What is Ella by Novella?
Ella is a video workspace from Novella AI, Inc. of Burbank, California. You type a prompt, pick a model from a long list that includes Veo, Kling, Seedance, Hailuo, Runway, Luma, Flux, Imagen and ElevenLabs, and the clip, image or voice lands in your library. A built-in timeline editor lets you trim and arrange clips, add captions and sound, and export MP4 or MOV.
It runs on the web, on iPhone, as a Chrome side panel, as a Premiere Pro plugin on macOS and inside Claude or other apps that speak MCP. One pool of credits pays for every model, so you do not hold a separate subscription with each video lab.
The editor is free. Generating anything costs credits, either pay as you go from $10 for 1,000 credits or on a yearly plan from $14 a month.
How much does Ella by Novella cost?
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | From $10 for 1,000 credits | No subscription; 10 GB storage for a year |
| Starter | $14/month ($168/year) | 1,000 credits a month, about 30 videos; 50 GB storage |
| Pro | $32/month ($384/year) | 3,000 credits a month, about 90 videos; 150 GB storage |
| Max | $65/month ($780/year) | 8,000 credits a month, about 240 videos; 400 GB storage |
Editor free; generation needs credits. Pay as you go from $10 for 1,000 credits (10 GB storage for a year). Annual plans: Starter $14/month ($168/year, 1,000 credits a month, 50 GB); Pro $32/month ($384/year, 3,000 credits, 150 GB); Max $65/month ($780/year, 8,000 credits, 400 GB). Monthly billing costs about 18% more; the Chrome Web Store listing gives plans from $17/month. No free trial; no refunds for partial periods.
Is Ella by Novella worth it?
Making a short AI video usually means three or four subscriptions: one lab for the footage, another for the voice, an editor to stitch it together, and a folder of downloads in between. Each bill is small; together they are not, and each tool has its own credits that expire on their own schedule.
Ella puts all of that in one place. You open a sidebar in Chrome or the web app, ask for a clip from Kling, Veo or Runway, add an ElevenLabs voice and drop the results into a timeline editor that costs nothing to use. Credits work across every model, so you can try the same prompt on three of them and keep the one you like.
The maths is the part to read twice. Novella's pricing page turns 1,000 credits into 1,000 text generations, 200 images or 30 videos, which works out at roughly 33 credits a clip. That makes Starter, at $14 a month on a yearly bill, about 30 videos a month, each at most 15 seconds and exported at 1080p according to the comparison table, even though the homepage talks about 4K. The page does not say whether a Veo clip costs the same as a cheaper model, and unused plan credits do not roll over.
The catch: your work passes through a long chain of companies. The privacy policy, updated 5 November 2026, lists Anthropic, OpenAI, Runway, Luma Labs, Fal.ai, BytePlus, Kling AI, Recraft, PixVerse, Vidu, BFL, Hugging Face and MiniMax as recipients of prompts and media, with processing in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, China and the EU. Files sit on Backblaze unless you choose your device or Google Drive. The policy says Novella intends to store some information indefinitely, uses Google and Meta advertising pixels, and the Chrome extension can read the page you are on when you use the sidebar. The homepage promises your content is never used to train models; the California section of the privacy policy lists training among its business purposes. A bring-your-own-API-key option appears only in passing in the terms of service, not on the pricing page, and the extension has 215 users on the Chrome Web Store.
Our take: as a tasting menu for video models, Ella beats paying four labs at once. Once you know which model you actually use, going straight to that lab is usually simpler and keeps your footage with one company instead of thirteen.
Where it earns its place
A freelance social media manager making product teasers for three small brands
Find out which video model handles product shots best without signing up to four labs
Buy $10 of pay-as-you-go credits, run the same prompt through Kling, Veo and Hailuo in the sidebar, and cut the winner in the free editor. At roughly 33 credits a clip, $10 covers about 30 test clips.
A two-person YouTube channel that edits in Premiere Pro
Generate B-roll and voice-over without leaving the edit
The macOS Premiere Pro plugin pulls generated clips and ElevenLabs voices into the project. Pro at $32 a month on a yearly bill gives 3,000 credits, about 90 short clips, and 150 GB of storage.
