# The Best AI Video Generator for Your Job: Seedance, Kling, Gemini Omni, Runway, Grok Imagine and the Free Options

> Google Vids makes three free 15-second clips a month, and Pat Simmons made a one-minute Seedance 2.5 explainer for about $15 through Replicate.

By Pat Simmons · November 11, 2026 · 11 min read

Canonical: https://www.aiformortals.co/blog/ai-video-generators-guide

The best AI video generator depends on what you're making and what you'll pay. To try one free, Google Vids lets anyone with a Google account make up to three 15-second videos a month at no cost, using Google's Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash model. For ads and stylised explainers, Pat Simmons has used ByteDance's Seedance twice: in Higgsfield, Seedance 2.0 turned single product photos into short multi-shot ads, and through Replicate, Seedance 2.5 rendered a Vox-style explainer for about $14 at 720p, or about $15 with music and voiceover.

Kling, Runway and Grok Imagine make the same kinds of clips, at the prices in the table below. Pat hasn't run those against each other, so this page describes them from each company's own pages and doesn't rank them.

Last checked November 11, 2026: prices, plans and clip limits for Google Vids and Gemini Omni, Kling 4.0, Runway, Grok Imagine 1.5, Seedance 2.5 on Replicate and Higgsfield, each linked where it's stated below.

## What is the best AI video generator right now?

There isn't one winner, because the generators are built for different jobs. Pick by the job, the clip length and how you want to pay.

Free, for a quick work clip: Google Vids with Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash. AI for Mortals ran three work clips through the same model, and all three were usable on the first try (free AI video in Google Vids).

Product ads and stylised explainers: Seedance, the one generator Pat has used on camera. He made four product ads with Seedance 2.0 and a one-minute explainer with Seedance 2.5, and he names the flaws as well as the wins (details below).

The longest single clips: Kling 4.0 and Seedance 2.5 both go to 30 seconds per generation, by their makers' own specs.

Animating a photo: Grok Imagine 1.5, which xAI calls its best image-to-video model yet, with the sound made in the same pass.

Many models on one plan: Runway, whose credits cover its own Gen-4.5 model plus Kling 4.0 and, on the higher plans, Seedance 2.5.

Pat's own view, from the end of his Seedance 2.5 video: "You could use Gemini Omni, you could use Runway, you could use [Kling]. Any of these are pretty good at this now."

## Is there a free AI video generator?

Yes. Google Vids is the clearest free option: up to three 15-second videos a month at no cost, with a personal Google account or a Google Workspace subscription, from Google's November 5 announcement linked above. Vids runs on Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash, the model in Gemini Omni's 15-second clips you fix by asking.

The other free starts are smaller. Runway's free plan gives 125 credits once, and they don't refill. Grok's free plan lists image generation as limited and doesn't list video generation at all. Higgsfield's pricing page lists its free plan as "Limited use," and Kling's API price page lists no free allowance.

## What each AI video generator costs

You pay in one of two ways: a monthly plan with credits, or a price per second of video through an API (a developer connection that an app or an AI agent calls for you). Every price below is from the company's own page on November 11, 2026.

GeneratorFree optionPaidLongest clipSoundWhere you use it

 Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash (Google)Up to three 15-second videos a month in Google VidsAPI: $0.07 a second at 720p15 secondsYes, with dialogue and lip-syncGoogle Vids, Flow, the Gemini API; the Gemini app for Ultra subscribers
 Kling 4.0 and 4.0 FlashNone listed on the API price pageAPI: 1.0 unit a second at 720p and 1.5 at 1080p (Kling 4.0); 0.6 at 720p (Flash)30 seconds (Kling 4.0)Two-channel stereoKling's app and API; Runway plans
 Runway (Gen-4.5 and other models)125 one-time creditsStandard $15, Pro $35, Max $95 a month ($12, $28, $76 billed yearly)Depends on the modelMusic, voice and sound effects on paid plansRunway's web and phone apps; a ChatGPT plugin
 Grok Imagine 1.5 (xAI)Video not listed on the free planPlus $8 a month includes Imagine; Super $100 adds 1080p, 15-second videos. API: $0.08, $0.14 or $0.25 a second at 480p, 720p or 1080p15 seconds (Super)Effects, ambience and dialogue in the same passgrok.com, the Grok apps, the xAI API
 Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance)None on the pages checkedReplicate: $0.1028 a second at 480p, $0.2312 at 720p (no video input). Runway Pro and Max; credits on Higgsfield Plus and Ultra30 seconds, extendable twiceMade together with the pictureReplicate, Runway, Higgsfield
 Higgsfield (runs Seedance and others)"Limited use"Starter $19 a month billed yearly, 270 credits a monthDepends on the modelDepends on the modelhiggsfield.ai
What Pat spentAbout $14 for a one-minute Seedance 2.5 generation at 720p on Replicate, about $15 with music and voiceover, plus a couple of dollars of extra Claude credits to finish the run

Google lists the Omni API price in its Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash launch post, 30% lower than Omni 1.1. Kling's units come from Kling's API price page, which prices video in units and doesn't print a dollar rate next to them.

