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.