{
  "claim": "One minute of 30 fps video costs $0.36 on the Meta Model API no matter how many objects are in it. On a rented H100 the same minute costs $0.050 at 16 objects and $0.147 at 128 — but under the November SAM 3 it cost $1.06 at 128, three times what the API charges.",
  "method": "API: $0.20 per 1,000 frames × 1,800 frames (60 s × 30 fps). Self-host: 1,800 ÷ fps seconds of one H100, billed at the median on-demand rate. Break-even utilisation = hourly rate ÷ the API spend one busy H100-hour would replace (fps × 3600 × $0.0002).",
  "source": "https://dev.meta.ai/docs/pricing-rate-limits",
  "captured": "2026-09-19",
  "note": "H100 rate is $3.38/GPU-hr, the median on-demand price across 39 providers reported by getdeploying.com on 2026-09-19; the cheapest in-stock listing that day was $1.25. Compute only — no storage, egress, idle time or engineering.",
  "columns": [
    {
      "key": "n",
      "label": "objects",
      "align": "right",
      "mono": true
    },
    {
      "key": "api",
      "label": "API / min",
      "align": "right",
      "mono": true
    },
    {
      "key": "self31",
      "label": "SAM 3.1 on H100 / min",
      "align": "right",
      "mono": true
    },
    {
      "key": "self3",
      "label": "SAM 3 Nov on H100 / min",
      "align": "right",
      "mono": true
    },
    {
      "key": "ratio",
      "label": "API ÷ SAM 3.1",
      "align": "right",
      "mono": true
    },
    {
      "key": "ratio3",
      "label": "API ÷ SAM 3 Nov",
      "align": "right",
      "mono": true
    },
    {
      "key": "be",
      "label": "break-even GPU utilisation",
      "align": "right",
      "mono": true
    }
  ],
  "rows": [
    {
      "n": "1",
      "api": "$0.36",
      "self31": "$0.050",
      "self3": "$0.064",
      "ratio": "7.2×",
      "ratio3": "5.64×",
      "be": "14%"
    },
    {
      "n": "2",
      "api": "$0.36",
      "self31": "$0.051",
      "self3": "$0.071",
      "ratio": "7.1×",
      "ratio3": "5.07×",
      "be": "14%"
    },
    {
      "n": "4",
      "api": "$0.36",
      "self31": "$0.052",
      "self3": "$0.086",
      "ratio": "6.9×",
      "ratio3": "4.20×",
      "be": "14%"
    },
    {
      "n": "8",
      "api": "$0.36",
      "self31": "$0.053",
      "self3": "$0.116",
      "ratio": "6.7×",
      "ratio3": "3.11×",
      "be": "15%"
    },
    {
      "n": "16",
      "api": "$0.36",
      "self31": "$0.056",
      "self3": "$0.172",
      "ratio": "6.4×",
      "ratio3": "2.09×",
      "be": "16%"
    },
    {
      "n": "32",
      "api": "$0.36",
      "self31": "$0.076",
      "self3": "$0.291",
      "ratio": "4.7×",
      "ratio3": "1.24×",
      "be": "21%"
    },
    {
      "n": "64",
      "api": "$0.36",
      "self31": "$0.112",
      "self3": "$0.563",
      "ratio": "3.2×",
      "ratio3": "0.64×",
      "be": "31%"
    },
    {
      "n": "128",
      "api": "$0.36",
      "self31": "$0.147",
      "self3": "$1.056",
      "ratio": "2.4×",
      "ratio3": "0.34×",
      "be": "41%"
    }
  ]
}