Vimeo vs api.video Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
Starter
- Customizable video player
- Password privacy & unlisted links
- Review & collaboration tools New
- Transfer video files
- Engagement analytics
Standard
Popular- Branding in the player
- Third party player support
- Custom watermark
- Branded video galleries
- Lead capture
- Calls to action and custom cards
Advanced
- Hosted livestreamed events
- Events Q&A, polls, and chat
- Stream to multiple destinations
- DVR streaming
- Scheduled simulive
- Live event-level analytics
- Marketing automation integrations
Enterprise
- Custom permissions
- Advanced AI capabilities
- SSO (SAML) and SCIM (OKTA, AZURE)
- Advanced analytics and marketing integrations
- Events with polling and Live Q&A
- Quality events (backup streams, eCDN)
- Dedicated support
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
Vimeo vs api.video 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. Vimeo uses flat-rate pricing, while api.video goes with usage-based. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Vimeo: Vimeo sits in the mid-market sweet spot — more polished and professional than YouTube, but significantly cheaper than enterprise video platforms like Brightcove or Kaltura. They're going after creative professionals and marketing teams who've outgrown free tools but don't need broadcast-scale infrastructure. 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.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for Vimeo and api.video and let you know when something moves.