First came the AI chatbots, then the AI image generators. Now, tech companies are rushing to release AI video generators.
During the past year, nearly every major tech company has dropped some kind of AI video model. Between Google's Veo 3, Midjourney and Sora, it's quickly become a crowded market. AI videos are a huge leap forward in a company's AI creative offerings, and they're something worth keeping an eye on as generative AI becomes a bigger part of the content we create and see online. This is especially true as the advancement of the tech comes at a time when the legality, ethics and other concerns continue to surround AI creative offerings.
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Many of these companies also have chatbots and image generators, but I was surprised to find there were unique differences in the video generators. Some of my favorite image generator features pop up in the video models, while others are noticeably absent, for example. Because there are so many options, I've compiled all the major models you can consider, including their pricing, privacy and my hands-on testing of each.
This is everything you need to know about AI video generators. This list is regularly updated with the most recent info on each generator.
What are AI video generators?
AI video generators are one of the latest ways tech companies are using generative AI. These programs use text-to-video and image-to-video technology that lets you create short video clips. You enter a short description called a prompt, or upload an image to animate, and the software creates a clip entirely made with gen AI. These AI videos tend to be between five and 10 seconds long, and certain models offer synchronized audio. Because this tech is new, errors -- called hallucinations -- are possible.
What AI video models I can use right now?
Some examples of AI video generators you can use now are Sora by OpenAI, Veo 3 by Google, Adobe Firefly and Midjourney's V1. They are all are paid programs that produce decent results and let you customize your shot with control panels. Runway, an AI start-up that co-created the Stable Diffusion image generator, is another AI video option with freemium plans. Other AI models from Luma, Pika and Ideogram are also available.
Lily Hailyeh/CNET OpenAI's Sora Sora joined the ChatGPT family at the end of 2024. It's a pretty user-friendly program, but it doesn't have the same conversational UI as Dall-E 3 -- you can't "chat" with Sora to make follow-up revisions. Instead, it's more reminiscent of traditional AI creative services. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) In Sora, you have a panel to customize your video's dimensions, length and stylistic feel. You can enter a prompt or upload an image for Sora to animate, and you can use a few editing options to perfect your video from there. Sora videos also come automatically watermarked, designating their AI origins. Sora is only available to paying ChatGPT users. If you're a ChatGPT Plus user ($20 per month) you'll get 50 priority generation credits per month, with videos up to 5 seconds long at 720p. Upgrading to the Pro tier ($200 per month) gets higher monthly credits, including 500 videos created with priority/fast generation and unlimited videos with relaxed generation. Pro subscribers can also create higher-resolution videos at a max of 1080p, extend the duration of their videos up to 20 seconds and have the option to download videos without the watermark. OpenAI's privacy policy states that it may train on your content unless you opt out. To do that in Sora, go to Settings > General, and turn off Improve model for everyone. You can also exclude your videos from public explore feeds in settings. See at OpenAI
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