Search “veo 2 price” in August 2026 and you’ll get four different wrong answers. The top organic result is a pricing page for a camera product also named Veo. Another result quotes a $19.99/month “subscription” that never existed. Most of the rest are February 2025 launch stories saying $0.50 per second — eighteen months old. And the one fresh page treats Veo 2 as if it were still available.
Here’s the version with sources and dates. Veo 2’s price was announced at $0.50 per second in February 2025; it launched on the Gemini API on April 9, 2025; was cut to $0.35 per second on the Gemini API; and was shut down by Google on June 30, 2026. You cannot buy it from Google anymore. The rest of this page shows exactly what it cost while it existed, why it disappeared, and what the replacement — the Veo 3.1 family — costs instead. Every number below was pulled from Google’s own pages on August 20, 2026.
The short answer: Veo 2 price history and today’s status
Veo 2 has no current price, because Veo 2 no longer exists on Google’s platforms. What it had depends on which surface and which era you mean:
Veo 2 (veo-2.0-generate-001) |
Price | Status on August 20, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini API — from launch (Apr 2025) | $0.50 / second | Shut down June 30, 2026 |
| Gemini API — later pricing (by June 2025) | $0.35 / second | Shut down June 30, 2026 |
| Vertex AI / Agent Platform | $0.50 / second | Retired June 30, 2026 (still listed, stale) |
| Free tier | Not available | — |
Two things make this confusing, and both are Google’s own doing. First, the Gemini API pricing page still shows a Veo 2 entry at $0.35/second — a page-rot problem that keeps feeding the “Veo 2 costs $0.35” answer to anyone who checks pricing before checking status. Second, Google never updated the old launch coverage: every news article from February 2025 says $0.50, so that number is still everywhere too.
The rule for reading this correctly: pricing pages mostly show what a model cost, not whether it still works — and their status labels lag reality. For status, check Google’s deprecations page. Google has now added a deprecation banner to the Veo 2 entry on the pricing page too, but the stale “state-of-the-art” framing underneath it is exactly why the deprecations page stays the authority. That’s the distinction this whole article is built on.
What Veo 2 cost when it was available
Veo 2 launched on the Gemini API on April 9, 2025 at $0.50 per second — that’s $30 per minute or $1,800 per hour. The price itself was announced two months earlier, in February 2025, and reported at the time by TechCrunch (and, in the same week, by PCMag and others). A single 8-second clip at that rate cost $4.00.
Then Google cut the price. An archived snapshot of the Gemini API pricing page from June 13, 2025 shows Veo 2’s “Video price” at $0.35/second — the same figure the pricing page still lists today. So the price history is short and clean:
- Apr 2025 → mid-2025: $0.50/second (price announced Feb 2025; $30/min, $1,800/hr, $4.00 per 8-second clip)
- mid-2025 → June 30, 2026: $0.35/second on the Gemini API ($21/min, $2.80 per 8-second clip)
- Vertex AI always: $0.50/second — the Vertex pricing page lists Veo 2 at $0.50/count (720p, video only), a surface difference most write-ups miss
Veo 2’s API price history: $0.50 at launch, $0.35 after the mid-2025 cut, shutdown on June 30, 2026.
Two more facts worth keeping straight. Veo 2 output was 720p only, 5–8 seconds per clip, with no native audio — per Google’s own Veo 2 model card. And the API never had a free tier: Google’s pricing page lists the free tier for Veo 2 as “Not available” then and now.
Why you can’t buy Veo 2 anymore: the June 30, 2026 shutdown
Google’s Gemini API deprecations page lists veo-2.0-generate-001 with a shutdown date of June 30, 2026 and a recommended replacement of veo-3.1-generate-preview. The same shutdown date appears on the Vertex side: the Veo 2 model card records a retirement date of June 30, 2026, with the migration path veo-2.0-generate-001 → veo-3.1-generate-001. The deprecations page also lists veo-3.0-generate-001 and veo-3.0-fast-generate-001 as shut down the same day — the whole pre-3.1 generation line went dark at once.
