AIOZ Stream Transcoding Pricing vs AWS and Google Cloud

Transcoding is usually the least transparent line item on a video infrastructure bill. Storage and delivery get quoted in simple per-GB numbers; transcoding gets buried in tiers, codecs, and "contact sales" pricing pages. AIOZ Stream publishes a flat per-minute transcoding rate with no volume tiers to decode. Here is what it actually charges, checked directly against AWS MediaConvert's and Google Cloud Transcoder API's own published pricing.

TL;DR:

• AIOZ Stream charges $0.01/min up to HD, $0.02/min at 2K, and $0.05/min at 4K, flat, with no volume tiers.
• That undercuts Google Cloud Transcoder API's published HD and 4K rates.
• AWS MediaConvert doesn't publish a comparable flat rate at all, so a clean side-by-side stops working at exactly the point AWS gets involved.

What AIOZ Stream actually charges for transcoding

AIOZ Stream's published transcoding rate is $0.01 per minute of output up to HD, $0.02 per minute at 2K, and $0.05 per minute at 4K. It's billed from the same AIOZ token balance as storage and delivery, with no separate volume-discount schedule to check before you can predict a bill. One rate per resolution tier, and that's the whole pricing model.

How that compares to Google Cloud and AWS

Google Cloud's numbers above are its own published, flat per-minute rates: no tiers, no multipliers, directly comparable. At HD, AIOZ Stream's $0.01/min is a third of Google's $0.03/min. At 4K, AIOZ's $0.05/min still undercuts Google's $0.06/min, though by a much smaller margin.

Why AWS doesn't fit cleanly into this table

AWS Elemental MediaConvert doesn't price by a flat dollar-per-minute rate at all. Its own pricing page uses normalized-minute multipliers, where SD, HD, and 4K each get a different multiplier against a base rate, and that base rate itself changes with monthly volume tiers and region. AWS's own pricing page includes worked examples using $0.0075/min for SD and $0.0150/min for HD, but labeled as illustrative figures for one specific region, not a published universal rate. Read literally, that SD example undercuts AIOZ Stream's rate, while the HD example is more expensive than AIOZ Stream's rate for the same tier, and AWS doesn't publish a comparable illustrative figure for 4K at all. The honest comparison is: AWS might be cheaper or more expensive than AIOZ Stream depending on your region, your monthly volume, and which resolution you're transcoding to, and there's no single number that settles it either way.

Where Livepeer fits

Livepeer doesn't publish a flat transcoding rate either. What it has instead are named customer case studies: Livepeer Studio's own blog cites SankoTV saving 80% on video costs by moving off AWS's Interactive Video Service, and Fishtank saving roughly 50% by moving off Cloudflare. Those are real, specific, attributed numbers, but they describe what two named customers saved on their own setup, not a rate card you can check your own usage against before switching.

What a per-minute number doesn't capture

Transcoding is one line item, not the whole bill. Google Cloud's and AWS's transcoding prices don't include storage or delivery, those are separate products with their own pricing pages to reconcile. AIOZ Stream's $0.01 to $0.05 per minute is one line on the same account balance that also covers storage and delivery, which changes the real comparison from "whose transcoding is cheapest" to "how many separate bills are you reconciling to get a video from upload to playback."

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AIOZ Stream's transcoding always cheaper than the alternatives?
No. Google Cloud's published rates are higher across every tier checked here, but AWS's own illustrative SD example is actually cheaper than AIOZ Stream's rate, even though its illustrative HD example is more expensive. There's no universal answer; check the specific tier and provider against your own usage.

Does AIOZ Stream's transcoding price change with volume?
No. It's a flat rate per resolution tier with no separate volume-discount schedule to qualify for.

Why doesn't AWS have a simple price to compare?
AWS MediaConvert prices by normalized-minute multipliers against a base rate that varies by region and monthly volume tier, rather than a single published dollar-per-minute figure.

Does the transcoding rate include storage or delivery?
No, on any of the providers compared here. Transcoding, storage, and delivery are priced separately everywhere; AIOZ Stream's difference is that all three still run through one account and one token balance.

Are Livepeer's case-study savings numbers real?
They're Livepeer's own published figures for specific named customers (SankoTV, Fishtank), not independently audited, but they are attributed to real companies rather than being generic marketing claims.

Related Reading

• One DePIN, Three Workloads: why storage, compute, and delivery on one account changes the real cost comparison
• AIOZ Stream vs Livepeer vs Theta: what's actually different across the three networks
• AIOZ Stream Explained: what happens between ingest and playback

References

• Google Cloud Transcoder API pricing: official published per-minute rates by resolution class
• AWS Elemental MediaConvert pricing: official pricing page, normalized-minute multiplier model