The 12 Best AI Video Generators (Free & Paid) to Try in 2025

The best AI video generators

• Synthesia for creating videos using AI avatars
• Google Veo 2 for generating high-quality videos at a low cost
• Hailuo for producing high-quality videos with a generous free plan
• Alibaba Qwen for free and unlimited AI video generation
• Kling for crafting cinematic videos and animations
• Runway for AI filmmaking tools with a steep learning curve
• LTX Studio for video projects with AI-powered storyboarding features
• Higgsfield for generating good-quality videos with minimal input
• Adobe Firefly for basic AI-generated b-roll video
• Google Veo 3 for producing premium cinematic videos (paid)
• OpenAI Sora for generating videos with ChatGPT (paid)
• Luma for transforming images into high-quality videos (paid)

I tested 12 AI video generators

I tested 12 of the top AI video generators to see which ones actually deliver. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been hands-on with each platform—looking for the easiest and most cost-effective way to create high-quality AI videos.

Most of them offer free credits, so you can test things out without entering a credit card. A few are paid-only—those are at the bottom of the list.

Since no single tool is perfect for everything, I’ve also highlighted which use cases each one is best suited for.

I tested the free text-to-video capabilities of the creative AI video generators on this list using the following prompt:

A ginger cat chasing a laser pointer on a sheepskin living room rug.

And to test image-to-video I used the same prompt to generate an image in ChatGPT 4o and the same prompt to animate it.

I’ve included the first video generated by each tool so you can easily compare the outputs side by side. In every example I've used the latest model available to free users.

But first, a quick explanation of the three main types of AI video generation.

Types of AI video generation

There are 3 main types of AI video generation.

Text-to-video

AI text-to-video generation allows users to create AI videos simply by describing a scene in text.

The AI interprets the prompt and generates a matching video, complete with movement, lighting, and even physics.

This is by far the most popular type of AI video generation.

Image-to-video

Image-to-video AI video generation animates static images, bringing them to life with motion effects.

AI can generate smooth transitions, camera movements, or even animate characters from a few frames.

Image-to-video models are popular with AI movie creators because they allow you to maintain character, scene and object consistency throughout your video.

You would typically use these tools alongside an AI image generator like Midjourney in a workflow like this to create AI-generated short story videos:

1. ChatGPT 4o or Midjourney to generate images
2. An AI video generator (e.g. Runway) for image-to-video
3. Suno to generate music
4. Elevenlabs for some effects
5. Topaz for video upscaling
6. Capcut for editing

Video-to-video

Video-to-video AI video generation uses AI to enhance, modify, or transform existing videos rather than creating new ones from scratch.

This can include improving video quality, changing styles, adding special effects, or even altering elements within the footage—like removing objects, or replacing backgrounds.

Some good examples of video-to-video includes Synthesia's AI video translator/AI dubbing or Topaz's video upscaling.

Synthesia

Synthesia pros

• Create studio-quality videos with lifelike digital avatars
• Make videos with dialogue in 140+ languages
• Easily convert text documents, PDFs and PowerPoint slides into engaging videos
• Translate any video into 29+ languages with the original voice and lip sync

Synthesia cons

• Synthesia is avatar-led AI video generator built for enterprise use cases, so it's not suitable for making creative/artistic AI videos

Synthesia is an AI video generator that lets you create studio-quality videos with realistic talking AI avatars. It's mainly used by businesses for structured, presentation-style videos—think training content, explainers, or internal comms.

I think Synthesia is one of the AI tools I use most often, mainly because it’s genuinely useful for my work.

I started out using it for training videos, but it's now become my go-to for anything that needs a polished presenter on screen.

Here's an example of a video I made in Synthesia for a product launch.

My first video took maybe ten minutes to make. I just typed in my script, picked a presenter, adjusted the layout with the AI-powered video editor, and hit generate.

I love that you can easily convert webpages, PowerPoint slides, PDFs, and text prompts directly into engaging videos too.

There are over 230 avatars to choose from, and I’ve also played around with their custom avatar feature to create one that looks and sounds like me.

