Video Generation

Generate video clips from text or images and bring stills to life.

Available: 46of 91
Providers: 15
Price range: $0.0016 – $4.80per default run

Quick picks

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46 models

Video generation models for marketing, motion, and prototyping

Video models turn a prompt — or a still frame, or a short reference clip — into a moving picture. The category is the youngest and most volatile in the catalog: every quarter brings a new flagship that resets the quality bar. Reach for one when you need motion content faster than a human editor can produce it.

Pricing, trade-offs and pitfalls

Pricing in video is mostly per second of output rather than per token. On Railwail a five-second clip currently costs from $0.30 (Kling v2.1 standard, Runway Gen-4 Turbo) to $3.00 (Veo 2); Veo 3 with audio costs $0.48 per second. Sound-on tiers cost more than silent tiers. Resolution multipliers stack on top of duration: 720p is the standard, 1080p costs roughly 2× more, and 4K is rare and expensive.

The trade-off here is duration versus coherence. Most commercial models cap output at five to ten seconds because longer clips drift — characters change clothes, backgrounds morph, and physics breaks down. For longer narratives, generate a sequence of shorter shots and stitch them in post. Image-to-video (start frame + motion prompt) typically produces more stable results than pure text-to-video, especially for characters and product shots.

Watch out for clip length: most models generate between four and ten seconds per call (Kling v2.1: 5 or 10 s, Veo 3.1 Fast: 4, 6 or 8 s), and quality tends to drop at the upper end. If your script needs more, plan for several shots. Also watch out for sound: many models ship silent and you have to overlay audio separately — Veo 3 and Veo 3.1 are examples that can generate audio.

Top picks above cover the flagship realism leader, the cheapest workhorse, the longest-clip model, and the fastest preview option in the category.

Typical tasks

Short-form social ads
Product demos and explainers
Music videos and stylized shorts
Storyboarding for live-action shoots
AI-generated B-roll
Character animation prototypes

Guides by use case

Text & Image to Video Models

Model comparisons

Frequently asked questions

Which video model is the most realistic?

Veo 3 and Veo 3.1 are strong on photoreal motion, physics, and integrated audio. Runway Gen-4 and Kling v2.1 are close on visual quality but ship silent. For artistic and stylized output, Pika and Dream Machine often beat flagships at a fraction of the cost.

How long can a generated clip be?

Most models generate 4 to 10 seconds per call — for example Kling v2.1 5 or 10 seconds, Veo 3.1 Fast 4, 6 or 8 seconds. Longer clips cost more. Beyond 10 seconds you should generate a sequence of shots and edit them together — quality drift dominates over single-call duration today.

Is video pricing per-second or per-call?

Mostly per second of output. On Railwail a 5-second clip currently costs from $0.30 (Kling v2.1 standard, Runway Gen-4 Turbo) to $3.00 (Veo 2); some models such as Hailuo or Wan are priced per clip. Sound-on tiers and 1080p+ resolutions cost more. Every model page shows the price of a standard run.

Can I generate video from a starting image?

Yes — image-to-video is the most reliable workflow today. Provide a still frame plus a motion prompt and you get much more stable output than from text alone, especially for character animation and product shots. Most flagships support both modes.

Is audio included?

Veo 3 and Veo 3.1 can generate synced audio (dialog, sound effects, music). Many other models output silent video — you generate audio separately with a TTS or music model and overlay it in post. Check the model page for audio support before integrating.

What resolutions are supported?

Standard tiers ship 720p. Pro tiers add 1080p at roughly 2× the cost. 4K output is rare and expensive in 2026; for finals at higher resolution, upscale in post with a dedicated video upscaler.

How fast is video generation?

Wall-clock time depends on the model: 30 seconds to 2 minutes for a 5-second clip on flagship infrastructure, 5-15 minutes on open-weights shared GPUs. Plan async UX — show progress and let users come back.

Are commercial usage rights granted?

Commercial tiers (Veo, Runway, Kling Pro, Pika) grant perpetual royalty-free commercial use. Some open-weights research models restrict to non-commercial — the license is listed on every model page. Read it before you put output in a paid campaign.

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