Hailuo AI

MiniMax's text- and image-to-video generator with striking, expressive motion.

Hand-reviewed by the Toolglade team·Updated Aug 2026

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Free plan API Mobile app

Toolglade’s take

A strong image-to-video option with expressive results — worth a look alongside Kling if you're animating stills.

About Hailuo AI

Hailuo AI, from MiniMax, generates short videos from text prompts and images, known for expressive, dynamic motion. It offers a free credit tier and paid subscriptions.

Hailuo AI is MiniMax's video-generation platform, producing short clips from text and images with a reputation for expressive, dynamic motion and appealing character animation. Like Kling, it's a strong non-Western entrant in the frontier video race and is often used for image-to-video animation. A credit-based free tier supports experimentation, and paid plans add more generations and higher quality. It's best for short, creative clips rather than long-form editing.

TL;DR

Hailuo AI is the AI video generation platform from Chinese AI company MiniMax, generating cinematic video from text and image prompts with support for high resolution, multiple aspect ratios, and audio. It targets creators, marketers, and developers, with limited free trial credits, subscription plans starting around $9.99/month, and a pay-as-you-go API. Unlimited plans and higher tiers are available for heavier users.

Company overview

Hailuo AI is built by MiniMax, a Chinese AI startup founded in 2022 by Yan Junjie, Yang Bin, and Zhou Yucong, known for its large language and multimodal models. MiniMax develops the Hailuo video models alongside its broader model family.

MiniMax added audio functions to Hailuo AI in January 2025 and has continued to release improved video models such as its H-series, offering the platform via web, app, and API.

Product features

Hailuo AI generates cinematic video from text prompts and animates first-frame (and optional last-frame) images, supporting resolutions up to 2K, clip lengths of roughly 5 to 15 seconds, and multiple aspect ratios including 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, and adaptive. It added native audio generation in 2025.

The platform is known for natural motion and competitive quality, and offers a pay-as-you-go API priced per successfully generated clip alongside subscription plans.

Target market

Hailuo AI serves social media creators, marketers, and developers who want quick, high-quality AI video generation, from individual creators using subscription credits to developers integrating video generation via the API.

Buyer personas

End users

Creators, marketers, and developers generating AI video clips

Buyers

Individual creators, marketing teams, and developers

Key influencers

Social media managers, creative directors, and developer teams

Ideal customer profile

Creators and developers wanting high-quality, natural-motion AI video with subscription or pay-as-you-go API pricing.

Funding & performance

Hailuo AI is a product of MiniMax, which has raised roughly $850 million to over $1 billion across multiple rounds from investors including Alibaba, Tencent, HongShan, Hillhouse, IDG Capital, and MiHoYo. A 2025 Series B extension valued MiniMax at about $4 billion, and the company has pursued a Hong Kong IPO. Hailuo is funded as part of MiniMax rather than independently.

Pros & cons

Pros

Expressive, dynamic motion
Strong image-to-video results
Free credits to try it out

Cons

Short clip lengths
Less established support for Western users
Consistency can vary across prompts

Pricing plans

Free

$0 / month

Limited trial credits
Watermarked output
Access to core generation
Non-commercial use

Standard

$9.99 / month

1,000 monthly credits
Watermark-free downloads
Commercial usage rights
Faster generation

Unlimited

$94.99 / month

Unlimited credits
Priority processing
Full feature access
Commercial rights

API

Custom

Pay-as-you-go per clip
Programmatic access
Text and image to video
Scalable usage

Key features

API

Mobile app

Multi-language

Integrations

MiniMax API

Input types

text, image

Output types

video, audio

Best For

creators, marketers, developers

Compare key features

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Feature

Hailuo AI

Google Veo

Luma Dream Machine

Pricing

Freemium

Free plan

Yes

Free trial

API

Yes

Frequently asked questions

Is Hailuo AI free?+

Yes, it offers free credits; paid plans add more generations and higher quality.

What is Hailuo AI best for?+

Animating images and generating expressive short video clips from text.

Who makes Hailuo AI?+

It's built by MiniMax, one of the leading Chinese AI labs.

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Hailuo AI vs Kling AI (2026): Two Top Chinese Video Models Compared

Hailuo AI (MiniMax) starts at $7.99/mo with photorealistic 1080p clips, while Kling AI scales from $10/mo with longer, extendable video. Here is how to choose.

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