“Make AI videos for free” is one of the most common promises on social media. We read the official pricing pages of six popular AI video tools on October 25, 2026 to see what “free” actually means. The short answer: you can test almost all of them for free, but very few let you publish without a watermark or a payment.
The quick verdict
- Most useful free plan: Synthesia, with about 10 minutes of avatar video or dubbing a month, but watermarked.
- Best for a quick test: HeyGen, with 3 one-minute videos a month, also watermarked.
- Smallest free offer: Runway, where free credits are given once, not monthly.
- Not really free: Pika, whose free tier includes no monthly credits.
Runway: free forever, but credits only once
Runway’s free plan is “free forever”, but it comes with 125 credits one time. They do not refill. For comparison, the Standard plan ($15 a month, or $12 billed yearly) gives 625 credits a month, which Runway says equals about 52 seconds of its Gen-4.5 video. So the free allowance is a few seconds of top-quality video. Paid plans also list “no watermarks”. Runway’s free plan in detail.
Pika: a free account with no free credits
Pika’s pricing page lists the free tier as 0 credits a month, “packs only”. You can sign up and look around, but generating anything means buying credit packs, and the free tier has no commercial licence. Paid plans start at $10 a month for 900 credits, and Pika estimates about one minute of finished video at around 122 credits. Pika’s pricing in detail.
HeyGen: three short videos a month
HeyGen, which makes talking-avatar videos, gives free users 3 videos a month, up to 1 minute each, with a watermark. Enough to see whether avatars suit you. Removing the watermark and making longer videos starts at the Creator plan, $29 a month. HeyGen’s free plan in detail.
Synthesia: the most minutes, still watermarked
Synthesia’s free plan includes 500 credits a month, roughly 10 minutes of video creation or dubbing. That is the most generous free allowance in this group. The catch: free videos carry a Synthesia watermark. Paid plans start at $29 a month. Synthesia’s free plan in detail.
Descript: free editing, limited minutes
Descript is an editor more than a generator: you edit video by editing its transcript. The free plan includes 60 media minutes a month. Its paid plans advertise watermark-free exports, from $24 a month ($16 billed yearly). Descript in detail.
Krea: a free plan for images, paid units for more
Krea combines image and video tools. The free plan gives access to its Krea 3 image model, and paid plans measured in compute units start at $9 a month ($5 billed yearly). Krea in detail.
Three catches to check before you start
- Watermarks. Almost every free video plan adds one. Fine for practice, not for client work.
- Commercial rights. Pika’s free tier explicitly has no commercial licence. Check the terms before you monetise anything.
- Seconds, not minutes. Generative video is expensive to run, so credits translate into surprisingly little footage. Our guide on why free credits run out explains why.
Prices and limits change often; each tool page on WhyDecoded shows when we last checked and lets you run a fresh check. See all AI video tools.
Sources
- Runway pricing — Runway
- Pika pricing — Pika
- HeyGen pricing — HeyGen
- Synthesia pricing — Synthesia
- Descript pricing — Descript
- Krea pricing — Krea
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