Best AI Image to Video Generation Tools in 2026: 9 Tools Compared

Runway is our pick for most people who want one place to try several image to video engines. Its pricing page lists Gen-4.5 alongside Kling 3.0 and Seedance models, and says the Standard plan includes access to all of its video and image models. Standard is $12 per month billed annually (625 credits), Pro is $28 (2,250 credits) and Max is $76 (9,500 credits).

The free plan is real but small. You get 125 credits one time, not per month, plus 5GB of storage, which covers a few short tests. Runway also has an iPhone app for text-to-video, image-to-video and video-to-video, and App Store reviewers praise the output while several complain about credits spent on clips that did not work.

The honest catch is the credit math. Standard and Pro credits expire each month, and only Max lets up to a month of unused credits roll over, so heavy months and light months cost the same.

Kling is the one to look at if you want long, motion-heavy clips without paying Runway prices. Its current model, Kling 4.0, is described on the site as supporting native 30-second generation, multiple keyframes and reference inputs. The iPhone app listing says videos can reach 15 seconds in native 1080p or 4K and can be extended to 3 minutes.

Pricing starts with a $0 Basic tier. Standard lists at $10 per month for 660 credits, with a $6.99 first-month offer on the membership page, and Pro lists at $37 for 3,000 credits. Standard and above add fast-track generation, 1080p and 4K video, watermark removal and commercial use.

Be realistic about the free tier. The membership table shows no monthly credits for Basic, and Kling's credit policy says daily login credits are for subscribers during events shown in the interface. Plan on Standard if you want to make real clips.

Luma sells a single credit pool that spends across its own Ray models and partner models. The pricing page lists per-generation costs for Ray3.2, Seedance 2.5, Kling 3.0 and Veo 3.1, among others, which is useful if you like to compare engines on the same photo.

Plus is $30 per month ($25 per month billed yearly) for 10,000 credits, Pro is $90 for 40,000 and Ultra is $300 for 150,000. Luma's FAQ says you can animate still images, add camera motion and extend scenes. There is also a Luma Dream Machine iOS app.

The catch is access. We found no free plan or free trial on the pricing page, so you commit $30 before you know how your photos behave.

Google offers two doors into image-based video. Flow is its video studio, and an older Google FAQ describes starting from a first frame or a first and last frame. The Gemini app can also create videos from photos, with up to 5 photo references and clips up to 10 seconds, and every Gemini video carries an invisible SynthID watermark.

Google's AI plan page lists Flow credits by tier: 200 per month on AI Plus, 1,000 on AI Pro, and 10,000 or 25,000 on the two Ultra tiers. The free plan gets limited Flow access with no credit amount stated. The page we opened showed prices in another currency, so we are not quoting a US dollar figure here. Check the US page before you subscribe.

The Gemini video page says a Google AI subscription is required and that users must be over 18. Model names change quickly at Google, so confirm which model your plan uses today.

Midjourney's video feature does one thing: it turns an image into a short clip. Its help center says you feed in a first frame, add an optional prompt, and get 5-second videos you can extend by 4 seconds up to four times, for a maximum of 21 seconds. You can also set an end frame, or reuse the start frame to make a loop.

Plans are Basic $10, Standard $30, Pro $60 and Mega $120 per month, with 20 percent off for annual billing. Video draws on the same GPU time as images. A batch of four standard-definition clips costs 8 GPU minutes and an HD batch of four costs 26, so Basic's 200 Fast minutes go quickly. Only Pro and Mega get unlimited SD video in Relax mode, and HD is Fast-only.

If your images already come from Midjourney, this is the natural next step. For product photos or portraits, other tools here are more flexible.

Firefly is the easiest place to start for anyone who wants to try without paying. The Firefly page says free users get daily generations across video, audio and images, with the Adobe Firefly Video Model and select partner models for text-to-video and image-to-video. Paid Standard is $9.99 per month for 2,000 credits, which Adobe says is up to 20 five-second videos.

For image to video, you upload a JPG or PNG under 50MB as a first frame and describe the motion in up to 1,024 characters. Output downloads as MP4 up to 4K, with most models producing clips up to 8 seconds. Adobe says the Firefly Video Model is designed to be safe for commercial use and trained on licensed and public domain content, while partner models can follow different terms.

The weakness is volume. App Store reviews mention credits running out quickly, and a 20-clip monthly ceiling on Standard is tight for anyone iterating.

Pika leans toward fun, shareable video. Its app listing mentions swaps, memes, effects and scenes alongside image-to-video and text-to-video, and it holds a 4.7 rating from about 4,300 ratings on the App Store.

The pricing page lists Free at $0 with no monthly credits (you buy credit packs), Starter at $10 per month for 900 credits, Creator at $35 for 3,150 credits, and Fancy from $95. Top-up credits are priced at 60 per dollar and expire after 365 days. Commercial licenses come with Starter, Creator and Fancy only.

Think of Pika as the playful pick rather than the cinematic one. Without monthly credits on the free plan, you will be buying packs almost immediately.

PixVerse spells out its free tier clearly, which many rivals do not. Its subscribe page shows a free allowance of 60 initial credits plus 30 daily credits that reset each day, and says unused daily credits expire. Standard is $10 per month ($8 billed yearly) for 1,200 credits every 30 days, watermark-free output and HD up to 720p.

Pro is $30 per month ($24 billed yearly) with 6,000 credits, resolution up to 4K and access to extra video models, including Seedance, MiniMax H3, Wan 3.0 and Kling O3 according to the plan list. The free allowance is small and perishable, so it suits testing better than steady production.

Hailuo is MiniMax's consumer video site, and its homepage currently promotes the MiniMax H3 model and Wan 3.0. The generator shows a 2K, 5-second default and reference slots (up to 12) with an Omni Reference option, and many of its trending templates ask you to upload a photo and get a finished clip back.

Pricing is shown as a subscription from $9.99 per month on the homepage. We could not read a full plan table or free-credit details from the pages available to us, so check the subscribe page before paying.

Hailuo suits people who prefer templates to prompts. For shot-by-shot camera control, Runway or Kling give more.