Open almost any AI video app in 2026 and you get a menu of model names: Seedance, Veo, Kling, Hailuo, Runway, Wan and, until recently, Sora. The app rarely tells you what separates them. The differences that change your result fit on a short list: how long one generation runs, what resolution comes out, whether sound is generated with the picture, what a second of footage costs, and which shots each model handles well.
This guide compares the models a creator is most likely to meet, using only specs we could trace to the vendor or a named press or platform page, linked inline. Where a figure comes from a third party, or could not be confirmed, we say so. Prices are API list prices as of October 2026 and change often. One disclosure: five of these models (Seedance 2.5, Veo 3.1, Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, Kling 3.0 Turbo and MiniMax H3 Max) are available in ClipSpeed's AI Creator and the rest are not, so we have a stake in those five rows. We have held them to the same standard as the others.
Generation makes new footage. ClipSpeedAI's AI clipping works on the footage you already have: it finds the strongest moments in a video or livestream, cuts them to vertical 9:16, burns in captions and scores each clip.
Try ClipSpeedAI →"Max single clip" means one generation, before any extend feature. Prices are per second of API output as of October 2026; consumer apps usually charge credits instead. Sources are linked in each model's section below.
| Model | Max single clip | Resolution | Native audio | API list price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance) | 30 s, plus extension | 480p/720p at launch, 1080p added since; 4K unconfirmed | Yes | $0.22–$1.164/s on fal (480p to 1080p) | 30-second ads, multi-shot stories |
| Seedance 2.0 (ByteDance) | 15 s | Up to 4K on the standard model; Fast tops out at 720p | Yes | About $0.30/s at 720p (BytePlus) | Cinematic realism, lip-synced dialogue |
| Veo 3.1 (Google) | 8 s; Scene Extension for longer | 720p, 1080p, 4K (4K on Standard and Fast only) | Yes | $0.05–$0.60/s by tier and resolution | Premium hero shots, vertical Shorts, 4K |
| Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash (Google) | 10 s; extend to 40 s total | 360p to 4K (1080p and 4K upscaled) | Yes | About $0.03–$0.30/s (third-party, citing Google) | Editing existing clips, cheap drafts |
| Kling 3.0 Turbo (Kuaishou) | 15 s for Kling 3.0; not confirmed for Turbo | 720p Standard, 1080p Pro | Yes | $0.112/s (720p), $0.14/s (1080p) | Talking heads, social ads, many variants |
| MiniMax H3 | 15 s | Up to 2K via API; 768p from open weights | Yes, stereo | Reported $0.08–$0.13/s (third-party) | Cheap audio clips, self-hosting |
| H3 Max (fal) | 15 s | 768p | Yes | $0.04/s reported; listings conflict | Fast image-to-video |
| Runway Gen-4.5 | One-minute multi-shot | Not verified here | Yes, since Dec 2025 | Not verified here | Check Runway's own pages |
| Wan 3.0 (Alibaba) | 30 s (reported) | 1080p (reported) | Reported | Not verified | Public beta; not verified with Alibaba |
| Sora 2 (OpenAI) | Discontinued | — | — | — | Not available |
Two cautions. First, "4K" varies. Google describes Veo's 1080p and 4K as upscaling, and Omni's top resolutions are upscaled too, while BytePlus lists 4K as an output of the standard Seedance 2.0 model, whose research paper lists native 480p and 720p, so ask how any 4K file is produced. Second, a per-second price is not a per-usable-clip price. If a cheaper model needs three takes where a pricier one needs one, the cheaper model can end up costing more. For a closer head-to-head, see Veo vs Seedance vs Kling.
ByteDance announced Seedance 2.5 at its Volcano Engine FORCE event on June 23, 2026, according to TechNode, and published the official launch post on July 31, 2026.
What sets it apart is length and control. One generation runs 4 to 30 seconds, extendable over further rounds. That is double the 15-second ceiling of Kling 3.0, MiniMax H3 and Seedance 2.0. A request can carry up to 30 reference images, 10 reference videos and 10 audio clips, and editing works at the timestamp level, including green-screen and camera-perspective edits. A "clay render" mode blocks out a scene with textureless 3D models. Audio is generated jointly with the picture.
Resolution needs care. Seedance 2.5 launched at 480p and 720p, which matches fal's August 13 comparison. ModelArk promised 1080p from August 17, 2026, as reported by ofox.ai, and fal now lists a 1080p price. We could not confirm 4K for 2.5.
Price is the catch. On fal it costs about $0.22 a second at 480p, $0.473 at 720p and $1.164 at 1080p, audio included. By our arithmetic, a full 30-second take comes to about $14.19 at 720p and $34.92 at 1080p. BytePlus charges by token instead; CometAPI's calculation puts its rate at roughly $0.10 a second at 480p and $0.23 at 720p.
