Comparison

HiAPI vs KIE: A line-by-line price comparison of 10 models (November 2026)

A line-by-line price comparison of 10 models, plus top-up rules and a one-week usage example

Nov 11, 2026 4 min read

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KIE is an API aggregation platform for media generation that prices in credits (1 credit ≈ $0.005). Its pages commonly show «X% lower than official»—10%, 20%, or 60%—and this is its year-round pricing. As of the evening of November 10, its homepage, pricing page, and blog had no Black Friday or Cyber Monday promotion.

KIE and HiAPI overlap on many models. We picked 10 commonly used ones and compared them line by line: HiAPI is cheaper on 4 (Seedance 2.5, GPT Image 2.5, Nano Banana Pro, Kimi K3), KIE is cheaper on 3 (Kling 3.0, Claude Opus 5.5, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash), Wan 3.0 is the same, and Grok Imagine 1.5 and Seedance 2.0 depend on resolution.

List prices for the 10 models

Below, KIE credits are converted to USD. KIE prices are the public prices from the evening of November 10; HiAPI prices are the production sale prices as of November 11:

Model	Tier	KIE	HiAPI	Cheaper
Seedance 2.5 (no reference video)	720p / 1080p, per second	$0.315 / $0.79	$0.204 / $0.516	HiAPI, about 35% lower
GPT Image 2.5	1K / 2K / 4K, per image	$0.03 / $0.05 / $0.08	$0.025 / $0.04 / $0.06	HiAPI
Nano Banana Pro	per image	from $0.09	1K–2K $0.0285	HiAPI
Kimi K3	input / output, per million tokens	$2.40 / $12	$2.32 / $11.6	HiAPI, about 3% lower
Grok Imagine 1.5	720p, per second	$0.0225	$0.0214	HiAPI, slightly lower
Seedance 2.0	1080p / 4K, per second	not listed on page	`seedance-2.0@ext` $0.342 / $0.694	Only HiAPI has it
Wan 3.0	480P / 720P / 1080P, per second	$0.04 / $0.08 / $0.16	$0.04 / $0.08 / $0.16	Same
Grok Imagine 1.5	1080p, per second	$0.04	$0.0571	KIE
Seedance 2.0 (no reference video)	480p / 720p, per second	$0.059 / $0.124	$0.136 / `seedance-2.0@ext` $0.134	KIE, 720p about 8% lower
Kling 3.0	720p silent / with audio, per second	$0.0755 / $0.1135	$0.108 / $0.162	KIE
Kling 3.0	1080p silent / with audio, per second	$0.101 / $0.151	$0.144 / $0.216	KIE
Claude Opus 5.5	input / output, per million tokens	$1.60 / $8	$2.02 / $10.08	KIE
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	input / output, per million tokens	$0.12 / $0.475	$0.44 / $1.32	KIE (during Black Friday, HiAPI offers 10 million tokens free per day)

Two caveats on the basis of comparison:

Seedance 2.5 with reference video: KIE lists 720p at $0.19/sec, but it also bills the duration of the input video; HiAPI's reference-to-video 720p is $0.2715/sec. Calculate each separately based on the duration of your own material before comparing.
Nano Banana Pro: KIE's pricing page only gives a starting price of $0.09, without breaking it down by resolution.

One week of mixed usage: what each side costs

Suppose that during Black Friday week you need to produce 100 five-second Seedance 2.5 720p videos + 5,000 GPT Image 2.5 2K images:

	KIE	HiAPI
Total list price	$157.50 + $250 = $407.50	$102 + $200 = $302
Top-up bonus	Requires a single payment of $1,250 to get 10%	Top up $350 once, get $35
Spending rebate	—	Spend $302, get 15% back ($45.30), credited on December 3
Actual cost	About $407.50	About $222

«Actual cost» = money topped up minus remaining balance (unused bonus + rebate).

Each has strengths in its rules

Item	KIE	HiAPI
Black Friday promotion	Not announced as of November 10	November 24, 16:00 to December 1, 15:59 (Beijing time)
Top-up bonus	Year-round: 10% on large amounts, e.g., $1,250 gives $125	Black Friday: single payments from $50 / $100 / $300 get 5% / 8% / 10%, capped at $50
Spending rebate	Not listed	Black Friday: image, video, and audio all week, $50 / $100 / $300 / $500 get 5% / 10% / 15% / 20% back, capped at $100

KIE's strengths deserve a clear mention: credits never expire, new users get 80 credits (about $0.40) to try it out, and failed tasks are not billed; for a single top-up of $1,250 or more, its year-round 10% bonus ($125) is more than HiAPI's Black Friday bonus (capped at $50). HiAPI's Black Friday is more cost-effective in the $300–$1,000 range, because the bonus and rebate can stack.

How to choose

Seedance 2.5, GPT Image 2.5, Nano Banana Pro: HiAPI's list prices are lower, and during Black Friday you can stack the bonus and rebate on top.
Kling 3.0, Claude Opus 5.5, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: KIE's list prices are lower. For DeepSeek during Black Friday, you can use HiAPI's free quota.
Seedance 2.0: KIE is cheaper for 480p and 720p; for 1080p or 4K, use HiAPI's seedance-2.0@ext.
Wan 3.0, Grok Imagine 1.5 720p: Prices are basically the same, so choose based on where your other models are.

Detailed Black Friday cost breakdowns for each model: Seedance 2.5 Black Friday pricing · GPT Image 2.5 Black Friday pricing · How much to top up on Black Friday for the best deal.

Go to the Black Friday promotion page →

FAQ

Is the «X% lower than official» on KIE's page a Black Friday discount? No, it is its year-round pricing. As of November 10, it had not announced a Black Friday promotion.

Will KIE launch a Black Friday promotion at the last minute? It is possible. The above reflects the situation on the evening of November 10; check its pricing page before placing an order.

Will HiAPI's unit prices drop for Black Friday? No. Black Friday is about top-up bonuses and spending rebates; unit prices stay the same, but the effective cost is lower.