Do AI video generator credits roll over?

Sometimes. It depends on the tool and the plan. As of 24 October 2026, HeyGen rolls unused monthly credits over for one more month, Captions lets you bank up to two extra months, Creatify credits stay valid for two months, Arcads rolls credits over in full only on Pro and above, Runway rolls over one month only on Max, and Synthesia resets its monthly allowance each billing period. Purchased top-ups usually last longer than plan credits.

Below: each vendor's rule with the plan prices, what happens when you cancel or move to annual billing, why a credit in one tool is not a credit in another, and how to avoid paying for credits you never use. Nagent's video teammate Alpha quotes each video in credits before it renders, and it has its own section near the end.

Which AI video generators let credits roll over?

Each entry was checked on the vendor's own pricing or help page on 24 October 2026. Prices change often, so confirm before you buy.

HeyGen

• What it is: AI avatar and video platform.

• Plans: Creator $29 a month ($24 billed annually) with 600 credits; Pro from $49 with 1,000 credits; Business $149 plus $20 a seat with 1,500 credits (HeyGen pricing).

• Rollover: on monthly plans, unused credits "roll over for one more month". On annual plans, credits accumulate until the annual renewal date.

• Limitation: if the subscription is not active, previous cycle credits expire; one-time credit packs are a Business feature.

Synthesia

• What it is: AI avatar video for training, internal and marketing video.

• Plans: Starter $29 a month ($18 billed yearly) with 1,250 credits a month; Pro $89 ($64 billed yearly) with 6,000 credits a month (Synthesia pricing).

• Rollover: none on monthly allowances. The FAQ says the monthly allowance and the plan's extra credits reset each billing period. On annual plans, the year's credits are available upfront.

• Limitation: unused monthly credits are lost at renewal; top-ups bought separately stay valid for 12 months.

Creatify

• What it is: AI video ads from product URLs, avatars and templates.

• Plans: Standard shown at $10 a month (struck from $15) with 55 credits; Pro $38 (from $55) with 280 credits; Max $66 (from $95) with 730 credits. A "save 30% on annual plan" banner suggests the lower figures are annual (Creatify pricing).

• Rollover: "Unused credits are valid for 2 months, so they can be carried over to the next month."

• Limitation: free plan credits (10 a month) cannot be used on paid plans.

Captions

• What it is: AI video editing, avatars and AI ads, mobile first.

• Plans: Max $24.99 a month with 500 credits; Frontier $69.99 with 1,400 credits; the page states these are iOS plan prices (Captions pricing).

• Rollover: unused credits roll over, and you can save up to two extra months, so the balance can hold up to 3x the monthly allowance.

• Limitation: the page does not say whether rolled-over credits expire beyond that cap.

Arcads

• What it is: AI UGC ads with AI actors and many video models in one balance.

• Plans: Starter 8,000 credits a month, Creator 16,000, Pro 48,000, Scale 96,000, Business 192,000; yearly billing is 20% off. Dollar prices are shown in the app, not on the help page (Arcads).

• Rollover: Starter and Creator reset each cycle. Pro, Scale and Business "roll unused credits over in full, with no cap and no expiry".

• Limitation: on cancellation, unused credits are lost on plans without rollover; Starter and Creator stop generating at the limit.

Runway

• What it is: generative video models and editing tools, including Gen-4.5.

• Plans: Standard $15 a month ($12 yearly) with 625 credits; Pro $35 ($28) with 2,250; Max $95 ($76) with 9,500 (Runway pricing).

• Rollover: Standard and Pro credits do not roll over and reset within 24 hours of the billing date. On Max, up to one month of unused credits rolls over.

• Limitation: none on purchased credits, which "never expire" (minimum purchase 1,000 credits); the free plan's 125 credits are a one-time deposit that does not expire.

What happens to your credits when you cancel or downgrade?

This is where most money is lost. On HeyGen, credits from earlier cycles expire once the subscription is no longer active. On Arcads, cancelling a plan without rollover means unused credits are lost at the end of the billing cycle. Creatify says unused credits from your previous plan remain available through the new billing cycle when you change plans. Before cancelling any tool, spend or export what you can, and check whether a downgrade, rather than a cancellation, keeps your balance alive.

Do annual plans treat credits differently?

Often, yes, and usually in your favour. Synthesia makes the whole year's credits available upfront on annual plans, and HeyGen lets annual credits accumulate until the renewal date. The trade-off is commitment: Creatify, for example, does not let you switch away from an annual plan until fewer than 10 credits are left. Annual billing makes sense once your monthly usage is steady and predictable; it is a poor fit while you are still testing which formats work.