Best for: 30-second ads, multi-shot stories and branded pieces where a product or character has to hold across many references. You can run it in ClipSpeed's AI Creator, and our Seedance 2.5 guide covers settings and prompting.
Seedance 2.0 was released in China in early February 2026 and generates 4 to 15 seconds. The BytePlus API docs list the standard model at up to 4K (10-bit, 24 fps), with Fast and Mini at 480p and 720p only. The same docs put pricing at about $0.30 a second at 720p for standard and $0.24 for Fast. Audio, including lip-synced dialogue, is on by default.
The launch also drew legal pushback. Disney sent ByteDance a cease-and-desist on February 13, 2026, and the Motion Picture Association sent its own on February 20. ByteDance pledged safeguards, suspended real-person references and postponed the international API. For any model: do not generate real people or copyrighted characters you have no rights to. More in our guide to using AI video commercially.
Veo 3.1 entered paid preview on October 15, 2025. A January 13, 2026 update added native 9:16 output plus 1080p and 4K upscaling, and a cheaper Veo 3.1 Lite arrived on March 31, 2026.
Veo works in short units. Per the Gemini API docs, a clip is 4, 6 or 8 seconds, and 1080p, 4K, reference images and extension all require the 8-second length. Scene Extension continues from a clip's final second and can reach "a minute or more". Audio is native, with dialogue and sound effects, though Google says natural speech in short segments is still "an area of active development".
| Veo 3.1 tier (Gemini API) | 720p | 1080p | 4K |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $0.40/s | $0.40/s | $0.60/s |
| Fast | $0.10/s | $0.12/s | $0.30/s |
| Lite | $0.05/s | $0.08/s | Not offered |
Those Gemini API prices include audio, and there is no free tier. An 8-second 1080p shot costs $3.20 on Standard, $0.96 on Fast and $0.64 on Lite. Every Veo frame carries Google's invisible SynthID watermark, and YouTube always labels content made with Veo, so expect that label there. Our AI video disclosure guide covers the other platforms.
Best for: premium 8-second hero shots, vertical Shorts and 4K deliverables, if you are happy to build longer sequences from short units.
Google's newer Omni model pairs generation with conversational editing. The stable gemini-omni-1.1-flash reached general availability on August 27, 2026. Each instruction builds on the last, and it works on your own footage too. Clips run 3 to 10 seconds and extend 10 seconds at a time to 40 seconds total. Third-party pricing that cites Google puts it at about $0.03 a second at 360p, up to $0.30 at 4K. Google warns that camera pans and scene cuts can break character consistency.
Kuaishou launched Kling 3.0 on February 5, 2026 with clips up to 15 seconds, multilingual native audio and multi-shot generation; Kling's guide gives a 3 to 15 second range and up to six shots per generation. Turbo arrived on the API on June 17, 2026 as kling-3.0-turbo.
Turbo comes in two tiers on Kling's pricing page: Standard at 720p and Pro at 1080p, both with native audio and no 4K option. Pro adds improved lip-sync and multi-shot; Standard image-to-video takes start and end frames. The price is the draw: $0.112 a second at 720p and $0.14 at 1080p, audio included, on Kling's API and fal. A third-party guide gives Turbo the same 3 to 15 second range, which we could not confirm with Kling; if it holds, a 15-second 1080p clip comes to $2.10. Kling lists a 4.0 API as "coming soon".
Best for: talking-head clips, social ads and many variants of one idea to test.
MiniMax's video line is often called Hailuo, and fans call the new model "Hailuo 3.0", but the official name is H3. It launched on July 31, 2026 with clips up to 15 seconds, native 32 kHz stereo audio and output up to 2K through the API. The weights are open under the MiniMax H3 Community License, but the open release defaults to 768p, and the 2K regeneration module was not open-sourced.
Atlas Cloud reports official pay-as-you-go rates of $0.08 a second at 768p and $0.13 at 2K, which we have not checked against MiniMax's own price page. Open weights are not automatically free for commercial use: third-party summaries describe revenue caps, excluded territories and an attribution requirement, which we could not confirm, so read the license itself.
H3 Max has a confusing name: fal built it, not MiniMax, by post-training the open H3 weights. Released September 1, 2026, it generates 5 to 15 seconds with native audio at up to 768p, and fal claims a 5-second clip renders in about three seconds. Launch coverage gives $0.04 a second, though OpenRouter lists $0.05 to $0.08, so the price is not settled.