Synthesia makes it easy to create videos in over 140 languages, and with their AI dubbing feature you can also translate any existing videos you have into over 29 languages while keeping the same voice and with perfect lip sync.

You can easily add multiple AI talking heads to your video, so simulating a conversation or scenario is straightforward.

One of the most popular use cases of Synthesia is as an eLearning authoring tool, so if you’re looking for AI-powered training video software that’s actually built for business use, this is a good place to start.

The main drawback of Synthesia is that it's not a tool that is built for creative/artistic AI videos. If that's what you're looking for then the other options on this list will be more suitable.

Synthesia price

Synthesia’s Basic plan is free and gives you 3 minutes of video per month with access to 9 AI avatars.

The Starter plan costs $29/month and includes 10 video minutes per month, video downloads, 125+ avatars, and support for 3 guests.

The Creator plan, at $89/month, bumps that up to 30 video minutes per month and adds features like video dubbing, API access, personal avatars, and branded video pages.

For teams, the Enterprise plan offers custom pricing with unlimited video minutes and advanced features like 1-click translations, SCORM export, and live collaboration.

Go‎ogle Veo 2

Veo 2 pros

• Free credits available
• Cheaper than Veo 3
• Produces great quality videos
• No watermark
• Offers image-to-video (unlike Veo 3)

Veo 2 cons

• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)

Veo 2 handled my test prompt pretty well:

A ginger cat chasing a laser pointer on a sheepskin living room rug.

The cat looks and moves in a realistic way, and the dust/hairs floating around in the sunlight looks amazing. Veo 2 fell slightly short with its prompt adherence though, as I don't really see the laser pointer anywhere in the video. The cat seems to be interested in something but it's not clear what it is.

Veo 2 also lets you use images to prompt videos (image-to-video generation). You can start with a still and expand it into a full motion shot—something Veo 3 doesn’t currently support.

Veo 2 handles motion and object interaction far better than the majority of the other AI video generators on this list. When using tools like Sora the physics and character consistency often fall apart. With Veo 2, characters stay grounded and objects behave the way they should.

The biggest downside? Veo 2 doesn’t have native audio support—that only arrives in Veo 3. I also noticed the occasional weird glitch in character movement, especially when I tried more complex scenes.

Overall, Veo 2 holds its own as a powerful, flexible video generation model that’s accessible and easy to experiment with.

Veo 2 price

You can try out Veo 2 for free in ‎Google AI studio, where they offer a limited number of free credits for testing.

For more credits, you'll want to check out Google's AI plans.

Hailuo

Hailuo pros

• Generous free plan (the platform gives you free credits each time you log in)
• Generates decent quality video
• Offers image-to-video generation

Hailuo cons

• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)
• You can't generate clips longer than 6 seconds

Hailuo is one of a number of Chinese AI video generators on this list. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but after playing around with it for a while, it turned out to be one of the more generous and capable AI video tools I tested. You get free credits just for logging in each day—usually enough to generate a handful of short videos without paying a cent.

Hailuo was one of the strongest performers with my test prompt. As you can see in the video above, the cat looks realistic and moves in a believable way. The laser pointer (which I chose on purpose because it's quite a complicated visual concept to depict) is clearly visible, and while it looks a bit weird, the video in general is very believable.

In general Hailuo really impressed me with how well it interprets prompts. The framing, movement, and overall composition looked more polished than I expected.

Hailuo has a great feature called subject reference. You can upload an image of a character and have that same character appear in a generated scene. It’s not perfect—details tend to fall apart in wide shots, and close-ups can be hit or miss, but when it lands, it’s surprisingly on point. I did find myself making edits to keep things consistent between scenes, but that felt like a fair trade-off.

The main drawback with Hailuo? Clip lengths are capped at six seconds, so creating longer videos means doing some extra stitching on your own.

Hailuo price

Hailuo offers a free plan with 100 daily credits just for logging in, which is one of the most generous on this list.

The Standard Plan costs $14.90/month and includes 1,000 credits, faster video generation, no watermarks, and early access to new features.

