An AI video credit is a prepaid unit of usage that a tool subtracts each time you generate, process or export something, so the real price of a credit depends entirely on what one credit buys. On Vidpal, 1 credit makes one 9:16 Short and a 1 to 10-minute long video costs 5. On Opus Clip, 1 credit processes one minute of source video. Captions and InVideo AI charge different amounts per feature and per second of generated footage. Plans bundle a monthly allowance: Vidpal's Pro plan, for example, includes 40 credits a month for $39, enough for a Short every day with 10 left over.
This guide is for creators comparing AI video tools or trying to choose the right plan size. It defines the terms, compares how five tools define and price credits (checked on their live pricing and help pages on October 23, 2026), walks through worked examples on Vidpal, lists the gotchas that drain a balance early, and gives a simple formula for how many credits you need.
Related guides: AI video tool pricing in 2026, Opus Clip pricing, what it costs to start a faceless YouTube channel and Vidpal pricing.
What Is an AI Video Credit?
A credit is a unit of account: the tool sells you a bundle of them with a plan, then charges a set number for each action. Credits exist because the cost behind each action varies widely. Rendering a captioned Short, transcribing an hour of podcast audio and generating eight seconds of footage from a video model cost a vendor very different amounts, and a single currency lets one plan cover all of them.
These are the terms you will see on pricing pages, defined in one line each.
- Credit: a prepaid unit a tool deducts per action, such as one finished video, one minute of processed footage or one second of AI-generated video.
- Monthly allowance: the number of credits a plan grants each billing period.
- Rollover: whether unused credits carry into the next period, and for how long.
- Top-up or credit pack: extra credits bought on top of a plan, usually with their own expiry date.
- Per-minute pricing: credits charged by the length of the source video you upload, common in clipping and captioning tools.
- Per-output pricing: credits charged per finished video, carousel or clip, regardless of its length within a limit.
- Per-second pricing: credits charged by the length of footage a generative video model produces.
The point to hold onto is that a credit is not a standard unit. Comparing 40 credits on one tool with 300 on another tells you nothing until you know what each credit buys.
How Do AI Video Credits Work?
Every credit system has three parts: an allowance that refills on a schedule, a price list that says what each action costs, and rules for unused credits. Many tools show the cost before you confirm an action; Vidpal's Generate button, for instance, shows the credits the video will use.
Timing is the detail most people miss. Some tools reserve credits when you click Generate, some charge only on a successful result, and some charge for AI work whether or not you export. Captions' help center says credits are used for AI usage regardless of whether the project is exported or saved (Captions help). InVideo's help center draws the same line from the other side: generation uses credits, while exporting, downloading and manual timeline editing don't (InVideo help).
Expiry rules differ just as much. Some tools reset monthly with no rollover, some let credits live for a fixed number of days, and some allow a capped rollover. Those rules decide whether a slow month wastes money, so read them before you compare headline prices.
How Vidpal, Opus Clip, Submagic, Captions and InVideo AI Define Credits
Each of the five tools uses a different unit, and two of them change the cost per feature or per model. The table summarizes each tool's own pricing and help pages as of October 23, 2026; prices are monthly in US dollars unless noted, and allowances are credits per month.