Why? Because Google moved on. Veo 3.1 arrived as a preview in October 2025 — Standard and Fast first, Lite following in March 2026 — with native audio and 4K on the two upper tiers, and became the line Google kept. On June 30, 2026 the older endpoints were turned off. That’s the entire story; there’s no “Veo 2 still available at a lower price” chapter after that date.
Google’s own migration path for Veo 2 users: veo-2.0-generate-001 → veo-3.1-generate-preview (Gemini API) or veo-3.1-generate-001 (Vertex).
This is the pitfall to internalize: the Gemini API pricing page still calls Veo 2 “our state-of-the-art video generation model” at $0.35/second, and the Vertex pricing page still lists Veo 2 at $0.50. Both pages are stale — the models behind them have been offline for two months. If you’re building on any article, blog, or aggregator page that quotes a Veo 2 price without mentioning the June 30, 2026 shutdown, that page is at least partially wrong. Always cross-check the deprecations page before trusting a pricing page’s model-status column.
Veo 2 vs the Veo 3.1 tiers: what replacement costs
The honest replacement question isn’t “what’s the new Veo 2 price” — it’s “what does the current generation cost.” Veo 3.1 is billed per second of output, with audio included by default. On the Gemini API the full matrix is:
| Veo 3.1 tier (per second, with audio) | 720p | 1080p | 4K |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $0.40 | $0.40 | $0.60 |
| Fast | $0.10 | $0.12 | $0.30 |
| Lite | $0.05 | $0.08 | not supported |
All figures from the Gemini API pricing page, retrieved August 20, 2026. All three tiers show “Free Tier: Not available.”
For a concrete budget, here’s what an 8-second clip costs on each tier, matching the clip length Veo 2 was limited to:
One 8-second Veo 3.1 clip: $3.20 (Standard 1080p), $0.96 (Fast 1080p), or $0.40 (Lite 720p).
So the practical range for “what used to be Veo 2 money” is now $0.40 to $4.80 per 8-second clip, depending entirely on tier and resolution. Veo 2’s $0.35 rate sits between Fast and Standard in today’s terms — which is exactly the point: the mid-tier of the current family covers the old price point, and Lite is cheaper than Veo 2 ever was.
Two levers from the current generation are worth knowing because Veo 2 didn’t have them. First, audio: Veo 3.1 generates synchronized audio by default; Veo 2 had no audio at all (that’s the “does Veo 2 have audio” answer — no). Second, on Vertex, video-only generation costs about half of the with-audio rate — Veo 3.1 Standard drops from $0.40 to $0.20 per second, per the Vertex AI pricing page. If your pipeline adds its own soundtrack, that’s a real saving. If you want the full tier-by-tier rundown with per-video math, see our Veo 3.1 pricing breakdown.
Migrating off Veo 2: what changes in practice
If you were calling veo-2.0-generate-001, the migration is a small code change with a few behavioral differences to test. Google’s deprecations page points Veo 2 users to veo-3.1-generate-preview on the Gemini API and to the GA veo-3.1-generate-001 on Vertex; the practical checklist:
- Swap the model ID and re-run your prompt set. Veo 2 and Veo 3.1 are different models — output will differ even for identical prompts, so regression-test your most-used prompts before switching traffic.
- Decide what to do about audio. Veo 3.1 generates synchronized audio by default; Veo 2 produced silent video. If your pipeline adds its own soundtrack or mutes output anyway, you can (a) strip audio client-side, or (b) on Vertex, use the video-only rate — Standard drops from $0.40 to $0.20 per second.
- Re-budget per second, not per model. Veo 2’s $0.35/sec has no direct successor. Fast at $0.10–$0.12/sec (1080p) is cheaper than Veo 2 ever was; Standard at $0.40/sec costs a little more and buys the quality jump. Pick the tier that matches the output bar, then multiply by your expected clip-seconds per month.
- Check your input pipeline for image-to-video. Both Veo 2 and Veo 3.1 support image-to-video, but reference-image handling changed between generations — re-verify first-frame and style-image behavior on the new endpoint.
- Watch the resolution ceiling. Veo 2 output was 720p-only. Veo 3.1’s upper tiers go to 1080p and 4K, which changes output file size, delivery cost, and player requirements — usually for the better, but not free.
