Video

Vital signs

Why it's on the table

On the table, Video (Vi) is seat 20 of 58, in the Creative & Design family. It is an emerging element — the job is real and here to stay, but the leaderboard still changes quarterly. Choose for this quarter, hold loosely, and watch the changelog. It is optional: plenty of companies run without it — until a specific trigger (scale, regulation, cost, or customers) makes it essential for them. It sits in the mid price band — a real line item that should earn its keep visibly.

Video: the top 5 — v2026.Q3

Edition v2026.Q3 · ranking, pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.

1. 1Veo (3.1 / Flow)Google DeepMind

   Google AI Pro $19.99/mo (1,000 Flow credits) · Ultra $99.99–199.99/mo (10k–25k credits) · API ~$0.10–0.40/s 720p–1080p, up to $0.60/s 4K+audio (via fal, Aug 2026)

   Best for The default: best blend of quality, native audio, control features, and sheer availability — in Gemini, Flow, the API, and inside rivals' own products.

   Veo 3.1 generates 1080p/4K with native dialogue, SFX and ambient audio, camera controls, character consistency, and scene extension to ~148 seconds — and it ships everywhere, including inside Runway's own paid tiers. Google also holds the #1 spot on the Artificial Analysis text-to-video arena outright with Gemini Omni Flash (1,244 Elo, May 2026), so the quality crown stays in-house even as Veo 3.1 itself ages.

   Watch Veo 3.1 has slid to mid-table on the crowd arena (#11, 1,093 Elo) as Chinese models passed it — Google's answer (Omni Flash) lives in Gemini, not the Veo API, muddying the lineup. Base generations are still 8s clips, and 4K-with-audio at $0.60/s adds up fast.

   Gemini Omni Flash #1 on text-to-video arena, 1,244 Elo; Veo 3.1 at 1,093 (#11) (Aug 2026) [src] · API $0.10–0.60/s by tier/resolution/audio; 8s base, extendable ~148s (fal, Aug 2026) [src] · Google AI Pro $19.99/mo incl. 1,000 Flow credits; Ultra to $199.99/mo, 25k credits (Aug 2026) [src]
   Site →Docs →

2. 2Seedance 2.5ByteDance Seed

   Dreamina free daily credits · API usage-based via BytePlus/fal/Replicate (2.0 Pro/Fast/Mini tiers) · unlimited via partners (e.g. Higgsfield, from Aug 7, 2026)

   Best for Actual storytelling — 30-second single generations, native multi-shot, and multi-reference control (up to 9 images, 3 clips, 3 audio files) instead of stitched 8-second fragments.

   Seedance 2.0 holds #1 on the image-to-video arena (1,197 Elo) and #3 on text-to-video (1,224, Mar 2026), with 1.3M+ Replicate runs; 2.5 extends single generations to 30 seconds (twice extendable) with green-screen editing, camera blocking, and reference-video interpretation. No other model turns a script into a coherent multi-shot sequence with this little glue work.

   Watch The IP overhang is real: Disney cease-and-desists over celebrity/character output forced ByteDance to pause the 2.0 global launch on Mar 15, 2026, and first-party pricing remains opaque — access flows through Dreamina, aggregators, and partner resellers. TikTok-adjacent geopolitics is a standing platform risk.

   #1 image-to-video (1,197 Elo) and #3 text-to-video (1,224) on the arena (Aug 2026; model dated Mar 2026) [src] · Seedance 2.5: 30s single generation, 2x extendable, reference-video and green-screen control (vendor page, Aug 2026) [src] · Global 2.0 launch paused Mar 15, 2026 over Disney/studio IP demands after Feb 2026 China launch [src]
   Site →Docs →

3. 3Runway (Gen-4.5)Runway AI

   Free 125 one-time credits · Standard $12/mo (annual; $15 monthly, 625 credits) · Pro $28/35 (2,250) · Max $76/95 (9,500) · Enterprise custom

   Best for Founders producing finished pieces, not clips — generation plus editing (Aleph), performance transfer (Act-Two), upscaling, and now other vendors' models in one workflow.

