AI Video Generator Pricing Compared (September 2026): Free Tiers, Watermarks, Commercial Use

Every AI video generator prices the same four things differently: whether you have to subscribe, what the free tier actually lets you export, whether that export carries a watermark, and whether you may use it commercially. Vendors bury those facts under credit systems, first-month offers and regional pricing. This comparison puts them side by side, with the source page for every tool.

Competitor figures were read on each vendor's own pricing page on 21 September 2026. PrismPoster's figures reflect its pricing as of 30 September 2026. Where a vendor does not publish a fact, the entry says so instead of guessing. Some vendors show regional currency (noted per entry), and several run first-month discounts that are not the standing price.

The comparison at a glance

PrismPoster

• Subscription required to pay: No, one-off credit packs only
• Free tier: Starter credits in many countries, valid 24 hours
• Watermark on free exports: Yes, visible AI-generated label
• Commercial use on free: Yes
• Cheapest way to pay: Refill pack €3.99, 200 credits, one-time; credits never expire

Kling AI

• Subscription required to pay: Yes
• Free tier: $0 Basic, no monthly credits
• Watermark on free exports: Yes
• Commercial use on free: No
• Cheapest way to pay: Standard $10/mo, 660 credits

Runway

• Subscription required to pay: Yes
• Free tier: 125 credits, one time
• Watermark on free exports: Yes (clean from Standard)
• Commercial use on free: Not stated
• Cheapest way to pay: Standard $12/mo yearly, 625 credits

Pika

• Subscription required to pay: Packs on free; plans for commercial use
• Free tier: $0, credit packs only
• Watermark on free exports: No
• Commercial use on free: No (from Creator, $35)
• Cheapest way to pay: Starter $10/mo, 900 credits

Luma Dream Machine

• Subscription required to pay: Yes
• Free tier: No free plan
• Watermark on free exports: n/a
• Commercial use on free: n/a
• Cheapest way to pay: Plus $30/mo, 10,000 credits

Higgsfield

• Subscription required to pay: Yes
• Free tier: Free tier, no video models
• Watermark on free exports: Not stated
• Commercial use on free: Not stated
• Cheapest way to pay: Starter €19/mo, 270 credits

Vidu

• Subscription required to pay: Yes
• Free tier: $0, no 720p/1080p video
• Watermark on free exports: Yes
• Commercial use on free: No
• Cheapest way to pay: Standard $8/mo yearly, 800 credits

Hedra

• Subscription required to pay: Yes
• Free tier: Free plan, allowance unpublished
• Watermark on free exports: Not stated
• Commercial use on free: Not stated
• Cheapest way to pay: Basic $15/mo, 1,500 credits

Hailuo AI

• Subscription required to pay: "From $9.99/mo"
• Free tier: Behind sign-in
• Watermark on free exports: Not stated publicly
• Commercial use on free: Not stated publicly
• Cheapest way to pay: "From $9.99/mo"

PixVerse

• Subscription required to pay: Not published
• Free tier: Behind sign-in
• Watermark on free exports: Not stated publicly
• Commercial use on free: Not stated publicly
• Cheapest way to pay: Not published

Google Gemini

• Subscription required to pay: Yes
• Free tier: Paid plans only
• Watermark on free exports: Invisible SynthID only
• Commercial use on free: Not stated
• Cheapest way to pay: AI Plus €4.99/mo

Sora

• Subscription required to pay: n/a
• Free tier: Discontinued 26 Apr 2026 (API 24 Sept)
• Watermark on free exports: n/a
• Commercial use on free: n/a
• Cheapest way to pay: None

Plan ladders, credit maths, resolutions and clip lengths for every tool are in the vendor sections below. The overview is deliberately short so each answer takes one glance.

How to read the comparison

A subscription is the default, not a law of nature. Nine of the eleven live products above sell video credits mainly through a monthly or yearly plan. A plan renews whether or not you made anything that month, and unused monthly credits usually reset. PrismPoster sells one-off credit packs instead: you pay once, the purchased credits never expire, and nothing renews or needs cancelling. Pika is the partial exception among the rest: its free plan buys packs, but its commercial licence sits on a monthly plan. For someone who makes a video campaign one month and nothing the next, "Subscription required" matters more than the headline price.

