Alternatives / Video transcoding API
What a video transcoding API costs
Closed Circuit encodes HD video at $0.01 per output-minute. You prepay from $5. The HLS lands in your bucket, or ours. Mux, AWS MediaConvert, Cloudflare Stream, and Qencode bill a different shape of the same job.
Rates below were checked against each vendor's pricing page on 21 September 2026. List prices move. The page is the encode line only, not a full video-platform bill.
Cost calculator
One rendition, AVC, 30 fps or below. AWS volume tiers treat this encode as the whole month in US East (Ohio). Change the Cloudflare fields if you store a library or have viewers. Those are not encode.
Pricing
Files in your bucket: Closed Circuit and Qencode are both $10.00. Closed Circuit is prepaid from $5 and does not sell delivery.
Hosted playback is separate. Mux Basic encode is $0, then Mux bills storage and delivery and keeps the file. Cloudflare Stream encode is $0. Storage for 1,000 minutes is $5.00 this month. Delivery for 0 minutes watched is $0.00.
| Vendor | Encode | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Closed Circuit | $10.00 | Your bucket or ours. No delivery fee. Prepaid from $5. |
| Mux Basic | $0.00 | Storage and delivery are extra. The file stays on Mux. |
| Mux Plus, up to 720p | $25.00 | Same storage and delivery as Basic. Steps down after 5,000, 15,000, and 25,000 minutes. |
| AWS MediaConvert Basic | $15.00 | S3 and CloudFront are extra. SD is 1×, HD is 2×, 4K is 4× normalized minutes. |
| Cloudflare Stream | $0.00 | Storage $5.00. Delivery $0.00. Playback stays on Cloudflare. |
| Qencode | $10.00 | H.264 base rate. Their CDN is $0.017/GB if you use it. |
HD on this form is 720p. Closed Circuit's published HD rate still covers 720p through 1440p at $0.01. Mux Plus 1080p starts at $0.03125 for the first 5,000 minutes, which is not the 720p rate used here. AWS past 20 million normalized minutes stays at the last rate checked, $0.0038. Rates checked 21 September 2026.
One thousand HD minutes
One rendition, AVC, 30 fps or below, one hour of source expanded to 1,000 output-minutes. Storage and delivery are separate products. Where a vendor does not sell encode on its own, the cell says so.
| Vendor | This job | What else you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Closed Circuit, HD | $10 | Nothing for delivery. Storage is your bucket, or ours and not in this rate. |
| Mux Basic encode | $0 | Storage from $0.0024 per minute per month at 720p. Delivery $0.0008 per minute at 720p after 100,000 free minutes. Video lives on Mux. |
| Mux Plus, 720p encode | $25 | Same storage and delivery as Basic. Plus starts at $0.025 per minute for the first 5,000 minutes, then steps down. |
| AWS MediaConvert Basic HD | $15 at list | S3 and CloudFront are separate. Past the first 100,000 normalized minutes the HD minute drops to about $0.0106, then about $0.0076. |
| Cloudflare Stream | $0 to encode | $5 to store those 1,000 minutes for a month. $1 per 1,000 minutes watched. Playback is on Cloudflare. |
| Qencode, HD H.264 | $10 | Their page lists SD from $0.005 per output-minute and delivery at $0.017 per GB if you use their CDN. |
Closed Circuit 4K is $0.025 per output-minute. Mux Plus 4K encode starts at $0.10 per minute. Qencode's published 4K base rate is $0.045 per output-minute. AWS 4K uses a higher multiplier than HD. The figure above is HD only.
These are not the same product
Mux and Cloudflare Stream store the master and play it. Encode is a line on that bill, and on Basic or Stream it is zero. You are paying them to be the video platform.
AWS MediaConvert writes files into your account. The Basic tier is a web ladder: AVC, VP8, VP9, no captions, no DRM. The Professional tier is the broadcast product (HEVC, AV1, captions, DRM, Dolby, accelerated transcoding) and it uses a different rate card, starting at $0.012 per normalized minute in the same AWS example. A Professional HD minute is not $0.015.
Qencode is a transcode cloud. On HD H.264 the published output-minute rate matches ours. The reason to pick one or the other is not that penny. Qencode also sells a CDN. We do not.
Closed Circuit is the encode job. POST a source, get an H.264 HLS ladder on a webhook, 360p through 4K. Optional HEVC, and a DASH manifest of those renditions. Hosted API, prepaid credits, bring your own S3 or R2 bucket or use ours. The same account covers transcription, audio, and images.
Who should use which
- Mux or Cloudflare Stream if you want their player and their CDN, and Basic quality is enough. Encode is free. You will pay storage and delivery instead, and the asset lives with them.
- Mux Plus if you want their higher encode quality and you are already on Mux. Budget $0.025 per 720p minute before storage and delivery.
- AWS MediaConvert if the Professional feature list is the job, or if your volume is high enough that the discounted HD minute beats $0.01 and you already live in AWS.
- Qencode if you want a transcode cloud at the same HD rate and you may want their delivery.
- Closed Circuit if you have a bucket and a player, you want HD ladders at $0.01 per output-minute, and you do not want a monthly platform plan. Community operators on CC Community use this same pipeline.
Questions
How much does a GPU video transcoding API cost?
Ours is $0.01 per HD output-minute, $0.0075 for SD, $0.025 for 4K. Prepaid from $5. One credit is $0.01. Credits do not expire. Mux Plus 720p encode starts at $0.025. AWS MediaConvert Basic HD is about $0.015 per output-minute at the US East (Ohio) list rate. Cloudflare Stream's encode fee is zero.
Is Closed Circuit cheaper than Mux?
Cheaper than Mux Plus encode. Not cheaper than Mux Basic, because Mux Basic does not charge for encode. Mux still charges to store and deliver, and the file stays on Mux. If that is the product you want, buy Mux.
Does Cloudflare Stream charge for encoding?
No. Storage is $5 per 1,000 minutes per month. Delivery is $1 per 1,000 minutes watched. Encoding is included because they keep the video and play it. We charge for the encode and we do not bill the watching.
When is AWS MediaConvert cheaper?
At list, no, not for Basic HD: AWS's own example uses a 2× multiplier on the $0.0075 normalized-minute rate, which is $0.015. After 100,000 normalized minutes the rate is $0.0053 (about $0.0106 per HD minute). On the following tier, $0.0038, an HD minute is about $0.0076, under our price. Professional-tier features are a separate card and cost more than Basic.
If the job is the encode
Create an account and buy a $5 pack, or read the API page. If you are comparing community software rather than a transcoding bill, that is a different page.