Short verdict: Hailuo AI is one of the more budget-friendly AI video tools available at the moment, primarily because MiniMax H3 integrates voice, sound effects, and music into the video and can output up to 2K at 4-15 seconds. It's not permanent. One-time trial credits with a watermark; paid plans begin at around $10 per month. Other tools might be more appropriate if long takes, tight control, or strict data handling is desired. This review will discuss the changes made by H3, its price, how to test without paying, and a comparison of H3 with Kling, Runway, Veo, and Sora.
Is Hailuo AI worth it? A quick verdict
Question | Answer |
What is it? | An AI video platform by MiniMax (web, iOS, and Android) |
Current model | MiniMax H3, released July 31, 2026 |
Clip length and quality | 4 to 15 seconds, up to 2K |
Sound | Voice, effects, and music generated with the video |
Free? | One-time trial credits, watermarked output |
Paid? | From about $10 a month; API billed per second |
Best for | Short social, product and concept clips with sound |
Skip if | You need clips over 15 seconds or can't upload sensitive material |
What changed with MiniMax H3?
The product is called "Hailuo AI", and the company is called "MiniMax". The models below have been moving quickly: Hailuo 02 for 2025, Hailuo 2.3 on 28 October 2025, and now H3, which is commonly referred to as Hailuo 3.0.
There were three things that made H3 special. These three things are:
It reads the text, images, video, and audio as a single context, and you can tell it how the reference clip should relate to the prompt.
Its stereo sound is produced in one pass rather than later in the dubbing process.
It is as high as 2K, which is definitely an improvement over the older 720p band, which some older clips are still being referred to as online.
One more update worth knowing: MiniMax announced open weights for H3 and, according to third-party providers, has since released them under the MiniMax H3 Community License. Read that license before you self-host for commercial work. If open video models interest you, our piece on Alibaba Wan 2.2 is a useful comparison.
How much does Hailuo AI cost?
There are two separate price lists, and people often mix them up.
The app and web plans run on monthly credits. In October 2026, the platform advertised plans from $9.99 a month. The table below reflects a third-party summary of typical tiers. Credit amounts and prices change, so check hailuoai. video before you buy.
Plan | Credits per month | Monthly price | Yearly billing (per month) |
Free | One-time trial credits | $0 | $0 |
Standard | 1,000 | $10.50 | $8.40 |
Pro | 4,500 | $38.00 | $30.40 |
Master | 10,500 | $89.00 | $71.20 |
Max | 27,000 | $216.00 | $184.00 |
The API charges per second of video. MiniMax's pay-as-you-go list puts H3 at 2K at about $0.13 per second, or roughly $7.80 per minute. See MiniMax's API pricing page for the current numbers.
What does that mean for a real project? Here's the math at list price:
Job | Calculation | Cost |
One 10-second clip | 10 × $0.13 | $1.30 |
One 15-second clip | 15 × $0.13 | $1.95 |
20 finished 10-second clips, about 3 tries each | 20 × 3 × $1.30 | $78.00 |
Don't budget by the clip. Budget by the number of retries, because that's where the money goes.
Hailuo AI H3 vs. The Competition
Choosing the right video generator depends entirely on your project's budget, required clip length, and whether you need native audio generation. The table below outlines how Hailuo AI's H3 model positions itself against the leading foundation video models in late 2026.
Feature / Metric | Hailuo AI (MiniMax H3) | Kling AI (Kling 1.5/2.0) | Runway (Gen-3 Alpha / Gen-4) | Google Veo (v1/v2) | OpenAI Sora |
Native Sound Generation | Yes (Voice, SFX, and Music in a single pass) | Limited (Basic SFX/Dubbing tools) | No (Requires separate audio tools) | No (Visual-only generation) | No (Silent video output) |
Max Clip Duration | 4 to 15 seconds | 5 to 10 seconds (Extendable) | 5 to 10 seconds (Extendable) | 5 to 60+ seconds | 60 seconds |
Max Output Resolution | Up to 2K | Up to 1080p / 2K | Up to 4K Pro | Up to 4K | Up to 1080p / 2K |
Open Weights / Self-Hosting | Yes (Under Community License) | No (Proprietary Cloud) | No (Proprietary Cloud) | No (Proprietary Cloud) | No (Proprietary Cloud) |
Starting Cost | ~$10 / month (or $0.13/sec API) | ~$10 / month | ~$15 / month | Enterprise / Google Cloud API | Enterprise / Premium Tier |
Best Used For | Short social media, product ads, and fast concept prototyping with sound | Cinematic movements and complex character physics | Photorealistic human generation and high-end commercial VFX | Long-form narratives, deep cinematic control, and variable aspect ratios | High-fidelity world simulation and complex multi-shot scenes |
Deep-Dive Comparisons
Hailuo AI vs. Kling AI
Kling remains a dominant force for hyper-realistic character physics and complex bodily movements. However, Hailuo H3 completely edges out Kling when it comes to multimedia synchronization. While Kling requires you to add sound effects or music later via a separate dubbing panel, H3 writes the audio track directly into the video matrix during the first generation pass. H3 also offers an open-weights self-hosting path, whereas Kling is locked tightly into its proprietary cloud ecosystem.
