The 15 Best AI Video Generators (Free & Paid) to Try in 2025

The best AI video generators

• Synthesia: Enterprise AI video with avatars (free monthly credits)
• Google Veo 3: Amazing but expensive (no free plan)
• Google Veo 2: Generate realistic AI videos (free on Google AI Studio)
• Hailuo: Free text/image-to-video generation (free daily credits)
• Alibaba Qwen: Free text-to-video generation (unlimited free credits)
• Kling: Cinematic videos and animations (free monthly credits)
• Runway: Professional video editing & generation (free one-time credits)
• OpenAI Sora: Comes with ChatGPT Plus/Pro (no free plan)
• Pika: Marketing & product showcase videos (free monthly credits)
• Luma: Amazing image-to-video (no free plan)
• Adobe Firefly: AI-generated b-roll (free one-time credits)
• LTX Studio: AI-generated cinematic storytelling (free one-time credits)
• Higgsfield: Cinematic image-to-video (free one-time credits)
• Pollo AI: Multi-model video generation (free one-time credits)
• Krea: Generate videos from text or keyframes (free daily credits)

I tested 15 AI video generators. Here's what actually worked.

I’ve spent the last few weeks trying out all the major AI video generators. Some were surprisingly good. Others, not so much.

Most of them are either free to use or they will give you free credits that you can use to generate AI videos without handing over your card details.

Here’s what I found useful after testing 15 of them.

Synthesia

Link: ‎https://www.synthesia.io/

Synthesia is a leading AI video generator that allows you to create studio-quality videos with realistic talking AI avatars.

Here's an example video I made for a product launch:

Synthesia is the AI video tool I’ve used the most, mostly because it just works. I started using it for internal comms and training videos, but it's now become my go-to for pretty much anything that needs a polished presenter on screen. My first video took maybe ten minutes. I just typed in my script, picked a presenter, adjusted the layout with their AI video editor, and hit generate.

There are over 230 avatars, and it wasn’t hard to find one that felt right for the tone I wanted. I’ve also played around with their custom avatar feature and got one made that looks and sounds like me. That’s probably overkill for a one-off project, but it’s great if you’re making a whole series.

What’s made it even more useful for me is the localized content support. I work with teams in different countries, and Synthesia makes it easy to create videos in over 140 languages. The multilingual player even detects the viewer’s language and switches automatically, which is something I didn’t know I needed until I saw it in action.

The platform shines for eLearning video production. I’ve used it to build everything from onboarding videos to role-playing explainers. You can add multiple AI talking heads to your video, so simulating a conversation or scenario is straightforward. It’s also saved me hours by letting me convert webpages, PowerPoint slides, PDFs directly into videos.

The templates help a lot too. There’s a massive library of them, and I’ve rarely had to start from scratch. Collaboration is smooth as well. I’ve co-edited scripts and scenes with coworkers in real time without having to email files back and forth. The analytics are solid and helped me figure out which parts of a video people actually watched, which in turn helped me improve the next ones.

It’s not just me who likes it either. Synthesia is a top-ranked AI software with thousands of reviews and a 4.7 average on G2. Companies like Amazon, Zoom, and Reuters are using it too.

If you’re looking for training video software that’s actually built for business use, this is a good place to start. Whether it’s internal communications, training, or sales enablement, Synthesia makes it easy to look like you’ve spent way more time and budget than you actually have.

Google Veo 3

Link: ‎‎https://deepmind.google/models/veo/

Veo 3 is the biggest step up I’ve seen in creative AI video so far. I’ve used most of the popular generators, but the quality here feels like it belongs in a completely different category. It’s not just the sharp visuals, though those are stunning. It’s the pacing, the way the lip sync actually matches the voice, and how the camera movements flow naturally with the dialogue.

I made a short clip with Veo 3 that felt like something out of a film trailer. It only took a couple of hours of playing around to get it right, and the result looked better than most of the official demos I’d seen. The characters held their appearance across different shots, the transitions made sense, and the emotional tone came through clearly.

