

Use it when needed, with no upfront hardware cost.

Dozens of generations a day

Consider local generation

Decide based on volume and how long you will keep creating.

High-volume YouTube / social content

See whether local fits

Check your preferred model’s quality and processing time.

Ads / many candidate clips

A larger gap versus pay-per-use

Include the cost of trying many candidates.

15 / THE TRADE-OFFS

Of course, buying a GPU
does not solve everything.

What you manage locally

Upfront GPU, PC and storage costs
Electricity, maintenance and potential hardware failure
Setup, VRAM, drivers, CUDA and more
Processing time and concurrency limits
Model updates and configuration

H3 uses a Community License. Check the official license when adopting it for conditions covering commercial use, product UI notices, regions and business size.[2]

What the cloud can handle

No upfront hardware investment
Quick access without local setup
Easier access to new models
Cloud GPUs and multiple jobs, depending on the service
No infrastructure to manage

Cloud makes sense for light use. A local GPU becomes more worth considering for sustained, high-volume generation.

MAKE THE COST YOUR OWN.