| Tool | What one credit buys | Plans and allowance | Unused credits | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vidpal | One 9:16 Short or one carousel; a 1-10 min long video costs 5; AI Clips costs 1 per started 10 minutes of source plus 1 per clip rendered | Free 4 one-time; Starter $19 (15); Pro $39 (40); Business $69 (100); billed annually $12, $23 or $41 a month | Monthly credits reset each cycle; annual plans get the year's credits upfront; packs last 60 days | Vidpal pricing |
| Opus Clip | Processing 1 minute of source video (under a minute rounds up, partial minutes round down) | Free 60; Starter $15 (150); Pro $29, or $14.50 a month billed annually (300) | Monthly-plan credits expire after 60 days; annual credits after 12 months | Opus Clip help |
| Submagic | Plans are sold by videos (15, 40 or 100 a month, with 2, 5 or 30-minute caps); the pricing page also lists 45, 120 or 300 credits for AI video and image generation, with no per-feature cost table | Starter $19 ($12 annual); Pro $39 ($23); Business $69 ($41) | Not stated on the pricing page | Submagic pricing |
| Captions | Varies by feature: Prompt to Video costs 16 credits per 6 seconds, AI Edit 10-40, an AI image 1-3 | Free 60-200 lifetime; Basic $9.99 (200); Max $24.99 (500); Frontier $69.99 (1,400) | Roll over on Basic and above, capped at 3x the monthly allowance | Captions help |
| InVideo AI | Varies by model: video models bill credits per second times duration; agent work, images, voice and music also use credits | Starter $20, or $10 annual (400); Plus $60 or $30 (2,000); Max $150 or $75 (5,000); prices per seat | Don't roll over; purchased extra credits last up to 12 months | InVideo pricing |
A few notes on reading the table. Opus Clip meters by source length, which suits clipping recordings you already have; its pricing page lists the allowances, and its help center adds a cost that's easy to miss: each X post or scheduled X post costs 3 credits per clip, per X account. Captions and InVideo AI meter generative work, so the same plan buys very different amounts depending on the model and settings you pick, and InVideo's pricing page says it may update credit costs at any time without notice.
Submagic is the outlier. Its help center describes the tiers by video uploads (Submagic help), so in practice the plans are priced per video, while its API uses 1 credit per started minute of video (Submagic API help). Captions' pricing page notes that it shows iOS plan prices (Captions pricing), and its help center lists the Basic tier and the lifetime Free credits (Captions subscriptions). Where a number isn't published, the table says so rather than guessing.
Credits vs Minutes: Which Pricing Model Is Better?
Neither is better in general; each favors a different kind of work. Per-minute pricing is predictable when you clip or caption long recordings, because cost scales with footage you can measure before you start. Per-output pricing is predictable when you make many short videos, because a Short costs the same whether it runs 30 or 90 seconds. Per-second generative pricing is the hardest to predict, because cost depends on the model, the resolution, audio settings and how many attempts a shot takes.
Retries matter more than most buyers expect. When pricing is per generation, a shot that takes three attempts to get right costs three times the listed rate, and the same is true of re-rendering a finished video after edits. A tool that looks cheap per credit can end up expensive if your workflow involves many attempts.
The practical test is to price your real month. Take the videos you made last month, convert each into the tool's unit, and compare the total with the plan allowance. A podcaster who clips four hour-long episodes and a faceless creator who posts a Short a day will reach opposite conclusions from the same pricing page, and both will be right.
How Do Vidpal Credits Work?
Vidpal uses one shared credit pool for every format, with a fixed price per output rather than per minute or per second. Here is the full price list as of October 2026.
| Action | Credits | When it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Studio Short (9:16, 30-90 s) | 1 | Reserved when you click Generate; first export included |
| Studio long video (16:9, 1-10 min) | 5 | Reserved when you click Generate; first export included |
| Re-render after changes | Same cost again | Each new render |
| Unlock a confirmed script to edit | 1 | When you unlock it |
| Hook clip (Text → Video or Image → Video) | +1 | Only if the hook clip generates successfully |
| Image Posts carousel | 1 | Per carousel |
| AI Editing (your own upload) | 1, plus 1 per export | At upload, then each export |
| AI Clips analysis | 1 per started 10 minutes of source | For the analysis |
| AI Clips render | 1 per clip | Each clip you render |
| AI image in the editor | 1 | Per image |
| Publishing (post now or schedule) | 0 | Free on Pro and Business, from each finished video's Publish panel |
| Optional Social Scheduler post preparation | 1 | Only if you want AI per-platform copy and one AI thumbnail written for the post |
The plans: Free gives 4 one-time credits that don't refill. Starter is $19 a month, or $12 a month billed annually ($144 a year), for 15 credits a month. Pro is $39, or $23 a month annually ($276 a year), for 40. Business is $69, or $41 a month annually ($492 a year), for 100. Annual plans grant the year's credits upfront. Vidpal's pricing page adds that monthly credits reset each billing cycle and don't carry over, annual credits work as a yearly pool within the 12 months, and credit packs bought on top of a plan are valid for 60 days.