It’s not cheap. You need to be on the Gemini Ultra plan, which runs at $250 a month. But for filmmakers or anyone serious about creating narrative video, it might be worth it. You can extend scenes, stitch clips together, and keep the same characters throughout. For the first time, it felt less like I was prompting an AI and more like I was directing a real scene.

There are still rough edges. Some of the faces look a bit uncanny, and you might get the occasional glitch. But overall, this is the first tool I’ve used that actually feels ready for short films and storytelling.

Go‎ogle Veo 2

Link: ‎https://aistudio.google.com/generate-video

Veo 2 might be the most visually polished AI video model I’ve used. I ran a bunch of different prompts through it, including foggy wildlife shots, jungle scenes, dramatic wide angles, and almost everything came out looking like it belonged in a nature documentary. The level of detail and lighting control is genuinely impressive.

What really made Veo stand out for me was the camera work. You can mess with things like lens type, angle, depth of field, and even do dolly zooms and pan shots. It’s one of the few tools that actually gives you a sense of directing, not just prompting.

I also noticed that the characters hold up really well across scenes. Unlike Sora, which tends to fall apart when motion or physics get tricky, Veo kept everything grounded. Characters moved realistically, objects behaved the way you’d expect, and things just felt more “right” overall.

The 4K output and longer durations are a huge plus too. It means you’re not constantly stitching things together or running clips through another upscaler just to make them usable.

That said, not everything is perfect. I did spot the occasional weird glitch in character movement, especially when I pushed the model with more complex actions. Still, out of everything I’ve tried so far, Veo 2 feels the most mature in terms of visual quality.

Hailuo

Link: ‎https://hailuoai.video/

I didn’t expect much when I first tried Hailuo, but it ended up being a pleasant surprise. You get a three-day trial with unlimited generations, which was more than enough time to really test what it can do.

My favourite feature was subject reference. You can upload a photo of a character and then generate a scene with that same character in it. It’s not flawless. Wide shots tend to lose finer details, and close-ups often break. I also found myself needing to edit the output to maintain consistency across scenes. Still, when it works, it feels surprisingly accurate.

One thing Hailuo does really well is understand prompts. The camera movements, scene composition, and overall visual quality were a step above what I expected. The biggest limitation is that clips max out at six seconds, so stitching together anything longer takes some extra effort.

Al‎ibaba Qwen

Link: ‎‎‎‎https://chat.qwenlm.ai/

Qwen’s video generator caught me off guard. It’s tucked inside Alibaba’s broader Qwen 2.5 Max release, and while it’s only text-to-video, the results are genuinely good, especially considering it’s completely free.

The only issue I ran into was reliability. A few times I watched it get to 99 percent and just sit there. Sometimes it finishes eventually, sometimes it doesn’t. You have to be a bit patient with it.

When it works, though, the quality is better than I expected. There aren’t any watermarks, and while you don’t get a ton of features, what you do get feels polished enough to actually use.

Kl‎ing

Link: ‎https://www.klingai.com/

Kling’s image-to-video is where it really shines. The motion is smoother than what I’ve seen from most other tools, and it actually listens to prompts. I asked for a character to blink while walking toward the camera, and it pulled it off on the first try. That level of control is rare, especially with consistency across frames.

I used the elements feature a lot to dial in specifics, and the creativity and relevance sliders helped me fine-tune results without having to re-prompt every time. It also supports HD, which made everything look a bit sharper right out of the gate.

The downside is speed. On the free plan, I was waiting over an hour for some clips. I’ve heard of others waiting even longer. Paid plans are faster, but I still hit the occasional bug where a video gets stuck just before finishing and eats up credits.

Still, Kling’s motion control is one of the best I’ve used. It feels reliable once you get going, and I didn’t have to waste time fighting the tool to get the result I wanted.

Ru‎nway

Link: ‎https://runwayml.com/

Runway Gen-3 is one of the most complete AI video tools I’ve tried so far. It handles text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video, but what really stood out to me were the advanced features. Camera controls, motion brush, keyframes, inpainting — they’re all here, and they actually work well once you get the hang of them.

