What Arcads costs — and what a usable ad costs.
Arcads has no pricing page, but its help center publishes the meter: credits per plan and credits per feature. The dollar prices come only from third-party reviews. Here are both, the per-video math, and the iteration tax that decides whether the numbers work. Figures checked October 1, 2026.
Arcads plans: official credits, reported prices.
| Plan | Monthly credits (official) | Reported price | Talking-actor minutes | Per billed minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 8,000 | ~$110/mo | 10 | ~$11 |
| Creator | 16,000 | ~$220/mo | 20 | ~$11 |
| Pro, Scale, Business | Custom, through sales | Not published | — | Lower per credit at volume |
- Talking-actor video costs 800 credits per minute, per actor, and length is rounded up, so a 15-second one-actor ad bills a full 800 credits and two actors double it.
- Other video models bill per generation: Sora 2 240–1,200 credits, Veo 3.1 800, Kling 3.0 176–560, Seedance 2.0 at 1080p 432–1,620. Images on Nano Banana Pro and Seedream are free up to 100 a day.
- Starter and Creator credits reset each cycle with no rollover, and generation pauses at the limit until renewal or an upgrade. Pro, Scale and Business credits roll over, and usage past the limit is billed per extra credit.
Official (Arcads help center): plan credits, credits per feature, trial and refunds. Dollar prices are third-party reports (Wireflow, Jul 2026, Shhots, Aug 2026); arcads.ai/pricing returns a 404. Minutes and per-minute cost are our arithmetic. Checked October 1, 2026.
$11 per talking-actor minute. The question is the cost per keeper.
Every retake and adjustment bills again: Arcads' refund policy restores credits for platform errors, not for takes you don't like. The most recurring complaint across Arcads' reviews (Trustpilot 2.7/5 over 170 reviews — sharply split between 44% five-star and 46% one-star, September 2026) is credits burned on takes that missed. If one render in three is a keeper, a usable ad costs ~$33; one in four, ~$44. Teams happy with Arcads feed it scripts they already trust. Teams unhappy with it are paying the iteration tax on guesses.
That's the honest frame for the price: Arcads sells rendering, not strategy. What the actor should say — the hook, the angle, the customer language — is on you before the first credit is spent. Fixing that half is what the full Arcads comparison is about.
Plans from $99/mo, flat — see ViralMojo pricing.
Arcads pricing, answered.
Arcads doesn't publish dollar prices (arcads.ai/pricing returned a 404 on October 1, 2026), but its help center does publish the plans' credit allowances: Starter includes 8,000 credits a month and Creator 16,000; Pro, Scale and Business plans are arranged through sales. Independent reviews consistently report Starter at about $110/month and Creator at about $220/month. Treat the dollar figures as reported, not list prices — you'll see the real number at checkout.
There's a 3-day trial, not a free plan. Arcads' refund policy says that when the trial ends without a cancellation, the saved card is charged for the Starter plan, so cancel from Billing settings within 72 hours if you don't want to continue. Image generation on two models is free up to 100 images a day; video generations spend credits. Arcads also runs limited-time offers (in October 2026 the homepage advertised 7 days of unlimited generations on one video model).
At the reported Starter price, about $110 for 8,000 credits, one credit costs about $0.014. Arcads bills a talking-actor video at 800 credits per minute per actor, rounded up, so a one-actor clip of up to a minute costs about $11 and Starter covers about ten. The figure that decides whether it pays for itself is cost per usable ad: Arcads restores credits only for platform errors, not for takes you don't like, so retakes re-bill, and the most recurring complaint across its reviews (Trustpilot 2.7/5 over 170 reviews, September 2026) is credits burned on takes that missed. A one-in-three keeper rate puts a usable ad near $33; one-in-four, around $44. The iteration tax is the real price.
When you already know what your ads should say and your bottleneck is production: no creators, no shoots, UGC-style volume in 30+ languages from a script you trust. Teams that feed it validated scripts report the economics working; teams that use it to guess at angles pay the iteration tax. If the script is the missing piece, fix that first — that's the job ViralMojo does, from $99/mo, and the finished scripts drop straight into Arcads or any generator.