Credits Explained

What are credits?

Credits are the unit Melodious meters generation in. Finished video costs 20 credits per second, and every buying option below is really just an amount of credits attached to a deliverable. Credits never expire.

There is no free tier. Signing up creates an account with zero credits, and nothing in the studio runs until you've bought something — uploading a song, talking to the AI director, the audio analysis, the storyboard and the keyframes are all inside the paywall, not in front of it.

Plans and packs

| Option | Price | Credits | Best for | |--------|-------|---------|----------| | First Video | $19 one-time | 750 | Your first finished 30s video — 720p, no watermark, one regeneration. One per account, and credited in full toward a Full Video for 14 days | | Full Video | $97 one-time | 5,200 | One complete release video, up to 4 minutes, every aspect ratio, three regenerations | | Pro plans | from $147/month | from 6,000/month | Releasing regularly — full videos every month, higher resolutions, commercial rights |

Pro subscribers can also buy top-up packs (5,000 credits for $90 and up) once their monthly allowance runs out.

Credit costs

Credits scale with video duration at 20 credits per second:

| Video length | Scenes | Total credits | Image stage | Video stage | |-------------|--------|---------------|-------------|-------------| | 30s (Clip) | 4 | 600 | ~48 | ~552 | | 60s (Standard) | 8 | 1,200 | ~96 | ~1,104 | | 2 min (Extended) | 15 | 2,400 | ~192 | ~2,208 | | 3 min (Full) | 23 | 3,600 | ~288 | ~3,312 |

| Other actions | Cost | |--------------|------| | Audio analysis + storyboard plan | Included in the images your first message generates — no separate charge | | Regenerate single keyframe | ~10 credits for a 6s shot | | Regenerate a whole shot (keyframe + clip) | ~121 credits for a 6s shot |

That's why the First Video's 750 credits is more than the 600 a 30-second video needs: the extra covers a regeneration when a shot doesn't land.

Stage-based billing

Credits are reserved in two stages, not all at once:

1. Keyframe images reserve ~8% of total credits. On a project's first message this happens automatically when you press send, so the cost is stated under the composer beforehand — see One-message storyboards. You review the keyframes before proceeding.
2. Generate Videos reserves the remaining ~92%. This is the expensive step, and it always needs your explicit approval — it never starts on its own.

If generation fails, credits are automatically refunded.

This staging is what your purchase buys you protection with: you see the whole storyboard and every still image while ~92% of your credits are still unspent, and you decide whether to spend the rest.

If you sign up without buying

You'll land on the start page rather than the studio. Nothing is lost — your account is real and waiting — but no part of the create flow will run, because every part of it costs generation time. The First Video at $19 is the way in: it buys a finished 30-second video of your song at 720p with no watermark, a regeneration if a shot misses, and the whole $19 comes off a Full Video if you buy one within 14 days.

If you already hold credits from before Melodious moved to paid-only, they're still yours. They become spendable again on your first purchase.

Checking your balance

Your credit balance is visible in the bottom-left of the sidebar. Visit melodious.ai/billing to upgrade or top up.