   Gen-4.5 (Dec 2025 update) does native audio and minute-long multi-shot generation with character consistency, and the surrounding toolchain — Aleph edit-anything, Topaz 4K upscale, custom voices — is what turns raw generations into watchable video. The company raised $315M at $5.3B (Feb 10, 2026) and hedged model risk by hosting Veo 3.1 and others, adding a model router in July 2026.

   Watch Runway doesn't enter the crowd arena, and its 'world's best video model' claim dates to the Nov 2025 launch — on raw generation quality the Chinese labs have likely passed it. Credit economics bite at scale, and the strategic center of gravity is drifting to world models (GWM-1) over creator video.

   $315M raised at $5.3B valuation (Feb 10, 2026) [src] · Gen-4.5: native audio + up to 60s character-consistent multi-shot (Dec 11, 2025); GWM-1 world model same day [src] · Standard $12/mo incl. third-party models (Veo 3.1, Nano Banana Pro); model router launched Jul 23, 2026 [src]
   Site →Docs →

4. 4Kling 3.0Kuaishou

   API ~$0.112/s · $0.168/s with audio · $0.196/s with voice control (via fal, Aug 2026); consumer tiers on kling.ai (page JS-rendered — see notes)

   Best for The best price-to-cinema ratio — 15-second 1080p clips with native audio and voice control at roughly a dollar per shot.

   Kling 3.0 (Feb 2026) sits top-10 on the text-to-video arena in three variants (Pro 1080p at 1,111 Elo) and generates up to 15s with native audio, lip-sync, and a voice-control tier — at $0.112–0.196/s, roughly half Veo's standard rate. For volume experimentation it is the strongest cost-quality point among the closed leaders.

   Watch First-party global pricing is hard to even read (JS-walled site), documentation trails the US vendors, and Kling is one product inside a short-video giant whose priorities are its own feed. Elo sits a tier below Seedance/Omni Flash/H3.

   Kling 3.0 Pro 1080p: 1,111 Elo, #7 text-to-video (Aug 2026; model dated Feb 2026) [src] · $0.112/s base, $0.168/s audio, $0.196/s audio+voice control — e.g. 5s with audio+voice ≈ $0.98 (fal, Aug 2026) [src] · Up to 15s cinematic clips with native audio (Replicate listing, Aug 2026) [src]
   Site →Docs →

5. 5Hailuo (MiniMax H3)MiniMax

   Consumer subs via hailuoai.video (page JS-rendered — see notes) · API usage-based via MiniMax platform / fal / Replicate, standard + fast tiers

   Best for Budget wildcard with crowd-validated quality — the #2-rated model overall, native 2K output, and cheap fast variants for iteration.

   H3 (Jul 2026) rates 1,238 Elo — #2 on text-to-video, within 6 points of Google's leader — and #3 on image-to-video, generating native 2K from text or images with omni-style multimodal context. MiniMax is now a public company (HKEX IPO Jan 9, 2026), taking the going-dark risk off the table.

   Watch 2025 revenue was just $79M against frontier-scale compute burn — the subsidized pricing may not hold. The ecosystem is thin (no editing suite, patchy docs in English), and neither the consumer nor first-party API price list could be verified from vendor pages.

   MiniMax H3: 1,238 Elo, #2 text-to-video; #3 image-to-video; native 2K (arena, Aug 2026; model Jul 2026) [src] · MiniMax IPO on HKEX Jan 9, 2026; 2025 revenue $79.0M [src] · Hailuo 2.3 + 2.3 Fast tiers on Replicate; H3 'text, images, video, audio in a single context' (Aug 2026) [src]
   Site →Docs →

Video: the top 8 compared

Edition v2026.Q3 · ranking, pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.

How to choose your video

If you can only hold one subscription and need reliable quality with audio, everywhere

Veo via Google AI Pro ($19.99/mo, 1,000 Flow credits) — accept 8s base clips and extend; move to the API when volume justifies $0.10–0.40/s.

