The Veo family, from version 2 to 3.1
Veo 3.1 is the only version whose deployment makes sense today, while Google official table logs it with preview status. The two versions logged as stable are declared deprecated on that same Google pricing page, with a shutdown date of 30 June 2026.
- six active model identifiers
- stable versions declared deprecated
- cheapest configuration is an eighth of the costliest
Last checked: This is a reference page. It is re-checked against the vendor sources and updated when a new version ships. Change log
Which version belongs in deployment
Veo 3.1, and Veo 3.1 Lite when cost is a constraint. The only justification for deploying an older version is an active service that has not migrated yet, and Google own pricing page is telling that exact service its migration window has closed.
A contradiction logged across two official Google documents
The Veo model table in the documentation carries a status field. Veo 3.1, 3.1 Fast, and 3.1 Lite are all logged with preview status, and Veo 3 and Veo 2 with stable status. Up to this point, the state is unremarkable.
But the pricing page on the same site logs veo-3.0-generate-001 and veo-3.0-fast-generate-001 as deprecated, with a shutdown scheduled for 30 June 2026, and logs the same for veo-2.0-generate-001. That date had already passed by six weeks at the time this document was written, and all three models are still logged in the rate table and still carry stable status.
This analysis does not claim these models have actually been shut down; only two official documents were checked, and no direct API call was made. What is logged here is this: in this family, the stable field is not a reliable indicator for a deployment decision, and any decision made on that field alone selects a model the vendor itself has logged a shutdown date for.
One model, eight rates
Veo 3.1 Standard runs at $0.40 per second at 720p and 1080p and sixty cents at 4K. Veo 3.1 Fast runs at ten cents, twelve cents, and thirty cents. Veo 3.1 Lite runs at five cents and eight cents and has no 4K resolution at all. So the lowest-cost path to producing a Veo video is an eighth of the costliest path, and both carry the Veo 3.1 identifier.
The difference is not rate alone. Lite accepts no reference images and has no video-extension capability, precisely the two parameters that distinguish Veo 3.1 from Veo 3. So the lowest-cost version in this family does not carry the family newest capabilities.
What parameter changed in each version
Veo 2 had no audio parameter and its output ceiling was 720p only, but it is the one version in this family that returns two videos in a single request. Veo 3 introduced the audio parameter, active by default from that point onward, but its duration was eight seconds only, narrower than Veo 2, which supported five to eight seconds. Veo 3.1 restored four, six, and eight-second durations and added 4K resolution, up to three reference images, and video-extension capability. All three versions 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 preview It extends a previously generated video by seven seconds per operation, up to twenty times, but the output of the extension path 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 does not appear on the Gemini API available-regions list, and this status is drawn from Google official documentation, not a direct network measurement. The pricing page also logs that all three Veo 3.1 models operate on the paid tier only, with no free tier.
Known weaknesses and limits
- The only version worth deploying carries preview status, and Google states explicitly that a preview build may change before reaching stable status.
- The two versions logged as stable are declared deprecated on the pricing page, with a shutdown date already in the past.
- Veo 3.1 Lite is the lowest-cost version but accepts no reference images and has no video-extension capability.
- Iran is not on the available-regions list, and no Veo model carries a free tier.
Technical verdict
Veo 3.1 should be deployed, and for high-volume workloads, Lite should be evaluated first, since its rate is an eighth of the standard tier. Before that evaluation, confirm that neither reference-image input nor extension capability is required, since Lite supports neither.