MediaTofuMediaTofu vs Rendi
MediaTofu vs Rendi
Rendi and MediaTofu both run FFmpeg commands in the cloud. Rendi meters processing as the sum of input and output file sizes (Free 50 GB/month; Pro from $25/month with 250 GB, then $0.10/GB). MediaTofu meters FFmpeg compute time: Pay per use at $0.024/min billed by the second, plus Free/Starter/Pro plans.
Example
curl "https://api.mediatofu.com/v1/run?wait=25" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $MEDIATOFU_KEY" \
-d '{
"input_files": { "in": "https://example.com/clip.mov" },
"output_files": { "out": "small.mp4" },
"ffmpeg_command": "-i {{in}} -vf scale=1280:-2 -crf 26 {{out}}"
}'MediaTofu example. Rendi uses its own REST command format—see their docs for the equivalent call.
Billing unit
Rendi's docs describe processing as input size plus output size, with no separate egress fees on the published pricing page. MediaTofu charges for compute seconds while FFmpeg runs; queue wait and file transfer do not count. Which meter is cheaper depends on file size versus encode time: large files with light work favor time-based billing, while heavy encodes on small files favor size-based billing.
Plans snapshot
Rendi Free: $0/month, 50 GB processing, up to 1 minute command run time, card verification required for Free per their FAQ. Rendi Pro starts at $25/month for 4 vCPUs and 250 GB. MediaTofu: Free 5 compute minutes/month, Pay per use $0.024/min, Starter $9/month, Pro $19/month.
Product focus
Rendi emphasizes stored files, chained commands, and vCPU-tiered Pro plans. MediaTofu emphasizes a fresh disposable container per job, named tool endpoints, and second-level compute billing.
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 1 minute, inputs up to 500 MB. 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 or one over your plan's size limit. If your command runs and FFmpeg exits with an error, or the job reaches your plan's length limit, the seconds it used count.
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.