Two plan gates sit alongside credits. The Free plan can't export Studio, AI Editing or AI Clips videos; only Auto Reels and Image Posts render on Free, with a “Made with Vidpal” watermark. Publishing is Pro and Business only, but it costs no credits: each finished video's Publish panel posts now or schedules up to 90 days ahead to Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn, and Auto Reels can auto-publish. The only publishing-related charge is the optional post preparation in the Social Scheduler, covered below.
What Does One Vidpal Credit Actually Cost?
Divide the plan price by its credits to get the effective price per credit, then multiply by what each output costs. On Vidpal a credit costs between about 41 cents and $1.27 depending on plan and billing.
| Vidpal plan | Monthly price | Per credit (monthly) | Annual price | Per credit (annual) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter (15 a month) | $19 | $1.27 | $144 a year | $0.80 |
| Pro (40 a month) | $39 | $0.98 | $276 a year | $0.58 |
| Business (100 a month) | $69 | $0.69 | $492 a year | $0.41 |
Because a Short is 1 credit, those figures are also the effective price of a Short; a long video costs five times as much. Run the same division on any tool's pricing page, then convert its unit into the outputs you actually make. A low price per credit only helps if a credit buys the thing you need.
Worked Examples: How Many Credits Do Typical Creators Use on Vidpal?
Most creators land on Pro or Business once they post daily or clip a weekly show. These examples use only Vidpal's published credit costs.
Example 1, a Short every day. Thirty Studio Shorts a month cost 30 credits, and publishing them from the Publish panel adds nothing. Pro's 40 credits cover them with 10 to spare, enough for several re-renders or two long videos at 5 credits each. Starter's 15 credits cover a Short every other day.
Example 2, a weekly podcast. AI Clips charges 1 credit per started 10 minutes of source for the analysis, plus 1 per clip you render. A 60-minute episode costs 6 credits to analyze; render 4 clips and the episode totals 10. Four episodes a month is 40 credits, exactly Pro's allowance with nothing left for re-renders, so a show that wants more clips per episode fits Business better. Watch the rounding: a 61-minute recording starts a seventh 10-minute block and costs 7 to analyze. Paid plans accept sources up to 120 minutes, which is 12 credits of analysis.
Example 3, long-form plus Shorts. One Studio long video a week (4 × 5 = 20 credits) plus 15 Shorts (15 credits) is 35 credits a month, inside Pro's 40. The long video costs 5 whether it runs 3 minutes or 10, so a longer video is not more expensive.
Example 4, a coach editing their own footage. AI Editing costs 1 credit at upload and 1 per export, so a talking-head video exported once is 2 credits. Twelve videos a month is 24 credits on Pro, and Starter's 15 covers seven uploads exported once each.
Example 5, Shorts with AI hook clips. A Text → Video or Image → Video hook adds 1 credit, charged only when the hook generates successfully. Twenty Shorts with hooks cost 40 credits if every hook succeeds, which is all of Pro.
Example 6, publishing and scheduling. Posting or scheduling a finished video costs no credits, so 30 Shorts made and published is still 30 credits on Pro. The Social Scheduler's post preparation is optional: if you want it to write a transcript, copy for each platform and one AI thumbnail for a post, that post costs 1 extra credit. Using it on 10 of those 30 Shorts brings the month to 40 credits, still within Pro.
| Monthly workload on Vidpal | Credits used | Plan that fits |
|---|---|---|
| 12 Shorts (three a week) | 12 | Starter (15) |
| 30 Shorts made and published (one a day) | 30 | Pro (40) |
| 4 long videos and 15 Shorts | 35 | Pro (40) |
| 4 one-hour podcast episodes, 4 clips each | 40 | Pro (40), no buffer |
| 4 one-hour podcast episodes, 8 clips each | 56 | Business (100) |
| 60 Shorts across two channels and 4 long videos | 80 | Business (100) |
How Many Credits Do You Actually Need?
