Buyer guide
Compare real free-tier limits, daily credits, and export options across top free AI video generators.
Last updated · M Studio Editorial
See the workflow
Samples made in M Studio.
Script → board
Section 01
Kling is the main tool with a free allowance that renews every day. Runway and Hailuo give a one-time grant. Pika's free plan now has no credits, and Luma lists no free plan. Open-source Wan has no per-clip cost if you run it on your own GPU. Almost all free output is watermarked and for non-commercial use only.
Section 02
Free tiers split into three categories, and the difference matters more than the headline credit number.
Daily-renewing (rare, best value)
Kling gives 66 credits per day that refill every 24 hours — the only major model in mid-2026 with a genuinely renewable free allowance. You can keep using it for free indefinitely, within the daily cap.
One-time grant
Runway (125 credits) and Hailuo (a one-time grant with an expiry) give you a fixed amount once. Good for evaluation, not for ongoing use.
Free plan with no credits
Pika's free plan now shows 0 credits a month (credit packs only), and Luma's pricing page lists no free plan. Earlier monthly allowances are gone.
No free tier
Grok Imagine removed free generation in March 2026, and OpenAI Sora is being discontinued entirely. Neither offers a free path in 2026.
Section 03
Runway, Pika, and Luma re-checked on their pricing pages in September 2026; the other rows date from July 2026, and Kling's daily free credits were not re-confirmed. Nearly all free output is watermarked and non-commercial — check each tool's current terms before publishing anything made on a free plan.
The standout in 2026 is Kling: a daily-renewing free allowance is unique among the major models, and it means you can genuinely keep using the tool at no cost within the daily cap. Everything else is either a one-time grant meant for evaluation or gone.
The other genuinely free option is open source. Wan 2.2 is released under an Apache 2.0 license, so if you have a capable GPU (or run it in ComfyUI), there is no per-generation cost at all — the trade is setup effort and your own compute instead of a subscription.
| Tool | Free allowance | Renews? | Free resolution | Watermark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kling 3.0 | 66 credits/day | Daily | Standard | Yes |
| Runway Gen-4.5 | 125 credits | One-time | Standard | Yes |
| Luma Dream Machine | None on pricing page (Plus $30/mo) | — | — | — |
| Pika 2.5 | 0 credits (packs only) | — | — | — |
| Hailuo 2.3 | One-time grant (expires) | No | 720p | Yes |
| Google Veo 3.1 | Limited via Gemini/Flow | Region-dependent | Varies | Varies |
| Grok Imagine 1.5 | None (removed Mar 2026) | — | — | — |
| OpenAI Sora | None (discontinued) | — | — | — |
| Wan 2.2 (open-source) | Unlimited if self-hosted | N/A | Your hardware | No |
See how M Studio handles your script — Start now
Section 04
Two changes reshaped the free landscape this year. First, xAI removed all free image and video generation from Grok Imagine in March 2026, following deepfake incidents and pressure from EU and UK regulators — access now requires a SuperGrok subscription. Second, OpenAI announced Sora's discontinuation: free access was cut in January 2026, the consumer apps closed in April, and the API sunsets in September 2026.
If a 2026 listicle still tells you Grok Imagine or Sora has a free tier, it is out of date. The durable free options today are Kling's daily credits and self-hosted open-source models like Wan.
Section 05
M Studio is a paid subscription (from $27/month, no free plan), not a free clip generator, with optional top-ups when a monthly allowance runs out. Where it helps is downstream: because generation sits inside a storyboard workflow, you are not burning free credits re-rolling isolated clips hoping one fits a sequence. You plan the shot first, then spend on generating it once, with context.
If your goal is purely to test raw model output for free, start with Kling's daily allowance or a self-hosted open model. If your goal is to actually produce a sequence, a planned workflow wastes far less generation than free-tier trial-and-error.
Section 06
M Studio publishes this guide, and M Studio is one of the tools in it. Read the ranking with that bias in mind. We compared each tool on the size of each free allowance, whether it renews, free resolution, and watermark terms. Competitor features and starting prices come from each vendor's own website and pricing page, checked on 23 September 2026. Where a vendor does not publish a fact or a price, the table says "not listed".
A star rating is our editorial judgement of fit for the job this guide covers (5 = strongest). We do not give M Studio a rating. It is not a user review score or a lab benchmark, and we did not run paid side-by-side tests of every tool.
Where other tools are stronger than M Studio: Every tool in the table with a free plan beats M Studio on cost to start: M Studio has no free plan and starts at $27/month.
The full paid-and-free ranking across quality, motion, and workflow.
The best models for animating a still, with their free-tier notes.
Daily free credits vs a one-time grant, plus the paid comparison.
One kept its free tier, one removed it — and what else differs.
M Studio's storyboard-first generation workflow.
M Studio plans: Starter $27/month, Professional $99/month, Studio $199/month. No free plan.
Paste a script and watch M Studio turn it into a shot-by-shot storyboard with AI frames, motion, voice, and a real timeline.
$1 trial for 24 hoursFirst 10 shots storyboardedCancel anytime
How it works
M Studio builds a film shot by shot, and you direct every shot — this is the whole path, start to finish.
Start from a one-line brief, or import a screenplay PDF and build straight from the pages you already wrote.
Scenes, action and dialogue laid out shot by shot — editable line by line before anything renders.
Add each character once with a reference image so the same face carries across every shot in the film.
Your script breaks into shots on a canvas. Reorder, reframe and re-prompt any shot until the board reads right.
Turn approved storyboard pictures into video clips one shot at a time, then layer voiceover, music and sound effects.
Take the finished cut out as an MP4, MOV or WebM, up to 4K, ready for the edit or the pitch.
There is no length cap in the editor. Because films are made shot by shot, how long a film can run comes down to how many video clips your plan includes — not a limit in the tool.
FAQ
Kling, because its free tier renews daily (66 credits every 24 hours) rather than being a one-time grant — you can keep using it for free within the cap. For unlimited free use, self-hosted open-source Wan 2.2 has no per-generation cost if you have the hardware.
As of mid-2026, Kling is the only major model with a daily-renewing free allowance (66 credits/day). Runway and Hailuo give one-time grants; Pika's free plan has no credits.
No. OpenAI cut Sora's free access in January 2026 and is discontinuing the product entirely — the apps closed in April 2026 and the API sunsets in September 2026. Sora is not a free (or ongoing) option.
No. xAI removed free image and video generation from Grok Imagine in March 2026 under regulatory pressure. Access now requires a SuperGrok subscription.
Usually not. Nearly all free tiers watermark output and restrict it to non-commercial use. To use AI video commercially you typically need a paid plan, or a self-hosted open-source model like Wan under its Apache 2.0 license.
Watermarks, reduced resolution, non-commercial terms, and — most importantly — non-renewing credits on most tools. A one-time 125-credit grant is for evaluation, not production. Read the renewal terms, not just the headline number.
Skip the shortlist
Turn your script into shot-by-shot storyboard pictures, then add an animatic, voice, and export on one timeline.
$1 trial for 24 hoursFirst 10 shots storyboardedCancel anytime