api.video vs Wistia Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
Video Encoding
- FREE for unlimited minutes
Video Hosting
- $0.00285 per minute of video stored
Video Delivery
- $0.0017 per minute of video delivered
Pay as you go
- 100 Upload API calls/min
- 200 Write API calls/min
- 500 Read API calls/min
- Audit Logs (up to 5 days)
- 99.999%
- Public Terms
- Credit Card, Apple Pay, SEPA (on request), Monthly Billing
- Customizable player
- Any video player (3rd party)
- HLS & MP4 output
- Upload by URL
- Custom domain
- Encoding from 240p to 4K
- Adaptive Delivery
- Concurrent Live Stream
- Simulcasting / Restreaming
- Live stream DVR functionality
- Record a live stream
- Encoding from 240p to 4K
- Adaptive Delivery
- 24/7 Live streaming
- Low-latency
- RTMPS and SRT protocols
- Video transcription
- Video translation
- Video summarization
- Generate Thumbnail
- Trimming / Clipping
- Watermark
- Captions
- Chapters
- Upload your own Thumbnail
- 1 month Analytics Retention
- 3 months Analytics Retention
- 12 months Analytics Retention
- Usage Analytics per Project
- Webhooks
- Metadata & video tagging
- Video analytics
- Data visualization
- Basic API Authentication
- Advanced API Authentication
- Private Video
- Private Live Stream
- Delegated Upload Tokens
- Domain referer playback restrictions
- AES Encryption 128bits
- Video Restore
- Ecosystem Catalog (see dedicated section)
- Direct Upload
- Progressive Upload
- Video Import Tool
- Delivery on the CDN (worldwide)
- Delivery on origin
- Backup & Recovery
- Accessing mezzanine files
- Normalization
- Analytics plugins for 3rd party players
- Built-in HTML5 player
- Native Android & iOS mobile player
- Screen & webcam recording SDKs
- CMS & no-code/low-code integrations
- API clients & SDKs
Enterprise plan
- 200 Upload API calls/min
- 1000 Write API calls/min
- 2500 Read API calls/min
- Audit Logs (up to 60 days) & Domain Referrer
- Isolated storage
- Security Reviews
- 99.999% + SLA credits
- Signed MSA, SLA, DPA
- Wire Transfer, Annual Billing, Payment schedules
- Customizable player
- Any video player (3rd party)
- HLS & MP4 output
- Upload by URL
- Custom domain
- Encoding from 240p to 4K
- Adaptive Delivery
- Concurrent Live Stream
- Simulcasting / Restreaming
- Live stream DVR functionality
- Record a live stream
- Encoding from 240p to 4K
- Adaptive Delivery
- 24/7 Live streaming
- Low-latency
- RTMPS and SRT protocols
- Video transcription
- Video translation
- Video summarization
- Generate Thumbnail
- Trimming / Clipping
- Watermark
- Captions
- Chapters
- Upload your own Thumbnail
- 1 month Analytics Retention
- 3 months Analytics Retention
- 12 months Analytics Retention
- Usage Analytics per Project
- Webhooks
- Metadata & video tagging
- Video analytics
- Data visualization
- Basic API Authentication
- Advanced API Authentication
- Private Video
- Private Live Stream
- Delegated Upload Tokens
- Domain referer playback restrictions
- AES Encryption 128bits
- Video Restore
- Ecosystem Catalog (see dedicated section)
- Direct Upload
- Progressive Upload
- Video Import Tool
- Delivery on the CDN (worldwide)
- Delivery on origin
- Backup & Recovery
- Accessing mezzanine files
- Normalization
- Analytics plugins for 3rd party players
- Built-in HTML5 player
- Native Android & iOS mobile player
- Screen & webcam recording SDKs
- CMS & no-code/low-code integrations
- API clients & SDKs
Free
- 25 GB storage
- 1 user only
- High-quality recording studio
- Screen and webcam recording
- Virtual backgrounds and layouts
- Built-in teleprompter
- Automatic backups and local recording
- Agentic video editing
- Transcript-based editing
- Enhance speech
- AI silence and filler removal
- AI highlights and social clips
- Royalty free background music
- Time-coded commenting
- Professional hosting
- Customizable player
- Video SEO
- No-code replace
- AI chaptering
- Remove Wistia branding
- Video Collections and playlists
- Centralized media library
- Folders and sub-folders
- File transfer
