Limits per plan

Every plan has the same API and the same command rules. Plans differ in how much a job may use and how many credits each cycle includes.

Prices in USD. Tax is calculated at checkout. Sizes are decimal: 1 GB is 10^9 bytes.

• Jobs at once: more jobs than this wait queued until a slot frees up.
• Longest job: ffmpeg's running time; a job that runs longer fails with limit_exceeded (reason job_duration).
• Inputs and outputs per job: the total bytes of all inputs as fetched, and of all outputs as stored. A job past either fails with limit_exceeded (reason input_size or output_size).
• Output retention: how long outputs are kept after the job ends; expires_at on each output says when.

Credits#

Usage is counted in credits, by what a job produces. Each output is billed per minute by its quality, prorated per second, and rounded up to the whole second:

• Video multipliers: H.265 or VP9 x2, AV1 x4, above 30 fps x2. They multiply: AV1 at 60 fps is x8. The rate and the multipliers come from the stored file. Several outputs are billed one by one and summed.
• Scene lists follow the input's picture: x3 above 1080p and x2 above 30 fps, multiplied together, so 4K at 60 fps is 18 credits a minute. This rate is provisional.
• Data: 10 credits per GB (10^9 bytes): the inputs as fetched plus the outputs as stored.
• Processing: each billed second of output, and each image, includes 3 seconds of ffmpeg and ffprobe. Time past that costs 10 credits a minute; the job's usage shows it.
• Rounding: the job's parts are summed and rounded up to 0.1 credit. A job above 0 pays at least 1 credit. Credits have one decimal.

Example: one minute of 1080p H.264 at 30 fps, with 150 MB in and out, costs 12 + 1.5 = 13.5 credits, $0.0135 at the base rate of the $10 pack.

The example job in these docs writes 5 minutes of 720p from a 1.2 GB input and a 0.3 GB output: 30 + 15 = 45 credits.

A job that fails after ffmpeg ran stores no outputs, so it pays its data and all its processing at 10 credits a minute. A job that fails before ffmpeg starts pays the data it fetched. A failure on our side pays nothing.

Pay as you go has no included credits and no overage: jobs use the account's credits (the free credits, and packs once purchases open), and when they leave no room for a job, new jobs are refused with 402 out_of_credits. The paid plans include credits each cycle; credits past them are billed per 1,000 up to the plan's overage cap, and never more. Near the end of the credits or the cap a job's time limit is shortened to the credits left. A job that still reaches the end while it runs stops with out_of_credits or usage_cap_reached, and pays at most what it held. Billing explains the balance, the cap and how plans are bought.

Request limits on every plan#

Requests a minute per API key depend on the plan: see Rate limits.

Direct uploads are limited to 100 MB per file and the plan input limit. Larger paid-plan inputs can use public URLs. See Files for exact size checks and expiry.