Best for: low-cost native-audio clips, teams that want to self-host H3's open weights, and fast image-to-video drafts with H3 Max, which ClipSpeed's AI Creator offers as MiniMax H3 Max.
Runway launched Gen-4.5 on December 1, 2025 and added native audio and one-minute multi-shot generation on December 11. We found no confirmed Gen-5, and did not verify Gen-4.5's resolution limits or price, so check Runway's own pages.
According to third-party coverage we could not confirm with Alibaba, Wan 2.2 (July 2025) was the last open-weight flagship, under Apache 2.0, and Wan 3.0 entered public beta on August 6, 2026 with 30-second clips at 1080p, audio and closed weights.
Sora 2 launched on September 30, 2025 with synchronized dialogue and sound effects. OpenAI announced a wind-down in March 2026. The app went offline on April 26, 2026, and the API followed on September 24, 2026, according to third-party reports.
There is no single best AI video generator in October 2026, only a best fit for the shot. Seedance 2.5 is the pick for 30-second takes and reference control, at a high 1080p price. Veo 3.1 suits short premium shots, vertical and 4K. Kling 3.0 Turbo is the value pick for volume. MiniMax H3 and fal's H3 Max are low-cost routes to native audio, and H3's open weights come with a license you should read first. Runway and Wan need checking at the source, and Sora 2 is gone.
Generation is for footage that does not exist yet. Five of these models (Seedance 2.5, Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0 Turbo, MiniMax H3 Max and Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash) sit side by side in ClipSpeed's AI Creator, next to its AI clipping, so you can match the model to the shot in one account. If you already have long videos or streams, clipping them is often faster; we compare the two in AI video generation vs AI clipping.
What is the best AI video generator in 2026?
It depends on the shot. As of October 2026, Seedance 2.5 suits 30-second single takes and heavy reference control, Veo 3.1 suits short premium shots, native vertical and 4K, Kling 3.0 Turbo suits high-volume clips with audio at $0.112 a second for 720p, and MiniMax H3 suits cheap native-audio clips with an open-weights option. Sora 2 is no longer available.
Which AI video generator makes the longest clips?
Among models with confirmed specs, Seedance 2.5 makes the longest single generation: 4 to 30 seconds in one pass, against 15 seconds for Kling 3.0 and MiniMax H3 and 8 seconds for Veo 3.1. Several models go further with extension or multi-shot generation: Veo's Scene Extension can reach "a minute or more", Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash extends to 40 seconds, and Runway added one-minute multi-shot generation to Gen-4.5 in December 2025. Wan 3.0 is reported to do 30 seconds, but we could not confirm that with Alibaba.
Is Sora 2 still available?
No. OpenAI announced a wind-down in March 2026, the Sora app went offline on April 26, 2026, and third-party reports put the API shutdown at September 24, 2026. Treat any tool or tutorial still offering Sora 2 as out of date.
Which AI video models generate sound?
These all generate native audio: Seedance 2.5 and 2.0, Veo 3.1, Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, Kling 3.0 Turbo, MiniMax H3 and fal's H3 Max, and Runway Gen-4.5 since a December 2025 update. Wan 3.0 reportedly does too, but that is unconfirmed. Quality varies by task. Google says natural speech in short Veo segments is still an area of active development.
What is the cheapest AI video generator per second?
On API list prices as of October 2026, the low end includes Veo 3.1 Lite at $0.05 a second for 720p, fal's H3 Max at a reported $0.04 a second for 768p (other listings show $0.05 to $0.08), and Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash at about $0.03 a second for 360p, per third-party pricing. The cheapest per second is not always the cheapest per usable clip, because discarded takes add up.
Which of these models can I use inside ClipSpeedAI?
Five of the video models in this guide are available side by side in ClipSpeed's AI Creator: Seedance 2.5, Veo 3.1, Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, Kling 3.0 Turbo and MiniMax H3 Max (fal's post-trained version of the open H3). Seedance 2.0, the base MiniMax H3, Runway, Wan and Sora 2 are not. The AI Creator also has three image models, Nano Banana Pro, GPT Image 2.5 Flare and GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst, which suit thumbnails and image-to-video start frames. Generations use ClipSpeed creation credits (see pricing), and the workspace sits next to ClipSpeed's AI clipping, which turns long videos and livestreams into captioned vertical clips.
Do I have to label AI-generated video when I post it?
Often, yes. YouTube requires creators to disclose realistic altered or synthetic content and always labels content made with Veo, and TikTok requires a label on AI-generated content showing realistic scenes or people. Our disclosure rules guide covers the details. This is not legal advice; check each platform's current terms.
Published by ClipSpeedAI · AI video generation and AI clipping in one place — create with Seedance, Veo, Kling and Nano Banana, then cut it into captioned shorts.