When we finished the story pipeline we did the arithmetic on a four-minute film and did not like it: roughly 300 dollars in pricing">tokens for about 30 dollars of provider cost. Legacy prices had been set by hand for single clips, back when "generation" meant one clip at a time, and had never been revisited. So we replaced them with a formula. This post explains the formula, the numbers next to Higgsfield, and why the cheapest plan still pays its way.
Why the old prices were wrong
Hand-tuned prices drift. Each operation had been priced separately, some when a provider was expensive, some when it was cheap, and none were rechecked when rates changed. That is survivable when a person makes one clip. It is not survivable when a pipeline makes thirty clips per film and shows the total on one screen. A ten-times markup on a single clip looks like a premium; a ten-times markup on a film looks like a mistake, and it is one.
The formula
Every operation has a real provider cost stored next to it. Its token price is that cost times 1.4, expressed in tokens at the rate users actually pay for them, and anchored on the most discounted plan so the margin never dips below 40% for anyone. Pro pays 0.8 of the base price, Basic pays the base price, and the free plan pays 1.3 times it. Because the anchor is Pro, the plans above it in price simply earn a little more; nobody is ever served below cost.
The formula is applied per operation, not per film. A film is thirty-odd charges; if one fails, that one is refunded to the wallet. Pricing per film would hide failures inside an average and make refunds impossible to reason about.
What it means in practice
- A 10-second Standard clip: from 1,330,000 tokens to 329,584. About 1.58 dollars on Pro.
- An 8-second Cinema clip: 1.68 dollars, cheaper than the equivalent on Higgsfield.
- A four-minute story film: about 26 dollars on Pro, where it used to be close to 300.
The pricing page reads the same live table the app uses, so the number you see there is the number that is deducted. When a provider changes a rate, the formula reprices that one operation and nothing else moves.
Where we cannot go lower
Our buy price for a 10-second clip on the fast video tier is 1.13 dollars; Higgsfield sells the same clip for about a dollar on its top plan. We will not sell below cost, so on that one clip type we stay a little above them. On everything else, and on the whole pipeline, we are below, because the pipeline includes a screenplay, cast consistency, narration, lip-sync and editing that would otherwise be your time.
Why 40% and not 250%
Because a studio is used in volume. Thirty clips per film at a large markup is a price nobody pays twice. Forty percent covers infrastructure, refunds and support, and lets the subscription plans remain profitable even when a member spends the whole allowance on video. We checked that last point explicitly: for each plan we assumed the entire monthly allowance goes to the most expensive operation and confirmed the provider cost still sits below the plan price. That check is repeated whenever a provider rate changes.
How to read the new prices
- Look up the operation on the pricing page; the token figure is the base price.
- Multiply by your plan's multiplier: 0.8 on Pro, 1.0 on Basic, 1.3 on the free plan.
- For a film, the wizard does this for you and shows the exact total on the Ready screen before production starts.
What we still watch
Provider prices move often. The ratios between operations are stable; the absolute costs are not. So the real cost column is the one we maintain, and everything else derives from it. If a fast-tier clip gets cheaper next quarter, the token price follows without a meeting. If it gets more expensive, the same is true, and we would rather show that honestly than hide it inside a hand-tuned number that quietly loses money.
Frequently asked
Did existing token balances lose value? No. Tokens are the same unit; the operations became cheaper in tokens. A balance that bought a few clips last month buys many more of the same clips now.
Why not just charge in dollars? Dollars expose provider prices and turn every rate change into an argument. Tokens let us absorb small changes and reprice only when the underlying cost shifts materially.
Is the 40% margin the same for every plan? It is the minimum. Pro is the anchor at that margin; Basic and the free plan pay their multipliers on top, so their margin is higher. It is never lower than 40% for anyone.