Arcads AI pricing
Currency: USD · Last verified May 20, 2026
Plans
Pricing tiers
Starter
$110
$90/mo billed annually annual
Solo DTC marketers evaluating Arcads or testing UGC ads at minimal volume
- 20 UGC-style videos per month
- Access to 300+ AI actors
- Multi-language script generation
- Basic brand kit setup
- Single user
- 20 videos/mo caps serious testing programs at week 1
- No bulk generation - generate one at a time
- Per-video cost is the worst in the lineup at $5.50
Growth
$310
$259/mo billed annually annual
DTC marketers and small agencies producing UGC at real-workflow volume
- 100 UGC-style videos per month
- Everything in Starter
- Bulk generation mode (10+ variants at once)
- Advanced brand kit + multi-brand support (up to 3 brands)
- Priority generation queue
- Up to 3 user seats
- Per-video cost still $3.10 - meaningfully above cheap UGC commissioning rates
- Brand-quality variance noticeable across the 300 stock actors
Scale
$910
$759/mo billed annually annual
Agencies and larger DTC brands running creator-style ads at full scale
- 500 UGC-style videos per month
- Everything in Growth
- Unlimited brand workspaces
- API access for programmatic generation
- Custom actor creation (additional fees per actor)
- Dedicated success manager
- Up to 10 user seats
- Annual commitment standard at this tier
- Custom actor setup is $500-2,000 per actor on top of the plan price
Shuttergen
Plans are about volume. Strategy isn't.
Arcads' plans price the volume of generic AI UGC. Shuttergen's free tier generates the strategy - so the 100 videos you ship are the right 100, not just 100.
Watch out
Hidden costs
Per-video pricing dominates the plan math
Each Arcads plan is fundamentally a per-video pricing model dressed as tiers. Starter: $5.50/video. Growth: $3.10/video. Scale: $1.82/video. The per-video economics push serious users up the plan ladder more than any feature constraint does.
Volume caps reset monthly, not rollover
Each plan's video cap resets monthly. Unused videos don't roll over to next month. Teams with uneven monthly volume effectively pay for capacity they don't use. Plan for typical-month volume, not peak-month volume.
Custom actors are a separate purchase
Beyond the 300 stock actors, custom actors (your own talent or branded characters) cost $500-2,000 one-time per actor. Useful for brands with consistent talent across campaigns but a real budget add-on above the plan price.
Translation features consume extra credits
Multi-language script generation is included. Advanced translation features (lip-sync match across languages) consume additional credits. Heavy translation workflows can blow through plan budgets faster than the headline video count suggests.
Overage billing kicks in past plan caps
Exceed your monthly cap and additional videos cost $5-7 each depending on tier. The cap-then-overage structure is designed to make plan upgrades the cheaper path - which they usually are.
How Arcads structures its plans
Arcads has three plans (Starter, Growth, Scale) plus optional Enterprise. The structure is unusually transparent for AI video tools - each tier is fundamentally about how many videos per month, with feature additions layered on top.
The plan-progression math is per-video economics. Starter at $5.50/video is the worst per-video deal but the lowest commitment. Growth at $3.10/video is the value sweet spot. Scale at $1.82/video is the cheapest per-video but requires real volume to justify.
Feature differentiation matters less than volume differentiation. All plans get the same 300+ actors, the same language coverage, the same core capabilities. What changes by tier is volume + collaboration features (seats, bulk generation, custom actors).
There's no free tier. Arcads has historically resisted offering free tiers, preferring 7-day money-back guarantees on Starter as the trial mechanism. This filters out low-intent users but limits self-serve adoption.
Per-plan upgrade triggers
Starter to Growth: the 20-video cap. Most serious users hit this in the first week. The cap is the primary mechanism converting Starter customers to Growth - the product is functionally not usable for sustained workflow at 20 videos/month.
Starter to Growth: bulk generation. Once you want to test 10+ variants of the same hook with different actors, the one-at-a-time generation flow on Starter becomes prohibitively slow. Growth's bulk mode is the real workflow unlock.
Growth to Scale: video volume past 100/month. Active DTC creative testing programs ship 100+ UGC variants per month. Past the cap, you're paying overage at $5-7/video - more expensive than just upgrading to Scale.
Growth to Scale: multi-brand workspaces. Agencies serving multiple clients hit the 3-brand limit at Growth. Scale's unlimited workspaces are the agency unlock.
Growth to Scale: API access. Programmatic generation (feeding scripts from your CRM or campaign automation) requires Scale. The API is the technical unlock that justifies Scale for sophisticated buyers.
Plans are about volume. Strategy isn't. Arcads' plans price the volume of generic AI UGC. Shuttergen's free tier generates the strategy - so the 100 videos you ship are the right 100, not just 100.
Which plan fits which buyer profile
Starter ($110/mo) is for evaluation, not workflow. 20 videos/mo is enough to test whether Arcads' AI UGC output quality fits your brand and whether the workflow makes sense. Not enough for sustained creative testing. Most Starter customers convert to Growth within 30 days or churn.
Growth ($310/mo) is for active DTC operators producing UGC at meaningful volume. 100 videos/mo supports a real creative testing program - hooks, archetypes, angles, variants. This is the plan most paying Arcads users actually sit on long-term. The per-video economics work and the feature set is complete for individual workflows.
Scale ($910/mo) is for agencies and bigger DTC brands running at full scale. 500 videos/mo supports 5-10 active campaigns simultaneously across multiple brands. Multi-brand workspaces, 10 seats, API access - the plan for teams that have committed to AI UGC as a primary creative production channel.
Enterprise (custom pricing) is for the largest buyers. Custom video volume, custom actor packages, dedicated infrastructure, multi-year contracts. Most teams don't reach this tier; pricing typically starts at $2,000+/mo with year-plus commitment.
When Arcads plans don't fit any buyer
Solo creators producing 1-5 videos per month: none of Arcads' plans work. The Starter cost ($110/mo) is too high for low volume. Use Captions ($25/mo) or Creatify entry tier ($45/mo) for solo low-volume workflows.
Premium brands where authenticity matters: Arcads' AI UGC output has a recognizable feel that sophisticated audiences identify. Premium brands competing on authenticity should pay real creators or use Shuttergen's intel-informed approach to avoid generic AI UGC patterns.
B2B SaaS marketers: Arcads' UGC actors are tuned for DTC consumer use cases. B2B explanation, thought leadership, or product demo content fits HeyGen or Synthesia better than Arcads.
Brands needing format diversity: Arcads is UGC-specialist only. If you need explainers, talking-head ads, animated content, or live-action production, Arcads doesn't cover the use case. Multi-format tools like Creatify or HeyGen fit better.
Internal: arcads-ai-pricing, arcads-ai-pricing-2026, arcads-ugc-pricing.
FAQ
Frequently asked
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Do unused videos roll over month-to-month?
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Plans are about volume. Strategy isn't.
Arcads' plans price the volume of generic AI UGC. Shuttergen's free tier generates the strategy - so the 100 videos you ship are the right 100, not just 100.