WaveSpeed AI vs Elyumfor Veo 3.1
WaveSpeed AI bills Veo 3.1 Fast at $0.15 per second on every run; Elyum previews for free and charges 105 credits ($1.05) only when you keep a 5s 720p take.
Veo 3.1 is Google's cinematic video model with native audio, so the picture, room tone, and spoken line land in one file. It is aimed at 4 to 8 second brand spots with dialogue, not minute-long plots. A practitioner uses it when the camera has to feel like a commercial and the talent has to speak. The Veo 3.1 page on Elyum lists text to video, image to video, and reference to video. Long multi-scene stories are the wrong job. One moving shot with a single line is the right one.
The weights stay Google's. The invoice changes. WaveSpeed AI is a pay-per-use API aggregator with no subscription tiers. Veo 3.1 and Veo 3.1 Fast are listed, and Fast is $0.15 per second. Elyum charges only on keep: 21 credits per second at 720p, so a 5s keep is 105 credits ($1.05). Bad completed takes on WaveSpeed AI stay billed. Failed jobs auto-refund in about three hours, except Sync Mode client timeouts when the server already finished. Elyum never charges a failed generation, and a kill refunds the take. WaveSpeed AI raises rate limits through Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Ultra spend tiers instead of a monthly seat.
WaveSpeed AI wins the unit price if you keep every Fast second. Elyum wins if you discard most previews. We do not ship a timeline editor, stock footage, avatars, a mobile app, team seats, or a community feed. WaveSpeed AI is not a consumer editor either, and it does not publish watermark behavior for paid Veo 3.1 files. Trustpilot sat at 2.6/5 from four reviews as of the 2026-09-07 check, a small sample. For the same model at other studios, read Higgsfield vs Elyum for Veo 3.1. For the platform overall, see the WaveSpeed AI alternative page.
Veo 3.1 on WaveSpeed AI
WaveSpeed AI does not unlock Veo 3.1 with a monthly plan. Billing is pay-as-you-go. New accounts get a one-time $1 trial grant with no card required; some premium or partner models may be excluded from those trial credits. WaveSpeed AI's pricing page lists Veo 3.1 and Veo 3.1 Fast, and it prices Fast at $0.15 per second (about 6.6 seconds per $1). WaveSpeed AI does not publish a per-second price for non-Fast Veo 3.1. Credits never expire. Rate limits move with Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Ultra tiers tied to cumulative top-up spend.
Failed requests, system errors, and timeouts are set to auto-refund within about three hours, per WaveSpeed AI's refund policy. Client-side timeouts in Sync Mode are not auto-refunded if the job completed server-side; you pull the result by prediction ID. A finished take you hate is still a charge. Watermark on paid Veo 3.1 output is not published. Commercial use is pointed at from that refund-policy page; the specific terms were not in the excerpt. The product is one API key plus a ComfyUI node pack. A Trustpilot reviewer wrote that half of 20 paid generations came back unusable.
Veo 3.1 on Elyum
On Elyum, Veo 3.1 is 21 credits per second at 720p (5s = 105 credits = $1.05; 8s = 168 credits = $1.68), 29 credits per second at 1080p (5s = 145 credits = $1.45; 8s = 232 credits = $2.32), and 60 credits per second at 4k (5s = 300 credits = $3.00; 8s = 480 credits = $4.80). Clips run 4 to 8 seconds. Modes are text to video, image to video, and reference to video. One credit equals $0.01. Those rates already sit about 20% under comparable studio anchors. Full tables live on the pricing page.
Every render comes back as a free preview. You keep the takes you want, and that is the only charge, or you kill the rest for a full automatic refund. A failed generation is never charged. Free includes up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them) and one kill a month; Plus ($9), Pro ($29), and Ultra ($69) kill freely. Kept files download without a watermark and include commercial use. You can run the same model from the web studio or from Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor through the MCP docs. We do not include a timeline editor or talking-head avatars of our own.
What a Veo 3.1 take costs
| Scenario | WaveSpeed AI | Elyum |
|---|---|---|
| One 5s take you keep | $0.75 on Veo 3.1 Fast (5 × $0.15/s). Non-Fast Veo 3.1 price not published. | 720p: 5 × 20.8 = 105 credits ($1.05). 1080p: 5 × 28.8 = 145 credits ($1.45). |
| Ten 5s takes, keep two | $7.50 if ten Fast runs bill (10 × 5 × $0.15). Completed misses stay charged. | 2 × 105 credits = 210 credits ($2.10) at 720p. Eight kills refund in full. |
| A failed generation | Auto-refund in about 3 hours for failures, errors, timeouts. Sync Mode client timeouts not auto-refunded if the job finished. | Never charged. |
| Monthly plan needed to access Veo 3.1 | None. Pay-as-you-go only. One-time $1 trial credits. | No. Free includes up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them). Plus $9, Pro $29, Ultra $69 optional. |
| Watermark on the file | Not published | No watermark on kept downloads. |
| One 8s 720p take you keep | $1.20 on Fast (8 × $0.15/s). Non-Fast price not published. | 8 × 20.8 = 168 credits ($1.68) at 720p. |
Elyum: 1 credit = $0.01, charged only when you keep a take. WaveSpeed AI figures from its own pricing pages and independent reviews, verified 2026-09-07; sources at the end. Full rate card on the Veo 3.1 page.
