Sepia

Sepia is a self-serve AI UGC ad tool operated by Jonathan Tapiero, doing business as SepiaLab, in Montreal, Quebec (stated in its Terms of Service). You upload a product photo and write a short brief; the platform writes hooks, casts an AI presenter it calls an 'ambassador', generates the footage, records a voiceover, and returns a cut, subtitled, mastered 9:16 video. There are no human creators and no product shipping. Billing is in credits: a short video is 30 credits and each extra hook variant is 5 credits, sold either as one-time packs or as four monthly subscription tiers. Every pricing card prints an explicit dollar-per-video figure rather than leaving buyers to divide credits by the 30-credit video cost. Sepia states that Sepia 3.0 is an orchestration layer rather than its own video model, with image and video generation running on third-party models picked shot by shot; its privacy policy names Replicate, Google and ElevenLabs among those providers, alongside AWS and Stripe. The homepage carries vendor-run claims this directory has not independently verified: a 'Part of NVIDIA Inception' badge, and a preference study Sepia labels 'Sepia study, n = 300, August 2026' in which it reports 75% chose Sepia over Higgsfield (20%), Arcads (5%) and HeyGen (0%). Sepia itself calls that a preference test rather than a technical benchmark, with method available on request.

1. 01

   Photo-to-finished-ad pipeline

   One product photo plus a short brief produces a cut, subtitled, music-scored, loudness-mastered 9:16 video. Sepia says it delivers a finished ad rather than clips to assemble.

2. 02

   Hook variants in series

   Each generation opens on a different hook angle — Sepia names proof, curiosity, contrast and urgency — so openings can be tested in volume. A short video is 30 credits; each extra hook variant costs 5 more.

3. 03

   Per-video price printed on every tier

   Each pricing card prints a dollar figure per video, from $9.00 pay-as-you-go down to $6.00 on Studio monthly and $5.00 on Studio annual, instead of leaving buyers to divide credits.

4. 04

   One-time credit packs

   $18 for 60 credits or $45 for 150 credits behind a toggle on the same card, with no subscription. Both work out to $9.00 per video, and the card states these credits never expire.

5. 05

   Product consistency lock

   Sepia says the uploaded product photo anchors every scene so the label stays readable and identical frame to frame while the presenter, set and framing change between hooks.

6. 06

   AI presenters, voice and lip-sync

   Sepia casts an AI 'ambassador', generates a voiceover the homepage credits to ElevenLabs, and matches lip movement to the audio. No human creators are involved at any stage.

7. 07

   Orchestration over third-party models

   Asked whether Sepia 3.0 is its own video model, the vendor's answer is 'No. Sepia 3.0 is the orchestration layer' — image and video generation run on third-party models picked shot by shot. Its privacy policy names Replicate, Google and ElevenLabs.

8. 08

   Free no-card preview

   Script, images and voiceover can be previewed free without a card. Payment is required only to render the video.

9. 09

   Self-serve billing via Stripe

   Checkout, plan changes and cancellation all run through the Stripe billing portal. Per the Terms, upgrades are charged prorated immediately and downgrades take effect at the next renewal.

• DTC advertisers running hook-volume creative testing on TikTok, Reels and Shorts
• Buyers who want a single one-off purchase ($18 or $45) instead of committing to a monthly plan
• Teams that want per-video unit cost stated outright rather than back-solved from a credit allowance
• Small agencies feeding several brands — the Scale and Studio tiers list multiple brands and bulk generation
• Shopify and dropshipping sellers who have a product photo but no shoot or talent budget

Look elsewhere if

• Brands that need real human creators, physical product shipping, or genuine customer testimonials — every presenter, voice and scene is generated
• Creators looking for paid UGC work; Sepia has no creator side, no application page and no marketplace
• Buyers who need a contractual delivery time — the site publishes two different turnaround figures (about 10 minutes vs about 24 hours) and no SLA
• Teams that need refundable spend or a money-back trial of the finished video — all sales are final and the free preview stops before video render
• Procurement that requires an established vendor with references, a founding date, or verifiable third-party reviews — none of those exist for this platform
• Buyers who need unused monthly credits to reliably roll over, until the vendor resolves the contradiction between its pricing page and its in-app copy

Pricing

Pay as you go (one-time credit packs)$18 one-time (60 credits, ~2 videos) or $45 one-time (150 credits, ~5 videos) — both $9.00 per videoStarter$32/mo billed monthly, or $27/mo billed annually (page shows 'billed $320/year')/moPro$72/mo billed monthly, or $60/mo billed annually (page shows 'billed $720/year')/moScale$198/mo billed monthly, or $165/mo billed annually (page shows 'billed $1980/year')/moStudio$480/mo billed monthly, or $400/mo billed annually (page shows 'billed $4800/year')/mo

as of 2026-09-20View official pricing(opens in a new tab)Compare all pricesIs this a fair rate?