For heavier users, the Unlimited Plan at $94.90/month includes all Standard benefits plus unlimited monthly credits.

Al‎ibaba Qwen

Qwen pros

• Unlimited free generations with no watermark

Qwen cons

• Quality isn't always great
• No image-to-video
• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)

Qwen’s video generator is tucked inside Alibaba’s broader Qwen 2.5 Max release. To be specific, you'll need to click 'more' below the prompt box and then you should see an option for video generation.

‎Qwen's video generator doesn’t try to be everything—but for a free text-to-video tool, it holds its own. You won’t find any advanced editing features or fancy avatars, but what it does offer is surprisingly solid, especially considering there’s no watermark and zero cost.

Qwen didn't do that great with my test prompt. The laser pointer shows up as a weird red cylindrical thing and the cat (while adorable) moves a little strangely.

In general reliability with Qwen can be a bit hit or miss. I had a few generations stall right at the finish line—99% and then nothing. Sometimes it eventually completes, other times it just... doesn’t. It’s a bit slow overall, so expect to wait a little.

Still, when it does come through, the video quality is better than you’d expect from a free tool.

I wouldn’t use Qwen to polish a final cut, but it’s great for rough drafts. I’ve found it useful for testing out ideas, writing visual prompts, and storyboarding scenes before moving to a more robust platform.

Or, if you’re just making memes or quick clips for fun, Qwen’s more than up to the task.

Qwen price

Qwen offers unlimited free AI video generations.

Kl‎ing

Kling pros

• Free credits granted monthly
• High-quality image-to-video generator
• Elements feature gives you a lot of control

Kling cons

• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)
• Limited free access to text-to-video on latest models
• Slow free plan video generation times

Kling didn't do very well with my test prompt. The scene itself looks great but both the laser pointer and the cat look pretty weird and move in a very unnatural way. I've seen people produce some great videos with Kling's image-to-video feature, but it's likely that it takes quite a few generations to get a high-quality output.

Kling's Elements feature is pretty neat. It lets you upload up to four reference images to shape how people, objects, or settings appear in your video. I used it to maintain the same character look across scenes, animate specific props, and even build simple interactions between multiple elements—all without losing visual cohesion.

Kling has its downsides. Video generation can be very slow—especially if you’re on the free plan.

While Kling offers text-to-video on their newer models, if you're on the free plan and want to use text-to-video, you're stuck with an outdated model.

There's also no support for voice or audio yet, so you’ll need other tools if you want a complete video with sound.

Kling price

Kling offers four pricing tiers: a free Basic plan with limited monthly credits, and three paid options—Standard at $6.99/month, Pro at $25.99/month, and Premier at $64.99/month.

The higher the tier, the more monthly credits you get and the lower the per-credit cost, with perks like fast-track generation, watermark removal, image upscaling, and early access to features included in all paid plans.

Ru‎nway

Runway pros

• Includes advanced features that let you create very cinematic clips

Runway cons

• No free plan text-to-video option
• Advanced features come with steep learning curve
• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)

Runway did very well with my test prompt. It nailed showing the laser pointer moving across the sheepskin rug, and the cat's movement looks very convincing.

It's clear that Runway is targeted more at filmmakers rather than the casual AI video enthusiast, since Runway's main selling point is that it has a bunch of cool features that enable you to do some pretty advanced shots.

Features like the motion brush and camera controls allow you to direct motion within a scene or shift the camera angle, which made my clips feel more cinematic. I also really liked the inpainting tool — I used it to clean up messy backgrounds without disrupting the rest of the frame, which saved a bunch of post-editing time.

The free tier is decent for getting a feel for things, but it’s got limits: short clips, and you’re restricted to image-to-video unless you pay. Even so, I found the speed impressive and the output quality consistent, even with fairly complex prompts.

If all you need is a basic AI video tool, there are simpler, cheaper options. But if you’re after serious creative control and don’t want to mess with traditional editing software, Runway is one of the strongest browser-based tools I’ve used.

Runway price

The Free plan gives 125 credits and access to basic Gen-4 Turbo image-to-video tools.