An in-house designer at a 50-person agency
Sketch a 15-second concept video for a pitch the same afternoon
Draft scenes in chat with Ella, generate them, and export MP4 from the timeline. Keep client material out unless legal has read the provider list, since prompts and uploads go to third-party model companies in several countries.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Add the Chrome extension or open the web app, create an account, and the editor is usable straight away; generating needs a credit purchase or a plan.
- Integrations
- Chrome side panel, web, iPhone, a Premiere Pro plugin for macOS, Claude and other MCP apps, and export or storage to Google Drive. No public API is documented.
- Data and privacy
- Prompts and media go to model providers including Anthropic, OpenAI, Runway, Kling AI, BytePlus and MiniMax, with processing in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, China and the EU; files are stored on Backblaze, your device or Google Drive. The policy says some information is kept indefinitely and uses Google and Meta ad pixels. The homepage says content is never used to train models, while the California section of the privacy policy lists training among its business purposes. No security certifications are published. Which AI tools train on your data?
- Cost at scale
- Max at $65 a month on a yearly bill ($780) gives 8,000 credits, about 240 clips a month; team seats are listed as coming soon, so each person needs their own account. Extra credit packs run $4.50 to $75 for 500 to 10,000 credits.
- Limits
- Clips up to 15 seconds and 1080p export per the comparison table; plan credits reset monthly; pack credits last 90 days; Novella caps its liability at $10 in the terms.
What’s good
- One credit balance across Veo, Kling, Runway, Luma, Hailuo and ElevenLabs
- Timeline editor is free; you pay only to generate
- Pay as you go from $10 with no subscription
- Works in a Chrome sidebar, the web, iPhone, Premiere Pro and MCP apps
- Account deletion removes media, chats and credits in one step, per the privacy policy
What’s not
- Starter's 1,000 credits cover about 30 videos of up to 15 seconds
- Prompts and media go to 13 named AI providers, with processing in China and Southeast Asia
- Exports listed at 1080p on every plan despite 4K claims on the homepage
- No free trial, no refunds for partial periods, and plan credits do not roll over
- Per-model credit costs and any bring-your-own-key option are not published on the pricing page
Best for
Solo marketers and hobbyists who want to compare several video models on one bill before committing to any single lab.
Ella by Novella alternatives
Ella by Novella: common questions
- Is Ella by Novella worth it?
- Ella is a reasonable way to try a dozen video models on one bill, but the credits buy fewer clips than the model list suggests and your prompts travel to more companies than you might expect. We rate it 3.5 out of 5.
- How much does Ella by Novella cost?
- Editor free; generation needs credits. Pay as you go from $10 for 1,000 credits (10 GB storage for a year). Annual plans: Starter $14/month ($168/year, 1,000 credits a month, 50 GB); Pro $32/month ($384/year, 3,000 credits, 150 GB); Max $65/month ($780/year, 8,000 credits, 400 GB). Monthly billing costs about 18% more; the Chrome Web Store listing gives plans from $17/month. No free trial; no refunds for partial periods.
- What are the downsides of Ella by Novella?
- Starter's 1,000 credits cover about 30 videos of up to 15 seconds; prompts and media go to 13 named AI providers, with processing in China and Southeast Asia; exports listed at 1080p on every plan despite 4K claims on the homepage; no free trial, no refunds for partial periods, and plan credits do not roll over; per-model credit costs and any bring-your-own-key option are not published on the pricing page.
- Who is Ella by Novella best for?
- Solo marketers and hobbyists who want to compare several video models on one bill before committing to any single lab.
- How much does Ella by Novella cost for a team or in production?
- Max at $65 a month on a yearly bill ($780) gives 8,000 credits, about 240 clips a month; team seats are listed as coming soon, so each person needs their own account. Extra credit packs run $4.50 to $75 for 500 to 10,000 credits.
- Is Ella by Novella safe for company data?
- Prompts and media go to model providers including Anthropic, OpenAI, Runway, Kling AI, BytePlus and MiniMax, with processing in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, China and the EU; files are stored on Backblaze, your device or Google Drive. The policy says some information is kept indefinitely and uses Google and Meta ad pixels. The homepage says content is never used to train models, while the California section of the privacy policy lists training among its business purposes. No security certifications are published.
- What are the best Ella by Novella alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Higgsfield, Google Flow, Runway and invideo AI.
Answers checked Nov 13, 2026.