100 holiday ad stills or 100 clips: image models vs 5-second video

One hundred stills cost $4.375 on Seedream 5 Lite, $3.75 on Flux 2 Pro and $10.00 on Nano Banana 2, at the default 1K rates on Sume. One hundred 5-second 720p clips cost $62.50 on Wan 3.0 and $288.90 on Seedance 2.5.

So a still costs a fraction of a clip in this catalog. Whether a still is enough is a question about the placement, not the budget.

The arithmetic

Image prices are the router's list rate per image at the default size and quality, times Sume's 1.25. They are listed in the image model docs. Video prices follow the token formula and the Wan resolution rate described in the video docs.

Seedream 5 Lite: $0.035 x 1.25 = $0.04375. Flux 2 Pro: $0.03 x 1.25 = $0.0375. Nano Banana 2: $0.08 x 1.25 = $0.10. Wan 3.0 at 720p: 5 x $0.10 x 1.25 = $0.625.

When a still is enough

Holiday placements split into ones that move and ones that do not. A feed carousel, a product page tile, a banner and an email header work with stills. A vertical story or a short-form ad benefits from motion.

A mix is cheaper than all clips. Take 60 stills and 40 clips: 60 x $0.0375 + 40 x $0.625 = $27.25 with Wan 3.0.

A hybrid that costs little

Generate the still first and use it as the first frame of a clip when a model accepts a start image. The still is a cheap check on composition before you pay for motion. Seedance 2.5 accepts start and end frames, as its model card in the Video Router docs says.

If the still is wrong, you spent $0.0375 and not $2.889.

Notes

• Default image rates are for 1K output at the default quality. Larger sizes and higher tiers cost more.
• Image quality varies by model, so look at a small sample before the full run.
• See pricing for the current catalog.