Best AI Video Tools

There's no shortage of AI video models. New ones keep shipping, and most platforms offer several. The hard part is knowing which tools give you the models that actually perform best, and which ones help you use them well.

A video tool is only as good as the models it runs, so we start with the models. We put 24 image-to-video models through the same blind head-to-head tests to see which perform best right now, and you can watch every output on the test pages below. That tells you which models to look for in a tool.

Then we ranked 5 tools on four things: output quality, pricing transparency, ease of use and commercial rights. We make Glif, and it's first on this list, so we've shown the numbers behind every ranking for you to check.

How we ranked these tools

• Output quality. For models, we used blind head-to-head votes from our own tests, described in the next section. For platforms, we looked at which of the top-rated models each one offers.
• Pricing transparency. We used published prices only, and worked out what a clip costs where a platform shows its credit rates.
• Ease of use. How much you have to know before you get a usable clip: which model to pick, which settings, which tool.
• Commercial rights. Whether you can use the output in ads and client work, and on which plans.

The best AI video models

What we've learned:

• The top is a committee, not a champion. Seedance 2.5, Wan 3.0, Kling V3 and Hailuo H3 Max each win in their lane. Glif picks per brief, not per brand.
• Cheap models are getting scary good. P-Video, at about 2.7 credits per second, and Hailuo H3 Max Turbo, at about 5.4 credits per second at 768p, now handle briefs that needed a flagship model a year ago. P-Video's draft mode is our go-to for rough cuts.
• Face moderation is the ranking factor no leaderboard shows. Seedance is the best face model in the business, and also the strictest. It only trusts registered characters or fresh faces made with Seedream 5 text-to-image. Half our model switches are moderation workarounds, not quality choices.
• Native audio changed everything. Models that generate speech, sound effects and ambience in one pass, such as Seedance, Kling V3 and O3, FLUX.3 and Hailuo, have quietly made separate text-to-speech and lip-sync workflows the exception, not the rule.
• The newest models aren't rated yet. Kling 4.0, with multi-shot clips, per-shot prompts and up to 30 seconds, looks like the future of longer narratives. And pairing Seedream 5 with Seedance is the character-consistency pipeline to beat.

More model tests

Each test page shows every model's output for the same prompt, side by side. Start with the four below, or open the portrait, handheld phone shot, radar and isometric kitchen tests.

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  Action scene

  23 models

  Smooth camera follows the ollie trick. Motion and physics look physcially accurate.

  Text-to-video · Spatial reasoning · World knowledge · Reliability

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  Miniature diorama

  31 models

  Keeps the tilt-shift miniature look while adding coherent motion. Motions are physically accurate.

  Image-to-video · Style · World knowledge

• 

  Face likeness

  27 models

  The person shown at the end is recognizably the same as in the input image. Temporally stable through the bus pass.

  Image-to-video · Consistency · Reliability

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  Frame to frame transition watch

  20 models

  Interpolates smoothly from the first to the last frame. The legs are spinning correctly. The watch is spinning in the correct direction.

  First-to-last frame · Reference following · Spatial reasoning

The ranked list

2. Runway

What it is: A video, image and audio generation platform built around its own Gen-4.5 and Aleph 2.0 models, with editing tools for production teams.

Best for: Teams that generate footage and then edit it in an established post-production workflow.

Pricing: The Free plan includes 125 one-time credits. Standard is $15 per month for 625 credits, Pro $35 per month for 2,250, and Max $95 per month for 9,500. Annual billing costs $12, $28 and $76 per month. Gen-4.5 costs 12 credits per second, so Standard buys 52 seconds of it.

Strengths:

• Aleph 2.0 edits existing footage rather than only generating new clips.
• Brand Kits on Pro and Max, plus plugins for Premiere Pro, After Effects and DaVinci Resolve.
• Also offers Kling 4.0 on paid plans, and Seedance 2.5, our #1 pick, on Pro and Max.