Standard ($12/month billed annually) adds watermark removal, higher storage, and more video models.

Pro ($28/month) includes custom voices and 500GB storage.

Unlimited ($76/month) gives you all Pro features plus unlimited generations in Explore mode.

LTX Studio

LTX Studio pros

• Cool storyboarding functionality

LTX Studio cons

• Video output quality isn't great
• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)

LTX Studio's video generation quality just isn't up to scratch. In my test, the cat looks realistic but it really couldn't handle the laser pointer concept. For all of these tests I'm taking the first video it generates, but realistically this output isn't usable for anything.

LTX Studio is another tool aimed specifically at AI filmmakers, and it's obvious when you first log in - the platform is built around structuring a story instead of just prompting one-off clips.

The storyboard functionality is pretty neat and is split into three parts: storyline, settings & cast, and the breakdown.

In the storyline section you provide (or generate) your script.

The settings & cast section lets you tweak things like aspect ratio and video style, and gives you the chance to upload image references for the cast of your AI video masterpiece.

And then the breakdown section is where you divide up your story into scenes

LTX is great for shaping a story and laying out the flow. It’s a solid option if you want to test ideas or sketch out something with a beginning, middle, and end. However, I think they still have to get the basics right of being able to generate AI clips of a decent quality.

LTX Studio price

LTX Studio pricing starts with a Free plan (800 seconds, one-time use).

Lite is $15/month with 8,640 seconds.

Standard at $35/month adds Veo 2, trained actors, and commercial use.

Pro is $125/month with 90,000 seconds and unlimited actors.

Higgsfield

Higgsfield pros

• Great output video quality
• Cool presets

Higgsfield cons

• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)

I'd never heard of Higgsfield before, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Higgsfield did great with my prompt. It handled the laser pointer perfectly, and the scene looks super realistic. I love the way it shows the cat slowly stalking the laser pointer. Overall, I was super impressed with the quality of videos that Higgsfield generated.

The platform also comes with a bunch of presets that are genuinely useful. You can pick things like crash zooms, handheld shots, FPV drone-style fly-throughs. They all add a level of motion and energy you usually don’t get from the other AI video generators. The bullet time effect preset is very fun too.

There are also a bunch of presets that I'm sure would be useful for product shots and other marketing videos.

Higgsfield price

Basic is $9/month for 150 credits and access to the Lite model.

Pro is $39/month with 600 credits, Turbo model access, and up to 3 concurrent jobs.

Ultimate is $79/month with 1,500 credits, early feature access, and up to 4 concurrent jobs.

All plans include watermark removal and commercial use.

Ad‎obe Firefly

Adobe Firefly pros

• Nice interface/UI

Adobe Firefly cons

• Video quality is poor
• Quite expensive
• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)

I gave Adobe Firefly a try expecting something fairly polished, and while the interface was definitely slick, the results felt more experimental than usable.

Firefly completely flunked my test. The sheepskin rug lacks texture, the cat looks and moves in a very strange way, and the interpretation of a laser pointer is just plain weird.

I tried a bunch of other generations with Firefly via both text and image-to-video and was rarely impressed with the quality of the output.

I had much better luck with abstract or background-style clips. If you’re generating b-roll or something with less focus on realistic human (or cat) motion, Firefly can definitely hold its own. But for anything character-driven or with complex movement, it's just not there yet.

What Firefly gets right is the usability. The UI is clean, and being able to tweak camera angles and shot sizes through the interface makes it fun to experiment with. I didn’t need a tutorial to figure anything out, which is more than I can say for some other tools.

Adobe Firefly price

Adobe offers a free plan that lets you generate a few videos.

Firefly Standard ($9.99/month) gives you 2,000 credits, enough to generate around 20 five-second videos.

Firefly Pro ($29.99/month) bumps that up to 7,000 credits for about 70 short videos.

Firefly Premium ($199.99/month) includes 50,000 credits and access to the Firefly Video feature for more advanced video generation.

