Imagen

Cheapest AI Video API for Developers

Video generation from $21/month for 3,250 API calls. Open-weight models run on our own GPUs and are covered by your plan; premium models like Kling and Veo are priced per call, shown up front.

Get Started — $21/Month API Documentation

What Actually Drives AI Video Cost

The Model Sets the Price, Not the Platform

Video is the most expensive thing to generate with AI, and most "cheapest video API" comparisons hide where the money goes. The cost of a clip is driven by the model, the resolution and the duration — not by which platform you call it through. A 10-second 1080p clip from a premium model costs real GPU time no matter who bills you for it.

ModelsLab is honest about the split. Eight open-weight video models run on our own GPUs and are covered by your plan, so generating with them costs you an API call and nothing more. Ninety-one premium third-party models — Kling, Veo, Minimax, Runway, Seedance, Vidu, Tencent and others — are billed per call from wallet balance, because we are billed per call for them too.

Why That Makes the $21 Plan Genuinely Cheap

The Basic plan is $21/month for 3,250 API calls. Spend those calls on open-weight models and you can prototype, iterate and ship without touching wallet balance at all. Here is what a plan reaches:

Text-to-video and image-to-video on one REST endpoint
Video-to-video restyling and scene creation
8 open-weight video models covered by your plan
91 premium third-party models available per call
Prompt, duration, aspect ratio and motion controls
Async job submission with a fetch endpoint for results
Standard plan at $47/month for 10,000 calls
One API key shared with image, speech and LLM

What Each Plan Costs

Video plans are billed per API call. What a call costs you depends on whether the model runs on our GPUs or a provider's.

Plan	Price / Month	API Calls	Rate Limit
Basic (best entry point)	$21	3,250	5 req/s
Standard	$47	10,000	10 req/s
Unlimited Premium	$199	Unlimited open-weight	15 req/s

ModelsLab video plan pricing, verified against the plans table in August 2026. Unlimited applies to the 8 open-weight video endpoints ModelsLab self-hosts. The 91 third-party video endpoints (Kling, Veo, Minimax, Runway, Seedance, Vidu, Tencent and others) are billed per call from wallet balance on any plan — they are not included in unlimited.

Generate Video in One Request

Text-to-video and image-to-video on the same key.

Text to video on an open-weight model (Python)

Python

1import requests
2
3response = requests.post(
4    "https://modelslab.com/api/v7/video-fusion/text-to-video",
5    headers={
6        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_MODELSLAB_API_KEY",
7        "Content-Type": "application/json",
8    },
9    json={
10        # wan2.2 and ltx-2.3 run on ModelsLab GPUs — covered by your plan
11        "model_id": "wan2.2",
12        "prompt": "a paper boat drifting down a rain-soaked gutter, macro shot",
13        "duration": 5,
14        "aspect_ratio": "16:9",
15    },
16)
17
18# Long renders return an id — poll the fetch endpoint for the result
19print(response.json())

Image to video (Python)

Python

1import requests
2
3response = requests.post(
4    "https://modelslab.com/api/v7/video-fusion/image-to-video",
5    headers={
6        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_MODELSLAB_API_KEY",
7        "Content-Type": "application/json",
8    },
9    json={
10        "model_id": "wan2.2",
11        "prompt": "slow orbit around the product, soft studio light",
12        # init_image is a list, even for a single frame
13        "init_image": ["https://example.com/product-shot.jpg"],
14        "duration": 5,
15    },
16)
17
18print(response.json())

Poll for a finished render (JavaScript)

JavaScript

1const headers = {
2  'Content-Type': 'application/json',
3  Authorization: 'Bearer YOUR_MODELSLAB_API_KEY',
4};
5
6// The fetch endpoint takes the request id as the last path segment.
7const fetchUrl = (id) =>
8  'https://modelslab.com/api/v7/video-fusion/fetch/REQUEST_ID'.replace(
9    'REQUEST_ID',
10    id,
11  );
12
13const submit = await fetch(
14  'https://modelslab.com/api/v7/video-fusion/text-to-video',
15  {
16    method: 'POST',
17    headers,
18    body: JSON.stringify({
19      model_id: 'wan2.2',
20      prompt: 'timelapse of a city square at dusk',
21      duration: 5,
22      aspect_ratio: '16:9',
23    }),
24  },
25);
26
27const { id, output } = await submit.json();
28
29// Already done? Use it. Otherwise poll the fetch endpoint by id.
30let video = output?.[0];
31while (!video) {
32  const poll = await fetch(fetchUrl(id), { method: 'POST', headers });
33  video = (await poll.json()).output?.[0];
34}
35
36console.log(video);

Ship Video in 3 Steps

Prototype on open-weight models, spend per call only where it counts.

STEP 01

Step 1: Sign Up

Create a ModelsLab account, subscribe to the $21/month Basic video plan, and copy your API key from the dashboard.

STEP 02

Step 2: Prototype on Open-Weight Models

POST a prompt to the text2video endpoint with an open-weight model_id. These run on ModelsLab GPUs and cost one API call from your plan — no wallet balance needed while you iterate.

STEP 03

Step 3: Add Premium Models Where Quality Pays

Switch model_id to Kling, Veo, Seedance or Minimax for hero shots. Those are billed per call from wallet balance, so you spend premium budget only on the clips that ship.

Get API Key

Why Developers Start at $21

Key advantages that set us apart

Plans from $21/month for 3,250 API calls

Standard at $47/month for 10,000 calls

8 open-weight video models covered by your plan

91 premium third-party models available per call

Per-call third-party pricing shown up front, not hidden

Text-to-video, image-to-video and video-to-video on one endpoint

Async submission with a fetch endpoint for long renders

No cold starts on self-hosted models

One API key across image, video, speech and LLM

Unlimited open-weight video at $199/month

Our Popular Use Cases

What teams build with low-cost video generation:

Animate existing product stills into short loops for listings and ads. Draft on open-weight models, then re-render the winners on a premium model.

Cheapest AI Video API FAQ

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ModelsLab video plans start at $21/month for 3,250 API calls, with Standard at $47/month for 10,000 calls. Generating with the open-weight video models ModelsLab self-hosts costs one API call from your plan and nothing more. Premium third-party models such as Kling and Veo are billed per call from wallet balance on top of the plan.

No. The $199/month plan gives unlimited generation on the 8 open-weight video models ModelsLab self-hosts. The 91 third-party video endpoints — Kling, Veo, Minimax, Runway, Seedance, Vidu, Tencent and others — are billed per call from wallet balance on any plan, because those providers bill us per call.

The open-weight video models ModelsLab runs on its own GPUs, which are the Wan and LTX families, are covered by your plan calls. Third-party models are listed with their own per-call price so the cost is visible before you send the request.

A clip is many frames plus the work of keeping them consistent, so one video uses far more GPU time than one image. That is why per-call video pricing varies by model, resolution and duration, while image generation on ModelsLab is a flat $0.0047 across every model.

ModelsLab is a paid service. Video plans start at $21/month for 3,250 API calls. Creating an account is free, but generating video requires an active plan.

Draft at short durations on open-weight models covered by your plan, then re-render only the take you are shipping at full settings on a premium model. Switching between them is a change to model_id — the endpoint and API key stay the same.

Yes. Text-to-video, image-to-video and video-to-video sit behind the same REST API and draw on the same plan calls, and the same key also covers image, speech and LLM generation.