Kie.ai alternativeElyum, pay only for keeps

Kie.ai sells a prepaid API wallet ($5 minimum), credits that do not expire, and no charge on failed tasks. It is a reseller, not a model lab. One async createTask key wraps Veo, Kling, Seedance, Nano Banana, GPT Image, Suno, Claude, GPT, and Gemini, typically 30-70% below calling those providers directly. Bitdoze's 2026 review frames it as one cheap API for Nano Banana, Veo, and Suno. For a developer who wants image, video, music, and chat without six vendor accounts, that pitch holds. Reviews from mid-to-late 2026 still describe text and image generation as reliable. Seedance 2.5, Wan 3.0, Kling 3.0, Nano Banana Pro, and GPT Image 2 were added as they launched.

Aisofting's 2026 Kie.ai review put Trustpilot at roughly 2.5/5 and logged credits that vanished in platform glitches. Support sat in Asian time zones. One lost-credit ticket got no refund; a reviewer said the reply was 'sorry money gone'. Outages were patched for a day, then the same failures returned. Sora 2 had more failures than other models on that page. Ai Insights News cited an r/n8n thread that called Sora 2 through Kie.ai unstable. Midjourney access was pulled after the rightsholder objected. Officially, failed tasks are not charged. Several users still said credits disappeared anyway. That gap is why people search for a Kie.ai alternative.

1 credit equals $0.01 on Elyum, and the charge happens at KEEP, not at create. Every render comes back as a free preview (a take). You KEEP the ones you want. That is the only moment credits leave. A KILL refunds the take in full, automatically. Failed generations are never charged. Paid plans kill freely. Free allows one kill a month. Plans are Free (up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them), no card), Plus $9/mo, Pro $29/mo, and Ultra $69/mo, plus top-ups. Pro and Ultra include fair-use unlimited image generation on selected image models. Kept takes download clean, no watermark, commercial use included. Work in the web studio, or from Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor via the MCP server and the REST API.

Elyum does not have GPT-4o, Claude, DeepSeek, Sora 2, or Suno. There is no timeline editor, stock footage, talking-head avatars, mobile app, team seats, or community feed. If that list is your product, stay on Kie.ai. If you are here because video tasks fail and you want to see a take before the wallet moves, the keep/kill math below is the difference.

What it actually costs

Kie.ai does not list subscription plans. You load a prepaid wallet. The published floor is a $5 minimum top-up. Larger top-ups may include bonus credits. Credits do not expire. Third-party writeups use $0.005 per credit; Kie.ai's own /pricing page returned 403 to automated fetch, so that unit is reported, not confirmed on the live table. Cited examples: Nano Banana 2 about $0.04 at 1K and $0.06 at 2K, GPT Image 2 about $0.03 at 1K (about $0.22 official), Veo 3 Fast $0.30 per 8s, Veo 3 Quality $2.00 per 8s, Sora 2 about $0.15 per clip, a typical video task 100-500 credits (about $0.50-$2.50).

Elyum sells monthly credit plans, then the same 1 credit = $0.01 unit. Free is up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them), no card. Plus is $9/mo, Pro $29/mo, Ultra $69/mo. You can top up. Pro and Ultra include fair-use unlimited image generation on selected image models, including Nano Banana 2 on Ultra. Listed rates already sit about 20% under Higgsfield, OpenArt, and Runway. Full plan math is on the pricing page.

Worked KEEP: a 5s clip on the Wan 3.0 page at 480p is 15 credits ($0.15) if you keep it. A 5s Seedance 2.5 clip at 480p is 40 credits ($0.40). Run two previews, KEEP one, KILL one, and you pay the kept line only. Kie.ai's typical video task is cited at about $0.50-$2.50 with no free preview step. For a model-level grid, see Kie.ai vs Elyum for Seedance 2.5.