Runway, Pika, Kling, Seedance, and Veo, compared on what they actually charge — free tiers, monthly plans, credit costs, and roughly what one 5-second clip costs on each. Researched August 2026 from vendor pricing pages; credit costs and plan pricing change fairly often, so treat exact numbers as directional and check the vendor's own page before buying.
| Tool | Free tier | Cheapest paid plan | What that gets you | Roughly per 5s clip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runway | 125 credits, one-time (not monthly) | Standard, $15/mo ($12/mo billed annually) | 625 credits/mo — about 10 clips/mo on flagship Gen-4.5 (60 credits/5s) | ~$1.20 (Gen-4.5) · less on Gen-4 Turbo |
| Pika | 80 credits, one-time | Standard, $10/mo ($8/mo billed annually) | 700 credits/mo — about 17 clips/mo at 1080p (40 credits/5s) | ~$0.40-$0.60 at 1080p |
| Kling | ~66 credits/day, expire in 24h | Standard, $10/mo (~$7/mo first-time offer) | 660 credits/mo — 11-22 clips/mo depending on resolution/audio | ~$0.30-$0.60 (720p) · ~$0.60-$0.90 (1080p) |
| Seedance | No standing free tier (some free credits via reseller playgrounds) | None — pay-per-clip, no subscription | Metered per generation via BytePlus, or through resellers/Runway's dashboard | ~$0.76 (720p) · ~$1.87 (1080p) official rate |
| Veo | Limited daily/monthly credits via Gemini app and Google Flow | Google AI Pro, $19.99/mo | Includes Veo 3.1 access plus ~1,000 monthly Flow credits and other Gemini features | Not credit-metered the same way — see the Veo section below |
| Wan 3.0 | No standing free tier confirmed | None — pay-per-second, no subscription | Metered per output second via Alibaba Cloud Model Studio/API | ~$0.25 (480p) · ~$0.50 (720p) · ~$1.00 (1080p) |
| Grok Imagine* | None — free tier removed March 2026 | SuperGrok Lite, $10/mo | 15 videos/day, 480p, 6s max. Full access (no caps) needs SuperGrok, $30/mo | Not metered per-clip on the paid tiers |
Higher tiers on Runway, Pika, and Kling scale up to $76-$180/month for heavier use, higher resolution, or commercial licensing; Google AI Ultra goes to $100-$200/month. The rows above show each tool's realistic starting point, not its ceiling. Wan 3.0 is new as of this update (launched August 24, 2026) — we haven't confirmed whether a free trial tier exists on Alibaba Cloud, so budget for the paid, metered rate. *Grok Imagine is listed for pricing completeness only — see the note below the tool sections before considering it.
Standard is $15/month ($12/month billed annually) for 625 credits, Pro is $35/month ($28 annually) for 2,250 credits, and Max is $95/month ($76 annually) for 9,500 credits, with unused credits rolling over for up to a month on Max. Gen-4.5, Runway's flagship model, costs 60 credits per 5 seconds; cheaper models (Gen-4, Gen-4 Turbo) stretch a monthly allowance further at some quality cost. Runway has also expanded into a multi-model marketplace — its dashboard now offers Kling and Seedance generations alongside its own models, so a single Runway subscription can reach more than one underlying video model without separate accounts.
Standard is $10/month ($8 annually) for 700 credits, Pro is $35/month ($28 annually) for 2,300 credits, and Fancy is $95/month ($76 annually) for 6,000 credits. Per-generation costs range from 10 credits (Turbo model, using Pika's Pikascenes/Pikadditions/Pikaswaps features) up to 80 credits (Pro model with Pikatwists) — a standard 1080p 5-second clip runs about 40 credits. The free tier watermarks output and blocks commercial use, which is the main reason to move to Standard even for casual use.
Standard lists at $10/month (commonly discounted to around $7/month for first-time subscribers, roughly $8.80/month on renewal) for 660 credits — the cheapest paid entry point among these four with a full consumer app. Pro is $37/month for 3,000 credits, Premier $92/month for 8,000 credits, and Ultra $180/month for 26,000 credits. A 5-second 720p clip without audio costs about 30 credits; the same clip in 1080p with native audio costs about 60. One thing to plan around: subscription credits expire at the end of each billing month with no rollover, unlike Runway's Max tier.
ByteDance's model doesn't work like the others — there's no monthly-plan-plus-credits structure for most users outside China. Official pricing through BytePlus (ByteDance's international cloud platform) runs about $0.76 for a 5-second 720p clip and $1.87 at 1080p, metered per generation with no subscription required. Third-party resellers (fal.ai, Replicate, Segmind, useapi.net, PiAPI) offer their own rates on top of or instead of the official API — some cheaper, some more expensive, and worth comparing directly if you're generating in volume. See our dedicated Seedance page for the practical access routes.