All prices read off https://sepia-lab.com/en/pricing on 2026-09-20, with the page rendered in a browser so the two toggles could be read in both states. MONTHLY IS THE HEADLINE: the billing toggle loads with Monthly selected (aria-pressed="true"), so $32 / $72 / $198 / $480 are genuine monthly prices, not annual-equivalents. Clicking Annual ('2 months free') replaces each headline with a lower monthly-equivalent, strikes through the monthly price beside it, and adds an annual total: Starter $27/mo (was $32), 'billed $320/year'; Pro $60/mo (was $72), 'billed $720/year'; Scale $165/mo (was $198), 'billed $1980/year'; Studio $400/mo (was $480), 'billed $4800/year'. The page prints those totals without thousands separators, as reproduced here. Both one-time packs were read from the 60|150 toggle on the pay-as-you-go card: $18 / 60 credits / ~2 videos and $45 / 150 credits / ~5 videos, both '$9.00 / video'. DISCOUNT BADGES ARE NOT THE ANNUAL DISCOUNT: each plan card carries a percentage badge (-11%, -20%, -27%, -33% on monthly; -25%, -33%, -39%, -44% on annual). These are savings against the $9.00 pay-as-you-go per-video rate, not a saving against monthly billing, and the page never labels them. CONTRADICTION 1 (credit expiry, material to real unit cost): the pricing page states 'Credits stack month to month, and you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel anytime'; its explainer block says plan credits 'add to your balance, they do not expire'; a trust badge reads 'Credits never expire'; and the page's own FAQPage structured data publishes 'Credits are added to your balance every month and do not expire, so unused credits carry over.' But the in-app UI string bundle shipped inside that same page's payload reads 'Plan credits reset to your allowance each billing cycle. Unused plan credits don't carry over', and labels only pay-as-you-go credits '(permanent)'. If the in-app behaviour governs, unused subscription credits are lost each month and the effective per-video cost on an underused plan is higher than the printed figure. CONTRADICTION 2 (turnaround): the homepage stat block and homepage FAQ say '~10 min' / 'About ten minutes from upload to ready-to-post videos', while the Sepia 3.0 page FAQ says 'About 24 hours from upload to finished videos'. Both are published in FAQPage structured data. CONTRADICTION 3 (hook cost): every plan lists 'All hooks and variants' as an included feature, but the pricing header states 'A short video is 30 credits, each extra hook 5 credits'. The printed per-video prices assume 30 credits with no extra hooks, so testing hooks in series — Sepia's stated core use case — costs more per finished video than the card shows. Positioning is also inconsistent: the homepage meta description and the Sepia 3.0 page closing CTA both say 'Pay-as-you-go, no subscription', yet the pricing page opens with 'Pick a monthly credit plan' and four of the five options are subscriptions. Free preview: the homepage offers 'Free script, images & voice preview. No card required', and the pricing page adds 'You only pay to animate it into video', so the free step stops short of a finished video. Refunds: the Refund Policy (last updated July 15, 2026) states credit purchases and subscription payments are final and non-refundable including unused credits, except where law requires otherwise; a generation that fails for technical reasons restores credits, not cash. No enterprise or custom tier, and no minimum order, is published anywhere on the site.

Ratings

No third-party ratings found on Trustpilot, G2 or Capterra.

Turnaround

Contradictory on the vendor's own site: the homepage and homepage FAQ say 'About ten minutes from upload to ready-to-post videos', while the Sepia 3.0 page FAQ says 'About 24 hours from upload to finished videos'. No SLA is published.

Min. spend

$18 one-time (60 credits, ~2 videos) is the smallest purchase offered. No minimum order, contract or enterprise tier is published; subscriptions cancel from the Stripe billing portal.

Usage rights

Every pricing tier lists 'Commercial license', and the homepage FAQ states 'Every export comes with a full commercial license, including paid ads on Meta, TikTok, YouTube and your own store. You own what you generate, with no per-use royalties or usage-rights fees.' Section 5 of the Terms of Service (sepia-lab.com/en/terms) is narrower: 'As between you and us, and to the extent permitted by the applicable AI providers, you own the videos and other content generated for you... and may use it for your commercial purposes once the corresponding credits have been paid.' Buyers also warrant they hold all rights to any brand, logo, product, trademark, person, voice or likeness in their inputs.