Where the two differ
WaveSpeed AI bills Veo 3.1 Fast at $0.15 per second on each completed run. Elyum bills 21 credits/s at 720p only when you keep a take. Previews and kills return to $0.
WaveSpeed AI auto-refunds failed requests, system errors, and timeouts within about three hours. Completed-but-ugly takes stay billed. Elyum never charges a failed job, and a kill refunds a completed take in full (one kill a month on Free; paid plans kill freely).
Elyum lists Veo 3.1 at 720p, 1080p, and 4k for 4 to 8 second clips. WaveSpeed AI lists Veo 3.1 and Veo 3.1 Fast. Per-model max resolution and max clip for Veo 3.1 on WaveSpeed AI are not published.
WaveSpeed AI is API-first: one key, a playground, and a ComfyUI node pack. Elyum is a web studio plus the REST API and MCP. Elyum has no timeline editor, stock library, avatars, mobile app, team seats, or community feed.
WaveSpeed AI has no subscription plans. Rate limits rise with Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Ultra top-up tiers. Elyum sells Free, Plus $9, Pro $29, and Ultra $69. Pro and Ultra add fair-use unlimited images on selected image models, which does not change Veo 3.1 video pricing.
Elyum kept takes have no watermark and include commercial use. WaveSpeed AI links a Commercial Use Policy from its refund-policy doc. Exact terms and watermark-on-paid behavior were not in the research, so they are not stated here.
Pick WaveSpeed AI when
- You want Veo 3.1 Fast at $0.15 per second and you expect to keep most runs.
- You need one API key across 1,000+ models, including Veo 3.1, plus a ComfyUI node pack.
- You prefer pay-as-you-go with no monthly plan and credits that never expire.
- You are fine managing unit prices and Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Ultra rate tiers yourself.
Pick Elyum when
- You iterate. Killed Veo 3.1 takes refund in full; only keeps hit 21 credits/s at 720p.
- You want 720p, 1080p, and 4k listed, with 4 to 8 second clips and native audio.
- You want a Free 150-credit start and no card, then Plus, Pro, or Ultra if you kill often.
- You work from the studio or from Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, and you need clean commercial downloads.
Veo 3.1 in three styles, rendered on Elyum
Getting the most out of Veo 3.1
- Write the spoken line in quotes and name the speaker. Veo 3.1 generates native audio with the picture, so a 5s clip should carry one short sentence, not a paragraph.
- Call the camera like a shot list: 35mm, slow dolly in, hold a medium close-up. Two moves in eight seconds is enough. A tour of five angles will smear.
- Describe diegetic sound as its own clause (HVAC hum, distant traffic, a cup set down) so the model does not fill silence with generic score.
- For image to video or reference to video, say what must stay locked (face, wardrobe, logo) and what may move. Vague keep-the-look notes are how identity drifts.
- Prefer one continuous action. Veo 3.1 is a 4 to 8 second model. Asking for a cut to a new location mid-prompt usually collapses into a morph.
- If you do not want burned-in captions, say no on-screen text. Dialogue-heavy prompts often paint subtitles unless you forbid them.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Veo 3.1 video cost on Elyum vs WaveSpeed AI?
Is Veo 3.1 the same model on both?
What happens to a bad Veo 3.1 take?
Do I need a subscription to use Veo 3.1 on Elyum?
Does WaveSpeed AI require a subscription for Veo 3.1?
Where else is Veo 3.1 compared on Elyum?
- WaveSpeed AI Pricing page (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Seedance 2.5 API — Pricing, Playground (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Browse 1000+ AI Models — WaveSpeed model catalog (accessed 2026-09-07)
- WaveSpeedAI Refund Policy (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Wavespeed AI reviews - Trustpilot (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Gemini Omni Flash Shipped: what actually launched — WaveSpeed Blog (accessed 2026-09-07)
- WaveSpeed Pricing Explained: How Billing Works + Cost Examples (2026) (accessed 2026-09-07)
- WaveSpeedAI ComfyUI node pack — GitHub (accessed 2026-09-07)
Related comparisons
Create everything. Keep the best.
Veo 3.1 is a AI video generator you can preview free on Elyum. Keep the takes you love, kill the rest for a full refund.