- Time-coded commenting
- Team accounts
- Automated transcripts and captions
- Transcript and caption translations
- Account and media-level analytics
- Embed location analytics
- Heatmaps and engagement graphs
- Social media integrations
- Private sharing
- Password protection
- Email support
Business
Popular- 250 GB storage
- 3 users included
- High-quality recording studio
- Screen and webcam recording
- Virtual backgrounds and layouts
- Built-in teleprompter
- Automatic backups and local recording
- Agentic video editing
- Transcript-based editing
- Enhance speech
- AI silence and filler removal
- AI highlights and social clips
- Royalty free background music
- Time-coded commenting
- Professional hosting
- Customizable player
- Video SEO
- No-code replace
- AI chaptering
- Remove Wistia branding
- Video Collections and playlists
- Centralized media library
- Folders and sub-folders
- File transfer
- Time-coded commenting
- Team accounts
- Automated transcripts and captions
- Transcript and caption translations
- Account and media-level analytics
- Embed location analytics
- Heatmaps and engagement graphs
- A/B testing
- Compare media performance
- Export data as CSV
- In-video CTAs
- Lead capture forms
- Social media integrations
- Email integrations
- Google Analytics integration
- Private sharing
- Password protection
- Expiring links
- Team accounts
- Email support
- Live chat
Enterprise
- 1TB storage
- Custom users
- High-quality recording studio
- Screen and webcam recording
- Virtual backgrounds and layouts
- Built-in teleprompter
- Automatic backups and local recording
- Agentic video editing
- Transcript-based editing
- Enhance speech
- AI silence and filler removal
- AI highlights and social clips
- Royalty free background music
- Time-coded commenting
- Professional hosting
- Customizable player
- Video SEO
- No-code replace
- AI chaptering
- Remove Wistia branding
- Video Collections and playlists
- Centralized media library
- Folders and sub-folders
- File transfer
- Time-coded commenting
- Team accounts
- Automated transcripts and captions
- Transcript and caption translations
- AI audio descriptions
- Video dubbing and lip syncing
- Account and media-level analytics
- Embed location analytics
- Heatmaps and engagement graphs
- A/B testing
- Compare media performance
- Export data as CSV
- In-video CTAs
- Lead capture forms
- Social media integrations
- Email integrations
- Google Analytics integration
- Live webinar hosting
- Simulive and pre-recorded events
- RTMP ingest
- Panelist and backstage mode
- Custom branding and design
- Event registration pages
- Embedded registration and event pages
- Automatic recording
- Live chat, Q&A, and polls
- Simulcast to LinkedIn Live
- Automated follow-up
- Registration and attendance tracking
- Attendee-level analytics
- Heatmaps and engagement graphs
- Source & UTM tracking
- Export registration and engagement data
- Private sharing
- Password protection
- Expiring links
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Video playback protection
- Team accounts
- Email support
- Live chat
- Customer success manager
api.video vs Wistia FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. api.video uses usage-based pricing, while Wistia goes with flat-rate. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. api.video: They're positioning as the developer-friendly, transparent-pricing alternative to Mux and Cloudflare Stream — similar usage-based model but with free encoding as a differentiator. That $0 encoding line is a direct shot at competitors who charge for transcoding, targeting cost-conscious dev teams building video into their apps. Wistia: Wistia sits in the mid-market sweet spot — not as cheap as Vimeo's entry tiers, but not Vidyard enterprise pricing either. They're clearly targeting marketing-focused teams who want video with analytics and lead gen, not just storage.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for api.video and Wistia and let you know when something moves.