The formula
credits = price( smallest tier ≥ your duration )- tier
- a whole duration the model actually sells. Hailuo 2.3 Fast sells 6s and 10s — there is nothing in between.
- your duration
- rounded up, never down. Seven seconds does not buy seven seconds of billing; it buys the next tier whole.
Worked example — A seven-second clip on Hailuo 2.3 Fast
- 1.tiers available: 6s = 9 credits, 10s = 17 credits
- 2.7 > 6, so the 6s tier does not fit
- 3.round up to the 10s tier
= 17 credits, of which about 5.1 buys footage you cut
The staircase, and the second that costs six
Every other duration-priced formula on this hub is continuous — ask for one more second, pay for one more second. Tiered billing is a staircase. Between the steps extra length is free; at a step, one second costs as much as the previous six.
That produces a sawtooth in effective cost. Using a tier fully is the cheapest footage in the catalogue; overshooting it by a second is the most expensive. The optimisation is not to shorten the clip generally, it is to land exactly on a step.
Block billing is the same idea with an endless staircase. Luma Ray 2 720p sells five-second blocks at 8 credits each, so a six-second clip rounds up to two blocks — 16 credits — exactly as a seven-second clip rounds up to a ten-second tier. 3 models bill in blocks this way.
Tier prices, waste and block rounding
Every figure below is computed from Versely's live price matrix — the same matrix the app quotes you from before it charges. These are prices, not verdicts: the buyer's guides are where models get ranked.
Effective cost per second across the tiers on Hailuo 2.3 Fast
The tier price is fixed; what moves is how much of it you use.
| Your clip | Tier charged | Credits | Seconds wasted | Effective per second |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4s | 6s | 9 | 2s | 2.3 |
| 6s | 6s | 9 | 0s | 1.5 |
| 7s | 10s | 17 | 3s | 2.4 |
| 9s | 10s | 17 | 1s | 1.9 |
| 10s | 10s | 17 | 0s | 1.7 |
A six-second clip is the cheapest second-for-second render here. A seven-second clip is the dearest, and it is one second away.
Tier prices across the speed grades
The same tier structure at several quality grades. Not a ranking — the grades differ in output, not only in price.
| Model | 6s tier | 10s tier | Step between them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hailuo 2.3 Fast | 9 | 17 | 1.9× |
| Hailuo 2.3 Standard | 12 | 23 | 1.9× |
| Hailuo 2.3 Pro | 20 | 40 | 2× |
Some of these are currently discounted, so the tier prices shown are below the catalogue's full rate. The whole staircase moves when a discount lands.
Five-second blocks on Luma Ray 2 720p at 8 credits each
Block billing is a tier system with no ceiling — the staircase just keeps going.
| Your clip | Blocks charged | Arithmetic | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5s | 1 | 8 × 1 | 8 |
| 6s | 2 | 8 × 2 | 16 |
| 9s | 2 | 8 × 2 | 16 |
| 10s | 2 | 8 × 2 | 16 |
The sixth second costs 8 credits. The seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth are free.
Every model that bills in whole five-second blocks
Including a lipsync model — block rounding is not exclusive to generated video.
| Model | Type | Credits per 5s block | A 6-second job |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kling Lipsync | lipsync | 2 | 4 |
| Luma Ray 2 720p | video | 8 | 16 |
| Luma Ray Flash 2 720p | video | 4 | 8 |
What changes a tiered bill
Landing exactly on a tier
The entire game. Six seconds and ten seconds are efficient; seven is not.
Editing down after the fact
Refunds nothing. You are charged for the tier you generated, not the footage you kept — decide the length before you render.
Speed grade
The same tier structure runs from 9 to 20 credits at the six-second step.
Live discounts
Tier prices move when the catalogue discounts a model, and the whole staircase moves with them. The model page shows the current figure.
What a tier price does not cover
- Models that meter every second individually — those never round, and are covered by the per-second pages.
- Models with an entry block plus a marginal rate, which round only at the bottom.
- Trimming, captioning or exporting the result, all billed separately.
Six-second versus seven-second clips on one plan
A Monthly plan's 774 credits is 86 six-second clips on Hailuo 2.3 Fast — but only 45 if every one of them runs seven seconds.
Plan sizes and what each grants are on the cost hub.
Models that sell duration in whole units
Every model page shows its own price matrix, its published credit range, and the option table this formula reads from.
Frequently asked questions
Can I generate exactly seven seconds?+
The model sells the durations it publishes — 6s and 10s on Hailuo 2.3 Fast. A seven-second requirement is generated at the next tier up, billed at that tier, and trimmed afterwards.
Do I get a refund for the seconds I trim off?+
No. The charge is for the tier you generated. Trimming is an editing step downstream of a completed render.
Is tiered billing cheaper than per-second billing?+
When you use the tier fully it is very competitive. When you overshoot by a second it is the worst value on this hub. It rewards planning the cut before the render rather than after.
What is the difference between a tier and a block?+
A tier list is finite — Hailuo 2.3 Fast publishes two and stops. Blocks repeat: Luma Ray 2 720p charges 8 credits per five seconds for as long as you keep going.
Does resolution change the tier price?+
Not on these models — the tier is a duration price. Models where resolution changes the rate are a separate formula with their own page.
Different job, different arithmetic
These are not variations on the formula above — each one meters something else entirely.
What does a clip longer than five seconds cost?
credits = base_first_5s + rate_per_extra_second × (seconds − 5)It charges an indivisible entry block, then meters only the seconds beyond it.
What does exporting in 4K instead of 1080p cost?
credits = rate_per_second(resolution) × secondsIt switches the per-second rate by resolution band, and the premium differs by model.
What does editing a video cost if I keep changing it?
credits = (0 × preview_renders) + (export_price × final_exports)It charges per finished export, so iteration is free and the count is the whole bill.
Which model should I actually pick?
This page prices the job. The buyer's guides rank the models, with the sort criterion stated on every one.
Cheapest AI video model
Filtered to video generators that publish a complete-job cost, sorted by the credits the cheapest complete generation costs, ascending.
Fastest AI video model
Filtered to video models flagged as fast, sorted by the credits one complete job costs, ascending.
Best value AI video model
Filtered to video generators that hold a leaderboard position and publish a complete-job cost, sorted by (leaderboard Elo ÷ credits per job) descending.
Jobs billed this way
Further reading
LTX 2.3 vs Hailuo 2.3: Budget Video Head-to-Head
LTX 2.3 vs Hailuo 2.3 for budget AI video: cost per clip, native audio, retake editing, speed tiers, and which cheap model wins for daily volume.
Hailuo 2.3 Fast vs Standard: Price, Specs, Which to Use
Hailuo 2.3 Fast is image-to-video only and built for cheaper batch drafts; Standard also takes text. On Versely a 6-second clip is 9 vs 12 credits.
See the price before you spend it
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