Use Gemini Omni Flash for volume and iteration, and full Veo 3.1 for the one shot the campaign leans on. On the 8frame canvas an 8-second Omni clip with audio is 135 credits and the same length on full Veo 3.1 is 448, which is the entire argument compressed into two numbers. Google's own API rates say the same thing: roughly $0.10 per second for Omni Flash at 720p against $0.40 per second for Veo 3.1 Standard.
TL;DR
- Omni Flash: 135 credits for 8 seconds with audio, 3 to 10 second range, 720p native, audio always on, four generation modes including video editing
- Veo 3.1 Standard: 448 credits for 8 seconds with audio, or 224 silent, with the strongest prompt adherence of anything Google ships
- Veo 3.1 Lite at 54 credits for 8 seconds undercuts both and is the actual budget floor if 720p is enough
- Gemini Omni Flash is the second most-used generation tool on our canvas, 70 generations in the last 45 days at an average of 65 credits
The price table
Every number below is what the 8frame canvas charges, with audio on unless stated. Credits are $0.01 each in a top-up pack.
| Model | 4s | 5s | 8s | 10s | Silent 8s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini Omni Flash | 68 | 85 | 135 | 169 | Not available |
| Veo 3.1 Lite (720p) | 27 | n/a | 54 | n/a | 33 |
| Veo 3.1 Fast | 84 | n/a | 168 | n/a | 112 |
| Veo 3.1 Standard | 224 | n/a | 448 | n/a | 224 |
Two things fall out of that table. First, Omni Flash sits between Veo Fast and Veo Standard on price while going longer than either. Second, Veo's silent tier is a real lever: if the clip is getting a music bed in the edit anyway, generating Veo without audio halves the bill. Omni has no such lever, because audio is not an option in the model, it is the model.
Where each one actually wins
Veo 3.1 Standard wins on prompt adherence. It reads cinematography vocabulary more literally than anything else Google ships. Ask for a slow push-in at eye level with a 35mm feel and you get that, not an approximation of it. When the shot list is specific and the render has to be right the first time, the 448 credits are the cheap part of the day.
Omni Flash wins on the loop. Three seconds costs 51 credits. That is cheap enough to run a beat six ways before you have decided what the beat is, and because audio comes with every pass you are judging the shot the way the audience will experience it. Drafting silently and adding sound later hides timing problems until the edit, which is the expensive place to find them.
Omni Flash also wins on modes. On the canvas it auto-selects between text-to-video, image-to-video, reference-to-video with one to seven references, and video editing off an uploaded clip. Veo 3.1 takes a prompt and an optional image. If your workflow is "here are seven frames of the character, keep them consistent," that is an Omni job.
Veo wins on delivery spec. Google's documentation lists Omni's native resolutions as 360p and 720p, with 1080p and 4K produced by upscaling. Veo 3.1 renders natively at higher resolution and Google prices a 4K tier at $0.60 per second, against $0.40 for 720p and 1080p. For a homepage hero or anything landing on a large screen, native beats upscaled.
The catches worth knowing before you commit
Omni bills audio whether you want it or not. There is no silent tier. On a 40-clip test batch that difference against Veo Fast silent is real money.
Omni caps at 10 seconds per generation. Google's 1.1 generation supports extension to 40 seconds total across turns, announced 2026-08-27, but the canvas tool generates in the 3 to 10 second window and prices per second inside it.
Video editing has a regional limit. Per Google's docs, editing or extending an uploaded video is not available in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the UK. Text-to-video and image-to-video are unaffected.
Veo Standard is the most expensive default on our canvas. At 448 credits, four 8-second clips eat almost half a Starter month. Draft on Lite or Omni, render finals on Standard, and the math stops hurting.
The workflow that uses both
The pattern that has held up across our own production work: draft on Omni Flash at 3 seconds (51 credits) until the beat is right, extend the winner to 8 seconds on Omni (135) to check it holds, then render the final on Veo 3.1 Standard (448) with the prompt you debugged for 186 credits instead of 1,800.
That full cycle is 634 credits, comfortably inside the 1,000 that come with the $19 Starter plan, and it produces one finished hero shot with the entire iteration loop included. Running the same iteration count directly on Veo Standard would cost about 2,700 credits.
FAQ
Is Gemini Omni the same thing as Veo? No. They are separate model lines from Google. Omni is the multimodal model that generates picture and audio together in one pass. Veo is the dedicated video family with Standard, Fast, and Lite tiers.
Which one is cheaper? Per second of finished video with audio, Veo 3.1 Lite is cheapest at 54 credits for 8 seconds, then Omni Flash at 135, then Veo Fast at 168, then Veo Standard at 448. Lite is capped at 720p, which is the trade.
Can I run both on the same prompt? Yes, and that is the point of a multi-model canvas. Same prompt, both models, side by side, then pick. See best AI video generator 2026 for how the rest of the field compares on identical inputs.
The models are one click apart on the same canvas, which is the only way this comparison is worth anything. Run Gemini Omni Flash from 51 credits and Veo 3.1 from 27 on 8frame, from $19/month.