The Veo family, from 2 to 3.1
Veo 3.1 is the only version it makes sense to use today, and in Google own table it is marked Preview. The two versions marked Stable are declared deprecated on Google own pricing page, with a shutdown date of 30 June 2026.
- six model ids
- the stable ones are deprecated
- cheapest is an eighth of dearest
Last checked: This is a reference page. It is re-checked against the vendor sources and updated when a new version ships. What changed
Which version to use
Veo 3.1, and Veo 3.1 Lite if cost matters. The only reason to reach for an older version is an existing service that has not migrated, and Google own pricing page is telling that service its time is up.
A contradiction sitting in two of Google own pages
The Veo model table in the documentation has a Status column. Veo 3.1, 3.1 Fast and 3.1 Lite are all Preview, and Veo 3 and Veo 2 are Stable. So far, ordinary.
But the pricing page on the same site says of veo-3.0-generate-001 and veo-3.0-fast-generate-001 that they are deprecated and will be shut down on 30 June 2026, and says the same of veo-2.0-generate-001. That date was six weeks in the past when this page was written, and all three models are still in the price table and still marked Stable.
We are not saying these models have been switched off; we have read two pages and made no API call. What we are saying is this: in this family the Stable label does not tell you what to build on, and anyone choosing by that label picks a model its own maker has written a shutdown date for.
One model, eight prices
Veo 3.1 Standard is $0.40 a second at 720p and 1080p and sixty cents at 4K. Veo 3.1 Fast is ten cents, twelve cents and thirty cents. Veo 3.1 Lite is five cents and eight cents and has no 4K at all. So the cheapest way to make a Veo video is an eighth of the dearest way, and both are called Veo 3.1.
The difference is not only price. Lite takes no reference images and has no video extension, which are exactly the two capabilities that separate Veo 3.1 from Veo 3. So the cheapest member of the family does not have the family newest features.
What changed in each version
Veo 2 had no audio and output only 720p, but it is the one member of the family that returns two videos in a single request. Veo 3 brought audio, always on from then onward, but its duration was eight seconds only, narrower than the Veo 2 it replaced, which did five to eight. Veo 3.1 brought back four, six and eight seconds and added 4K, up to three reference images and video extension. All three run at twenty four frames per second.
Release timeline
Each version with its own release date, and what changed against the one before it.
- Veo 3.1 Lite preview
- Veo 3.1 preview It extends an earlier video by seven seconds at a time, up to twenty times, but an extended output is 720p only.
Using it from Iran
This column carries a date and says how it was checked, because most listicles guess it. Where we have only read a vendor policy page, the note below says exactly that.
- Reachable
- blocked
- Payment
- no working route
- Free tier
- no
- Measured on
How we checked: Iran is not on the Gemini API available-regions list, and we read that on Google own page rather than measuring a network. The pricing page also states that all three Veo 3.1 models run on the paid tier only and have no free tier.
Where it falls short
- The only version worth using is marked Preview, and Google says a preview may change before it becomes stable.
- The two Stable versions are declared deprecated on the pricing page with a shutdown date already in the past.
- Veo 3.1 Lite is the cheapest but takes no reference images and has no video extension.
- Iran is not on the available-regions list and no Veo model has a free tier.
Our take
Take Veo 3.1, and if your volume is high try Lite first, because it is an eighth of the price. Just make sure beforehand that you need neither reference images nor extension, because Lite has neither.