Wan 2.6 Price: 1080p AI Video for 24% Less Than Wan 3.0, in Clips Up to 15 Seconds

Full HD on Wan 2.6 costs 24% less a second than on Wan 3.0: 10.75 credits against 14.1 on RenderHour, by our arithmetic. Newer is not cheaper here. Alibaba’s Wan 2.6 is on RenderHour from today: open Wan 2.6, type a prompt or add a photo, and pick 5, 10 or 15 seconds at 720p or 1080p. A 5-second vertical clip at 720p is 36.25 credits; the longest, 15 seconds at 1080p, is 161.25.

Wan 2.6 is the generation before Wan 3.0, which ranked first on the Artificial Analysis video board when we compared price and rank in October. What the older model brings is choice: two resolutions, three lengths and a lower price at both.

How much does Wan 2.6 cost?

In dollars it depends on the plan. On Plus billed yearly ($564 a year for 1,200 credits a month, about 3.9 cents a credit), a 5-second 720p clip works out at about $1.42, a 5-second 1080p clip at about $2.11 and a 15-second 1080p clip at about $6.32, by our arithmetic. A run that fails costs nothing.

Is Wan 2.6 cheaper than Wan 3.0?

At 1080p, yes. fal lists Wan 3.0 at $0.20 a second at 1080p and $0.10 at 720p; Wan 2.6 at $0.15 at 1080p and also $0.10 at 720p. So full HD is 25% cheaper per second on Wan 2.6 at the source, and 720p costs the same on both.

On RenderHour, Wan 3.0 comes as one setting, 5 seconds at 1080p for 70.5 credits. Wan 2.6 gives you 720p for drafts, 1080p for the final cut, and clips 2 or 3 times as long. The two side by side, with when to pick each, are on Wan 2.6 vs Wan 3.0.

What can Wan 2.6 do?

Multi-shot matters more than it sounds. From a prompt, fal’s schema switches it on by default: the model splits the clip into shots and cuts between them, like an edited ad. From a photo it stays off, so the clip is one continuous shot of your picture. fal’s own example prompt plans shots by the second (“Shot 1 [0-3s]”), and that format works for 10 and 15-second clips.

Among models that make 15 seconds in one run, Wan 2.6 sits in the middle on price. Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash is cheaper and built for talking clips; FLUX 3 Max is close while its discount lasts and makes sound with the picture; Kling 4.0 costs half as much again and goes to 30 seconds.

Our test: the same prompt at 720p and 1080p

On November 9 we ran one cold-brew prompt on Wan 2.6 twice on RenderHour, 9:16 and 5 seconds, once at each resolution. These are the numbers we measured on the files that came back.

The 1080p clip has 2.25 times the pixels for 1.48 times the credits, by our arithmetic. Both came back with the same pace: Wan 2.6 cut both clips at 0.9 and 2.4 seconds, so its shot plan follows the prompt, not the resolution. Each clip has faults worth knowing before you post.

• 720p: the first shot shows the bottle lying on its side, leaking onto the counter, and the next shots have it upright and pouring. Steam rises from the glass during the pour, which a cold drink would not do.
• 1080p: the bottle stays upright and there is no steam, but the ice drop repeats across the first cut, and the frame flares almost white for about a third of a second near the 4-second mark.
• Both: the files came with a stereo sound track we did not ask for. The blog plays them muted.

The fix for most of this is in the prompt: name the shots yourself, say the bottle stands upright, and keep a 5-second clip to 1 or 2 shots. Here is the prompt we used, unedited.

Wan 2.6 in 6 numbers

• 24%: how much less a second 1080p costs on Wan 2.6 than a Wan 3.0 clip on RenderHour, 10.75 credits against 14.1, by our arithmetic.
• 15 seconds: its longest clip, 3 times the one length Wan 3.0 has on RenderHour.
• 161.25 credits: the most a single Wan 2.6 run costs here, 15 seconds at 1080p.
• 1,500 characters: the longest prompt it takes, room for a shot-by-shot plan.
• 2.25x: the pixels a 1080p frame has over 720p, for 1.48x the credits, by our arithmetic.
• 4 shots: what our 5-second 720p clip came back as, with no shots asked for in the prompt.

What it means if you make videos for social or for ads

• Draft at 720p, finish at 1080p. The prompt guide says the same: a 720p draft costs 33% less than the 1080p take, by our arithmetic, so test hooks cheaply and render the winner in full HD.
• Get a whole short in one run. 15 seconds covers a hook, a product shot and an end card. Write the beats in order and Wan 2.6 cuts between them.
• Animate a product photo as one shot. From a first frame, multi-shot stays off by default, so your packshot stays on screen instead of cutting away.
• Want one perfect 5-second shot? Wan 3.0 is still there at 70.5 credits; pick it when the shot matters more than the length.

More prompts, with the structure that works for 5, 10 and 15 seconds, are in the Wan 2.6 prompt guide. Settings and prices for every length are on the Wan 2.6 model page.