# Transformation Costs & Cost Reduction

**Important**: Different transformations have different costs. Be aware of high-cost operations and warn the user before generating transformations that cost more than a standard transformation.

**Note:** "tx" = transformation credits. Numbers shown (e.g., 75 tx) indicate additional transformation credits consumed per use.

## Standard Transformations
- Basic image transformations: 1 transformation credit (1 tx)
- Video transformations: Counted per second (varies by resolution and codec)

## High-Cost Effects (per use)
- **Generative AI**: `e_gen_background_replace` (230 tx), `e_gen_replace` (120 tx), `e_gen_restore` (100 tx)
- **AI Enhancement**: `e_auto_enhance` (100 tx), `e_enhance` (100 tx)
- **Background Removal**: `e_background_removal` (75 tx), `e_extract` (75 tx)
- **Generative Edits**: `b_gen_fill` (50 tx), `e_gen_recolor` (50 tx), `e_gen_remove` (50 tx)
- **Upscale**: `e_upscale` (10-100 tx depending on input size)

## Strategies to Reduce Costs

1. **Use baseline transformations** for expensive effects: Baseline transformations (`bl_<named>`) cache expensive operations (like `e_background_removal`, 75 tx) so they don't have to be regenerated for each variation. See [named-transformations.md](named-transformations.md#baseline-transformations) for complete details on syntax, rules, and cost savings examples.
2. **Reuse derived assets**: Multiple requests to the same transformation URL don't incur additional costs
3. **Avoid unnecessary variations**: Different parameter orders create separate derived assets (e.g., `w_200,h_200` vs `h_200,w_200`)
4. **Consider format costs**: AVIF images cost 1 tx per 2MP (or part thereof)
5. **Video considerations**: HD video (1080p) costs more than SD (720p); AV1 codec costs significantly more than H.264

For complete transformation cost details, see [How are transformations counted?](https://cloudinary.com/documentation/transformation_counts.md)