Credits are not comparable across vendors. 660 Kling credits, 625 Runway credits and 650 PrismPoster credits buy different amounts of video. Each vendor prices a second of output differently and changes the rate by resolution, length and model. The honest comparison is the cost of one finished clip at the resolution you will publish. PrismPoster publishes its full rate card, so its maths is public:

• A 10-second 360p draft is 60 credits: about €1.20 on the smallest pack, €0.89 on the largest.
• A 10-second 720p clip is 160 credits: about €3.19, or €2.36 on the largest pack.
• At 1080p it is 250 credits: about €4.99, or €3.69.
• At 4K it is 500 credits: about €9.98, or €7.38.

None of the other pricing pages checked publishes a per-clip figure; Higgsfield's plan calculator is the one partial exception. The full breakdown of per-second, credit and subscription pricing models explains what quietly changes the real price: draft resolution, re-rolls and audio.

"Free" usually means "free to try, not free to publish." Kling's and Vidu's free tiers keep the watermark and withhold commercial use. Pika's free plan exports without a watermark but withholds the commercial licence. Runway hands out a one-time grant and does not state commercial terms on the page. Luma has no free plan at all. PrismPoster is the exception here: free output may be used commercially with its visible AI-generated label on. Buying any credit pack removes that label from your own work; it does not lift a restriction on what you may do with the file. If the clip is going into an ad, a client deliverable or a monetised channel, the line that matters is "Commercial use on free", not "Free tier".

A watermark and a content credential are different things. A corner logo is branding you pay to remove. An invisible mark such as Google's SynthID, or C2PA content credentials, is AI disclosure that stays after you pay, and platforms increasingly read it. PrismPoster embeds machine-readable AI provenance in its files and adds C2PA credentials where it can. Buying credits removes the visible label, not the disclosure.

First-month prices are not the price. Kling's Standard card showed $6.99 for the first month against a $10 list price. Higgsfield shows annual-billing prices by default. The overview records the standing monthly figure wherever the page states one.

Vendor by vendor

PrismPoster pricing: no subscription, a published rate card, six studios, one wallet

PrismPoster is an all-in-one studio rather than a video-only generator: image, video, character, storyboard, music and a multitrack timeline editor. It publishes the credit cost of every job.

It sells no subscription. New accounts in many countries get free starter credits, which expire 24 hours after they are granted. After that you buy one-off credit packs:

• Refill: 200 credits, €3.99, one-time
• Spark: 650 credits, €9.99, one-time
• Flare: 1,450 credits, €21.99, one-time
• Plus: 2,800 credits, €41.99, one-time
• Power: 5,800 credits, €85.99, one-time
• Studio: 13,000 credits, €191.99, one-time

Checkout shows local currency. Purchased credits never expire, nothing renews, and unused purchased credits are refundable within 14 days.

What is free and what a pack adds.

• Free accounts render Standard video at 360p or 720p. Their output carries a visible AI-generated label and may be used commercially with it on. They can also try the Premium video engine with one draft, and the timeline editor is open on every account.
• Buying any pack, even the €3.99 Refill, adds 1080p and 4K, the full Premium engine, and work without the visible label. 4K is therefore available from the smallest purchase rather than reserved for a top tier.

Clips and limits. Clips run 4 to 10 seconds in 16:9 or 9:16. The image-to-video tool is the usual first stop for animating a still. Two limits are worth knowing, because the vendor states them rather than hiding them:

• There are no 1:1 or 4:5 clips.
• Image-to-video refuses raw photos of identifiable real people. Generated stills, products, art and landscapes animate without restriction.

Sora pricing in 2026: there is none, Sora was discontinued

OpenAI's help centre states that "The Sora web and app experiences were discontinued on April 26, 2026" and that "The Sora API will be discontinued on September 24, 2026." Anyone searching for a free Sora plan or a Sora price in late 2026 is looking for a product that no longer exists. Existing users can export their content from sora.chatgpt.com/sunset, and OpenAI notes that purchased ChatGPT/Sora credits can still be used for Codex. Every "Sora alternatives" list published before April 2026 is now a list of the whole market.