Hailuo AI vs. Runway
Runway is the gold standard for enterprise visual effects houses, offering advanced multi-camera controls, motion brushes, and native 4K scaling up to Gen-4 standards. However, Runway does not feature native sound generation, and its base tiers are more expensive. If you are building standalone, short-form visual content that requires an immediate audio mood, Hailuo H3 is far more cost-effective and faster to execute than assembling a video in Runway and scoring it elsewhere.
Hailuo AI vs. Google Veo & OpenAI Sora
Sora and Veo are designed for complex, long-form cinematic generation. Both are capable of producing continuous, highly consistent clips spanning up to a full minute. Hailuo H3 caps out at 15 seconds per individual clip. Despite this limitation, Sora and Veo remain heavily gated, expensive, or restricted to corporate enterprise pipelines. For individual creators and mid-sized agencies, Hailuo H3 offers immediate, affordable access to 2K generation without long waitlists or strict enterprise-only contracts.
Can you use Hailuo AI for free?
Only in a limited way. The free plan gives you one-time trial credits, and your videos carry a watermark. There's no standing monthly freebie that we could confirm. Paid plans remove the watermark, and the provider says watermark-free downloads can be used commercially, though you should read the current terms first.
A few third-party platforms, including InVideo, Artlist, and Pollo AI, let you run Hailuo models inside their own tools. Their free allowances and privacy rules are their own, so don't assume they match MiniMax's.
Hailuo AI vs Kling, Runway, Veo and Sora
No single tool wins on every point. Match the tool to the job.
Pick Hailuo AI when you want built-in sound, quick short clips, and a low cost to start.
Pick Runway Gen-4.5 when you want more hands-on control over a scene.
Pick Google Veo 3 when you work in Google's ecosystem and want cinematic output.
Pick OpenAI Sora 2 when audio-visual realism from OpenAI is the goal.
Pick Luma Dream Machine when 4K is a priority.
Want the wider picture? Our roundup of the best AI video generator tools compares more of them, and the best AI image generator tools cover stills.
How to get a good clip on the first try
Most wasted credits come from vague prompts. A short routine helps.
Write one sentence with five parts: subject, action, camera move, lighting, and sound.
Start from an image when you can. A clean product shot gives the model something solid to animate.
Change one thing per retry. If you swap the camera move and the lighting together, you won't know which helped.
Draft low, finish high. Test ideas cheaply, then spend credits on a final render.
Say what the sound should be. “Soft rain, distant traffic, calm piano” beats leaving audio to chance.
Example prompts to try: “A cyclist rides through a rainy city at dusk, handheld camera, neon reflections, street noise and quiet music,” or “Steam rises from a coffee cup on a wooden table, slow dolly from the left, warm morning light.”
Apps, languages, and where to access it
You can use Hailuo AI in the browser, through iOS and Android apps (the Google Play listing is titled “Hailuo AI: Bild & Video AI”), and through the API. Store prices can differ from the website.
The interface and help pages are mostly in English. Older advice to write prompts in Chinese is no longer a must for current models. English prompts are the safest bet. If you prefer another language, run the same prompt in English as a check. H3 can generate spoken dialogue in several languages.
Privacy, rights and what to watch
Uploads are processed by the provider. Before you upload client material, check the privacy policy, where data is stored and what usage rights apply. For faces and voices of real people, personality and copyright rules matter. For the company behind the model, see our post on MiniMax M2.7, and for AI voices, our guide to MiniMax Audio.
Who should skip Hailuo AI?
Skip it if you need single takes longer than 15 seconds, perfectly repeatable results, or a workflow that can't send files to an outside provider. Teams that want AI video inside office tools may prefer Google Vids.
Frequently asked questions
What is Hailuo AI?
It's an AI video platform from MiniMax that turns text or images into short videos. The current model is MiniMax H3.
Is Hailuo AI free?
Partly. You get one-time trial credits with a watermark. Regular use needs a paid plan.
How much does Hailuo AI cost?
Paid plans start at about $10 a month, and larger plans go up to roughly $216. Through the API, H3 at 2K costs about $0.13 per second of video.
Which Hailuo model is the newest?
MiniMax H3, released on July 31, 2026. Before it came Hailuo 02 and Hailuo 2.3.
How long can Hailuo AI videos be?
H3 makes clips of 4 to 15 seconds at up to 2K.
Does Hailuo AI generate sound?
Yes. H3 creates voice, sound effects and music together with the video, in stereo.
Is there a Hailuo AI app?
Yes, for iOS and Android.
Is Hailuo AI open source?
The H3 weights have been released under a community license, according to third-party providers, but the Hailuo AI platform itself is a commercial service. Check the license terms.
Final take
Hailuo AI with H3 is a strong pick for short, sound-ready clips at a low entry price. Its limits are the 15-second cap, the retries it takes to get a good take, and the watermark on the free plan. Test it on one real task before you commit to a plan. If you'd like help choosing the right AI video setup for your team and your data rules, our AI consulting for businesses can help, or you can get in touch directly.