The fork in the road
You are staring at one product photo or character still. Two industries use the same upload and mean different things by “3D”:
- Gaussian splat — a field of view-dependent points. Perfect for look-dev, product spins, and “does this read in space?” checks. Export language on TripoSplat is PLY/SPLAT.
- Mesh — triangles, UVs, something a printer, DCC, or classic engine expects. Meshy’s public site is built around that world plus a monthly credit pool.
If you force the wrong format, you do not save money — you rebuy the asset.
Public pricing, side by side
Purchase shape: one-time packs vs monthly pools (live public pages, 2026-10-26).
| TripoSplat | Meshy | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | One-time credit packs with validity windows | Monthly plans with resetting credits |
| Entry paid | $9.9 / 250 cr (1 month) | Pro $20 / 1,000 cr / month |
| Also listed | $19.99/500 (30d), $149.99/2k (90d), $299.99/8k (365d) | Free 100 cr/mo; Premium $40; Ultra $100; Studio $70 |
| Job language | Default Gaussian 48–72 cr; PLY/SPLAT line ~60 cr | Monthly pool + assets-per-month language — no single fixed image→GLB burn on the pricing cards |
Rough Tripo entry math: 250 ÷ 60 ≈ 4 accepted default splats if every run succeeds once.
Workflow: decide before the second charge
- Name the downstream tool. Viewer-only? Splat. Blender print / game mesh? Mesh.
- Count accepted outputs this week, not hopeful retries.
- Read the credit quote on TripoSplat for your Gaussian budget before Generate.
- Run one. Download PLY/SPLAT. Orbit it. Only then buy a bigger pack.
- If the mesh pipeline wins, stop converting splat into a problem Meshy (or another mesh host) already solves with a monthly pool.
Decision table you can paste into a brief
| If you need… | Prefer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Product spin for a landing page | TripoSplat splat | PLY/SPLAT + browser path |
| 3D print / retopo later | Mesh host (e.g. Meshy) | Topology first |
| ≤4 test assets this week | Tripo Single $9.9 | Unit cost visible |
| Daily generations all month | Meshy Pro-class monthly | Resetting pool |
| Huge batch with long validity | Tripo $299.99 / 8k (365d) | One invoice, long window |
What not to do
- Do not treat “3D” as one SKU.
- Do not invent Meshy per-asset credit burns — their public page sells pools and asset caps.
- Do not skip the quote on your actual Gaussian budget; 48 vs 72 is a real swing.
Worked example
You have a single product still of a sneaker. Marketing wants a web viewer tomorrow; manufacturing wants a printable mesh next month. Today you only need the viewer. You buy TripoSplat Single $9.9, spend about 60 credits on one PLY/SPLAT, and embed the orbit view. When manufacturing is ready, you start a mesh job on a mesh host with a clean photo set — you do not try to “thicken” the splat into a manifold mesh inside the wrong tool. If the splat fails the orbit test, you still have roughly 190 credits left for a second Gaussian budget instead of opening a $20/month mesh plan in a panic.
That is the whole point of pay-per-accepted-asset: the second purchase waits for a new decision, not for sunk-cost guilt.
CTA
Homepage may state signup/guest bonus paused — packs are the reliable path. Live prices stay on /pricing; this article does not change them.