Social video is the one format where cost per minute is a useless number, because nobody buys one video. The unit that matters is cost per usable asset per month, and that number is now dominated by the people making decisions rather than by the production. A month of social creative costs single or double-digit dollars to generate and whatever your team costs to direct, judge, and edit it.
The generation cost, concretely
Canon 8frame prices, a credit is $0.01 in a top-up pack. A realistic month for one brand:
| Item | Model | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 12 short video assets, 8s, silent | Veo 3.1 Lite at 33 | 396 |
| 4 premium assets, 5s with audio | Kling v3 Standard at 86 | 344 |
| 20 stills and covers | Seedream 5 at 6 | 120 |
| Music beds | Lyria 2 at 13 | 26 |
| Total | ~886 credits, about $8.86 |
That fits inside the 1,000 credits on the $19 Starter plan. Which is the real point of this article: the generation line for a month of social video is under ten dollars, so any budget conversation that focuses on it is optimising the wrong number.
Where the money actually goes
Direction and judgment. Deciding what to make and which of it ships. This is now the majority of the cost and the entire quality difference between accounts.
Editing and format versioning. Reframing, captioning, cutting down. Human work, priced per version, and on high-volume accounts it is the largest line.
Filming what cannot be generated. People, products, and demonstrations. Fewer shoot days than before, not zero.
Community and posting. Not creative cost, frequently in the same budget, and worth separating so the creative number is legible.
Why per-minute pricing misleads
A 15-second social asset and a 15-second segment of a brand film cost differently by an order of magnitude, and the runtime is identical. The variables are how many exist, how much footage was reviewed, and how many rounds were involved.
So when comparing suppliers, ask for cost per usable asset per month at a stated volume, with rounds and format count fixed. That is comparable; per-minute is not.
The volume question
Q4 and paid social both reward volume, and volume is now affordable to produce and expensive to judge. The honest constraint on how many assets a brand should make is how many it can review properly, not how many it can generate. Teams that scale generation past their review capacity ship worse creative faster, which shows up in performance within a month. See how to plan Q4 creative with AI.
FAQ
How much should a brand budget for social video monthly? Budget for people and editing; the generation line is under ten dollars a month at typical volumes. If a supplier quote is dominated by production cost, ask what is being filmed.
Is it cheaper to make 30 assets than 10? Per asset, yes, dramatically, because direction and setup amortise. In total, no, and the constraint is review capacity rather than money.
What is the cheapest usable social video? Generated 8-second silent clips at 33 credits each, cut with captions and music. About $0.33 an asset before anyone's time.
The generation is under ten dollars a month. Budget for the judgment. The 8frame canvas is free and unlimited, and generation is paid from $19/month.