Veo 3.1 Video API Pricing: Per-Second Rates by Tier and Resolution

The official per-second matrix

Google publishes Veo 3.1 pricing for Standard, Fast and Lite output with audio. Its paid list includes Standard at $0.40 per second for 720p/1080p and $0.60 for 4K; Fast at $0.10 for 720p, $0.12 for 1080p and $0.30 for 4K; and Lite at $0.05 for 720p and $0.08 for 1080p. Lite does not advertise 4K output. Each row is a separate commercially meaningful combination, not an average tariff.

A ten-second clip is not a ten-dollar promise

At the published Fast 720p rate, a ten-second result has a $1.00 video-output component; Standard 720p at ten seconds is $4.00, assuming the same accepted duration and no additional fees. Those calculations say nothing about the visual quality of a particular model, nor how many attempts a creator needs to approve a shot. They are derived list-price examples, not a claim of having personally generated and reviewed test clips.

Successful outputs and retry planning

The official documentation notes that certain audio processing problems can prevent generation and states that billing applies only when video successfully generates in that case. That caveat should not be enlarged into a universal no-charge-for-any-failed-attempt guarantee. In a production budget, record which failures are billable under the relevant endpoint, count successful but unusable results separately, and reconcile the vendor invoice to accepted editorial output.

Clip-level economics for documentary work

For a hypothetical sequence of 50 accepted eight-second shots using Fast 1080p, accepted output is 400 seconds, so the published video charge component is 400 × $0.12 = $48. If the production needs multiple successful versions of each shot, budget their billed durations too. Shot planning, music, voice-over, compositing, export and human review are separate costs. The historical cutoff is October 2026; a newer Veo family should not silently replace the quoted 3.1 SKU.

Before choosing a paid tier

Obtain the billing quote for the exact Google product, account geography, tier, model or subscription, currency and commitment length. If the provider offers several kinds of meters, forecast each independently rather than summing quantities in incompatible units. The relevant captured meters here include video_output_second_1080p, video_output_second_4k, video_output_second_720p, video_output_second_720p_1080p. Build a low, expected and high workload from your own request logs or editorial schedule; a pricing page is not a credible estimate of how many retries or approvals your team will need.

For governance, add an approval threshold for paid overages, reconcile invoices with metered activity, and schedule a quarterly or release-triggered source audit. The absence of an identified enterprise rate, promotional expiry or regional tax line is not evidence that the amount is zero. This guide does not represent a product trial, capability benchmark, procurement offer or warranty of uninterrupted access.

Historical availability and boundaries

Preserve the precise source version, checked date and any stated effective date before reusing these figures. A model launch announcement may confirm an introductory token rate without proving which private offers remain available; a mutable plan page can describe a later product state. If a source changes after this cutoff, publish a new snapshot instead of silently editing the historical record. Specialised product evaluations belong to the relevant AI 02–09 editorial teams, while this article documents the billing model and its limitations.