The formula
credits = price_per_image × uploads_per_month × variants_tested- price_per_image
- the same 1-to-24-credit flat rate a one-off image batch documents — a designed thumbnail is not a distinct, separately-priced item in the catalogue.
- uploads_per_month
- the channel's posting schedule — 8 for a twice-weekly series, far fewer than a daily short-form cadence.
- variants_tested
- candidate thumbnails generated per upload before the highest-CTR one gets published — 3 here. This is the multiplier a one-off product shoot doesn't have: it isn't about retries, it's a deliberate testing habit.
Worked example — 8 uploads a month, 3 thumbnail variants tested each, at 4 credits a call
- 1.variants: 8 × 3 = 24 generations
- 2.24 × 4
= 96 credits
Free frame-grab versus a designed generation
Versely's own thumbnail tool pulls a frame straight out of your footage, and that costs nothing at all; it isn't a model call, so there's no meter to price. This page starts where that tool stops: a designed thumbnail, generated fresh to be more clickable than a frame the camera happened to catch, bills on the exact same flat per-call meter as any other AI image.
A one-off product shoot's multiplier is retries — regenerating what didn't come out right. A thumbnail's multiplier is different: creators routinely generate a small set of candidates for the same upload and publish only the one that tests best, which is a deliberate habit, not a failure rate. At 3 variants across 8 uploads that's 24 generations a month for one channel.
Set against a full production budget, this line is small. A month of daily short-form footage can eat most of a plan's credits on its own; a month of thumbnails at series cadence rounds to a fraction of it.
Cadence, variants and the flat-rate spread
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.
Thumbnails needed at different upload schedules
Uploads a month times variants tested per upload — reusing the same flat rate throughout.
| Uploads/month | At 1 variant | At 3 variants | At 5 variants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 generations | 12 generations | 20 generations |
| 8 | 8 generations | 24 generations | 40 generations |
| 12 | 12 generations | 36 generations | 60 generations |
| 20 | 20 generations | 60 generations | 100 generations |
| 30 | 30 generations | 90 generations | 150 generations |
8 uploads at 3 variants each is the 24-generation figure this page prices throughout.
Where the 71 flat-billed image models sit, at 24 thumbnails a month
The same price distribution a one-off image batch's page uses, recomputed against a monthly thumbnail habit instead of a one-off 100-image shoot.
| Credits per image | Models at that price | 24 thumbnails/month | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 24 | Luma UNI 1 Max |
| 2 | 9 | 48 | Nano Banana Edit |
| 3 | 15 | 72 | Nano Banana 2 Lite |
| 4 | 21 | 96 | Nano Banana 2 |
| 5 | 2 | 120 | Flux Pro Ultra |
| 6 | 6 | 144 | Wan 2.7 Pro Edit |
| 7 | 5 | 168 | Flux Kontext Max |
| 8 | 2 | 192 | Midjourney V7 |
| 11 | 1 | 264 | Riverflow 2.0 |
| 17 | 2 | 408 | Recraft 4.1 Utility Pro Text to Image |
| 19 | 1 | 456 | Higgsfield |
| 20 | 1 | 480 | Recraft 4 Pro Text to Image |
| 24 | 2 | 576 | Recraft 4 Pro Text to Vector |
The highlighted row is the most populated price point — 21 models charge 4 credits a call, the sensible figure to budget an unspecified thumbnail habit against.
What changes a monthly thumbnail bill
Variants tested per upload
Directly proportional and the real driver here — dropping from 3 variants to 1 cuts the monthly total to a third.
Upload cadence
Linear against the schedule — a daily uploader needs roughly 3.8× the thumbnails a twice-weekly series does.
Model choice
24× between the cheapest and dearest flat-billed image model, applied to every variant of every upload.
Pulling a frame instead of designing one
Free, via the built-in frame-grab tool — the option to reach for whenever a frame from the footage is good enough.
