MakeUGC vs Arcads Pricing, Cost Per AI UGC Video Ad Compared

MakeUGC is cheaper than Arcads for almost every AI UGC ad buyer. At the entry level the two land within a dollar of each other, about $11 to $12 per one-actor video, but MakeUGC sells quarterly and annual billing that halves its price, while Arcads' public figures stop at $110 and $220 a month with no annual discount. Arcads wins on refunds and, on its top tier, on credits that roll over. Here is the math, from each vendor's own pricing page and help center.

Which is cheaper, MakeUGC or Arcads?

MakeUGC is cheaper once you look past the monthly card. Its Startup plan is $59 a month for 500 credits, and its own pricing script counts 100 credits as one video, so one video costs $11.80. Arcads Starter was last published at $110 a month for 8,000 credits, and its help center prices a talking actor at 800 credits per minute, which is ten one-minute videos, or $11 each. So on monthly billing the gap is 80 cents. On annual billing MakeUGC Startup drops to $29 a month and a video to $5.80, which Arcads has no published answer to.

Two caveats matter. First, Arcads now puts its prices behind a login, so the $110 and $220 figures are the last ones it published, and our Arcads pricing page tracks them. Second, MakeUGC's per-video figure is its own yardstick, not a hard rate. A longer script, 4K or a premium model burns more credits. The full breakdown for every billing cycle is on our MakeUGC pricing page.

How much does one video cost on MakeUGC vs Arcads?

A one-actor, one-minute talking video costs $11 on either Arcads plan and between $4.98 and $11.80 on MakeUGC monthly, depending on the plan. Arcads does not get cheaper per credit between Starter and Creator: $110 buys 8,000 credits and $220 buys 16,000, the same 1.375 cents a credit. MakeUGC does get cheaper, but slowly. Growth is 7.9 cents a credit, Pro 2,000 is 7.45 and only the 5,000 credit Pro tier falls to 5 cents.

The number that actually decides your bill is how many takes you throw away. Both tools charge for every generation. Arcads rounds duration up and multiplies by the number of actors in the scene, so a two-actor skit costs 1,600 credits a minute. If you keep one take in three, a $11 Arcads video is really $33 in the ad account, and a $7.90 MakeUGC Growth video is $23.70. Neither vendor publishes a keep rate, so run ten of your own scripts through the cheapest plan before you buy volume.

Does Arcads or MakeUGC have a free trial?

Neither offers a free plan for ad work. MakeUGC runs a $1 trial on every platform plan that renews at the full price, and its checkout links are labelled 72 hours on monthly plans and 24 hours on quarterly and annual ones. Its trial policy also allows one trial per person or business and can charge the full monthly fee straight away if it decides a second trial was taken on a linked card. Arcads' refund policy refers to a trial that auto-charges, with a refund possible within 24 hours if no credits were used since the charge.

In practice, both trials are a card-on-file test with a short fuse. Put the renewal time in your calendar the moment you start, and do not start a MakeUGC trial on the annual toggle unless you are ready to pay for the year a day later.

Which has the better refund policy?

Arcads, clearly. Its refund policy returns the full charge for any billing period in which you used zero credits, as long as you ask within 30 days, and gives a 24 hour change-of-mind refund on a first signup. MakeUGC gives a full refund only within three business days of a purchase or renewal, 50 percent if you used under half your credits, nothing after half, and nothing once a plan has been active two weeks. A refunded MakeUGC account is closed and its videos deleted.

Both refuse cash refunds once you have generated. Arcads will restore credits for generations that failed because of a platform error, within 30 days. If your team signs several creative tool subscriptions a year, logging each vendor's renewal date and refund window in a contract management tool is the simplest way to stop a three-day window from quietly closing.

Do MakeUGC and Arcads credits roll over?

MakeUGC credits never roll over. Its pricing FAQ says credits refresh each billing cycle and unused ones expire at the end of the month. Arcads splits it by plan: on Starter and Creator credits reset each cycle and do not roll over, while on PRO and higher plans unused credits roll over and accumulate. That is the one structural reason a high-volume team might pick Arcads Pro despite the higher sticker, because a slow week does not burn money.

What do you get for the money?

The plans are priced close together but buy different things.

• Actors and languages. MakeUGC advertises 1,000 plus AI creators and 50 plus languages on every plan. Arcads is known for a large, polished actor library and fine emotion control.
• Product in hand. MakeUGC puts product-in-hand videos on Pro, from $149 a month or $79 yearly. If your ads need a creator holding the product, that is your real MakeUGC entry price.
• Other video models. Arcads bills Veo 3.1, Kling, Seedance, Sora 2 and Grok clips from the same credit pool. Its help center lists Seedance 2.0 at 1080p at 432 to 1,620 credits and Veo 3.1 at 800. MakeUGC bundles 30 days of unlimited Seedance 2.5 on paid plans, but the promo only starts after the $1 trial and runs in the slower standard queue.
• API. MakeUGC sells a self-serve API from $99 a month for 2,000 credits. Arcads offers API access on its custom PRO plan.

Is MakeUGC or Arcads better for ecommerce ads?

For a DTC brand testing ten to twenty UGC-style hooks a month, MakeUGC Growth or Pro on annual billing is the better value, because it is the only one of the two that gets cheaper with commitment and it covers product-in-hand on Pro. Arcads is the better pick if you want the most polished actors, need to mix several video models in one account, value a 30 day zero-usage refund, or will negotiate a PRO plan where credits roll over.

If what you actually need is a steady supply of short creator ads for Meta and TikTok at a price you can predict, there is a third option. UGCGen prices in finished creator video instead of credits. Starter is $49 a month, or $24 billed yearly, and covers about 20 short ads with five hook variations each, with a 14 day money-back guarantee on the first purchase. You can watch example ads before you sign up, then paste a product URL and get your first ad in minutes once your plan is active. The side-by-side against both tools is on our MakeUGC alternative and Arcads alternative pages.

How to choose in ten minutes

1. Count the finished ads you ship in a normal month, then multiply by your throwaway rate. That is your real generation count.
2. Decide whether you need a product held on camera. If yes, price MakeUGC from Pro.
3. Decide whether you will commit for a year. If yes, MakeUGC's annual price halves every figure above. If no, the monthly gap between the two is small.
4. Check the refund window you can live with: 30 days of zero usage at Arcads, three business days at MakeUGC.
5. Run the same script on the cheapest plan of each, or on a tool that shows you an ad before you pay, and compare the output on a phone, not a monitor.

For every AI UGC tool lined up per finished ad, including Creatify, HeyGen and Tagshop, see our AI UGC pricing guide.