Limitations:

• Credits run out fast at Gen-4.5 rates: a 5-second clip costs about $1.44 on Standard.
• Videos made on the Free plan carry a Runway watermark.

Verdict: The strongest choice for editors who want generation inside the tools they already use.

3. Google Flow

What it is: Google's video tool for its Veo 3.1 models, included with Google AI plans.

Best for: Getting Veo 3.1 at the lowest per-clip price, or trying AI video for free every day.

Pricing: Everyone gets 50 Flow credits per day, and they don't carry over. Google AI Pro adds 1,000 credits per month at $19.99 per month in the US. Google AI Ultra adds 10,000 or 25,000 credits per month. Veo 3.1 Lite costs 10 credits per generation, Veo 3.1 Fast 20 and Veo 3.1 Quality 100 for an 8-second video. Lite and Fast cost half as much on Ultra.

Strengths:

• Veo 3.1 Fast works out to about $0.40 per generation on Google AI Pro.
• The free daily credits are enough for up to 5 Veo 3.1 Lite generations a day.
• Comes with a plan many people already pay for, alongside Gemini and storage.

Limitations:

• Google models only: no Wan, Seedance, Kling or Hailuo.
• All outputs carry an invisible SynthID watermark, and Flow's plan pages don't state commercial terms. Check Google's terms before using clips in ads.

Verdict: The best value for Veo 3.1, as long as Google's models are all you need.

4. Kling AI

What it is: Kuaishou's own app for its Kling video models.

Best for: Using Kling models directly, with Kling's own tools such as motion control.

Pricing: Standard is $8.80 per month for 660 credits, after a $6.99 first month. Pro is $32.56 per month for 3,000 credits, Premier $80.96 for 8,000 and Ultra $159.99 for 26,000. The free Basic plan has no monthly credits.

Strengths:

• Kling V3 Pro, our #3 pick, is Kling's own model.
• Motion control transfers movement from a reference video onto a character.
• The lowest entry price on this list.

Limitations:

• The free plan adds a watermark and doesn't allow commercial use.
• Kling models only, and introductory discounts mean your first month costs less than the months after it.

Verdict: A good fit if Kling is already your model of choice. Otherwise you're locked into one model family.

5. Higgsfield

What it is: An AI creative suite with studios for cinematic video, marketing and ads, built on models such as Seedance and Kling.

Best for: Marketing teams that want ad formats, templates and professional video skills more than control over the model.

Pricing: Starter is $19 per month for 270 credits. Plus is $59 per month for 1,200 credits ($47 billed annually), and Ultra is $129 per month ($99 billed annually). Team plans start at $65 per seat per month.

Strengths:

• Cinema Studio makes clips up to 30 seconds from up to 50 reference images.
• Marketing Studio has more than 1,500 templates, and Soul ID keeps characters consistent.
• Plus and Ultra include every Seedance model, among them Seedance 2.5, our #1 pick.

Limitations:

• Starter includes only Seedance 2.0 Fast and Seedance 2.0 Mini.
• Its unlimited-generation offers work only on higgsfield.ai, not through its MCP, CLI, Canvas or Supercomputer.

Verdict: Strong for ad templates, but you pay more per credit for less model choice.

How to choose

• If you want the best-rated models and don't want to commit to one, go with Glif. Every model in our top picks runs there, and Glif's skills, built by top AI creatives, use those models in the ways that get the best results.
• If you edit in Premiere Pro, After Effects or Resolve, go with Runway.
• If budget is the priority and Veo 3.1 is enough, go with Google Flow. On Glif, our budget pick is PixVerse V6, at about 6 credits per second.
• If you've standardised on Kling, go with Kling AI.
• If you need ad templates more than model choice, go with Higgsfield.

The bottom line

Glif is our top pick because it runs every model in our top picks, and its dynamic skills put those models to their best use. Runway is the better fit for teams who edit in a timeline, and Google Flow is cheaper if Veo 3.1 is all you need. To see how the models handle a shot like yours, compare AI video models on Glif and pick one from the results.