Meta SAM 3 Credit Purchase AI Power for Images, Video & 3D

Meta SAM 3 Credit shows you what it really costs to segment and track anything so you can choose the smartest mix of free demos, paid credits, and self-hosting for your image, video, and 3D workloads.

Business Innovation

Meta SAM 3 Credit – How Credits & Pricing Work Around Segment Anything 3

When people search for Meta SAM 3 Credit, they usually want to know how much it costs to use SAM 3 and how different platforms charge “credits” for image or video segmentations.

Important first point:

Meta itself does not sell “SAM 3 credits”.
The SAM 3 and SAM 3D models are open-source research releases. You can download and run them yourself (subject to the SAM License) without any built-in credit system. 

Credits only appear on third-party platforms that host SAM 3 for you in the cloud. Below is a structured breakdown.


1. What “credit” means for Meta SAM 3

A SAM 3 credit is not an official unit from Meta.
Instead, each hosting platform defines its own “credits”, for example:

  • 1 credit might equal one image segmentation

  • or N seconds of video processed

  • or a bundle of GPU time + storage + extra tools

The idea is always the same: credits = pre-paid usage of SAM 3 (and sometimes SAM 3D) on someone else’s infrastructure.


2. Official Meta view: SAM 3 is open, pricing is external

Meta has:

The cost model from Meta’s side is basically:

  • Self-host: You pay only your own GPU/compute cost.

  • Playground: Free research demo (no public “credit” pricing; the limitation is mainly usage caps and demo terms).

All “credit packages” come from third-party SAM 3 tooling, not Meta itself.


3. Examples of SAM 3 credit systems on popular platforms

3.1 SegmentLens / SAM3.ai – credit bundles for power users

SegmentLens (sam3.ai) is an “intelligent image platform” powered by SAM 3.

On its homepage, it advertises use as completely free for basic browser segmentation — no subscription or credit card required.

However, it also offers paid credit packages for heavier or premium use:

  • Standard – $29.99

    • ~550 AI credits

    • 90-day validity

    • 50 bonus credits

    • Priority support

  • Pro – $79.99 (marked “Most Popular”)

    • ~1,600 AI credits

    • 90-day validity

    • 150 bonus credits

    • Premium support

  • Max – $199.99

    • ~4,500 AI credits

    • 365-day validity

    • 500 bonus credits

    • Premium support

Exact “credits per task” can vary by feature (resolution, batch size, etc.), but the pattern is: pay once → spend credits on image tasks over time.


3.2 RunComfy – per-second video pricing with credits

RunComfy hosts several SAM 3 tools (image-to-image, video-to-video) and exposes an API.

For SAM 3 video-to-video segmentation, RunComfy lists:

  • Approx. $0.005 per second of video processed

  • Usage is paid using RunComfy credits (you get some free trial credits, then buy more).

For image-to-image API calls, they expose a REST endpoint and price per call; billing again runs through the platform’s own credits.

This model is ideal if you have lots of short clips and want API-style metered billing.


3.3 SAM 3D – Image to 3D Online (Toolify / SAM3D.org)

Some services combine SAM 3 + SAM 3D into subscription plans with monthly credits.

One example is a “SAM 3D – Image to 3D Online” tool that offers: 

  • Basic – $15 / month

    • 500 credits per month

    • 100 image segmentations

    • 50 high-quality images

    • SAM 3 cutouts + SAM 3D objects & body

    • Priority speed, commercial usage rights, short cloud storage

  • Pro – $60 / month

    • 2,000 credits

    • 400 segmentations

    • 200 HQ images

    • Longer storage

  • Max – $180 / month

    • 6,000 credits

    • 1,200 segmentations

    • 600 HQ images

    • Long-term cloud storage

Here, credits cover both 2D segmentation and 3D reconstruction, so each 3D job usually eats more credits than a simple mask.


3.4 Other credit-based APIs (Segmind, etc.)

Providers like Segmind list SAM 3 video APIs with per-call or per-duration pricing (e.g., around a few cents per ~25 seconds of video), sometimes expressed directly in dollars, sometimes via internal credits.

Ultralytics, Roboflow, and others integrate SAM 3 in their platforms as well; many offer:

  • A free tier with a limited number of requests

  • Paid tiers using either:

    • Monthly quotas (X tasks per month), or

    • Pay-as-you-go credits


4. How many SAM 3 credits does a task use?

Because credits are platform-specific, there is no single “official” mapping. But typical patterns look like this:

  • Simple image segmentation:

    • 1 request = a few credits (or a small fixed dollar amount).

  • High-resolution or batch images:

    • More credits per request, or counted separately as “HQ images”. 

  • Video segmentation:

    • Charged per second of processed video (RunComfy uses about $0.005/sec as of late 2026).

  • 3D reconstruction with SAM 3D:

    • More expensive than plain 2D cuts, so often charged extra credits or locked to higher subscription tiers.

Always check the pricing page of the specific service you’re using; there’s no global “Meta SAM 3 credit table.”


5. Self-hosting SAM 3 instead of buying credits

If you don’t want a credit system at all, you can:

  1. Download models and code from Meta’s official repos or integrations (Hugging Face, PyPI, Ultralytics).

  2. Run SAM 3 on your own GPU server or cloud instance.

  3. Your “cost” becomes:

    • GPU rental / electricity

    • Storage & bandwidth

    • Engineering time

This is usually cheaper for large, ongoing workloads, but more work to set up.


6. How to choose the best “Meta SAM 3 credit” option

Use free playgrounds if:

  • You just want to explore SAM 3 features.

  • You only process a handful of images or short clips.

Use credit bundles / SaaS tools if:

  • You’re a creator or small team doing regular editing (many clips or 3D assets).

  • You want priority speed, cloud storage, and easy UI.

Self-host SAM 3 / SAM 3D if:

  • You have very high volume or latency-sensitive workloads.

  • You need strict privacy/compliance (e.g., internal medical or industrial data).

  • You have access to GPUs and engineering support.


Quick summary

  • Meta SAM 3 itself is open and doesn’t have built-in “credits”.

  • Credits come from third-party platforms that host SAM 3 / SAM 3D.

  • Typical systems charge per image, per second of video, or per 3D job, bundled into monthly or one-time credit packs.

 

AI RESEARCH FROM META

Introducing Segment Anything Model 3 (SAM 3) - the future of segmentation is promptable. Use text or visual prompts to instantly identify, segment, and track any object in images or video. Coming soon to Instagram Edits and Meta AI's Vibes.