Runway vs Luma vs Pika: cost per second compared
Data checked: October 1, 2026
At 720p, the lowest published rate among these three providers is Runway Gen-4 Turbo at $0.050 per second, followed by Luma Ray 3.2 at $0.060 per second. Pika Wan 3.0 works out to about $0.059 per second as an effective rate.
These tools do not price the same way: Runway and Luma publish API prices per second, while Pika sells credits inside subscription plans. To compare them fairly we convert credit prices into an effective dollar rate per second.
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Cost per second, side by side
| Model | Resolution | $/second | Per minute | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runway Gen-4 Turbo | 720p | $0.050 | $3.00 | API price |
| Luma Ray 3.2 | 720p | $0.060 | $3.60 | API price |
| Pika · Wan 3.0 (credits) | 720p | $0.059 | $3.52 | effective credit rate |
| Runway Gen-4.5 | 720p | $0.120 | $7.20 | API price |
| Pika · Seedance 2.5 (credits) | 720p | $0.217 | $13.01 | effective credit rate |
| Luma Ray 3.2 | 1080p | $0.240 | $14.40 | API price |
Pika rows are effective rates: credits per 5-second clip ÷ 5 × the annual-billing price of one credit on the Pika Starter plan. They are not an official per-second API price.
How to choose
If you generate in bulk or through an API, the published per-second price is the number to optimize. If you mostly work in a web app, the plan you pay for matters more than the per-second rate, because credits you do not use are wasted.
Resolution changes the picture: Luma Ray 3.2 more than triples in price between 720p and 1080p in our data, so compare at the resolution you will actually deliver.
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, Runway, Luma or Pika?
At 720p in our data, Runway Gen-4 Turbo ($0.050/s) is the cheapest of the three, but models differ in quality and features.
Why is Pika shown as an effective rate?
Pika sells credits in subscription plans and does not publish a per-second API price in our sources.
Are these prices current?
They were checked on 2026-10-01. Confirm on each provider's page before buying.
Sources
Prices updated: October 1, 2026
- Google Gemini API pricing (Veo) ↗
- OpenAI API pricing (Sora) ↗
- Runway API pricing ↗
- Runway plans ↗
- Kling developer pricing ↗
- Luma API pricing ↗
- Luma plans ↗
- Pika pricing ↗
- Higgsfield pricing ↗
Prices are collected from public pages and may change without notice. Entries marked 'secondary' were read through a third-party aggregator because the official page did not render to our fetcher; the official URL is still listed as the source of record.
- Higgsfield and Pika publish credit-based subscription pricing; we did not find public per-second API rates for them, so they appear as effective subscription rates.
- Veo is priced from the Gemini API (Veo on Vertex AI or inside Google AI plans may differ).
- Taxes, free tiers, batch discounts, and enterprise contracts are not included.