Cost per accepted image
Cost per accepted image is the total cost of producing images, including generation, rejected attempts, review time, corrections and set-up, divided by the number that pass review. It makes generated imagery comparable with a photoshoot's cost per finished image.
A price per generation or per credit leaves out the images that fail review and the hours your team spends checking all of them. Cost per accepted image counts both, and the review hours alone can cost more than generating the images.
How to calculate it
Cost per accepted image = (generation cost + review time x hourly cost + correction cost + share of set-up cost) / accepted images.
- Generation cost: credits, API costs or the vendor's fee.
- Review time: the minutes someone spends checking each generated image against its references, including the rejects.
- Correction cost: retouching or remaking images that failed review.
- Set-up cost: approving models, writing the shot rules and preparing references, divided over every image they are used for, including later drops.
An example with made-up numbers: 1,000 generations at €0.10 cost €100. Reviewing them at 20 seconds each takes about 5.5 hours; at €40 an hour that is €222. If 700 are accepted, the cost per accepted image is €0.46 before set-up, and review time is more than two thirds of it. Cutting review to 10 seconds an image would bring that to €0.30; halving the generation price only gets it to €0.39.
Comparing with a photoshoot
A shoot has its own version of the same number: the day's total cost divided by finished images. HUMBLEBOB's line-by-line photoshoot cost breakdown, built from published studio and agency prices, works out roughly €50 to €155 per finished image for a fully styled on-model day in the Netherlands. That range includes retouching but not usage rights, reshoots or your own review time. Add the same costs to both sides, and count only images you would publish.
Related: acceptance rate, which drives the denominator.