Renders vs Exports

HeyMotion meters two different things, and they are counted separately because they cost different things to produce. The short version: an export is a video you make in the studio, and a render is a video an AI assistant makes through your account. Your account page shows both.

#What counts as an export

An export is what happens when you press Export MP4 in the studio. The encoding runs in your own browser using WebCodecs, and the finished file downloads to your machine. Nothing is rendered on our servers, which is why the export allowance is the more generous of the two — every paid plan has unlimited exports.

A few specifics worth knowing:

A sequence counts as one export, not one per card. If you chain five cards into a single MP4, that is a single export against your allowance. Re-exporting the same card after an edit counts again, because it produces a new file. Previewing a card in the studio — playing it back on the stage, scrubbing it, or opening it from My creations — is free and never counted; only the moment a file is produced counts.

Exporting requires an account, since an export has to be counted against a plan; signed-out visitors can browse and preview freely but are asked to sign in at the moment a file would be produced. The Free plan includes 5 exports per calendar month. Founding, Creator, Studio and Agency all have unlimited exports.

#What counts as a render

A render is what happens when an AI assistant produces a clip through your remote MCP key — you ask Claude for a stat card, the assistant calls render_clip, and our render server does the work and hands back a video URL. That is our hardware and our time rather than yours, so it carries its own smaller monthly allowance.

Still-image previews are not counted. The render_preview tool returns a single PNG frame so an assistant can check its work before committing to video, and that is deliberately free — you should never be charged an allowance for looking. Only render_clip, which produces an actual MP4, counts.

Monthly render allowances by plan:

• Free — 3 renders per month.
• Founding and Creator — 20 renders per month.
• Studio — 200 renders per month.
• Agency — 2,000 renders per month.

A short hourly burst limit runs underneath the monthly allowance as a fair-use backstop, so a runaway loop in an assistant can't spend your whole month in five minutes. Clips are capped at 20 seconds each.

#Reading the usage card

The Usage this month card on your account page shows a meter for each. Exports appear for everyone. The renders meter only appears if your plan includes MCP access, since a permanent "0 / 0" would tell you nothing.

On a plan with a limit, the meter reads used / allowance and the bar fills as you spend it. On an unlimited allowance the bar stays empty and the number simply tells you how many you have made this month — there is no ceiling to fill, so a partly-filled bar would be misleading rather than informative.

Both counters are per calendar month and both reset on the 1st, regardless of when in the month you subscribed. Nothing rolls over.

#What happens when you run out

If you use all your exports on the Free plan, the Export MP4 button stops producing files and points you at an upgrade. Every paid plan has unlimited exports, so this only affects Free.

If you use all your monthly renders, the MCP connector stops accepting render requests from your key until the 1st. Your assistant will report that the render was refused. Exports in the studio are unaffected — the two allowances are entirely independent, and running out of one never touches the other.

#Related Articles

For what each plan costs and how to change tiers, see Manage Your Subscription. For the export itself, see Export an MP4. For setting up the assistant connection, see the HeyMotion MCP Overview.