Alibaba's Wan 3.0 launched August 24, 2026, and it's priced entirely differently from the subscription-tier tools above: roughly $0.05/second at 480p, $0.10/second at 720p, and $0.20/second at 1080p, metered through Alibaba Cloud with no monthly plan. A 5-second clip runs about $0.25-$1.00 depending on resolution — cheaper than Seedance at every equivalent resolution, and it can generate up to 30 seconds in a single pass if you need a longer clip (a 30-second 1080p generation would run about $6, still metered the same way). The catch is access: like Seedance, there's no single consumer web app yet — you're working through Alibaba Cloud's Model Studio console or API, which suits a developer or technical user more than someone who just wants to click generate. See our full coverage of the Wan 3.0 launch for what else makes it different (document-to-video input, in particular).
Google doesn't sell Veo access as its own product — it's bundled into Google's broader AI subscriptions, which were restructured at Google I/O in May 2026. There's a free tier through the Gemini app and Google Flow (Google's dedicated video-creation tool), each with a limited daily/monthly credit allowance. Google AI Plus (roughly $10/month) and Google AI Pro ($19.99/month, which specifically includes Veo 3.1 access and about 1,000 monthly Flow credits) sit below Google AI Ultra, now split into a $100/month and a $200/month tier (reduced from $249.99) for the highest usage limits and 4K output where available. Names and prices here have shifted more than once in 2026, so treat this as directional. See our dedicated Veo page for the access routes, or Google's own pricing page for current numbers.
We're listing Grok Imagine's pricing because people searching a comparison like this deserve the number: free access was removed in March 2026, and it now costs at least $10/month (SuperGrok Lite, capped at 15 videos/day, 480p, 6 seconds) or $30/month for uncapped access. On Artificial Analysis's own leaderboard it ranks respectably but not near the top — see our sourced rankings. We're deliberately not covering it the way we cover the five tools above, because unlike them it's currently the subject of active government investigations (EU Commission, Ireland's Data Protection Commission) and an Apple App Store removal threat over non-consensual sexualized deepfakes of real people, with reporting indicating the underlying problem wasn't fully resolved by xAI's fixes. Read the full, sourced situation on our Grok Imagine news page before deciding whether that's a tool you want to use.
How to actually choose
Related: Wan 3.0 launch coverage · How AI videos are made · Model rankings, sourced · Grok Imagine news · AI video background remover
For a monthly subscription, Kling's Standard plan is the cheapest entry point among the tools with a comparable feature set, listed at $10/month (660 credits, often discounted to around $7/month for first-time subscribers) — enough for roughly 11-22 five-second clips depending on resolution and audio. If you don't want a subscription at all, Seedance's pay-per-clip API pricing (roughly $0.76-$1.87 per 5-second clip depending on resolution, via ByteDance's own BytePlus platform) can work out cheaper for occasional use, though it requires a more technical setup than the other three tools' consumer apps.
On a mid-tier subscription plan, roughly $0.30-$0.80 per 5-second clip is typical across Runway, Pika, and Kling once you divide the monthly price by the plan's credit allowance and a clip's credit cost. Seedance, priced per clip with no subscription, runs about $0.76 at 720p and $1.87 at 1080p through ByteDance's own metered API, with some third-party resellers offering lower rates. Exact cost depends heavily on resolution, whether audio is included, and which specific model tier you pick within each tool.
Yes, on a per-second basis. Alibaba's Wan 3.0 (launched August 24, 2026) is priced at roughly $0.05/second (480p), $0.10/second (720p), or $0.20/second (1080p) through Alibaba Cloud, which works out to about $0.25-$1.00 for a 5-second clip — cheaper than Seedance's comparable per-clip rate and well below Runway's per-clip cost on its flagship model. The tradeoff: it's accessed through Alibaba Cloud's API/console, not a polished consumer app, so it suits a technical user more than someone who just wants to type a prompt and click generate.
Runway, Pika, and Kling all offer some free credits without requiring a paid plan first — see our cheapest AI video generator guide for the exact free-tier numbers per tool, since they change fairly often and none of them are large enough to rely on for ongoing use.
Yes. ByteDance offers Seedance internationally through BytePlus (its global cloud platform, separate from the China-only Volcengine), and it's also accessible through third-party API platforms like fal.ai, Replicate, PiAPI, and Segmind, or through Runway's own dashboard, which added Seedance as one of several third-party models available alongside its native Gen-4.5.
There's a free tier through the Gemini app and Google Flow. Paid access runs through Google's AI subscription tiers, restructured at Google I/O in May 2026: Google AI Plus (roughly $10/month) and Google AI Pro ($19.99/month, includes Veo 3.1) sit below Google AI Ultra, now split into a $100/month and a $200/month tier (down from $249.99) for the highest usage limits. These names and prices have shifted more than once in 2026, so check Google's current page before buying.
Free access was removed in March 2026. It now costs at least $10/month (SuperGrok Lite, capped at 15 videos/day, 480p, 6 seconds) or $30/month for uncapped access. We list this for pricing completeness but don't recommend it alongside the other five tools here — Grok Imagine is currently the subject of active government investigations and an Apple App Store removal threat over non-consensual sexualized deepfakes of real people. See our full, sourced Grok Imagine news coverage before deciding.