The cheapest AI video generator, ranked by price per second and quality

The cheapest AI video generator depends on what you count. Per second, Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite wins at $0.02. Per second of video that wins blind votes, MiniMax H3 wins. For $0, Google Flow wins. This page ranks 15 models by price and by blind-vote quality on the same table, with every figure dated 5 November 2026.

What is the cheapest AI video generator right now?

Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite is the cheapest named video model at $0.020 a second on xAI's API, so a 10-second clip costs $0.20.

That rate is for 480p. Runway's API sells the same model at 2 credits a second at 480p and 14 credits at 1080p, at $0.01 a credit (Runway API pricing). Resolution changes the price sevenfold, so compare like with like.

Three picks cover most buyers:

Which AI video model gives the most quality per dollar?

MiniMax H3 at 768p gives the most quality per dollar among the top-ranked models: Elo 1160 for $4.80 a minute of video.

Artificial Analysis ranks video models by Elo from blind pairwise votes and lists the cost of one minute of video on each maker's own API, at 1080p where the model offers it. The table converts that minute price into seconds and into one 10-second clip. Elo comes from the text-to-video board (AA-Video-T2V v2.1) and the image-to-video board (AA-Video-I2V v2.1), both with audio, read on 5 November 2026. Higher Elo means voters preferred it more often.

Read the table in two passes. HeyGen Video 1 and MiniMax H3 sit in the arena's top 10 for under $0.10 a second. Wan 3.0 tops the text-to-video board at $0.20 a second, half the price of Veo 3.1. Seedance 2.5 tops image-to-video and is the most expensive row. Veo 3.1 costs the same as Seedance 2.0 and ranks 175 to 180 points lower on both boards.

MiniMax's own price list confirms H3 at $0.08 a second at 768p and $0.13 at 2K. Its H3-Lite runs $0.025 a second at 480p, the second-lowest rate after Grok Imagine Lite. Grok Imagine's arena price is the 1080p rate, which is why it sits far above xAI's $0.02.

What is the cheapest AI video subscription per second?

Kling's Ultra plan is the cheapest subscription per second: 720p silent Kling 3.0 works out to about $0.037 a second if you spend every credit.

Kling's user guide sets Kling 3.0 at 6 credits a second for 720p silent and 12 for 1080p with native audio. Kling's plan guide lists Standard at $8.80 for 660 credits and Ultra at $159.99 for 26,000 on renewal.

Runway's pricing page lists Max at $95 a month for 9,500 credits and Gen-4.5 at 12 credits a second. Kling credits from a subscription last one month, so the Ultra rate only holds if you render about 72 minutes of 720p a month.

Dreamina runs the cheapest entry offer. Its Seedance price page gives eligible US users a first month on Basic for $0.29 with 1,575 credits, renewing at $15. Seedance 2.0 Mini costs 5 credits a second at 720p there, so the first month covers 315 seconds, or 63 five-second clips.

Can you make AI videos for free?

Yes. Google Flow gives every account 50 credits a day, with or without a subscription.

Per Google's Flow help page, Veo 3.1 Lite costs 10 credits a generation, Fast 20 and Quality 100 (8-second clips only). Fifty credits buy five Lite or two Fast generations a day. Unused credits do not roll over, so a month of daily use is up to 150 Lite clips for $0.

Other free routes:

• Runway: 125 one-time credits on the free plan, about 10 seconds of Gen-4.5. Runway's terms do not restrict commercial use of your outputs, and the pricing page lists "No watermarks" from the $15 Standard plan up.
• Kling Basic: $0 forever, but Kling's plan guide lists no monthly credits and marks Basic output as not for commercial use. Our Kling AI free guide tracks the daily-credit claims.
• Flow step by step: see how to use Veo 3 for free.

What does a usable clip cost after retries?

A usable clip costs the price per try divided by your keep rate. Keep one clip in three and the bill triples.

The keep rates are inputs for the sum, not measurements. A higher-ranked model earns its price only if it saves you retries, so a $0.08 model you keep half the time beats a $0.02 model you keep one time in five. Kling refunds credits when a generation fails, per its credits policy, but a clip that renders and looks wrong still costs you. Run your own numbers in the AI video cost calculator.

Which cheap AI video generator should you pick?

Pick by the job, then by the price.

1. Drafts and memes: Grok Imagine 1.5 Lite at 480p, $0.20 for 10 seconds.
2. Posts people will judge on quality: MiniMax H3 at 768p or HeyGen Video 1, both top 10 in the arena under $0.10 a second.
3. 1080p with dialogue on a budget: Kling 3.0 on a Kling plan, $0.16 a second on Standard. Prices for every plan are in Kling AI pricing.
4. $0 and a Google account: Flow's daily Veo 3.1 Lite clips. Veo's paid routes are in Google Veo 3 pricing.
5. Best image-to-video at any price: Seedance 2.5, at $5.69 for 10 seconds.

If you want a trending video with your own character and no prompt writing or credit maths, HoneyVid starts from a template: pick the video, add your photo and get the clip.