What a thumbnail charge does not cover
- Extracting a raw frame from your own footage as a thumbnail — that's free and isn't a model call at all.
- The upload's own video generation cost, priced on its own page.
- A/B test infrastructure or click-through measurement — this formula prices the generations, not the testing platform.
How many thumbnails a month of credits buys
A Monthly plan's 774 credits covers 193 thumbnail generations at the typical 4-credit rate — 64 uploads' worth of testing, well past a twice-weekly series' 8.
Plan sizes and what each grants are on the cost hub.
Flat-billed image models
Every model page shows its own price matrix, its published credit range, and the option table this formula reads from.
Luma UNI 1 Max
flatLuma · 1–1 credits
Nano Banana Edit
flatGoogle · 2–2 credits
Nano Banana 2 Lite
flatGoogle · 3–3 credits
Nano Banana 2
flatGoogle · 4–4 credits
Flux Pro Ultra
flatFlux · 5–5 credits
Wan 2.7 Pro Edit
per_imageWan · 6–6 credits
Nano Banana
flatGoogle · 4–4 credits
Nano Banana 2 Edit
flatGoogle · 4–4 credits
GPT Image 1.5
flatOpenAI · 2–2 credits
GPT Image 1 Edit
flatOpenAI · 2–2 credits
Wan 2.6 Image
flatWan · 3–3 credits
Wan 2.7 Image to Image
per_imageWan · 3–3 credits
Frequently asked questions
Is generating a custom thumbnail more expensive than a normal AI image?+
No — there's no thumbnail-specific pricing in the catalogue. A designed thumbnail bills at the exact same flat per-call rate as any other image from the same model.
Can I get a thumbnail for free?+
Yes — the built-in frame-grab tool pulls an existing frame from your footage at no charge. This page prices the alternative: a freshly generated, designed thumbnail rather than a frame from the video.
Why variants instead of a keep rate?+
A product photo batch multiplies on retries — generations that didn't come out right. A thumbnail habit multiplies on deliberate CTR testing — candidates that all came out fine, with only the best-performing one published.
Does a longer video cost more to make a thumbnail for?+
No — the flat per-call rate ignores the source video's length entirely, exactly as it ignores an image's resolution or aspect ratio.
How does this compare to a month of daily short-form video?+
Far cheaper. A-month-of-daily-short-form's footage and voiceover stack can approach a whole plan's credits; a series-cadence thumbnail habit at 24 generations a month is a small fraction of that.
Different job, different arithmetic
These are not variations on the formula above — each one meters something else entirely.
What does a batch of 100 AI product images cost?
credits = price_per_image × images_generatedIt charges one fixed price per call, so the image's size and shape are free.
What does a month of daily short-form video cost?
credits = (video_rate × seconds + ceil(chars ÷ 1,000 × 12)) × days_postedIt multiplies a small per-clip stack by a whole month of posting, where a single ad's stack never multiplies by cadence at all.
What does a print-resolution AI image cost?
credits = rate_per_megapixel × (width × height ÷ 1,000,000)It prices the area of the canvas, so doubling both edges quadruples the charge.
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 image model
Filtered to text-to-image models that publish a complete-job cost, sorted by the credits one generation costs, ascending.
Best value AI image model
Filtered to image models that hold a leaderboard position and publish a complete-job cost, sorted by (leaderboard Elo ÷ credits per job) descending.
Best AI image generator
Filtered to models with the text-to-image category, sorted by best leaderboard position (unranked models after, cheapest complete job first).
Jobs billed this way
Further reading
How to make YouTube thumbnails with AI
The 2026 AI thumbnail stack — Ideogram V3 for in-image text, Flux 2 Pro for photoreal characters, MrBeast-style breakdowns, and CTR uplift you can replicate.
Extracting Frames: Thumbnails and Stills From Your Best Takes
How to extract frames from AI video for thumbnails, stills, and anchor images: exact-moment picking, resolution fixes, and a repeatable workflow.
See the price before you spend it
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