Kling AI pricing: is Kling free?

Kling keeps a $0 "Basic" tier with no monthly credits listed. The comparison table on its membership page marks 1080p/4K generation, "Brand watermark removal" and "Generated content is for commercial use" as paid-plan benefits.

Standard is the entry point, for 660 credits: $10/month list price. On 21 September 2026 the page showed a $6.99 first month and $8.80/month after that, and priced the credits at $1.06 per 100. Higher plans:

• Pro: $37 for 3,000 credits.
• Premier: $92 for 8,000.
• Ultra: $180 for 26,000.

The per-credit price falls from $1.06 to $0.49 per 100 credits up the ladder. All of them are subscriptions.

Runway pricing: 125 credits, once

Runway's free plan is a one-time grant of 125 credits, not a monthly allowance. The pricing page lists "No watermarks" as a feature of Standard and above, which tells you where the free tier stands. Plans:

• Standard: $12/month billed yearly, or $15 monthly, for 625 credits.
• Pro: $28 yearly or $35 monthly, for 2,250 credits.
• Max: $76 yearly or $95 monthly, for 9,500 credits, with "studio-grade" outputs such as ProRes and image sequences.

Commercial-use terms are not on the pricing page.

Pika pricing: free without a watermark, but no commercial licence

Pika's free plan is the unusual one. It states "No watermark", gives no monthly credits (you buy packs instead), and lists "Commercial license" under "Not included". Plans:

• Starter: $10/month, or $8 billed yearly, for 900 credits.
• Creator: $35/month, or $28 yearly, for 3,150 credits. This is where the commercial licence appears, so commercial use requires a subscription.
• Fancy: from $95, adding a priority queue and early model access.

Luma Dream Machine pricing: no free plan

The Luma pricing page lists three individual plans and no free tier, all with commercial use included:

• Plus: $30/month, or $25 billed yearly, for 10,000 credits.
• Pro: $90, or $75 yearly, for 40,000 credits.
• Ultra: $300, or $250 yearly, for 150,000 credits.

Team and Enterprise are "contact us".

Higgsfield pricing: video starts at Starter, Seedance 2.5 starts at Plus

Higgsfield's page is displayed in EUR, VAT excluded. Plans:

• Starter: €19/month for a fixed 270 credits, which the page equates to roughly 15 Seedance 2.0 Fast videos.
• Plus: €59 monthly, or €47 on annual billing, for 1,200 credits.
• Ultra: €129 monthly, or €99 annual, for 3,000 credits.

The feature grid shows every Seedance and Kling video row as "Not included" on the free tier, and Seedance 2.5 as "Available from Plus plan". Higgsfield's calculator puts a Kling 3.0 clip at "≈ 14 credits each · per Kling 3.0 generation, 8s, 720p", one of the few published per-clip figures in this market.

Vidu pricing: $8 a month for 800 credits

Plans:

• Standard: $8/month billed yearly ($96), or $10 monthly, for 800 credits and "up to 200 videos". Clips run 3 to 16 seconds, with commercial use.
• Premium: $28/month ($336/year) for 4,000 credits.
• Ultimate: $79/month ($948/year) for 8,000 credits, with 4K and off-peak submissions of up to 200 videos a day.

The free tier shows 10 references a month. Its comparison grid marks 720p/1080p generation, watermark-free download and commercial use as not included.

Hedra pricing: from $15 with commercial use

Plans:

• Basic: $15/month for 1,500 credits, with commercial use and "slower generations".
• Creator: $30 for 5,400 credits.
• Professional: $75 for 14,400 credits.

The page headline mentions a free plan but does not publish its allowance, watermark or licence terms.

Hailuo and PixVerse: plans behind the login

Both vendors publish their price lists only inside the app.

