At-cost AI generation: what you actually pay

What at-cost pricing actually means

Most AI generators buy access to a model wholesale and then resell it to you at retail. The gap between those two numbers is the markup, and it is where the tool makes its money. You rarely see the wholesale price, so you cannot tell how much of your bill is the model and how much is margin.

Figgshield does it the other way around. We charge you what the model costs us, credit for credit, with no markup on top. When you generate an image with Nano Banana 2 or a clip with Kling 3, the credits you spend track the underlying cost, not a marked-up sticker price.

So how does Figgshield make anything? On the credits people buy and never spend. That is the only margin in the model, and it means we have no reason to push you toward more expensive options, because we do not earn more when you do.

The credit math, with no surprises

One credit balance covers both images and video, so you are not juggling separate wallets. Here is what the common jobs cost.

If you want faster turnaround on video, Kling 3 Turbo is the quicker tier. The numbers stay visible before you commit, so a run never costs more than you expected.

• An image with Nano Banana 2 at 1K or 2K: 8 credits
• The same image at 4K: 16 credits
• A five-second video clip with Kling 3: 35 credits

One balance for images and video

A lot of buyers start with images and move to video later, or mix both in the same project. When each type needs its own plan, you end up prepaying for capacity you may not use in the ratio you guessed.

With a single balance, the same credits flow to whichever job you run next. Generate a product shot at 2K for 8 credits today, animate three clips next week at 35 credits each, and it all draws from the same pool.

You can also start a video from an image you already made. Pass the id of a finished image into the video request and it becomes the first frame. No re-uploading, and no second tool to pay for.

How to compare AI generators on real cost

Sticker prices are easy to game, so compare the things that actually move your bill.

Run those four checks on any generator and the cheapest option usually stops being the one with the lowest headline number.

• Ask what the model costs the vendor. If they will not say, the markup is probably the point.
• Check whether resolution and duration change the price in a way you can see before you run a job.
• Watch for separate plans for image and video, which quietly push you to overbuy.
• Read what happens to unused credits, since expiring balances are a hidden fee.

Try it for $5

There is no free tier, and that is on purpose. Free tiers are paid for somewhere, usually by a markup on everyone else. Instead, a seven-day Pro trial is $5 and includes 150 credits.

That 150 is enough to feel out real work: around 18 images at 1K or 2K, or 9 images at 4K, or four five-second video clips. Enough to judge quality on your own prompts, not a demo.

Cancel before day seven and you pay nothing more. See the current numbers on the pricing page, or read how credits work on the credits page.

Where it runs

Figgshield is an MCP connector, not another web dashboard. Your AI agent calls it at https://api.figgshield.ai/mcp and generates media inside the tools you already use.

That includes Claude on desktop and Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and ChatGPT in Developer Mode on a paid plan, plus any other MCP agent. The pricing is the same wherever you call it from.

Generated files sit on a private link for seven days and are then deleted. A reference image you send is used in memory and never stored, so nothing lingers after the job.