Deepfake Detection API Cost Calculator

✓ Last checked: 2026-08-18· Presets are representative of public pricing shapes· report a change →

Hive Moderation, Sensity and Reality Defender each price deepfake/synthetic-media detection differently — per-unit, flat per-scan, or monthly-minimum with overage. Model your own image/video check mix to see which pricing shape actually wins.

Why image and video checks don't cost the same

Deepfake and synthetic-media detection vendors (Hive Moderation, Sensity, Reality Defender and similar tools) all return an authenticity verdict, but the compute behind that verdict differs enormously by media type. A single image check runs one pass through a classifier. A video check has to sample and score many frames plus, for the better detectors, audio and lip-sync consistency — routinely 5-10x the compute of an image check. Vendors that charge per-unit (Hive Moderation-style, roughly $0.003 per image and $0.02 per video) reflect that cost difference directly in the price. Vendors that charge one flat per-scan rate regardless of media type (Sensity-style) are effectively cross-subsidizing: an image-heavy integration pays more than its marginal cost, and a video-heavy one pays less, relative to a granular per-unit vendor.

Enterprise vendors like Reality Defender typically don't publish per-check pricing at all — they sell a monthly platform commitment that bundles a set number of checks, with a lower overage rate for anything beyond that bundle. Below the included-checks threshold, you're paying for capacity you didn't use, so per-unit or flat per-scan pricing is nearly always cheaper. Once your volume consistently clears that threshold, the monthly-minimum's lower marginal overage rate usually wins because the platform fee gets amortized over more checks — the crossover point depends entirely on your included-checks bundle size and how far past it your real volume runs. Model both your image/video mix and total monthly volume before assuming a headline "starting at" enterprise price is representative of your actual bill.

How this calculator works

The Deepfake Detection API Cost Calculator compares three pricing shapes used by synthetic-media/deepfake detection vendors at your monthly image and video check volume: per-unit (Hive Moderation-style — separate rates for images and video, reflecting the higher compute cost of video analysis), flat per-scan (Sensity-style — one price per check regardless of media type), and monthly-minimum (Reality Defender-style — a flat platform fee that includes a bundle of checks, with a lower per-check overage rate beyond that bundle).

These are representative pricing shapes based on publicly documented rate structures, not live vendor quotes — enterprise deepfake-detection vendors frequently require a sales call for exact pricing, so treat the monthly-minimum inputs as your own negotiated estimate and adjust before budgeting.

Frequently asked questions

How much does deepfake detection cost per check?

It depends on the pricing shape. Per-unit vendors like Hive Moderation charge separately for images (around $0.003 each) and video analysis (around $0.02 each), so cost scales with your image/video mix. Flat per-scan vendors like Sensity charge one price regardless of media type. Enterprise vendors like Reality Defender typically sell a monthly platform minimum that includes a bundle of checks, with overage billed per check beyond that bundle — so small-volume users pay far more per check than the headline rate suggests.

Is deepfake detection cheaper per-unit or with a monthly minimum plan?

It crosses over based on volume. Below the included-checks threshold of a monthly-minimum plan, you're paying for capacity you don't use, so per-unit or flat per-scan pricing is cheaper. Once your volume consistently exceeds the included bundle, the monthly-minimum plan's lower overage rate usually wins because the platform fee gets amortized over more checks. Model your actual monthly check volume rather than comparing headline per-check rates directly.

Do video and image deepfake checks cost the same?

No — video analysis is almost always priced higher than a single image check because it requires processing many frames plus audio/lip-sync consistency checks rather than one static frame. Vendors that charge a single flat per-scan rate are effectively cross-subsidizing: image-heavy users pay more than their marginal cost, and video-heavy users pay less, compared to a granular per-unit vendor.