How much does Pika cost?

Free is $0 with no monthly credits; you buy packs. Starter is $10 a month, or $8 billed yearly, for 900 credits. Creator is $35, or $28 yearly, for 3,150 and a commercial licence. Fancy starts at $95, or $76 yearly, for 8,550 and scales to $880 for 79,000. Packs are 60 credits a dollar.

Is Visual Sandbox cheaper than Pika?

On Nano Banana 2 the two are level at full use of a Pika plan, about $0.09 an image. Off a Pika pack the same image is about $0.13. Visual Sandbox includes commercial use at every price and costs $0 in a month you do not create.

Does Pika have a free plan?

Yes. All models and no watermark, but no monthly credits and no commercial licence. You buy packs at 60 credits a dollar.

Do Visual Sandbox credits expire?

No. There is no monthly reset. Money you add to the balance stays until you spend it.

All comparisons

Visual Sandbox vs Pika

One sells credits by the dollar. One sells the run for cents.

In short

Pika plans run $10 to $95 a month for 900 to 8,550 credits. Free runs on packs.
On a plan a credit is about $0.011, so a Nano Banana 2 image is about $0.09. Same as us.
Top ups are 60 credits a dollar, so the same image costs $0.13 off a pack.
Free and Starter have no commercial licence. Every run here does.

Our take. Use Pika for Pika's own video, speech and music models. Use Visual Sandbox for a price per run and no plan.

See a model's price

Pika

Pika is a video-first suite with its own models plus Seedance, Wan and the image models, a free plan that runs on packs, and top ups at 60 credits a dollar.

Pricing: $10 to $95 a month, or packs
Free plan: $0, packs only, no commercial use
Also does: Pika video, speech, music and SFX

Side by side

The same 9 questions, asked of Pika

Visual Sandbox compared with Pika, question by question
What is compared	Visual Sandbox	Pika
What you pay for	Each generation	A monthly credit plan, or a pack
What the balance is in	Money. One credit is one cent	Credits. About 90 a dollar on a plan, 60 a dollar in a pack
Free tier	None. A $10 minimum top up	$0 and no credits. Buy a pack. No commercial licence
Cheapest paid tier	There is no plan	Starter, $10 a month, or $8 billed yearly. No commercial licence
A month you make nothing	$0	The plan price, or $0 on packs
The price before you run	A dollar figure on every model page, before you sign in	A credit cost for four models and plan counts, on the pricing page
Working as a team	Not offered	Enterprise, contact sales
From the terminal or an agent	A CLI, an MCP server and an API, on the same balance	An API, through the Pika API Club or Enterprise
The catalogue	37 models	Pika's own video, speech, music and SFX, plus Seedance 2.5, Wan 3.0, Nano Banana 2, GPT Image 2.5, ElevenLabs

Key takeaways

Is Visual Sandbox a good Pika alternative?

Where we win

No subscription: Nothing to cancel. A quiet month costs $0.
Commercial use from the first cent: Pika needs the $35 Creator plan for that.
A dollar price before you sign in: Seedance 2.5 reads $0.29 a second at 720p. Nano Banana 2 reads $0.09 at 1K.
Three doors an agent can use: The CLI, the MCP server and the API, on the same balance as the web app.
3D and vector too: Hunyuan 3D 3.1 at $0.63, Quiver Arrow at $0.25 an SVG.

Where Pika wins

Pika's own models: Video, speech, music, a soundtrack model and SFX. Nobody resells them.
A real free plan: All models, no watermark, no monthly credits. Buy a pack when you need one.
A flat top-up rate: 60 credits a dollar on every plan, including Free. Simple.
Level on Nano Banana 2: 8 credits at about $0.011 each on a plan is about $0.09. So is ours.
Parallel generations: Unlimited on Fancy. Eight video and 32 image jobs at once on Creator.

Worth checking

Packs cost more per credit: 60 a dollar in a pack against about 90 a dollar in a plan. The same image is $0.13 off a pack.
Full use is the condition: Spend half of Creator and every price doubles. Spend none and it costs $35.
No commercial use below $35: Free and Starter are personal. The licence starts at Creator.
Seedance 2.5 costs more there: 122 credits for 5 seconds at 720p, about $1.36 on a plan. $1.45 here without audio, so close, but $2.03 off a pack.
We have no Pika models: No Pika video, speech or music here.

Allowance or balance

Move the slider. The plan moves in steps.

Pika's three plans, priced by the month, against our balance, counted in Nano Banana 2 images at 1K. Pika's own page gives the counts.

Starter covers 112 images. The 113th costs a Creator plan, at **$35**.
In a month you make nothing, we cost **$0** and the plan still bills.
At full use the two are level, about **$0.09** an image on either side.

Pika resets the allowance every month. Our balance carries.

Drag to your images a month150

What a month costs

Visual Sandbox: $13.50
Pika, billed monthly · Creator: $35.00

You save

$21.50

The money

Per image and per clip, from Pika's own numbers

Pika prints credit costs for four models and a flat pack rate, so the arithmetic is short on both sides.

$0.09

Visual Sandbox

Nano Banana 2 at 1K, in any month.

$0.089

Pika, on a plan

8 credits at about $0.011 each, at full use.

$0.133

Pika, off a pack

8 credits at 60 a dollar.

Pika plan	A month	Billed yearly	Credits a month	Commercial licence
Free	$0	$0	0, packs only	No
Starter	$10	$8	900	No
Creator	$35	$28	3,150	Yes
Fancy	$95 to $880	$76 to $704	8,550 and up	Yes

Packs: $25 for 1,500 credits, $100 for 6,000, $1,000 for 66,000. Sixty a dollar, with 10% extra on the largest.
Seedance 2.5 at 720p for 5 seconds is 122 credits: about $1.36 on a plan, $2.03 off a pack. Five seconds of Seedance 2.5 at 720p cost $1.45 here with audio off.
GPT Image 2.5 at 1K is 2 credits, about $0.02 on a plan. GPT Image 2 is $0.01 here at low quality and $0.07 at medium.