AI Film Budget Calculator

Three lines, each starting from the number of finished shots the piece needs: the seconds of AI footage on screen divided by the seconds you use from each shot.

1. Generation. Finished shots × the cost of the generations behind each one, at the model's per-second rate. At the defaults each finished shot uses 20 generations at 480p and 5 at 1080p, each 15 seconds long. Look-dev stills and any HDR pass are added separately.
2. Personnel. Generations run ÷ generations per creator per day, plus pre-production days, × the creator day rate. Team size sets the calendar, not the cost.
3. Cleanup. The share of shots that need a compositor × hours each × the compositor's hourly rate, taken from the day rate over eight hours.

At the defaults, a 10-minute piece that is 100% AI needs 150 shots and runs 3,750 generations. The summary above turns that into dollars at your ratios. The defaults assume high-quality production work on Seedance; other models change the rates and often the generation count.

These are planning assumptions, not industry averages. The published examples are useful context, but their models, shot difficulty and definitions of a usable shot all differ. Every slider marks its default and can be set from your own numbers.

25 generations per shot

Conservative, and the most sensitive number on the page. Kavan the Kid put his Seedance 2.0 battle sequence at around 90 generations per usable shot. PJ Accetturo ran 300 to 400 Veo 3 generations for the 15 clips in the first Kalshi spot. Curious Refuge priced one 30-second Seedance 2.5 generation at $31.62 and notes you rarely get the shot on the first try. House of David season 2 used roughly 350 to 400 AI shots; that team has not published a per-shot ratio.Sources: Forbes on Kavan the Kid · PJ Accetturo’s Kalshi thread · Curious Refuge on Seedance 2.5 · TheWrap on House of David

15 s generations, 4 s used

Seedance 2.5 generates 4 to 30 s. Productions generate long for coverage and cut short; 4 s used per shot is our working assumption and the most sensitive soft input on the page.

150 generations per creator per day

PJ Accetturo ran 300 to 400 Veo 3 generations over about two days solo, so 150 to 200 a day. Finished shots per day follow from this and from generations per shot: at the defaults, 6 a day.Sources: Business Insider on the Kalshi ad

$900 creator day rate

A planning assumption. We have not found a published AI-creator rate; this is borrowed from compositor and editor markets, where mid to senior freelance rates sit between $500 and $900 a day. Replace it with your team’s rate.

10% of shots need cleanup, 4 h each at $400 a day

No published data on the share. Paint-out and warp fixes need 1 to 3 hours; roto or face and hand replacement need a day or more. US freelance Nuke compositors list around $375 a day, Flame artists $750 to $2,500.

Generation

One run of a video model: one generated attempt.

Finished shot

The generation that makes the edit, and the seconds of it you use (4 s by default).

Olive

Martini's generation credit. One olive is $0.10.

Seedance 2.5 for 480p drafts and 720p and 1080p finals, Seedance 2.0 for 4K, Seedream 5 Pro for image references and Topaz Hyperion 2.5 for HDR, at Martini's published rates. Seedance was the best video model we knew of when we built this. To price another model, download the Excel and type its per-second rates into the Rates sheet. One olive, Martini's credit, is $0.10.

A 480p draft is $0.21 a second; 1080p is $1.11. Find the shot in cheap drafts and render only the one you keep at full resolution. At the default 80% drafts that cuts video generation spend by about 65%.

Only the shoot is: generating the picture and cleaning it up. Voice actors, sound design, sound effects, foley, music, editing, grade, live action and platform fees are a separate budget. It is an estimate, not a quote.

It is a starting point. The range next to the total is a sensitivity check, not a confidence interval: it moves seconds used per shot and creator pace by 1.3 either way. Generations per shot is the most sensitive input and does not move in that range, so set it from your own tests.

Yes. Download Excel breakdown gives you a workbook with live formulas, every input on its own row and a rates sheet, so you can keep editing offline or reprice for another model. Copy link gives a URL that carries every input; the Excel carries that link too.