Pika does not sell videos at one price. A generation costs what the feature, the model, the resolution and the length add up to, and all of it sits in one credits matrix on pika.art/pricing — the only official page carrying a per-video figure.
What a Pika credit is, and which page owns the number
Credits are how Pika counts generations against a plan. The FAQ gives the definition plainly: “Credits are our way of tracking your video generations across your subscription plan. Each different type of generation has a different credit value.” The table printed under that sentence is not the one to use, because no row in it names the current model.
For per-video pricing there is one page: pika.art/pricing, which carries four plans, a “Cost per video” block on each card, and the matrix below. The Pika hub collects the model line; the Pika 2.5 walkthrough covers the loop itself.
Pika’s credits matrix, row by row
Copied from the foot of pika.art/pricing, including Pika’s own tags for what a free account can reach.
| Feature | Settings | Length | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text-to-video and image-to-video, 2.5 | 480p / 720p / 1080p | 5s or 10s | 12 and 24, 20 and 40, 40 and 80 |
| Pikaframes, 2.5 | 480p / 720p / 1080p | 5s to 25s | 12 to 60, 20 to 100, 40 to 200 |
| Pikaffects | image-to-video / video-to-video | 5s | 15 / 18 |
| Pikascenes | 480p / 720p / 1080p | 5s | 20, 35, 65 |
| Pikadditions and Pikaswaps | 480p / 720p / 1080p | 5s | 20, 35, 65 |
| Pikatwists | Turbo 720p / Pro 1080p | 5s | 60, 80 |
| Pikaformance | 720p | per second | 3 credits per second |
The cheapest Pika 2.5 row is 12 credits and the dearest is 200, a sixteen-fold spread inside one model.
How to read the free and paid tags
Pika tags each cell instead of naming a plan, and never defines the two tags. The Basic card above the matrix does it by accident: “Access to Pika 2.5 (480p only)” and “Pikaffects Image-to-Video only” are the plan-level limits, and they line up with the cells carrying the free tag. Read the other tag as “not on the $0 plan” and nothing more. Pikaformance alone charges 3 credits for each second of audio, with both tags against that one rate.
Worked example: costing one clip at three settings
Two requests, one shot description each. The prompts are ours, the credit figures are Pika’s own matrix rows, and each sentence after a block describes what that prompt asks Pika 2.5 to produce.
Case 1: a five-second 480p clip for 12 credits
Input: image-to-video
Model: Pika 2.5
Resolution: 480p
Length: 5 seconds
Matrix row: 12 credits
Prompt: one slow push in on a woman waiting at a bus stop in light rain, coat fabric rippling, hair lifting, background bokeh holding steady, no camera shakeOne continuous move: the coat and the hair carry the motion, the camera pushes in once, the background stays soft so the push never becomes a pan. That row costs 12 credits, a price a free account can reach.
Case 2: the same shot at 1080p for ten seconds
Input: image-to-video
Model: Pika 2.5
Resolution: 1080p
Length: 10 seconds
Matrix row: 80 credits
Prompt: same slow push in, held for ten seconds so the rain and the coat have time to read, background bokeh holding steady, no camera shakeTwo settings changed and the price moved from 12 credits to 80. Pika charges 40 for 1080p at five seconds and 80 at ten, so two doublings stack: one resolution step, one length step. Every Pika 2.5 cell but 480p at five seconds sits outside the free plan.
What retries add to the same budget
Pika publishes a cost per generation, not per usable clip. Three attempts at the 1080p row is 120 credits, not the 40 the matrix shows. Whether a failed generation is charged is not published, so the retry multiplier is yours to measure.
Why the plan cards and the matrix disagree
Each of the four plan cards repeats four lines under a “Cost per video” heading:
- 10 credits - Turbo model (using Pikascenes, Pikadditions or Pikaswaps)
- 60 credits - Turbo model (using Pikatwists)
- 20 credits - Pro model (using Pikadditions or Pikaswaps)
- 80 credits - Pro model (using Pikatwists)
Turbo and Pro are older model tiers, and none of those lines names a resolution. The matrix prices the same features by resolution: Pikascenes, and the Pikadditions and Pikaswaps pair, at 20 credits for 480p, 35 for 720p, 65 for 1080p. Pikatwists is the only feature whose numbers match on both blocks.
Which of the two lists to trust
For a Pika 2.5 request the matrix wins. It is the only block carrying a Pika 2.5 label and the only one that separates resolutions. Neither block carries a revision date, so re-read the page before a spend.
What the four plans give, and what the credits buy
| Plan | Price, billed yearly | Monthly credits | What the card opens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | 80 | Pika 2.5 at 480p only, Pikaffects image-to-video only, no Pikaframes |
| Standard | $8 / month | 700 | All Pika 2.5 resolutions, Pikaframes, all Pikaffects |
| Pro | $28 / month | 2,300 | Faster generations than Standard |
| Fancy | $76 / month | 6,000 | The fastest generations Pika lists |
Read the free column with the matrix in hand and the plan names matter less. A free allowance buys six 480p five-second generations, one Pikatwists attempt at 60 credits, or 33 seconds of Pikaformance. The paid tiers differ in how many rows you reach and how often you can generate.
Rollover, top-up packs and the monthly reset
Pika keeps two balances. The allowance that arrives with a plan resets each cycle: “Video credits don’t carry over from month to month. However, On the Standard, Pro, and Fancy plans, you can purchase additional video credits, and those WILL carry over.” Top-ups go to paid plans only, in three published packs at $10 for 375 credits, $20 for 750 and $30 for 1,125. Credit values are identical on the web app and the iOS app.
What Pika has not published about credits
Absent from the official pages: a dollar value for a single credit, a definition of the free and paid tags, an explanation of why the cards and the matrix disagree, and a rule on whether a failed generation is charged. Per-plan speed is only fast, faster and fastest, with no concurrency figure behind those words. The monthly and weekly billing views sit behind a toggle and did not render as text. One third-party page, pikaais.com, says failed generations still consume credits; that is that site’s own claim.
Frequently asked questions
Does a Pika video cost a fixed number of credits? No. The price moves with feature, model, resolution and length: the same shot runs from 12 credits at 480p for five seconds to 200 as a 25-second Pikaframes clip at 1080p.
What does a Pika 2.5 clip cost at 1080p? Pika lists 40 credits for five seconds and 80 for ten, tagging both cells as paid.
How many credits does the free plan get? The pricing page says 80 monthly video credits; the FAQ says 150 per month. Paid allowances match on both pages.
Where should I check before I pay? pika.art/pricing, then your own account, which shows the allowance you were granted.
Are API calls billed in these credits? No. Developer access runs on its own billing, which the Pika API guide covers.
The matrix is a short table and it answers the pricing question in one read. What it cannot tell you is how many attempts your shot needs, because that number belongs to your account and nobody else’s.