Count your planned outputs for a month, convert each to credits, then add 10 to 20 percent for re-renders and experiments. That buffer is the difference between a plan that lasts the month and one that runs dry in week three.
On Vidpal the formula is: Shorts and carousels at 1 each, long videos at 5 each, AI Clips at one credit per started 10 minutes plus one per clip, AI Editing uploads at 1 plus 1 per export, plus any hook clips, AI images and optional Scheduler preparations, then the buffer on top. Publishing and scheduling themselves cost nothing.
Step 1: List last month's output, or next month's plan, by format: Shorts, long videos, carousels, clips, edited uploads.
Step 2: Price each format with the Vidpal table above, or with the unit on any other tool's pricing page.
Step 3: Add a buffer for re-renders. Every change after the first export costs the full amount again, so creators who iterate a lot should use the top of the 10 to 20 percent range.
Step 4: Pick the smallest plan that covers the total, then check the gates: exporting Studio, AI Editing or AI Clips videos needs a paid plan, and publishing or auto-publishing needs Pro or Business.
Step 5: Review after a month. If you end every cycle with credits left, drop a tier; if you top up regularly, the next tier costs less per credit than the one you're on.
If you are still deciding how often to post, our guide to how often to post on TikTok, Reels and Shorts helps set the number you plug into Step 1.
Credit Gotchas That Make Your Balance Run Out Early
Most surprises come from re-renders, rounding and plan rules rather than the headline price. These are the ones to check on any tool, with Vidpal's specifics.
- Re-renders cost again. On Vidpal the first Studio export is included, but rendering again after edits costs the same credits again, so finish the script and visuals before you export.
- Credits are reserved at Generate. A Studio video's credits are reserved when you click Generate, not when you export.
- Hook clips are charged only on success. A Text → Video or Image → Video hook that fails doesn't cost the extra credit.
- Block rounding goes up. Vidpal's AI Clips charges per started 10 minutes, so trimming a 62-minute recording to 60 saves a credit. Opus Clip rounds partial minutes down but anything under a minute up.
- Free credits are one-time. Vidpal's 4 Free credits never refill, and Free can't export Studio, AI Editing or AI Clips videos, so use them to test rather than to run a channel.
- Monthly credits usually don't roll over. Vidpal and InVideo AI reset each cycle, Opus Clip's monthly credits last 60 days, and Captions caps rollover at 3x the allowance.
- Generative costs vary. On Captions and InVideo AI the same request costs different amounts depending on the model and settings, and every retry costs again.
- Small extras add up: the optional post preparation in Vidpal's Scheduler, an AI image in the editor, unlocking a confirmed script, or posting a clip to X from Opus Clip. Publishing a finished video on Vidpal is not one of them; it costs no credits.
- Rate limits are separate from credits. Vidpal caps Studio creates per rolling hour (Free 3, Starter 5, Pro 10, Business 15), so 30 Shorts on Pro take three hourly windows even with credits to spare.
Which Credit Model Fits Your Work (and Where Vidpal Isn't the Best Fit)?
Choose the unit that matches how you work, then compare plans within that model. If you mainly clip long recordings you already have and want per-minute predictability, Opus Clip's one credit per minute is easy to reason about, and its free plan includes 60 credits a month; our Vidpal vs Opus Clip comparison covers the differences in output. If you mostly caption and lightly edit your own clips, Submagic's per-video plans are simple to budget, and our Submagic pricing breakdown covers the limits.
