AI Video Credits Explained: Signup Bonus, Packs, and Real Job Costs

Start with the number Create will charge

OpenVideos sells credits, not an open-ended generation pass. Before a job starts, the Model Registry computes a cost from the model id and parameters (duration, resolution, audio, image count). Create shows that number. If the balance is too low, the job never launches.

This guide is for people who want the accounting rules, not a motivational pricing essay. Numbers below come from the live product config as of 2026-07-30. If Create shows a different total for your exact settings, trust Create.

Related reading: How to Write AI Video Prompts for prompt structure; pack purchase UI lives on /pricing.

Signup bonus: 50 credits, 30 days

New accounts receive a signup bonus of 50 credits. That lot is valid for 30 days from signup (UTC date math on the credit lot).

The onboarding “try” path uses nano-banana-t2i at 10 credits per image. Floor division gives 5 trial images from the bonus (50 ÷ 10). Spend the same 50 on a video model and you may get zero finished clips, because many video jobs cost more than 50 alone.

That mismatch is the whole point of checking credits before you romanticize a cinematic model.

How lots and expiry work

Credits arrive in lots (batches), each with its own remaining balance and expires_on date.

Rules that matter in practice:

1. One-time packs. There is no subscription auto-renew in this system.
2. FIFO spend. Generations consume the lot that expires soonest first.
3. Expiry is daily. Credits are still usable on the expires_on calendar day (UTC). The next UTC day they are no longer spendable.
4. Failed jobs refund. If generation fails after debit, the generation credit path refunds. Do not treat a failed clip as a permanent loss without checking your balance.

On the account page you can expand the total balance into buckets with remaining amounts and dates. That view is more useful than the single navbar number when you are mid-project.

Credit packs (USD list price)

Plus is marked as the highlighted pack on pricing. Exact checkout still goes through Creem; this table is the configured list offer, not a third-party scrape.

Rough unit math (list price ÷ credits, rounded):

Use that only for budgeting. It is not a promise that every model will feel “cheap” at Cinema scale; video seconds still dominate cost.

Example costs from the Model Registry

These are registry formulas, not a multi-model quality benchmark. Always re-check Create for your exact params.

Images (cheap path for learning the UI)

Video (order-of-magnitude anchors)

So: the 50-credit signup bonus can teach you the image UI. It will not fund a Veo-with-audio experiment. A Plus pack (2,500) is closer to a few dozen mid-cost 5s clips than a whole shorts season.

Decision checklist before you hit Generate

1. Read the credit total Create displays for the current model + duration + resolution + audio.
2. Compare that number to your soonest-expiring lot, not only the headline balance.
3. Prefer a cheap image model when you are testing prompt wording.
4. Turn audio off when you are iterating motion, then enable it for the keep take.
5. If you are under 20 credits, the UI treats that as low balance (navbar highlight). Plan a pack purchase before a video batch, not mid-batch.

Limits

• This article documents OpenVideos product rules. It does not compare competitor wallets.
• Model ids and credit formulas can change in the registry; the Create panel is the live source of truth.
• Pack marketing names (Basic / Plus / Pro / Cinema) come from pricing copy; pack ids in code are pack_1290, pack_2990, pack_7990, pack_19900.
• No claim of open-ended generation volume, forever-free access, or fixed wall-clock render times.

When you want the cheap onboarding path, open Create → image generator → nano-banana-t2i, confirm 10 credits, and spend the signup bonus on readable stills before you escalate to video.