Veo 3.1 is not sold on its own. Google routes it through the Google AI subscription plans on the consumer side and through Vertex AI on the developer side, and the two use different units: monthly Flow Credits in one case, a per-unit rate in the other.
That structure is the answer to “is it free”, and it is also where most published figures go wrong. Here is what Google actually prints, next to what it does not.
The short answer: Veo 3.1 sits inside Google’s paid plans
Google’s own FAQ states the shape of the offer: “There are three Google AI plans that users can subscribe to: Google AI Plus, Google AI Pro, and Google AI Ultra.” A separate answer confirms that video generation is part of them, pointing at Gemini and Google Flow.
What the plans page does not do is print a single headline price for each tier in its served HTML. The page’s own metadata carries one figure — “Starting at $7.99/mo” — and the tier prices themselves are injected by the browser. That leaves one citable number and an honest gap.
There is no free Veo tier on that page. Not a small one, not a trial: Google’s plan page lists no free option for video generation at all.
The official plan table, with the numbers Google publishes
Flow Credits are the published unit, and the counts below come from Google’s plan comparison.
| Published element | Google AI Plus | Google AI Pro | Google AI Ultra 5x | Google AI Ultra 20x |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Flow Credits | 200/mo | 1,000/mo | 10,000/mo | 25,000/mo |
| Google Flow Music Credits | 3,000/mo | 10,000/mo | 30,000/mo | 30,000/mo |
| Storage | 400 GB | 5 TB | 20 TB | 30 TB |
| Google Cloud credits | $10 monthly | $40 monthly | $100 monthly | — |
| Gemini usage | 2x | 4x | 5x Pro plan | 20x Pro plan |
Google describes Veo 3.1 in a footnote on the same page as available in more than 140 countries and territories, alongside Google Flow. Availability is published; price per tier in a readable form is not.
Flow Credits, and the conversion Google has not published
Here is the gap that decides every budget. Google tells you that a Pro plan includes 1,000 Flow Credits a month. Google does not tell you how many credits one Veo 3.1 generation costs.
Without that rate, a credits number cannot become a video count. Anyone quoting “X videos per month from a Pro plan” is either using an unstated assumption or repeating somebody else’s, because the multiplication is not possible from published figures alone.
What a credit does not buy
Credits also cover other models and tools inside Flow. Google’s plan page groups Flow Credits across the Flow tools rather than splitting them per model, so a credit balance is a shared budget, not a Veo 3.1 allowance.
The developer route: Vertex AI per-unit prices
On Vertex AI the unit changes and the numbers get concrete. Google’s pricing table lists Veo 3.1 as follows.
| Model and mode | 720p / 1080p | 4K |
|---|---|---|
| Veo 3.1 · video + audio | $0.40 / count | $0.60 / count |
| Veo 3.1 · video only | $0.20 / count | $0.40 / count |
| Veo 3.1 Fast · video + audio | $0.10 / count | $0.30 / count |
| Veo 3.1 Fast · video only | $0.08 / count | $0.25 / count |
| Veo 3.1 Lite · video + audio | $0.05 / count | not offered |
| Veo 3.1 Lite · video only | $0.03 / count | not offered |
Reading the price format correctly
Google’s table writes the unit as “1 count”, and the page does not label that count in seconds. The footnote only states that prices are listed in US dollars. Converting a count into a per-second rate is arithmetic Google has not published, so the honest reading is per generation unit at the resolution you choose.
The 4K column is a differentiator worth noticing: Lite has no 4K tier on the published table, and Fast charges three times its 1080p rate for 4K.
Worked example: three budgets, three answers
Case one, a one-off clip for a client deck. You need a single 1080p clip with audio, once. The developer route is the smallest commitment, because Vertex AI charges per unit and there is no subscription: published rate for Veo 3.1 with audio at 1080p is $0.40 per count. One clip is one count. No plan, no credits.
Case two, a weekly publishing schedule. You expect several clips a week, all with audio, mostly 1080p. Now the arithmetic runs against the credits gap: you can total the clips you expect, but you cannot convert them into Flow Credits because Google has not published the rate. The workable method is to start on the smallest plan that includes Flow access, count how many credits your real clips consume in the first month using whatever balance display Flow provides, and treat that observation as your own conversion rate. Then compare that monthly total with the same clip count priced per unit on Vertex AI.
Case three, a batch pipeline. You are generating hundreds of clips unattended, mixing 1080p and 4K. Here the published per-unit table is enough on its own. Multiply the count of each resolution and mode by its rate. If your mix is mostly 4K with audio, the $0.60 per count row is your budget basis, and dropping to Fast at 4K reduces it to $0.30.
Worksheet:
1. Clips per month, split by resolution and by audio / no audio
2. Multiply each group by the published Vertex AI rate for that row
3. Add the plan route total separately, in credits, not in videos
4. Keep the two totals in separate columns until you have a measured credit rate
5. Recheck the plan page before you commit: the tiers are page-rendered and changeWhy the free numbers online contradict each other
Search the question and you will meet daily allowances of about ten clips a month, roughly twelve videos a day and fifty credits a day, sometimes in the same result set. They cannot all describe the same product.
Part of the explanation is that many write-ups are comparing cloud-platform resale pricing with Google’s own consumer plans without saying so. Another part is timing: plan structures change and articles do not. Google’s page names three plans and publishes no free tier for Veo, which is the fact to hold on to when a page offers you one.
What Google has not published
Per-tier monthly prices in a readable form, the Flow Credits conversion rate for Veo 3.1, any free Veo allowance, the watermark policy for Veo output, and commercial-use terms for free output. The Cloud pricing page also does not label its unit in seconds.
Also worth noting for readers who find a promising offer: the student promotion on the plan page gives Google AI Pro free for a year, and it is a student offer, not a Veo trial.
Frequently asked questions
Is Veo 3.1 free? Google’s plan page for video lists paid tiers and no free option. Any free allowance you read about is either about a different surface or unsourced.
How many clips does a plan buy? Unanswerable from published figures. Google publishes credits per month but not credits per generation.
Should I subscribe or use Vertex AI? Subscribe if you want the Flow interface and a fixed monthly cost. Use Vertex AI if you want per-generation pricing you can compute from a published table. The API and pricing guide works through both routes.
Does 4K cost more? On Vertex AI, yes, and the multiple depends on the model tier. Lite has no published 4K tier.
Where do I learn to prompt it before paying? The prompt guide covers the seven elements Google documents, and the getting-started guide covers a first clip.
Which numbers here are safe to quote? The credits counts, storage and Cloud credit amounts from the plans page, and every rate in the Vertex AI table. Everything else in this article is labelled as unpublished, and should stay that way. The topic hub collects the source pages.
Budget from the published table, measure the credit rate yourself, and treat every free Veo allowance you have not read on a Google page as somebody’s marketing.