I spent a lot of time playing with the motion brush and camera tools. Being able to guide movement inside a scene or shift the framing with cinematic angles gave my videos a level of polish I usually only see in pro editing software. The inpainting feature was surprisingly strong too. I was able to remove background clutter without breaking the rest of the shot, which saved me a lot of time.

One thing to note is that some of these tools take a bit of effort to learn. If you're not already familiar with video editing concepts like keyframes, the interface can feel a little dense at first. But once you understand how the pieces fit together, it becomes a really powerful environment for experimenting with ideas.

The free plan is good for testing things out, but it’s limited. You can only generate short clips, you’re stuck with watermarks, and the Gen-3 Alpha model is image-to-video only unless you upgrade. That said, I found the generation speed fast and the results reliable, even when I pushed the tool with more complex prompts.

If you're just trying to make quick AI videos, there are cheaper options. But if you want creative control and pro-level tools without leaving the browser, Runway is one of the best options out there right now.

Op‎enAI Sora

Link: ‎https://sora.com/

Sora has some wild moments, but overall I found it frustrating to work with. You can generate videos inside ChatGPT, which is cool in theory, but in practice it feels more like a demo than a production tool.

There’s no denying it can produce some jaw-dropping visuals. I got a few surreal, dreamy shots that looked like they came straight out of a music video. The storyboard feature is probably the most interesting part (which lets you line up multiple shots in one go), 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. I asked it to make some dancing cats, and the results were borderline unusable. Legs glitching, broken poses, weird motion blur — even basic animation felt like a gamble. Sometimes you get something decent. Most of the time, you don’t.

I’ve tested cheaper and even free tools that are way more reliable. Unless you’re going for something abstract or experimental, Sora is hard to trust for anything consistent. You get 50 videos a month on the $20 plan, and 500 on the $200 one, but resolution is capped at 720p or 1080p, and video length is limited too.

There’s potential here, especially with the video-to-video remix feature, but it’s nowhere near ready to replace anything serious yet.

Pi‎ka

Link: ‎https://pika.art/

I started with the free version of Pika, and to be honest, I wasn’t that impressed at first. You get access to Pika 1.5 with 150 video credits per month, and you can generate both text-to-video and image-to-video clips without any watermark, which is nice. But the output quality just didn’t hold up compared to the other tools I was testing.

Things changed when I tried Pika 2.1 on the paid plan. That’s where it introduces a feature called scene ingredients, and it completely changed how I saw the platform. Instead of just prompting and hoping for the best, you can build a shot piece by piece using reference images. You pick your character, background, wardrobe, props, and then add a prompt to tie it together.

It reminds me a lot of Kling’s elements feature, and it solves the same problem: creative control and consistency. If you’re building out a sequence with multiple scenes and want things to match from one clip to the next, this tool actually gives you a shot at making that happen. It’s one of the few features I’ve used in an AI video tool that felt made for real-world use, not just fun experiments.

Lu‎ma

Link: ‎https://lumalabs.ai/

Luma’s Ray 2 model really surprised me with how far it’s come. The motion looks smooth, the physics feel grounded, and the overall cinematic polish is way ahead of what I expected. It responds well to lighting, lens styles, and camera movement. Sometimes it even feels like it’s framing the shot for you.

I got the best results by writing detailed prompts and running multiple generations. When I tested a scene of a sports car weaving through snowy mountain roads at dawn, it absolutely nailed the mood. The snowfall, camera tracking, and early sunlight all worked together in a way that looked planned.

What really stood out to me was how well it handled close-ups. I gave it a prompt focused on emotional expression, extreme sadness to be specific, and the facial details were surprisingly convincing. The eye movements and timing were subtle enough to carry the scene without feeling robotic.

Luma’s strength is in how it handles cinematic camera moves without breaking the scene. I’ve used it for dramatic shots and large set pieces like collapsing buildings, and it held up better than most tools I’ve tried.

