What does AI video and image actually cost, and what's a sensible starter stack on a founder budget?

Rough 2026 numbers: $0.10-0.75 per generated second via APIs, or $10-90 a month for app subscriptions, so a 30-second AI spot costs $2-12 in raw generation, but budget for many discarded takes (the Kalshi ad burned 300-400 generations to get 15 usable clips). A workable starter stack is one generator (Flow/Veo or Sora), one avatar and voice pair (HeyGen plus ElevenLabs), and one editor (CapCut or Descript), all in for under $150 a month. Price per clip is a distraction; iteration volume is the real budget line.

A quick orientation. The real value is below: resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it.