Runway's plans are on Runway's pricing page: Standard's 625 monthly credits buy 52 seconds of Gen-4.5, which uses 12 credits a second. The Grok plans are on xAI's pricing page and the per-second rates on xAI's API price list.

Seedance 2.5's per-second prices are on Replicate's Seedance 2.5 page, which also caps clips there at 720p. At $0.2312 a second, a minute of 720p video is about $13.90, in line with the roughly $14 Pat paid. Higgsfield's Starter plan is on Higgsfield's pricing page; its other plans were on sale the day we checked, so see what Higgsfield's plans cost for the full breakdown.

## What Seedance made in Pat Simmons's two videos

Seedance made four product ads and a one-minute explainer for Pat, and he named the flaws in both videos: garbled lettering on a can, odd physics on a spinning shoe, and glitchy movement in parts of the explainer. Seedance is ByteDance's video model, and ByteDance describes Seedance 2.5 as built for 30-second storytelling, generating the sound and the picture together, with the option to extend a clip twice.

 Four product ads with Seedance 2.0 in Higgsfield
In his beginner's guide to product ads, Pat made four ads in Higgsfield: AirPods, a Wild Roman skincare product, a Liquid Death can and a New Balance Fresh Foam 1080 v14 running shoe. Each started from a single product photo.

Each prompt was a timestamped shot list, which Seedance calls multi-shot generation: you write one prompt with timed shots, and it returns one video with cuts between them. Pat had Claude write each shot list with his free Seedance Prompt Builder skill (setup steps below). Higgsfield offered a 15-second length; Pat cut the AirPods ad to 8 seconds and used 16:9, because 15 felt too long for a quick product video.

_The last second of the 8-second AirPods ad Seedance 2.0 made from one product photo. From Pat's product-ad video at 5:36._

The flaws came in the second half. The Liquid Death ad got the can's lettering wrong. On the shoe, the rotation looked off to Pat: "I don't think this model is great at physics yet." He also spotted a logo that came out backwards.

_Seedance 2.0's Liquid Death ad in Higgsfield, with the made-up lettering under "Mountain Water." From Pat's product-ad video at 8:34._

Higgsfield runs an eligibility check on every uploaded image. Pat's last test added a photo of his own face to the shoe ad, and it went through once he had accepted Higgsfield's and Seedance's terms; as he understood it, uploading someone else's face is still a violation.

 A one-minute Vox-style explainer with Seedance 2.5
Pat gave Claude Fable 5.1 one prompt, and Fable did the research, the writing and the art direction, then called Seedance 2.5 for every shot. It studied a handful of real Vox videos frame by frame, wrote itself a style guide, picked a topic (July 1936, the Dust Bowl, and the summer that broke its heat record), wrote the script and planned the scenes.

The footage came through Replicate, a site that serves many AI models through one account and one API key. Pat says fal is another site like it. The music bed came from Google's Lyria 2 music model and the voiceover from MiniMax Speech 2.8 HD, both on Replicate. The full prompt is in the full Vox-style prompt and style guide.

_A scene from the explainer Fable 5.1 made with Seedance 2.5. From Pat's video at 9:10._

The run took hours and hit Pat's Claude usage limits, and finishing it cost a couple of dollars in extra credits. The Seedance footage was about $14 for the one-minute generation at 720p, and about $15 with the music and voiceover.

Pat's reaction at the reveal was "that was way better than I thought it was going to be." He also pointed out a shaky, glitchy stop-motion effect and a bar chart that looked a little glitchy, and he closed with a caveat: "If you're a real motion graphic artist watching this, you can definitely see the tells," and "it still feels like it hasn't replaced humans."

## Kling, Gemini Omni, Runway and Grok Imagine: what each does

All four make short clips with sound from a text prompt or a picture. Pat hasn't tested them himself, so this section is what each company says, apart from one AI for Mortals test of Gemini Omni.

 Kling 4.0
Kling 4.0 makes clips of 3 to 30 seconds at 720p, 1080p or 4K, with two-channel stereo sound, from Kling's 4.0 release page. It starts from text, an image or up to 10 keyframe images, and takes up to 15 references in one go, across images, videos, voice references and subjects. Kling 4.0 Flash is the faster, cheaper version for frequent drafts, at 720p only on the API.

 Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash
Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash makes clips from 3 to 15 seconds, set one second at a time, and you can change a finished clip by typing, such as a new background, different weather or a different aspect ratio, without starting over. Google says it keeps faces, clothes, packaging text and brand colors the same through the clip when you give it product or character photos. You draft at 360p or 720p and upscale the keeper to 1080p or 4K. In the Gemini app, 15-second videos are rolling out to Google AI Ultra subscribers.

 Runway
Runway sells one pool of credits for several models: its own Gen-4.5, Kling 4.0, Seedance 2.0 Pro, and Seedance 2.5 on the Pro and Max plans. Paid plans add music, voice and sound effect generation, with no watermarks. Runway also works inside ChatGPT, which is covered in using Runway inside ChatGPT.

 Grok Imagine 1.5
Grok Imagine 1.5 is built around animating a picture: in xAI's words, "Give it a starting image, describe the motion, and choose your resolution and duration." The Grok Imagine 1.5 announcement says sound effects, ambience and dialogue are made in the same pass, and that the Fast version on grok.com and the Grok apps makes a 6-second 720p clip in about 25 seconds.

## How do you make your first AI video?

The quickest route is to have Claude write the prompt, then paste it into a video app, the way Pat made his product ads in Higgsfield. These steps follow his video.

- Download the free Seedance Prompt Builder skill from its GitHub page as a zip file.

- In Claude, open Customize, then Skills, click the plus, choose Create skill, then Upload a skill, and drag in the zip.

- Start a new chat, attach your product photo and ask for a Seedance product ad for the attached image.

- Claude writes a shot list with timestamps (0 to 2 seconds, 2 to 4 seconds and so on), each with the action, the camera move and the lighting.

- Paste the shot list into Higgsfield's video prompt, upload the same photo, and choose the length and the shape (Pat used 16:9).

- Wait for Higgsfield's image check to pass, then generate.

If something looks wrong, describe it to Claude and ask for a new prompt; as Pat says, "it's not going to be perfect every time." For a product category you don't know, he suggests looking at what other brands run in Facebook's Ad Library and giving Claude an example to match.

For a longer piece like the Vox-style explainer, an AI agent does every step, and you need a Replicate account with credits and an API key for it to use. If you want to edit footage you shot rather than make new clips, see editing your own footage with AI instead.

## Questions people ask

Which AI video generator makes video with sound?
Seedance 2.5, Kling 4.0, Grok Imagine 1.5 and Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash all make sound. Seedance 2.5 generates it with the picture, Kling 4.0 outputs two-channel stereo, Grok Imagine 1.5 makes effects, ambience and dialogue in the same pass, and Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash does dialogue with lip-sync. On Runway, sound depends on the model you pick.

How long can an AI video clip be?
Up to 30 seconds per generation for Kling 4.0 and Seedance 2.5, which can extend a clip twice. Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash goes to 15 seconds, and Grok's Super plan to 15 seconds at 1080p.

Is Seedance free?
Not on any page checked for this guide. Replicate charges $0.2312 a second at 720p, Runway includes Seedance 2.5 on Pro and Max, and Higgsfield counts Seedance 2.5 videos in the credits of its Plus and Ultra plans.

How much does a one-minute AI video cost?
Pat's one-minute Seedance 2.5 explainer cost about $14 at 720p on Replicate, and about $15 with music and voiceover. At Google's API price of $0.07 a second, a minute of Gemini Omni video at 720p would be about $4.20, made as four 15-second clips.

Can AI turn a photo into a video?
Yes. Pat's four Seedance ads each started from a product photo, Kling 4.0 lists image-to-video, and Grok Imagine 1.5 is built for starting from an image.

Can I use my own face in an AI video?
In Pat's Higgsfield test, a photo of his own face went through once he accepted Higgsfield's and Seedance's terms. As he understood it, another person's face is still a violation.

Can Gemini make videos for free?
Through Google Vids, yes: up to three 15-second videos a month. In the Gemini app, Google says 15-second videos are rolling out to Google AI Ultra subscribers.

What is Replicate?
Replicate is a site that runs many AI models, Seedance 2.5 among them, through one account and one API key, so an agent like Claude can call any of them. Pat used it for the video, music and voiceover in his explainer.

Do I need to code to make an AI video?
No. Pat's product ads used only a Claude chat and Higgsfield's website. The explainer needed a Replicate API key, which Pat handed to Claude to use.

## Update November 11, 2026

First version of this page. Prices, plans and clip limits were checked on each company's own page on November 11, 2026. Higgsfield had a sale running that day, so only its Starter price is listed here.

## Sources

- Google: Omni 1.2 Flash in Google Vids at no cost

- Google: Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash

- Kling: Kling 4.0 release

- Kling: API pricing

- Runway: Pricing

- xAI: Grok Imagine Video 1.5

- xAI: Grok plans

- xAI: API pricing

- ByteDance Seed: Seedance 2.5

- Replicate: Seedance 2.5

- Higgsfield: Pricing