• Hailuo: the public site states "From $9.99/mo", and its composer defaults to 2K, 5-second generations.
• PixVerse: the public pricing URL returned a 404 on the day of checking, and its composer defaults to 540p, 5 seconds.

Treat any third-party figure for either as unverified until you have seen the in-app page yourself.

Google Gemini: Veo became Gemini Omni, paid plans only, SynthID on everything

Google's video-generation page for the Gemini app says the model is now "Gemini Omni", replacing Veo. It produces 10-second videos, requires a paid plan, and stamps every video with SynthID, described as Google's invisible watermark for identifying AI-generated content.

As displayed in Germany on one.google.com:

• Google AI Plus: €4.99/month.
• AI Pro: €21.99/month, described as "expanded access" to image, music and video generation.
• AI Ultra: from €99.99/month, with the highest limits.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an AI video generator without a subscription?

Yes. Of the tools compared here, PrismPoster is the only one that sells no subscription at all. You start free where starter credits are offered, then buy one-off credit packs from €3.99, and purchased credits never expire. Pika's free plan also buys credit packs, but its commercial licence requires the $35/month Creator plan. Every other live vendor here sells video mainly through a monthly or yearly plan.

Which AI video generator is free without a watermark?

On the pages checked in September 2026, only Pika's free plan states "No watermark", and it withholds the commercial licence instead. Kling and Vidu keep the watermark on free output, and Runway lists "No watermarks" only from its $12/month Standard plan. PrismPoster's free output carries a visible AI-generated label, but unlike the others it may be used commercially with the label on. Any credit pack, from €3.99 and with no subscription, removes the label from your own work. Every other vendor here either has no free plan or does not publish the answer.

Is Sora free in 2026?

No. Sora is gone: OpenAI discontinued the Sora web and app experiences on 26 April 2026 and is discontinuing the API on 24 September 2026. Existing users can export their content until the final export window closes.

What is the cheapest AI video generator with commercial use?

PrismPoster is the only $0 option here that permits commercial use, with its AI label on. It is also the only one where the lowest paid price is not a subscription: a €3.99 one-time pack, which unlocks 1080p, 4K and label-free work.

Among subscription plans that state commercial use on the pricing page, the order by list price is:

1. Vidu Standard: $8/month billed yearly, $10 monthly.
2. Kling Standard: $10 list, $6.99 first month.
3. Hedra Basic: $15.
4. Pika Creator: $35, where Pika's commercial licence starts.

The cheapest plan is not the cheapest clip, so compare the cost of a finished clip at your publishing resolution.

How much does one 10-second 1080p AI clip cost?

Only vendors with a public rate card can be quoted. On PrismPoster a 10-second 1080p clip is 250 credits. That is about €4.99 on the smallest pack and €3.69 on the largest, with no monthly fee on top. The same clip at 720p is 160 credits, about €3.19 or €2.36. Higgsfield's calculator puts an 8-second 720p Kling 3.0 generation at about 14 credits, roughly €1 at its Starter subscription price of €19 for 270 credits. The other vendors here do not publish a per-clip figure.

Do "no watermark" exports still identify as AI?

Often yes, and that is the good configuration. Google's SynthID and C2PA content credentials are invisible provenance marks that survive after you pay. PrismPoster keeps machine-readable AI provenance in its files when the visible label comes off. A tool that removes both is not giving you more freedom. It is giving you a file that fails the disclosure checks platforms are converging on.

Sources consulted

Competitor pages, all read on 21 September 2026: OpenAI Help Center, "What to know about the Sora discontinuation" · kling.ai membership plans · runway.com/pricing · pika.art/pricing · lumalabs.ai/dream-machine/pricing · higgsfield.ai/pricing (EUR, Germany) · vidu.com/pricing · hedra.com/pricing · hailuoai.video · app.pixverse.ai · gemini.google/overview/video-generation and one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans (EUR, Germany).

PrismPoster: prismposter.com/pricing, 30 September 2026.

Written by PrismLabs OÜ, the company behind PrismPoster. Competitor figures are quoted from the vendors' own pages as they appeared on the date above; check the linked page before you buy, because these change with every pricing restructure.