Do top-up credits expire?

Usually later than plan credits, but not always never:

• Runway: purchased credits never expire.

• Synthesia: top-ups stay valid for 12 months.

• HeyGen: Business users can buy one-time packs or enable auto-reload; the pricing page does not say when packs expire.

• Arcads: the pricing article describes upgrading rather than top-ups.

If you burst a lot of video around launches, a smaller plan plus long-lived top-ups can cost less than a large plan whose credits reset.

Why is a credit in one tool not a credit in another?

Credits are a price list, not a unit of video. Each vendor charges a different number of credits for different models, lengths and resolutions:

• Arcads charges 800 credits for a talking-actor video of up to two minutes on Arcads 1.0, and 800 for an 8-second Veo 3.1 clip (Arcads).

• Runway charges 60 credits per 5 seconds on Gen-4.5, or 12 credits a second (Runway).

• HeyGen says credit use varies by model, video duration and complexity (HeyGen).

So compare tools by cost per finished video in your format, not by credit counts or rollover rules alone. A worked example: on Runway Pro at $35 for 2,250 credits, 20 seconds of Gen-4.5 footage uses 240 credits, so the monthly allowance covers about nine 20-second ads if every generation is a keeper. Most are not, so budget for retries.

How do you avoid paying for credits you never use?

1. Measure your real monthly use for two months before choosing a tier. Count finished videos and retries, not just exports.

2. Pick the smallest plan that covers a normal month, and handle launch peaks with top-ups that last.

3. Prefer plans with rollover if your output is lumpy: product drops, seasonal campaigns, quarterly launches.

4. Set a reminder a week before renewal on plans that reset, and use the balance on variants or tests.

5. Ask for a quote before each render where the tool offers one, so a single job cannot drain the month.

6. Track credits per finished video, not per generation. That is the number that tells you whether a tool is worth it.

What should you ask a vendor about credits?

• Do unused monthly credits roll over, for how long, and is there a cap?

• What happens to my balance if I cancel, pause or downgrade?

• Do purchased top-ups expire, and when?

• How many credits does one finished video in my format cost, including retries?

• Am I charged for failed or rejected generations?

• Does an edit, resize or caption change re-spend credits on the whole video?

Where does Nagent fit?

We make Nagent, so read this as a vendor's description. Nagent is multiplayer AI for growth: people and AI agents in one shared context, delivering the number. Every plan meters agent work in credits from one workspace allowance, and video is one use of it alongside the rest of the team's work.

• Quote first. Alpha, the video teammate on CREA's Content team, quotes each video in credits before anything renders, and a person approves the storyboard and quote. The quote is fixed at approval, and a delivered job bills at most the quote, less anything that was not made.

• Rough scale. As a guide on the pricing page, a rendered video is about 700 credits, a campaign build about 40 and an AEO page audit about 10.

• Allowance and top-ups. When the month's allowance runs out, paid tools pause and nothing is deleted. Top-up packs of 1,000, 5,000 or 25,000 credits are valid for 12 months.

• No paying twice for variants. A resize, caption or hook swap from a delivered cut reuses shots already rendered.

• What it does not do. The pricing page does not promise that unused monthly allowance rolls over, so plan on it resetting, and Alpha does not publish or touch an ad account.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an AI avatar video cost per minute?

It depends on the tool and tier. As a worked example from Synthesia's pricing on 24 October 2026, Starter at $29 a month covers up to about 12 minutes of video, which is roughly $2.40 a minute if you use it all. Unused minutes on a monthly plan reset, which raises the real cost per minute.

Do free plan credits roll over?

Rarely in a useful way. Runway's free plan is a one-time 125 credits that do not expire, Creatify gives 10 free credits a month that cannot move to a paid plan, and Synthesia's Basic plan credits renew each month.

Is it cheaper to buy a bigger plan or top-up credits?

If your usage is steady, the plan's per-credit price is usually lower. If it spikes around launches, a smaller plan plus top-ups that last 12 months or longer often wastes less.

What is the monthly cost of AI-generated UGC video ads for a startup?

Add your tool's plan, the credits per finished video in your format including retries, and the media budget to test them. The tool is usually the smaller line; testing enough variants to find a winner is the larger one.

Want every video quoted in credits before it renders? Book a Nagent demo.