That said, Ray 2 is only available on the paid plan, capped at 720p, and clips max out at 10 seconds. I noticed that after around 7 seconds, things can start to unravel a bit. Scene consistency starts to slip, and objects might shift in strange ways. Still, when it hits, it really hits.

Ad‎obe Firefly

Link: ‎‎https://firefly.adobe.com/

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 lets you generate videos from either text or images, and it supports up to 1080p, which is more than some others offer.

The first thing I noticed was distortion in the motion. I tried a simple prompt of a cyclist riding through an autumn mountain trail, and while the background and colors looked great, the cyclist’s legs glitched mid-pedal and the whole movement felt off. It was the kind of uncanny animation that pulls you out of the scene.

I had better luck with abstract or background-style clips. If you’re generating b-roll or something with less focus on realistic human motion, Firefly can definitely hold its own. But for anything character-driven or with complex movement, it still has a way to go.

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.

After two free videos, it prompted me to upgrade to keep going. I might play around with it more just for concept testing, but for anything that needs to look polished, I’ll stick to more consistent tools.

LTX Studio

Link: ‎https://ltx.studio/

LTX Studio is the closest I’ve come to actually directing with AI. It’s built around structure instead of just prompting one-off clips. You can write a script, break it into scenes, and decide how each shot should look. It gives you real control over camera angles, timing, and transitions, which makes a huge difference if you're trying to tell a story.

I’ve used it mostly for pitching ideas and building early drafts of short films. It’s especially useful when you want to communicate a concept visually but don’t want to spend hours in editing tools. You can handle scripting, shot planning, and rough scene assembly in one place.

The quality isn’t at the level of something like Sora, but that’s not the point. LTX is more about shaping the 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.

Higgsfield

Link: ‎‎https://higgsfield.ai/

I only started experimenting with Higgsfield AI today, and I’m already planning to use it for most of my videos going forward. It’s the first tool I’ve tried where camera motion actually feels like the main feature, not just something added on afterward.

The presets are genuinely useful. You can pick things like crash zooms, FPV-style flythroughs, handheld shots, or even a lazy rotating product shot. They all add a level of motion and energy you usually don’t get from typical AI generators. You can also combine and tweak different movements, which gives a lot more flexibility than I expected. The bullet time effect preset is very fun too.

The output isn’t the most detailed compared to some other models, but the creative control makes up for it. It feels more like you’re directing a shot than just generating one. If your goal is something cinematic or visually interesting, it’s one of the better options I’ve used so far.

Pollo AI

Link: ‎‎‎https://pollo.ai/home

Pollo AI is kind of a hub for a bunch of top-tier video models. You can run clips using Kling, Runway, Veo 2, Hunyuan, and more all from one place. That’s the main reason I keep going back to it. It saves a ton of time if you're testing different models or just want to see which one gives you the best result for a specific prompt.

What really stood out to me was everything you can do after the video is generated. Pollo lets you keep characters consistent across clips, swap faces, add lip sync, and upscale the final result. It’s not just a generator. It gives you tools to refine and customize your videos in one place.

The only thing that held me back was the pricing. On the thirty-dollar plan, I could only make eight short videos at 1080p, which didn’t go far. When some generations need a few retries, it starts to feel limiting fast. The tool itself is solid, but if you're making a lot of content, it gets expensive quickly.

Krea

Link:‎ ‎‎https://www.krea.ai/

Krea is one of the more useful platforms I’ve tried for generating short videos. Like Pollo AI, it gives you access to several different models in one place, including Kling, Pika, Minimax, and others. That means you’re not stuck with one style or quality level, and it’s easy to test out different results without switching between five different sites.

One thing I didn’t expect to like is the ability to cancel a generation halfway through. It seems minor, but if you’ve ever waited for a video you already know is going to turn out bad, it's surprisingly useful.

The quality is solid. Not amazing, but good enough for most quick video ideas. You can enhance up to 4K if you're on a paid plan, which is more than some tools offer at the same price. For what it costs, it’s an easy way to generate a bunch of decent clips.

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. Midjourney to generate images
2. 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.