Luma AI Pricing vs Pay Per Use: Credits vs Cents

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Visual Sandbox vs Luma AI

One prices the second in credits. One prices it in cents.

In short

  • Luma plans run $30 to $300 a month for 10,000 to 150,000 credits. No free plan.
  • A credit is $0.003 on Plus. Nano Banana 2 at 1K is 23 credits, about $0.07. Ours is $0.09.
  • Veo 3.1 is 140 credits a second, about $0.42 on Plus. Ours is $0.25.
  • Credits reset monthly. Ours do not.

Our take. Use Luma for Ray and cheap Nano Banana at volume. Use Visual Sandbox for Veo and Seedance per second, with no plan.

See a model's price
Luma AI logoLuma AI

Luma's Dream Machine runs its own Ray models next to Seedance, Kling, Veo and the image models, with a detailed credit table and agents on the bigger plans.

Pricing
$30 to $300 a month, in credits
Free plan
None on the pricing page
Also does
Ray3.2, Uni-1, Luma Agents

Side by side

The same 9 questions, asked of Luma AI

Visual Sandbox compared with Luma AI, question by question
What is comparedVisual SandboxLuma AI logoLuma AI
What you pay forEach generationA monthly credit plan
What the balance is inMoney. One credit is one centCredits. Nano Banana 2 at 1K is 23, Veo 3.1 is 140 a second
Free tierNone. A $10 minimum top upNone listed
Cheapest paid tierThere is no planPlus, $30 a month, or $25 billed yearly
A month you make nothing$0The plan price
The price before you runA dollar figure on every model page, before you sign inA credit cost per model and setting, on the pricing page
Working as a teamNot offeredTeam and Enterprise, contact sales
From the terminal or an agentA CLI, an MCP server and an API, on the same balanceAn API priced separately. Luma Agents inside the app
The catalogue37 modelsRay3.2 and Ray3.14, plus Seedance, Kling, Veo, MiniMax, Flux 3, Nano Banana, GPT Image, Seedream, ElevenLabs

Key takeaways

Is Visual Sandbox a good Luma AI alternative?

Where we win

No subscription
Nothing to cancel. A quiet month costs $0.
Cheaper Veo and Seedance
Veo 3.1 at $0.25 a second against about $0.42 on Luma Plus. Seedance 2.0 at 720p, $0.23 against about $0.32.
The balance does not expire
No monthly reset.
One balance for the API too
The CLI, the MCP server and the API spend the same cents. Luma's API is a separate bill.
3D and vector too
Hunyuan 3D 3.1 at $0.63, Quiver Arrow at $0.25 an SVG.

Where Luma AI wins

Cheaper images at full use
Nano Banana 2 and Nano Banana Pro are both 23 credits at 1K: about $0.07 each on Plus. Ours are $0.09 and $0.19.
Cheaper Kling
Kling 3.0 at 720p is 30 credits a second, about $0.09 on Plus. Ours starts at $0.21.
Ray, their own
Ray3.2 in HDR and EXR, Ray3.14 with a 4 credit draft rate. Nobody resells Ray.
A very honest table
Every model, every resolution, with and without audio, in credits per second.
Audio and utilities too
ElevenLabs TTS, music and SFX, Whisper, upscaling and reframing, on the same credits.

Worth checking

Full use is the condition
Spend half of Plus and every price doubles. Spend none and Plus costs $30.
No free plan
The page starts at $30 a month.
Veo is expensive there
$0.84 a second with audio on Plus, at full use. $0.50 here.
The API is a second bill
Luma's API is priced on its own. Ours shares the web balance.
We have no Ray
No Luma models here. If you want them, you want Luma.

Allowance or balance

Move the slider. Watch where the lines cross.

Luma's plans, priced by the month, against our balance, counted in Nano Banana 2 images at 1K. Their per image price sits under ours at full use. Ours does not depend on use.

  • Plus covers about 434 images. The 435th costs a Pro plan, at **$90**.
  • In a month you make nothing, we cost **$0** and the plan still bills.
  • Fill any Luma plan and it beats our **$0.09** an image. Half fill it and it does not.

Luma resets the allowance every month. Our balance carries.

Drag to your images a month200

What a month costs

Visual Sandbox
$18.00
Luma, billed monthly · Plus
$30.00

You save

$12.00

The money

Per image and per second, from Luma's own credit table

Luma prints a credit cost for every model and setting, so the arithmetic is honest on both sides: the plan price divided by its credits, times the model's cost.

$0.09

Visual Sandbox

Nano Banana 2 at 1K, in any month.

$0.069

Luma Plus

23 credits at $0.003 each, at full use.

$0.42

Luma Plus, Veo 3.1

140 credits a second, audio off. $0.25 here.

Luma planA monthBilled yearlyCredits a monthA credit costs
Plus$30$2510,000$0.003
Pro$90$7540,000$0.00225
Ultra$300$250150,000$0.002
  • Seedance 2.0 at 480p with audio is 47 credits a second, about $0.14 on Plus. Seedance 2.0 at 480p with audio is $0.13 here. At 720p it is about $0.32 there and $0.28 here.
  • Kling 3.0 at 720p without audio is 30 credits a second, about $0.09 on Plus. Kling 3.0 Omni is $0.21 here at standard. Luma wins that one at full use.
  • GPT Image 2 at medium quality and 1K is 19 credits, about $0.06 on Plus. GPT Image 2 is $0.07 here at medium.
  • The break even on Plus is about 333 Nano Banana 2 images. Below that, $30 buys fewer images than $0.09 each would here.

Which one fits

Which one fits you?

Four questions. The answer names Luma when Luma is the right call.

01 of 04

Is Veo or Seedance your main video model?

Or use both

Luma covers Ray and the images. We cover Veo, Seedance and the quiet month.

  1. 01

    Put Ray, Kling and the image volume on a Luma plan.

  2. 02

    Run Veo 3.1 and Seedance here, per second.

  3. 03

    Point your agent at our MCP server, on the same balance as the web.

The call

Which one to pick

Pick Visual Sandbox when

  • Veo 3.1 or Seedance is your main video model.
  • Your output is uneven and an allowance would go to waste.
  • You want the API, the CLI and the web app on one balance.
  • You want 3D and vector next to video and image.
  • You do not want another subscription.

Luma AI logoPick Luma AI when

  • You want Ray3.2 or Ray3.14.
  • Kling 3.0 is your main video model.
  • You make hundreds of images a month and will spend the plan.
  • You want ElevenLabs, Whisper and upscaling on the same credits.
  • You want the Luma Agents.

Read the price, then run it

37 models across image, video, audio, 3D and vector. Each one prints its dollar price before you sign in.

See a model's price

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All comparisons

Plus is $30 a month, or $300 a year, for 10,000 credits. Pro is $90, or $900 a year, for 40,000. Ultra is $300, or $3,000 a year, for 150,000. Team and Enterprise are on request. There is no free plan on the pricing page.