A low price per generation is not necessarily a low production cost. If only one of several outputs survives review, the rejected attempts belong in the budget too. This worksheet estimates the cost of delivering a usable clip; it does not predict the acceptance rate of any model.
Define usable before you buy
Write a short acceptance rule for the actual job: the subject remains recognizable, the required movement is visible, the final crop works, and the delivered file meets the brief. A beautiful clip that cannot be used in the project contributes zero accepted seconds. Decide whether a partial extract counts. If only four seconds of a ten-second output are usable, record four, not ten.
Separate three kinds of cost
Keep subscription allocation, additional generation charges, and human editing time in separate columns. Allocating an entire monthly subscription to one experiment can overstate the cost of a repeatable workflow; ignoring it understates the cost of a one-off job. Show both the incremental cash cost and the fully allocated project cost so the comparison stays honest.
Use a stop rule instead of chasing sunk cost
Before generating, choose a maximum number of attempts and a cash ceiling. Stop when either limit is reached, or when repeated failures show that the source material does not fit the workflow. Compare the remaining AI route with simpler editing or a different creative brief. Buying more credits is a new decision, not proof that the earlier spending must be rescued.
Decision worksheet
| Item | Record or check | Decision rule |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription share | Budget allocated to this project | Keep separate from new spending |
| Extra generations | Actual charges or credit consumption | Include rejected attempts |
| Accepted duration | Unique seconds in the final edit | Do not count duplicate variants |
| Labor | Minutes reviewing and editing | Use your own hourly value |
Worked example — illustrative, not measured
Illustrative calculation: allocate $12 of subscription cost and $8 of extra spending to an experiment. If it yields 16 usable seconds, cash cost is $20 / 16 = $1.25 per usable second. Forty minutes of work valued at $30 per hour adds $20, making the fully allocated total $40 / 16 = $2.50. These are invented budget inputs, not vendor prices or measured results.
Put this into practice
- Save the quote shown before each attempt.
- Record cost, generated duration, accepted duration, and rejection reason.
- Calculate totals only after reviewing downloaded files.
- Keep cash and labor-inclusive figures side by side.
A mistake to avoid
Do not divide a subscription price by its maximum theoretical output and call that your real cost. That assumes every generation is useful and every included credit is consumed.
Basis and limitations
DomoAI distinguishes subscription credits from separately purchased credits and describes different charging behavior for Relax and Fast modes. Check the current account quote rather than assuming every operation is included. DomoAI: Plans & Pricing (checked October 22, 2026).
The workflow and illustrative example are editorial recommendations, not measured vendor performance.