MediaTofuFFmpeg API alternatives compared
FFmpeg API alternatives compared
Here is a side-by-side of publicly listed meters (fetched 2026-11-09). MediaTofu Pay per use is $0.024/min of FFmpeg compute by the second. Other vendors publish credit packs, GB processing, GB-seconds, or Compose minutes—read each source before you model cost.
Example
curl "https://api.mediatofu.com/v1/tools/video/compress?wait=25" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $MEDIATOFU_KEY" \
-d '{ "input": "https://example.com/clip.mov", "crf": 28 }'With ?wait=25 a short job can return its result in the same request. Short jobs typically take about 5–15 seconds including container start. Leave wait off and poll GET /v1/jobs/:id, or pass webhook_url on a paid plan.
Published meters (list prices)
MediaTofu: Free 5 compute min/mo; Pay per use $0.024/min; Starter $9/mo (600 min then overage); Pro $19/mo (1,500 min then overage). FFmpeg API Cloud: prepaid packs $12 / $49 / $149 at $0.600 / $0.525 / $0.471 per minute. Rendi: Free 50 GB processing/mo; Pro from $25/mo with 250 GB then $0.10/GB. Xora: Free 25 credits/mo; Build $15/400 credits; Scale $49/1,500 credits (1 credit = 1 machine minute + 10 credits/GB output). Rendobar: Free with $5 signup credit; Pro $9/mo; Studio $29/mo; Compose $0.04/min finished video; no public FFmpeg $/min listed. ffmpeg-api.com: Starter $11/mo (500 GB-seconds); Pro $39/mo (2,000 GB-seconds); Growth $99/mo (5,000 GB-seconds).
How to read the table
These units are not interchangeable. Compute minutes, machine credits, processing GB, GB-seconds, and Compose output minutes measure different things. Use the linked pricing pages for current limits, and prefer a small real job when you need a cost estimate.
When MediaTofu fits
Choose MediaTofu when you want sandboxed FFmpeg per job, named video and image tools, MCP with video_* and image_* tool names, and second-level compute billing without a separate output-GB fee on the published plans.
Sources
Questions
What does MediaTofu cost?
Free: $0, 5 minutes of compute a month, jobs up to 1 minute, inputs up to 50 MB, 1 job at a time. Pay per use: $0.024 per compute minute, billed by the second, no monthly fee. Jobs up to 5 minutes, inputs up to 2 GB, 3 jobs at once. Starter: $9/month includes 600 minutes, then $0.015 a minute. Jobs up to 5 minutes, inputs up to 2 GB. Pro: $19/month includes 1,500 minutes, then $0.0127 a minute. Jobs up to 10 minutes, inputs up to 2 GB.
Do failed jobs cost anything?
A failure on our side is never charged, and neither is an input we couldn't download, one over your plan's size limit, or an image that could not be read. If your command runs and FFmpeg exits with an error, or the job reaches your plan's length limit, the seconds it used count. Nothing retries automatically.
How do I get the result?
Add ?wait=25 and a short job can return its result in the same request. Short jobs typically take about 5–15 seconds including container start. 25 seconds is the longest wait. Otherwise you get a job id to check with GET /v1/jobs/:id, or on a paid plan you can pass webhook_url and we POST the result to you.