If the job is a story — ads, trailers, episodic shorts — not isolated clips

Seedance 2.5: 30s single generations with multi-reference control beat stitching 8s fragments, if you accept the IP-friction availability risk and reseller-mediated pricing.

If you edit as much as you generate, or deliver client-ready pieces

Runway — Gen-4.5's minute-long consistent multi-shot plus Aleph/Act-Two/upscaling is the only real post-production stack, and its model router hedges the generation layer.

If cost per watchable second decides, and you iterate in volume

Kling 3.0 (~$0.11/s, audio $0.168/s) or Hailuo fast tiers — the arena says you give up little quality for roughly half Veo's rate.

If you need open weights — on-prem, fine-tuning, or no per-second meter

LTX-2.3 (22B open weights, 20s joint audio-video, free under $10M revenue) or the Wan 2.2 Apache lineage; accept a quality tier below the closed leaders.

Video: the whole field

18 more tools tracked in this category, including 5 dead, renamed, or sunsetting — a reference that hides the graveyard isn't one. Verified 2026-08-06.

Video: the category in numbers

Edition v2026.Q3 · ranking, pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.

• OpenAI killed Sora (announced Mar 24, 2026; app off Apr 26, API Sep 24): users collapsed ~1M → <500k, ~$1M/day compute burn, $2.1M lifetime IAP revenue — proof that raw generation without a workflow is a money pit [src]
• Runway raised $315M at $5.3B (Feb 10, 2026), then launched a model router (Jul 23, 2026) — the workflow layer is aggregating the generation layer [src]
• MiniMax IPO'd on HKEX Jan 9, 2026 (2025 revenue $79M) — first pure-play model lab in this category to go public [src]
• Chinese labs hold 8 of the arena's top 10 text-to-video slots (Aug 2026): ByteDance, MiniMax, Alibaba x2, Kuaishou, Skywork — only Google represents the US in the top tier [src]
• IP enforcement now gates releases: Disney cease-and-desists ('virtual smash-and-grab') paused Seedance 2.0's global launch Mar 15, 2026; expect provenance and likeness controls as table stakes [src]
• Market sizing is contested: Grand View pegs AI video generation at just $946M for 2026 (20.3% CAGR to $3.4B by 2033) — conservative against vendor raises and compute burn; treat all category TAM figures skeptically [src]

Video: method & sources

Ranking charter: editorial, weighing crowd-arena Elo, controllability/workflow depth, availability, and price — no affiliate consideration. Biggest conflict resolved: the Artificial Analysis arena would order this Gemini Omni Flash > MiniMax H3 > Seedance > Wan, but we rank the products founders can actually build a pipeline on — Omni Flash is folded into the Veo/Google entry (same maker, in-Gemini access), and Runway ranks on workflow despite not entering the arena at all. Replicate still describes Gen-4.5 as 'ranked #1 on the Artificial Analysis benchmark' — that claim dates to its Nov 2025 launch and is stale; we cite the live Aug 2026 leaderboard instead. Pricing weaknesses flagged: Kling and Hailuo consumer tiers could not be read from their JS-rendered vendor pages (API prices cited from fal, an aggregator); Seedance has no public first-party price list — access is via Dreamina credits and resellers. Sora's exact shutdown dates (app Apr 26, API Sep 24, 2026) come from OpenAI's notice as relayed at commission time; TechCrunch confirmed the shutdown and its causes but not those two dates — re-verify before quoting. Wan's openness ends at 2.2 (Apache); the arena-ranked 2.7 is API-only. Grand View's market number is single-source and looks understated. Adjacent elements: talking-head/presenter tools (HeyGen, Synthesia) → Av · Avatar Presenter; image models incl. Midjourney's video experiments → Im · Image; voice/dubbing → Vo · Voice; app-builders → Vb. Ranking criteria: verified commercial traction, independent satisfaction surveys, agent benchmarks, and founder-fit (price floor, lock-in, surfaces). Editorial, never paid — the charter. Machine-readable twin: vi.json.

Our take

Improving faster than any other creative element. Budget experiments, not commitments.

Combines with