Midjourney Video Pricing: What 8 GPU Minutes a Clip Really Costs

The first time I generated video in Midjourney I burned through a third of my monthly allowance in an afternoon and could not work out why. The answer is that Midjourney video pricing does not work like anyone else's. There is no per-second rate and no video credit — you are spending GPU minutes out of the same pool your images come from, and a video job eats roughly eight times what an image job does.

In this guide we cover what the four plans actually cost, how the GPU-hour model translates into a number of clips, what you get for a video job, where the extend feature quietly doubles your spend, how it compares to per-second competitors, and who this is genuinely the right tool for.

Contents

• The four plans
• GPU minutes, not video credits
• How many clips you actually get
• Where extend gets expensive
• Versus per-second pricing
• Who this is right for
• FAQ
• Summary

The four plans

Midjourney sells four subscription tiers, all of which include video. Paying annually takes about 20% off.

There is no free tier, and there has not been one for a long time. If you run out of fast time you can buy more at roughly $4 per GPU hour rather than jumping a plan, which is often the cheaper move for a one-off busy month.

The thing to notice is what is not in that table: any mention of video at all. Video is not a separate product with its own price. It draws on the same GPU allowance as everything else.

GPU minutes, not video credits

Here is the whole model in two lines. An image job costs about one GPU minute. A video job costs about eight.

That 8× multiplier is the single number worth memorising, because it is what makes a video habit expensive without ever showing you a bill. Nothing warns you. You animate a few images, the fast-hours meter drops faster than you expect, and by mid-month you are in Relaxed mode or buying top-ups.

Relaxed mode matters more than it sounds, and it is the strongest argument for Standard over Basic. On Standard and above, when your fast hours run out you keep generating — just in a queue, at whatever speed the servers have spare. On Basic you simply stop until the next billing cycle. For video work that difference is the difference between a plan you can lean on and one you cannot.

How many clips you actually get

Converting hours into work, at 8 GPU minutes per video job:

One useful detail in your favour: a video job returns four clip variations, not one. So a Standard subscriber's ~112 fast jobs are really ~450 individual five-second clips, most of which you will throw away, but the good ones cost nothing extra to keep.

Twenty-five jobs a month on Basic sounds thin, and it is — but if you are animating hand-picked stills rather than fishing for a usable shot, it goes further than the number suggests. The waste comes from prompting blind.

Where extend gets expensive

A Midjourney video starts at five seconds, exports at 854×480, and can be extended in four-second increments up to about 21 seconds.

The catch: each extension costs the same as the original generation. Taking one clip from 5 seconds to the full 21 means the initial job plus four extends — five jobs, roughly 40 GPU minutes, for a single 21-second clip. On Basic that is a fifth of your entire month gone on one shot.

And it is 480p. Not 720p, not 1080p — standard definition, which needs upscaling before it goes anywhere near a client deliverable. If you are heading for social, an AI video upscaler is a required extra step, not a nice-to-have.

My rule after learning this the expensive way: generate at five seconds, cut in the edit, and only extend a shot you already know you are using.

Versus per-second pricing

Most competitors bill per second of output, which makes them easier to budget and harder to accidentally overspend on.

The honest comparison is awkward because the products differ. Midjourney gives you 480p from a still image with no sound. Kling and Veo 3 give you 720p or 1080p, and Veo generates audio with the picture. Seedance sits in between and is the value pick for commercial volume. Judged purely as a video generator, Midjourney is the weakest of the four.

Judged as an image generator that also animates, it is a different question — and that is the right way to see it. Nothing else matches Midjourney's still-image aesthetic, and the video model inherits it. You are paying for the look, and the motion comes along. If you want the look somewhere better than 480p, generate the still in Midjourney and animate it in a stronger model; the image-to-video route covers how that hand-off works.

Who this is right for

Worth it if you already pay for Midjourney for images. The video is effectively bundled, and animating stills you have already made is the cheapest video you will ever produce.

Worth it if the distinctive Midjourney look is the point — stylised, illustrative, painterly work that other models flatten into generic realism.

Not worth it if you need 1080p, sound, dialogue, lip sync, or clips over about 20 seconds. It does none of those, and no plan changes that.

Not worth it as your only video subscription. Basic at $10 looks like the cheap way in, but 25 jobs and no Relaxed fallback runs out fast. If Midjourney is going to be your video tool, Standard is the real entry point.

FAQ

How much does Midjourney video cost?

There is no separate video price. It comes with any subscription from $10/month, and each video job consumes about 8 GPU minutes from your plan's allowance.

Is there a free Midjourney trial?

No. The free trial ended some time ago and has not returned. Basic at $10/month is the cheapest way in.

How long are Midjourney videos?

Five seconds initially, extendable in four-second steps to roughly 21 seconds. Each extension costs a full job.

What resolution is Midjourney video?

854×480, so standard definition. Plan on upscaling anything you intend to publish.

Does Midjourney video have sound?

No. It is picture only. If you need generated audio with the footage, Veo 3 is the one that does it natively.

Which plan should I buy for video?

Standard at $30. Basic runs out at around 25 jobs with no Relaxed mode to fall back on, which for video work is the real limitation.

Summary

Midjourney video has no per-second price — it draws about 8 GPU minutes per job from the same allowance as your images, which works out to roughly 25 jobs on Basic and 112 on Standard, each returning four five-second clips at 480p. Extensions cost a full job each, so extend only what you know you are keeping. It is excellent value if you already subscribe for images and want that look in motion, and the wrong tool if you need HD, sound or length.

For the alternatives at each price point, Kling AI pricing, Runway pricing and Luma AI pricing break down the per-second models, and the free tiers is where to start if you have no budget at all.

Want the prompts and the still-to-video workflow behind this? Join the community at AI Video Generator on Skool.

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