The best AI video generators in September 2026: Hailuo, PixVerse, Kling, Vidu, Runway, Veo and more, with checked prices, free plans and which make sound.
Three things changed in AI video during 2026, and together they make most older roundups wrong.
Sora is gone: OpenAI shut the Sora web and app experience on April 26, 2026, and the Sora API on September 24, 2026, according to its help centre. Any guide that tells you to sign up for Sora is out of date.
Sound became standard, as Kling 3.0, PixVerse V6, Vidu Q3, Google's Veo 3.1 and, since July 31, Hailuo's MiniMax H3 all generate audio in the same pass as the picture. "Native audio" no longer separates one tool from the rest.
Prices moved too: Runway halved the credit cost of its Gen-4.5 model and replaced its Unlimited plan with Max. Hailuo's free plan became a one-time trial. Vidu's plans change again on October 6.
How we researched this: prices for Hailuo, Kling, Vidu and Runway were checked on their pricing pages on September 24, 2026. PixVerse is the one tool here AIVario uses hands-on; its plan prices were last verified in April 2026 because its plan page blocks automated checks. Veo, Luma, Pika and Wan figures come from our individual reviews, checked in August 2026.
| Tool | Best for | Free plan | Paid from | Native audio | Clip length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hailuo AI | Realistic people | One-time trial | $10.50/mo (1,000 credits) | ✅ MiniMax H3 | 4 to 15 s | Try → |
| PixVerse | Daily free clips | 60 credits a day | $10/mo (1,200 credits) | ✅ V6 | Up to about 12 s | Try → |
| Kling AI | Motion physics | 66 credits a day | $8.80/mo after a $6.99 first month | ✅ Kling 3.0 | 3 to 15 s | Try → |
| Vidu | Recurring characters, anime | Trial and daily login credits | $10/mo (800 credits) | ✅ Q3 | 3 to 16 s | Try → |
| Runway | All-in-one workspace | 125 credits, once | $15/mo, or $12 yearly | ⚠️ Gen-4.5 is silent | Depends on model | Try → |
| Veo 3.1 | Top-end quality | Limited, through Google | Google AI plans; API from about $0.05/s | ✅ | 8 s | Try → |
Hailuo, Kling, Vidu and Runway checked on September 24, 2026; PixVerse plan prices last verified in April 2026; Veo from our August 2026 review.
MiniMax trained Hailuo on faces: skin texture, micro-expressions and how light falls on a person. Its new model, MiniMax H3, launched on July 31, 2026, generates 4 to 15 second clips at up to 2K with native stereo sound and dialogue in 11 languages, and MiniMax released its weights as open source a few days later.
Standard costs $10.50 a month for 1,000 credits, about 84 seconds of 2K video, and Pro $38 for 4,500. Hailuo publishes its per-second prices and does not charge credits for failed generations, both rare in this category. The catches: the free plan is now a one-time trial, and subscriptions are not refundable. Read the Hailuo AI review, or see how it compares in Hailuo vs Kling and Hailuo vs PixVerse.
PixVerse gives 90 credits at signup plus 60 a day, refilled at midnight UTC. Short drafts are cheap: in AIVario's account in August 2026, a 1-second 540p clip on the V6 model with audio cost 8 credits. EdGrows, who runs AIVario, uses it for 10 to 12 second clips for YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and it works well even on the free plan.
Renders finish in 30 to 60 seconds, and the app wraps the model in styles, an Agent and Mini-Apps for storyboards, music videos and ads. Standard at $10 a month removes the watermark but stays at 720p; 1080p starts on Pro at $30. More in the PixVerse review and PixVerse vs Kling.
Kuaishou built Kling 3.0 around physics-accurate motion, and it is still the reference point for people and objects that move with real weight. It generates 3 to 15 seconds per clip, can split a clip into up to six shots, and produces dialogue with lip sync in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.
Kling bills per second: 6 credits at 720p without audio, 12 at 1080p with audio. Standard lists at $10 but costs $6.99 for the first month and $8.80 after that for 660 credits, and yearly billing takes 34% off list. Failed generations cost credits in the web app but not through the API, so use Draft Mode before every full render. Details in the Kling review, Kling vs Vidu and Runway vs Kling.
Vidu's multi-entity reference combines up to seven reference images, such as two characters, a product and a setting, and keeps them consistent across generations. That solves character drift, the problem that quietly ruins most narrative AI video. Its Q3 model generates dialogue, effects and music with the picture in clips of up to 16 seconds, and its anime and stylised animation is where reviewers rate it highest.
Standard costs $10 a month for 800 credits, Premium $35 and Ultimate $99, which adds a free off-peak mode of up to 200 videos a day. Vidu offers no refunds, and its plans change on October 6, 2026. See the Vidu review and Hailuo vs Vidu.
Runway is less a single model than a workspace. One subscription reaches its own Gen-4.5, Aleph and Act-Two, third-party models including Kling 3.0, Veo 3.1 and Seedance, and music, voice and sound-effect tools. In 2026 it halved Gen-4.5 to 12 credits per second and replaced its Unlimited tier with Max: $95 a month, or $76 yearly, for 9,500 credits that roll over for one month.
