Pricing & Credits: How API Billing Works

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You pay only for success

• jobs that fail or timeout,
• the time a job spends queued or processing,
• requests rejected before generation (e.g. invalid input, content policy).

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Per-model pricing

• Images are priced per output image (credits_per_generation). Most requests return one image and cost that price. A request that returns several — see multiple images per request — is charged per image, so a 3-image result costs 3 × credits_per_generation.
• Video is priced per second (credits_per_unit with unit_type: second), so total cost scales with length_seconds. Some models (e.g. SeeDance 2.0) charge a different per-second rate per resolution — GET /v1/models returns a resolution_pricing map, and the cost is that rate × length_seconds.
• Music is a flat price per track (credits_per_generation) whatever its length — Music 3.0 / 2.6 = 200, Lyria 3 = 100, Mureka V9 = 60 credits — except the two per-second Sonilo models:
  • Sonilo Music (sonilo-music) makes instrumental/background music of an exact length and bills per second of the requested duration: credits_per_unit = 4 with a 10-second minimum — 10 s = 40, 30 s = 120, 60 s = 240, 180 s = 720 credits.
  • Sonilo Video Music (sonilo-video-music) composes a soundtrack for an input video and bills the video’s measured length, rounded up to whole seconds, at 15 credits/s with a 10-second minimum — a 30 s clip is 450 credits, a 60 s clip is 900. POST /v1/cost returns the per-second rate for this model (the duration is only known once the video is analyzed at submit time).
• Sound effects are priced per second (credits_per_unit with unit_type: second) with a 3-second minimum (min_billable_seconds):
  • sonilo-sfx (text) bills the requested duration at 5 credits/s — 5 × max(3, duration): 3 s = 15, 5 s = 25, 10 s = 50, 30 s = 150, 180 s = 900 credits.
  • sonilo-video-sfx (video) bills the input video’s measured length, rounded up to whole seconds, at 15 credits/s — a 4.2 s clip is 5 s = 75 credits, a 60 s clip is 900. POST /v1/cost returns the per-second rate for this model (the duration is only known once the video is analyzed at submit time).

• flux-2-pro prices by output size: 0.5MP = 15, 1MP = 25 (default), 2MP = 50, 4MP = 80 credits per image.
• grok-imagine-image-2 prices by quality × size — both parameters move the price together:

  	size: "1K"	size: "2K"
  quality: "low" (default)	50	80
  quality: "medium"	80	100