If you want to generate footage from many different video models in one place, InVideo AI and Captions offer more model choice, with less predictable per-second pricing; see our InVideo alternative and Captions alternative pages for how they compare with Vidpal. Vidpal itself is not an AI avatar or talking-presenter tool, and Studio narrates in English; other languages go through the Translate panel, with captions in 30 languages and dubbing in 8, without lip-sync.
Vidpal fits when you make many finished short-form videos, such as faceless Shorts, Reels, carousels and clips from long recordings, and want one pool with a fixed price per output.
How to Stretch Your Vidpal Credits
A few habits make the same allowance go further, mostly by avoiding paid re-renders.
Size the script before you generate. Vidpal Studio takes a Topic/Prompt, a Full Script or a URL, and scripts are calibrated to about 150 words per minute; if you paste a full script, check its length with our guide to how many words fit in a 60-second video. Before exporting, use the section tools: rewrite a section with AI, regenerate its image or swap in stock footage, so the first, included export is the final one.
For long recordings, trim to the useful part before running AI Clips so you stay under the next 10-minute block, then render only the clips you will post. Each clip comes with a 3 to 8-word hook, a one-sentence reason and a virality score from 0 to 100 that is relative to that transcript, which makes it easier to pick the strongest few. Setting up your Brand Kit once (logo, colors, caption preset and font) applies it to Studio, AI Editing and AI Clips videos, so you don't re-render to fix branding.
Start free on Vidpal with 4 one-time credits to generate and preview Studio videos, run AI Clips analysis on a source up to 10 minutes, or render watermarked carousels and Auto Reels, then compare plans on the pricing page when you're ready to export.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an AI credit? An AI credit is a prepaid unit of usage that an AI tool deducts each time you run a paid action, such as generating a video, processing a minute of footage or creating an image. Each tool sets its own price list, so one credit buys different amounts of work on different platforms.
How many credits is one video? It depends on the tool. On Vidpal a 9:16 Short is 1 credit and a 1 to 10-minute long video is 5. On Opus Clip, processing costs 1 credit per minute of source, so a 30-minute video uses 30 credits. Captions and InVideo AI charge by feature, model and seconds generated.
Do AI video credits roll over? Usually not on monthly plans. Vidpal and InVideo AI reset monthly credits each cycle, Opus Clip's monthly credits expire after 60 days, and Captions lets unused credits roll over up to 3 times the monthly allowance. Purchased packs follow their own expiry, which is 60 days on Vidpal.
Is credit pricing better than per-minute pricing? Neither wins in general. Per-minute pricing is predictable for clipping long recordings, per-output pricing suits creators who make many short videos, and per-second generative pricing varies with the model. Convert a typical month of your own work into each tool's unit before you choose.
How many credits do I need for 30 Shorts a month? On Vidpal, 30 Studio Shorts cost 30 credits, which fits the Pro plan's 40 credits a month with 10 left for re-renders or two long videos. Publishing or scheduling them costs no credits. Add 1 credit per Short only if you add an AI hook clip or use the optional Scheduler post preparation.
Why was I charged credits again for the same video? On Vidpal the first Studio export is included, but rendering again after you change the video costs the same credits again. AI Editing charges 1 credit at upload and 1 for each export, so every new export of an edited upload is a separate charge.
Can I export videos with Vidpal's free credits? Only Auto Reels and Image Posts render on the Free plan, with a “Made with Vidpal” watermark. The 4 Free credits are one-time, and exporting Studio, AI Editing or AI Clips videos needs a paid plan, starting with Starter at $19 a month or $12 a month billed annually.
Does publishing a video cost credits on Vidpal? No. On Pro and Business, each finished video's Publish panel posts now or schedules up to 90 days ahead to Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn at no credit cost, and Auto Reels can auto-publish. Only the optional Social Scheduler preparation, which writes per-platform copy and one AI thumbnail, costs 1 credit per post.
