The best AI video models in 2026
The best AI video models right now are Wan 3.0, Seedance 2.5 and Gemini Omni Flash 1.1, out of 10 we have reviewed. Each is ranked by our rating, with its price, our verdict and who it suits.
Updated Oct 23, 2026 · Ranked from our reviews · How we review
- 1
Wan 3.0 wins the blind votes by a hair and runs to 30 seconds a clip, but Alibaba has kept its weights and its technical details to itself.
Best for: Creators and developers who want leading video quality and long takes without premium pricing.
Price: Qwen Cloud: $0.05/second at 480p, $0.10 at 720p, $0.20 at 1080p list ($12 per minute at 1080p), currently shown 30% off. Runway: same rates, or $0.068 to $0.28 for the wan3_prime variant.
Read our Wan 3.0 review4.5/5 - 2
Seedance 2.5 sells control over continuity, and charges nearly three times the board leader's per-minute price for it.
Best for: Ad and content teams who need the same characters, products and voices held steady across many shots.
Price: ModelArk: $10.70 per 1M tokens without video input, $6.40 with video input (about $0.51 for 5 seconds at 480p, $1.16 at 720p). Runway: $0.20 to $0.68 per second by resolution, 80-credit minimum.
Read our Seedance 2.5 review4.4/5 - 3
Gemini Omni Flash trades a few Elo points for the cheapest route to editing a clip by conversation, and with the Veo previews retired this week it is the only video model on the Gemini API price list.
Best for: Developers on the Gemini API who want to generate and revise short clips through conversation.
Price: $1.50 per 1M input tokens and $17.50 per 1M video output tokens, about $0.10 per second of 720p video; no free tier. Runway: $0.034 to $0.30 per second by resolution.
Read our Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 review4.3/5 - 4
Near-frontier video at a seventh of Seedance's price, though the open weights are off limits in the four markets most buyers sit in.
Best for: Teams that want leading video quality cheaply through an API, and teams outside the US, EU, UK and Korea that want to self-host or fine-tune a top video model.
Price: MiniMax API: $0.08 per second at 768p, $0.13 at 2K ($4.80 per minute at 768p); 2K upscale of an existing clip $0.05 per second. Runway: $0.10 per second at 768p. Weights free under the MiniMax H3 Community License.
Read our MiniMax H3 (Hailuo 3.0) review4.3/5 - 5
A capable preview with real production controls, priced and rate-limited like a model still finding its feet.
Best for: Studios and agencies that iterate on shots in drafts and need 4K delivery from a vendor they already use for images.
Price: Per second of video: Draft HD $0.06; HD $0.17, FHD $0.29, QHD $0.40, 4K $0.80 (continuation $0.12 to $0.95); audio included. FLUX 3 Image about $0.048 per image.
Read our FLUX 3 review4.2/5 - 6
Kling 4.0 has the longest spec sheet in video generation and, so far, nothing independent to back it up.
Best for: Creative teams already in the Kling app who want long, keyframe-directed shots and can wait for an API.
Price: Kling app subscriptions; Kling 4.0 API pricing not published. Predecessor Kling O3 on fal costs $0.14 a second (Pro, with audio) and $0.42 a second at 4K.
Read our Kling 4.0 review4.1/5 - 7
A grading-suite tool rather than a leaderboard model: worth its price for directable HDR shots, not for anything that needs sound.
Best for: VFX, post-production and agency teams who need directable shots that drop into an HDR grading pipeline.
Price: API per clip: 5-second text/image-to-video $0.15 (540p), $0.30 (720p), $1.20 (1080p) in SDR; 10-second $0.45/$0.90/$3.60; HDR 2x, HDR+EXR 3x. App: Plus $30, Pro $90, Ultra $300 a month.
Read our Luma Ray3.2 review3.9/5 - 8
Easy to self-host, fine-tune and wire into ComfyUI, LTX-2.5 trades 200 Elo of picture quality for control.
Best for: Developers and smaller studios who want an open video model they can fine-tune and run on their own GPUs.
Price: Weights free under $10M annual revenue (LTX-2.x Community Licence). API per second: Fast $0.09 (720p), $0.13 (1080p), $0.19 (1440p), $0.30 (4K); Pro $0.12, $0.17, $0.25, $0.39.
Read our LTX-2.5 review3.8/5 - 9
Gen-4.5's strongest remaining argument is HDR and ProRes export, and Runway's standard terms let it train on whatever you feed it.
Best for: Studios and post houses already on Runway that need generated shots delivered in ProRes or HDR.
Price: Free tier with 125 one-time credits; Standard $15/month ($12 yearly), Pro $35 ($28), Max $95 ($76). API: 12 credits ($0.12) per second, plus $0.05 for ProRes and $0.20 to $0.40 for HDR.
Read our Runway Gen-4.5 review3.8/5 - 10
Veo 3.1 is now an enterprise-cloud legacy model: still GA on Google Cloud, gone from the Gemini API, and 170 Elo behind its own replacement.
Best for: Teams with existing Veo pipelines that depend on long extensions or end-frame control and can run on Google Cloud.
Price: Google Cloud, per second: Veo 3.1 $0.40 with audio or $0.20 without (720p/1080p), $0.60/$0.40 at 4K; Fast $0.10 to $0.12 with audio; Lite $0.05 to $0.08 with audio, from $0.03 without.
Read our Veo 3.1 review3.3/5