AI Video Generator Comparison (2026)

AI video providers price their output in three incompatible ways, which makes their headline numbers impossible to compare directly. Some bill a flat rate per second of generated video through an API; some sell monthly bundles of credits that each clip consumes; and some include a fixed number of generations in a subscription. This page puts all of them on one axis: an estimated USD cost per 5-second clip at roughly 1080p, computed from each provider's cheapest published path.

The three normalisation formulas are:

• Per-second API: cost = price/second × 5
• Credit bundle: cost = credits/clip × (plan price ÷ plan credits per month)
• Subscription quota: cost = plan price ÷ clips included per month

Each input number — price per second, plan price, plan credits, credits per clip, clips included — is stored verbatim on the data row from the cited official page, so every figure in the table is reproducible by hand. The comparison is static and manually verified: there is no scraping, no live API call, and no key required, which keeps the page fast and avoids breaking when a provider changes its dashboard. Specs that a provider does not publish are set conservatively rather than invented.

The non-price columns — maximum clip length, maximum resolution and frame rate, native audio, image-to-video support, public API and free tier — are factual capabilities read from the same official pages. The “best for…” callouts above the table are pure minimum and maximum over those columns (cheapest cost per clip, longest clip, count with native audio); there is no subjective quality score, because output quality is contested and changes with every model release. Treat the cost figure as an estimate at 1080p and 5 seconds — real cost moves with resolution, duration and current promotions — and follow the per-row source link to confirm the live price before you subscribe.

Worked examples below verified against the stored pricing fields.

Every row in the table was reconciled against the provider's own pricing or product page, last checked on 2026-06-20:

• OpenAI — Sora
• Google — Gemini API pricing (Veo 3)
• Runway — Pricing
• Kuaishou — Kling AI
• Pika
• Luma — Dream Machine
• MiniMax — Hailuo
• Adobe — Firefly
• Stability AI — Pricing

AI video pricing and limits change often. This table is reviewed on a rolling basis; the per-row source link is always the authoritative figure. Spotted a stale number? Email me and I'll re-verify.