Standard costs $15 a month or $12 yearly for 625 credits, about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5. It is the most expensive option per second, and worth it when you want generation and finishing in one place. Read the Runway review.
Google DeepMind's Veo 3.1 produces some of the strongest raw output in the category, with native audio, in 8-second clips. Buying it is confusing because there are two systems: Flow credits bundled into Google AI subscriptions for people directing clips by hand, and per-second Gemini API pricing from around $0.05 for developers. It is also available as a third-party model inside Runway and Hailuo plans. The Veo review untangles the options.
Luma AI has become a multi-model platform running its own Ray 3 models alongside Veo and Kling, with plans from $30 a month and no lasting free tier. Pika is the playful end of the market, known for one-click effects; its $8 plan lacks watermark-free downloads, which start on Pro. Wan AI is Alibaba's open-source model, free to self-host, and with MiniMax H3's weights now public there are two serious open options for developers.
Most tools sell credits, so the number worth comparing is the price of one finished second.
| Tool and setting | Cheapest plan rate | Monthly entry plan |
|---|---|---|
| Hailuo, MiniMax H3 at 2K, with sound | $0.081/s (Pro, Master or Max, yearly) | $0.126/s (Standard, $10.50) |
| Kling 3.0 at 1080p, with audio | $0.055/s (Ultra, yearly) | $0.160/s (Standard, $8.80 after the first month) |
| Runway Gen-4.5, silent | $0.096/s (Max, yearly) | $0.288/s (Standard, $15) |
Hailuo's rates as published on its plan cards; Kling and Runway calculated from plan prices and published credit rates. September 24, 2026. PixVerse and Vidu do not publish per-second rates.
Two policies matter as much as the rate. Hailuo does not charge for failed generations; Kling does in its app but not through its API; Vidu does and offers no refunds. And unused credits mostly vanish: Kling's subscription credits and Runway's Standard and Pro credits reset monthly, while Runway's Max plan rolls one month forward.
You will rarely get the shot on the first generation. Realistic budgets assume two to three attempts per usable clip, and more for complex motion. So the settings you use to find a shot should not be the settings you use to render it.
Draft cheap, then render once: on Hailuo, draft on H3 Max at 480P, which costs $0.027 to $0.042 a second, and render the keeper in 2K. On Kling, use Draft Mode, which previews at roughly 5 to 20 times normal speed. On Runway, block out a scene with Gen-4 Turbo at 25 credits per 5 seconds before spending 60 on Gen-4.5. That habit routinely cuts a video budget in half.
Long-form coherence is still a human job. These models produce clips of 15 or 16 seconds at most, and stitching them into a sequence where characters and lighting stay consistent takes editing, even with Vidu's references or Kling's multi-shot mode.
Precise control remains approximate, because you cannot reliably specify exact timing, an exact camera move and an exact action together. You prompt, generate and keep what comes closest.
On-screen text is unreliable across the field, so add titles and labels in post. Hands, physics and object permanence have improved without being solved. And costs are hard to forecast, because resolution, duration, audio and retries all multiply the credit bill.
Then finish in an editor: CapCut for social formats, Descript for anything with narration, and Opus Clip or Submagic for cutting long videos into shorts.
We have not run controlled side-by-side generation tests across these models. Prices come from each vendor's own pricing page on the dates given above, per-second figures are calculated from those prices and the published credit rates, and model specifications come from vendor documentation, including MiniMax's H3 announcement and Kling's Video 3.0 guides. Quality characterisations, such as Kling's motion or Vidu's anime, reflect consistent findings from reviewers who did test, not our own scoring. The one exception is PixVerse, which AIVario uses hands-on.
Disclosure: AIVario earns a commission if you sign up through some of the links on this page. This does not affect which tools we recommend.
It depends on the job. For realistic people, Hailuo AI; for motion physics, Kling; for a free plan you can keep using, PixVerse; for recurring characters and anime, Vidu; for an all-in-one workspace, Runway; and for top-end quality with sound, Google's Veo 3.1. The comparison table on this page lists current prices for each, checked in September 2026.
PixVerse. It gives 90 credits at signup plus 60 a day, refilled at midnight UTC, at 720p with a watermark. Kling also refills daily with 66 credits, about two 5-second clips. Hailuo's free plan is now a one-time trial, Runway gives 125 credits once, and Luma offers only trial credits.
Most of the leading ones now do. Kling 3.0, PixVerse V6, Vidu Q3, Hailuo's MiniMax H3 and Google's Veo 3.1 all generate sound in the same pass as the picture. Runway's own Gen-4.5 model is silent, although Runway's plans include audio tools and third-party models that produce sound.
No. OpenAI discontinued the Sora web and app experience on April 26, 2026, and the Sora API on September 24, 2026. Some platforms listed Sora 2 as a third-party model, but with the API closed those listings are unlikely to last. For a comparable option with sound, look at Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0 or Hailuo's H3.
On subscription plans, roughly $0.08 to $0.13 a second for Hailuo's MiniMax H3 at 2K with sound, and $0.055 to $0.16 for Kling 3.0 at 1080p with audio, depending on plan and billing period. Runway's silent Gen-4.5 costs about $0.10 to $0.29 a second. Budget for two or three attempts per usable clip.
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