One more thing to check in that migration: whether the route you’re calling actually still exists. This is where the stale-pricing problem bites hardest. Google’s deprecations page is the source of truth for Google surfaces; for any third-party or aggregator listing, the only reliable test is a real request — and even then, legacy inventory can disappear between calls. Budget for a re-verification step in your integration, not a one-time check.
Where Veo 2 still shows up: aggregator legacy routes
Disclosure first: Modellix is an aggregator — we route 210+ image and video models behind one API — and we have a commercial interest in this comparison. So let’s be precise about what we actually see.
Google’s official Veo 2 endpoints are gone. But the pages that list Veo 2 aren’t all dead: Modellix’s Veo 2 text-to-video page and its image-to-video counterpart still display a route at $0.4025/second (live pull, August 20, 2026). Same pattern as Google’s own stale pages — the listing predates the shutdown. We keep the pages up because legacy routes can remain callable through upstream inventory for a while, but the honest reading is: a listed price is not a guarantee of availability. If you find any page — ours included — that implies you can call Veo 2 today, verify with the provider before building on it, and have a migration path ready. Google’s own endpoint is gone; treat every Veo 2 route as a legacy bridge, not a foundation.
If you’re evaluating what to actually integrate, the current generation is where the decisions are: Modellix carries the full Veo 3.1 family (Standard, Fast, Lite, in text-to-video and image-to-video) metered per second — see the Veo 3.1 series page — plus Veo 3 as a legacy option. If you’re building a video pipeline from scratch, our image-to-video API guide walks through the request flow with the per-second billing model.
Check Live Veo 3.1 Pricing
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LoginFAQ
Is Veo 2 free?
No — the API never had a free tier (Google’s pricing page lists it as “Not available”). Since June 30, 2026 the question is moot: the model is shut down.
How much did Veo 2 cost per second?
$0.50 per second at launch (Gemini API, April 2025; price announced February 2025), then $0.35 per second on the Gemini API from mid-2025 until shutdown. On Vertex AI it was $0.50 per second throughout.
Can I still use Veo 2?
Not through Google — veo-2.0-generate-001 was shut down June 30, 2026 on both the Gemini API and Vertex. Some aggregators still list legacy routes; verify availability with the provider before relying on one.
Was Veo 2 cheaper than Veo 3?
On the Gemini API, yes — $0.35 vs Veo 3’s $0.40 per second. It doesn’t matter anymore: both were shut down the same day (June 30, 2026). Compare within the Veo 3.1 family instead.
What resolution did Veo 2 output?
720p only, in 5–8 second clips, per Google’s Veo 2 model card. Veo 3.1’s Standard and Fast tiers support 1080p and 4K; only Lite is capped below that.
Does Veo 2 have audio?
No. Veo 2 generated video only. Veo 3 and Veo 3.1 generate synchronized audio by default — and on Vertex you can turn audio off for roughly half the price.
What should I use instead of Veo 2?
Veo 3.1 — Lite ($0.05/sec at 720p), Fast ($0.10–$0.12/sec), or Standard ($0.40/sec). The tier that replaces Veo 2’s cost profile is Fast: $0.10–$0.12 per second for 1080p output, with the audio and resolution Veo 2 lacked.
How do I verify whether a Veo 2 route still works?
For Google surfaces, check the deprecations page — both official Veo 2 endpoints were shut down June 30, 2026. For third-party or aggregator listings, a listed price is not proof of availability: run a real test request and treat legacy inventory as removable at any time.
Why do so many pages still say Veo 2 costs $0.50?
Those are February 2025 announcement articles. The price was cut to $0.35 in mid-2025, and Google’s own pricing page still carries that stale entry today (with a deprecation banner added). Check the deprecations page for status, the pricing page for price — not the other way around.
Sources retrieved August 20, 2026: Gemini API deprecations, Gemini API pricing, Vertex AI pricing, Veo 2 model card, archived pricing page (2025-06-13), TechCrunch launch coverage, DeepMind Veo. Modellix prices pulled live from the model pages the same day. Google can change pricing and availability without notice; this is a dated guide, not a quote.
