Google’s New Veo 3.1 Lite Model Slashes AI Video Costs Without Slowing Generation Speed

Another video generation tool from Google is here, and it’s called the Veo 3.1 Lite. The company says that this model is now rolling out via the Gemini API and Google AI Studio and makes AI video creation more accessible for developers.

The new model lowers AI video costs without slowing things down

Veo 3.1 Lite is designed for high-volume use cases, costing less than 50 percent of Veo 3.1 Fast, while maintaining similar generation speed. That balance may appeal to developers building apps that require frequent video output without driving up costs.

Speaking of features, the Veo 3.1 Lite model supports both text-to-video and image-to-video generation, along with 16:9 and 9:16 aspect ratios. It also handles 720p and 1080p resolution, with customizable durations of 4, 6, or 8 seconds depending on the use case.

Google says this release “rounds out” the Veo 3.1 family, giving developers more control over performance and pricing trade-offs. At the same time, pricing for Veo 3.1 Fast is set to drop on April 7, which could further lower the barrier to entry for video AI tools.

Speaking of AI models, let’s not forget that OpenAI is bidding goodbye to the Sora app, citing unsustainable infrastructure demands. Apparently, running AI video generation at scale reportedly came with compute costs the company couldn’t easily justify.