  Omitting either parameter uses the cheapest cell (low / 1K = 50 credits). This model has no high quality tier, and the optional input image is free — editing costs the same as generating. Example: {"size": "2K", "quality": "medium"} costs 100 credits.
• seedream-5.0-pro prices by output size and input images: 1K = 55 (default) or 2K = 110 credits per image, plus 5 credits per reference_images item after the first (the first input image is free). The input fee applies per generated image — each output is its own generation call carrying its own inputs. Example: a 2K request with 3 reference images and num_images: 1 costs 110 + 2 × 5 = 120 credits.
• seedream-5.0-flash is a flat 25 credits per image at 1K and 2K, and its reference_images (up to 10) are free — a 2K edit with 10 references still costs 25.
• minimax-h3 (video) prices per second of output (160 credits/sec at 2K) plus per second of reference-video input: each reference_videos clip is measured and billed at 160 credits per second of input (rounded up on the combined total). reference_images (up to 5) and reference_audios are free. Example: a 5-second generation guided by a 8.2s reference clip costs 5 × 160 + 9 × 160 = 2240 credits.
• minimax-h3-max (video) prices per second of output by resolution (480p = 65, 768p = 105, 1080p = 210, 2k = 420 credits/sec — 2k on extension only) plus 170 credits per second of video input: every reference_videos clip, or the source video of an extension (billed on its first 15 seconds), rounded up on the combined total. The first two reference_images are free and each further one adds 50 credits; reference_audios and the audio soundtrack are free. Example: extending a 10.2s clip by 5 seconds at 768p costs 5 × 105 + 11 × 170 = 2395 credits.
• seedance-2.5 (video) prices per second of output by resolution (480p = 150, 720p = 330, 1080p = 750 credits/sec) plus per second of reference-video input at half the output rate (480p = 80, 720p = 160, 1080p = 375 credits per input second, rounded up on the combined total). reference_images (up to 15) and reference_audios are free. Example: a 5-second 720p generation guided by a 8.2s reference clip costs 5 × 330 + 9 × 160 = 3090 credits.
• seedance-2.0 / seedance-2.0-fast / seedance-2.0-mini (video) price video-edit the same way: when a video input is supplied (2–15s), its measured duration is billed at half the model’s output per-second rate for that resolution on top of the output (rounded up). Example: a 5-second 480p seedance-2.0-mini edit of a 4s clip costs 5 × 60 + 4 × 30 = 420 credits. Text/image/reference-image requests are unaffected — output seconds only.
• wan-2.7-video prices per second of output by resolution (720p = 100, 1080p = 150 credits/sec). When a video input is supplied the request becomes a video edit, which bills the input clip’s measured duration at the same full per-second rate on top of the output — there is no half-rate discount here. Video edit also takes its output length from the input clip (length_seconds is ignored), so a clip is billed twice over: once as input, once as output. Example: editing an 8.2s clip at 720p costs 9 × 100 + 9 × 100 = 1800 credits. reference_images (up to 4, video edit only) are free. Text-to-video and image-to-video requests are unaffected — output seconds only.
• wan-3.0-video prices per second of output only, by resolution (480p = 60, 720p = 120, 1080p = 240 credits/sec; the high-speed wan-3.0-video-prime tier is 85 / 170 / 340). All input media is free — reference images, reference video clips, and reference audio never add to the charge (the only constraint is that input video duration + length_seconds can’t exceed 30 seconds). Example: a 5-second 720p edit guided by an 8.2s reference clip costs 5 × 120 = 600 credits.
• Video upscaling (POST /v1/video-upscales/topazlabs-video-upscale) is priced per second of the input video (measured server-side, rounded up; input up to 20s) by target tier: 1080p = 15 (30fps) / 30 (60fps), 4K = 60 / 120 credits per second.
• Upscalers (POST /v1/upscales/{model}) are priced per image: p-image-upscale by its target resolution tier — 4 MP = 10, 8 MP = 15, 16 MP = 30, 32 MP = 60 credits (input media never adds to the charge) — and clarity-upscaler at a flat 30 credits.

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Utility pricing (conversions & posts)

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Estimating cost up front

curl -X POST https://api.budgetpixel.com/v1/cost \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BUDGETPIXEL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "model": "seedance-2.0", "resolution": "1080p", "length_seconds": 5 }'

{ "model": "seedance-2.0", "type": "video", "credits": 2750, "exact": true }

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Checking your balance

curl https://api.budgetpixel.com/v1/account/credits \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BUDGETPIXEL_API_KEY"

{
  "total_available": 148885,
  "monthly_remaining": 126275,
  "monthly_limit": 130000,
  "monthly_used": 3725,
  "extra_credits": 22610
}

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Spend limits and alerts

• Monthly spend limit — once your API usage reaches this many credits in a calendar month, new /v1 requests and MCP generations are rejected until you raise or remove the limit, or the month rolls over. Jobs that were already accepted finish and bill normally, so a month can close slightly above the cap. Setting the limit to 0 pauses all API and MCP traffic immediately (a kill switch for a leaked key — though you should also revoke the key).
• Spend alert — an email to your account address when the month’s API usage crosses a threshold. Purely informational, sent at most once per month; nothing is blocked. Set it below your limit to get warning before requests pause.

{
  "error": {
    "code": "monthly_spend_limit_reached",
    "message": "Your monthly API spend limit has been reached (12500 of 12000 credits this month). Raise or remove the limit under Billing at budgetpixel.com/developers?tab=billing. Web usage is not affected.",
    "type": "rate_limit_error"
  }
}