Agencies buy on four things a creator never considers: whether client work stays separated, whether adding a reviewer costs a seat, whether the per-clip cost is a number you can put in a quote, and what you are allowed to say about how the work was made. Model quality is table stakes and rarely the deciding factor, because every platform routes to the same providers.
The four requirements
Client separation. Work for competing clients in one workspace is a real problem, and most creative tools are built for one team rather than many. In practice this means separate boards or workspaces per client, and a naming convention that survives staff turnover.
Seat economics. Per-member pricing punishes the account manager and the strategist who comment twice a week. On a credit model the reviewer costs nothing and you pay for generation.
Quotable unit cost. You cannot price a deliverable against a tool whose cost you cannot predict. Per-clip prices published in advance are what let you put a line in a quote. See how to price creative work in the AI era.
Disclosure position. What you tell clients about generated work, agreed at quote stage rather than discovered at delivery.
The per-clip numbers for a quote
Canon 8frame prices, a credit is $0.01 at pack rate:
| Use | Model | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Concept frames | Nano Banana Pro at 21, Seedream 5 at 6 | 6-21 per image |
| Drafts and variants | Veo 3.1 Lite, 8s silent | 33 |
| Volume finals | Kling v3 Standard, 5s with audio | 86 |
| Hero shots | Veo 3.1 Standard, 8s with audio | 448 |
| Narration | ElevenLabs TTS per 1,000 characters | 13 |
A fifteen-variant campaign with three premium finals lands around 2,900 credits, about $29. That is the line you put in the quote, and it is small enough that the conversation moves to where it belongs, which is your time.
Plan shapes for agency volume
$19 Starter carries 1,000 credits, $49 Creator 3,000, $499 Agency 44,000. Credits roll over while subscribed, which matters for agencies specifically because campaign work is bursty: a quiet month funds a heavy one instead of being lost at a reset.
What no generation platform gives you
Be clear-eyed about the gaps, because agencies discover them during onboarding otherwise:
Resourcing and time tracking. Not here, not anywhere in this category.
An approval state machine. Comments and versions, yes. Formal client sign-off with an audit trail, no.
A DAM with permissions and expiry. Boards are not asset management.
Rights administration. Talent and music licensing remains your process. See what is a usage licence.
Agencies past a certain size run a generation surface plus a project tool plus a DAM, and expecting one product to be all three is how procurement goes wrong.
The white-label question
Most platforms permit you to deliver the output as your own work; what varies is whether you may present the platform itself as yours. Read the terms before promising a client a branded portal. See how agencies white-label AI video.
FAQ
How do agencies separate client work? Separate boards or workspaces per client plus a strict naming convention. Verify before adopting that sharing one board does not expose others.
Should the client be on the platform? For review, it helps. Check whether they can participate without a paid seat, since per-member pricing makes client access expensive.
What do agencies actually spend on generation? Tens of dollars per campaign. The cost that matters is the people deciding what to make and which of it ships.
Quote the time, not the compute. The 8frame canvas is free and unlimited, and generation is paid from $19/month.