A 1,000-credit plan can last a month or an afternoon, and the difference is almost never the number of clips you made. It is six specific settings and habits, all of which are visible once you know to look.
TL;DR
- Wan 3.0 defaults to 1080p. 95 credits per 5 seconds instead of 24. The single most common cause
- Seedance video-in at 720p is 654 credits. Four times the text-to-video price
- Iterating on Veo 3.1 Standard at 448 burns half a plan in three attempts
- Audio tiers cost about 60 percent more, and you pay it on every rejected attempt
- No keep-rate discipline. At one in five, everything costs five times the sticker
- Long durations scale linearly. A 30-second clip is six times a 5-second one
1. The Wan 3.0 resolution default
Canon 8frame prices, a credit is $0.01 at pack rate:
| Wan 3.0 tier | 5s clip | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 480p | 5s | 24 |
| 720p | 5s | 48 |
| 1080p (the default) | 5s | 95 |
| Prime at 480p / 1080p | 5s | 46 / 189 |
The default is 1080p, the priciest tier, so that an unresolvable value never under-bills. If you picked Wan because it was cheap and your clips are costing 95, this is why.
The fix: set resolution deliberately. Wan 3.0 Prime is not a workaround: it has the same 1080p default and costs about twice base, 189 at 1080p.
2. Seedance video-in
| Mode | Credits |
|---|---|
| Seedance 2.5, 5s at 720p | 157 |
| Seedance 2.5 video-in, 5s at 720p | 654 |
| Seedance 2.0 video-in, 5s | 132 |
654 credits is two thirds of a Starter plan for one 5-second clip, and it triggers by dropping a video into the input rather than an image. Check the mode before you submit. Seedance 2.0's video-in at 132 is the reasonable route if you need that path.
3. Iterating on the expensive model
| Model | 8s with audio | Per second |
|---|---|---|
| Veo 3.1 Lite | 54 | 6.75 |
| Veo 3.1 Fast | 168 | 21.00 |
| Veo 3.1 Standard | 448 | 56.00 |
Standard is eight times Lite per second. Three attempts on Standard is 1,344 credits, more than a Starter plan. Three attempts on Lite is 162.
The fix: block on Wan 3.0 at 480p (24), iterate on Veo 3.1 Lite silent (33), and spend 448 once, on the shot that carries the piece.
4. Paying for audio on rejected attempts
Audio adds roughly 60 percent on models that price it separately: Kling v3 Standard goes 57 silent to 86 with audio, Veo 3.1 Lite 33 to 54.
Every rejected attempt with audio on pays that premium for sound you threw away.
The fix: iterate silent, turn audio on for the final. On ten attempts with one keeper that saves about 260 credits on Kling.
5. No keep-rate discipline
The number that actually governs your plan is cost per clip you keep. At a realistic one in three for a shot you have not composed, every price triples. At one in five it quintuples.
What moves the keep rate, in order of effect:
- Block cheaply first. One 24-credit draft tells you whether the composition works.
- One camera move per clip. Compound moves fail on every model at every price.
- Design around the failure modes. Hands doing something specific, text in frame, crowds, two people interacting. These fail at a fixed rate regardless of spend, so changing the shot beats retrying it.
- Generate at delivery resolution. There is no video upscaler on this canvas, so a clip generated too small is a clip regenerated.
6. Duration scaling
Most models price linearly per second. A 30-second base Wan 3.0 clip at 480p is 142 credits against 24 for 5 seconds. Hailuo H3 is 88 at 5 seconds and 264 at 15.
Nothing wrong with that, but a habit of generating 10 seconds when you will use 2 is paying five times over. Generate 5 seconds and use the best 1.5, which is how generated footage gets cut anyway.
The plan that stops the bleeding
- Draft at 480p on Wan 3.0, 24 credits.
- Iterate silent on Veo 3.1 Lite, 33 credits.
- Final once, at the tier the shot deserves, with audio on.
- Set resolution and mode deliberately, every time.
A shot that lands: three drafts plus one final with audio is about 150 credits, $1.50, against 1,344 for three attempts on Standard.
FAQ
Why did one clip cost 95 credits? Wan 3.0 defaulted to 1080p. Set the resolution.
Why did a clip cost 654? Seedance 2.5 video-in mode. Check the input type before submitting.
How do I make a plan last? Draft cheap, iterate silent, finish once. Most of the saving is in those three habits.
Do I get credits back for failures? Contact support rather than retrying. See why did my AI generation fail.
Set the resolution, iterate silent, finish once. The 8frame canvas is free and unlimited, and generation is paid from $19/month.