Google Veo 3

Veo 3 pros

• Native audio generation (sound effects, ambient noise, and even dialogue)
• Incredible quality videos
• Amazing prompt adherence and physics

Veo 3 cons

• Expensive and no free plan
• No image-to-video (for now)
• Sometimes inconsistent lip-sync
• Subtitles pretty much never work correctly

Veo 3 feels like a serious leap forward for AI video.

The visuals are crisp (like Veo 2, but even better), and the ability to generate audio natively in any scene you want really makes such a huge difference. I found that the audio/dialogue generated is of a high-quality and the lip sync matches surprisingly well.

I spent a couple of hours testing it and ended up with a clip that could pass for a teaser trailer. The consistency between shots was strong, the transitions were smooth, and the mood I was going for actually came through. Characters held their look across scenes, and the emotional beats landed. It genuinely surprised me.

Veo 3 is expensive, but if you’re working on narrative content or short films, it opens up some powerful options. You can build scenes that connect, keep continuity between characters, and start to shape something that feels like it has real directorial intent.

That said, it’s not perfect. Some faces still look weird, there are occasional glitches, and the subtitle generation is hit or miss. Lip sync also doesn’t always stick the landing. But even with those flaws, this is the first AI video tool I’ve tried that feels capable of supporting real artistic storytelling.

Google Veo 3 price

You'll need either the $19.99/month Google AI Pro plan or the $249.99/month Google AI Ultra plan to get Veo 3.

Pro subscribers: Get a pack of Veo 3 generations to try.

Ultra subscribers: Get maximum generation limits with daily refreshes.

You can access Veo 3 via either Gemini or Flow.

Op‎enAI Sora

Sora pros

• Storyboard, blend, and remix features are fun to play around with

Sora cons

• Often disappointingly low quality output
• No free plan
• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)

Overall I found Sora frustrating to work with. It lets you generate videos inside ChatGPT, which is cool in theory, but in practice it feels more like a demo than a production tool.

We were all so excited when it was first unveiled, but I have to say that Sora is a bit of a disappointment.

It didn't do well with my test prompt. Just watch the video it generated - why is the cat moving like that? It looks kind of ridiculous.

As for positives, I will say that there’s no denying that Sora is capable of producing some jaw-dropping visuals. I managed to generate a few surreal, dreamy shots that I loved.

The storyboard feature (which lets you line up multiple shots in one go) is also pretty cool, and the blend function lets you merge concepts in fun, unexpected ways.

But that’s where the good stuff ends. For anything that involves movement, physics, or character consistency, Sora just doesn’t hold up. Sometimes you get something decent. Most of the time, you don’t.

I’ve tested cheaper and even free tools on this list that are way more reliable. Unless you’re going for something abstract or experimental, Sora is hard to trust for anything consistent.

There’s potential here, especially with the video-to-video remix feature, but it’s nowhere near ready to replace any of the other more serious options on this list yet.

Sora price

Sora is bundled in with the ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscriptions.

With ChatGPT Plus ($20/month), you get access to unlimited image and video generation with up to 720p resolution and 10-second videos.

Upgrading to ChatGPT Pro ($200/month) unlocks faster generation speeds, higher quality 1080p videos up to 20 seconds long, and the ability to download videos without a watermark.

Lu‎ma

Luma pros

• Great image to video

Luma cons

• No free plan video generation
• No native audio (unlike Veo 3 and Synthesia)

Luma's free tier doesn't let you generate videos, so you'll need a premium plan to get stuck in.

Luma's main strength is in its image-to-video feature. I think it's in my top 3 AI video generators for image-to-video generation - largely because it has great prompt adherence and can generate very realistic motion.

My main issue with Luma is that even on the $29.99/month plus plan it still took way too long to generate my videos. Maybe I caught their servers at a bad time, but it felt pretty unreasonable given that I was a paying customer.

Luma price

To generate videos with Luma you'll need at least the Lite plan ($9.99/month), which includes basic video access.

Plus ($29.99/month) adds commercial rights and removes the watermark.

Unlimited ($94.99/month) offers the most flexibility with relaxed usage limits.