Hailuo/MiniMax vs Kling vs Pika 2026: Real Cost per Usable Video

1. Current Plan Structure and Mechanics

Hailuo / MiniMax —, but dated (hailuoai.video/doc/payment-policy.html, "Hailuo AI Video Subscription Service Terms," last updated 7/14/2025, fetched Sept 22, 2026)

Credit mechanics (vendor-listed): three credit types — membership credits (expire monthly, no rollover), purchased credits ($1 = 70 credits, valid through Dec 31 of the second calendar year after purchase), and promotional bonus credits. Credit refund policy is explicit and automatic: "In the event of a video generation failure or if the content does not pass the review process, the system shall automatically refund the credits consumed during the process." This is a genuinely different, more favorable policy than several competitors (Manus's failed-task refund status is explicitly unconfirmed in NotCheapAI's existing Manus research, for contrast). IP terms (vendor-listed): Hailuo does not claim ownership of paid-tier generated content; the user retains IP rights including commercial use, while granting Hailuo a non-exclusive license to use the content for operating/improving/promoting the service.

The cited Terms document predates MiniMax's Hailuo 2.3 and H3 model releases (H3 launched July 31, 2026, according to multiple sources) and refers only to "Hailuo01" and "the new Hailuo02." It does not establish whether those plan prices, credit allocations or names still apply to the Hailuo 2.3/H3 products. Third-party trackers report different figures (including promotional Standard prices around $7.99–$9.99, different tier names and credit-per-clip estimates), but those estimates do not appear in the Terms, which do not itemize per-clip credit costs. The Terms therefore provide the clearest available plan and credit-allocation reference; the third-party per-clip figures remain unverified estimates.

API (independent reporting, fal.ai hosting page, a legitimate but third-party model host, not MiniMax's own developer pricing page): Hailuo-02 Standard (768p) $0.045/second; Hailuo-02 Pro (1080p) $0.08/second. No subscription required on this path; pay only for successful generations per fal.ai's own description.

Kling — reported consumer pricing

Third-party listings generally show this structure: Free (66 daily credits, no rollover), Standard ($10/month list, $6.99 first month → $8.80 renewal, 660 credits/month), Pro ($37/month list, ~$26 first month; monthly credits reported as either 3,000 or 4,500 depending on source — unresolved), Premier ($92/month list, $64.99 first month → $80.96 renewal, 8,000 credits), Ultra ($180/month list, $127.99 first month → $159.99 renewal, 26,000 credits, no annual option as of mid-2026 per one source). Annual billing is reported to save ~34% on Standard/Pro/Premier (Ultra excluded). The first-month-versus-renewal pattern is consistent across sources; the renewal price is the one to budget against.

Credit cost per generation, convergent across multiple independent sources: Kling 3.0 runs 6 credits/second at 720p without native audio, up to 12 credits/second at 1080p with native audio. Kling 3.0 (launched Feb 5, 2026, one source verified against the official model guide Aug 9, 2026) dropped the old "Standard mode/Professional mode" split entirely and now bills purely by resolution and audio — any source still describing Kling pricing in "std/pro mode" terms is describing the prior Kling 2.x structure. Native 4K/60fps, a 3–15 second flexible duration window (up from a 10-second cap), and native multilingual audio with lip-sync are confirmed features of 3.0. Top-up rate: one source citing "Kling's payment policy" directly states $1 USD = 66 credits ($0.01515/credit) — reported as an estimate because it is not confirmed in Kuaishou's public pricing material.

Developer API — now cross-validated across multiple independent hosts: fal.ai and other third-party hosts report Kling 3.0 (or the closest prior Kling version, sources vary on exact version) at ~$0.07–$0.084/second without audio and ~$0.14–$0.168/second with audio — this is the figure this article now relies on, since it is corroborated by more than one independent host and, importantly, lands close to the plan-derived per-second rate computed independently from Kling's own consumer credit pricing (see the Short Answer's cross-validation note). The earlier-reported "$0.14 per unit" flagship-mode figure from a single dated tracker citing Kuaishou's own developer page is retained as a secondary data point but is no longer the primary API figure used in this article's tables, since the fal.ai-based reading has stronger independent corroboration.

Pika — reused unchanged from NotCheapAI's existing Pika/Luma/Runway guide

Pika 2.5 API, 720p: $0.04/second (vendor-listed, from the previously verified guide). Pika's 1080p rate remains internally contradictory in Pika's own rate card and is excluded from this comparison, exactly as in the existing guide. Consumer plans (Free/Starter/Creator/Fancy) and their commercial-licensing terms are documented in full there and not repeated here.

2. How Confident Is This Article's Per-Second Table, Really?

The Pika/Luma/Runway guide could compute a confident per-second rate because Pika, Luma and Runway each publish (or publish closely enough to reconstruct) a batch-cost-per-generation figure tied to a specific resolution and duration, published by the vendor. Hailuo and Kling do not offer that same primary-source path, but the available independent corroboration supports only directional secondary evidence, not primary-grade confidence:

• Hailuo's per-clip credit costs (12/25/80 for 512p/768p/1080p at 6s) are corroborated across four or more independent sources, including one explicitly dated Aug 28, 2026 that matches the primary Terms document's base plan prices exactly.
• Kling's per-second credit rates (6–12 credits/second) are corroborated across multiple independent sources, and — the strongest evidence in this article — the plan-derived rate and an independently-reported third-party API rate agree within a few cents of each other at both resolutions checked. Two independent evidence paths converging is a real cross-validation, not just repetition of the same original claim by different aggregators.
• What remains genuinely unresolved: Kling's Pro-tier monthly credit allocation (3,000 vs. 4,500, a ~50% swing in the derived per-second rate); Hailuo's 1080p figure still diverges meaningfully between its plan-derived rate (~$0.20/s) and its third-party-hosted API rate (~$0.08/s) — explained by, but not fully resolved against, the well-documented "1080p inflation" multiple reviewers flag on Hailuo's consumer plans specifically.

The honest conclusion: this article can support a rough per-second range for all three providers, with Pika still the single precise figure (vendor-listed) and Hailuo/Kling resting on convergent reported evidence rather than a current primary fetch. Treat the Hailuo/Kling figures as directional estimates, not budgeting-grade or invoice-grade numbers.

3. Duration, Resolution, Image-to-Video/Text-to-Video, Audio, Extensions

Do not treat this table as apples-to-apples. Duration ranges, resolution ceilings and audio support differ enough across the three that a "cheapest per second" number, even where one exists with confidence, does not by itself tell you which tool fits a given job.

4. Modeled Cost per Usable Second at 50% / 70% / 80% Usable Rates

MODELING ASSUMPTION, consistent with the framing already established in NotCheapAI's existing Pika/Luma/Runway and Pika/Midjourney guides: usable rates of 50%, 70% and 80% are illustrative scenarios, not measured success rates for any of these three providers.

At the usable-second level, Pika and Hailuo's Standard-tier 768p rate land close together, and Kling's derived 720p rate matches Hailuo's 1080p Pro rate almost exactly. Given the secondary cross-checks described in §2, this convergence is useful directional evidence — but Pika remains the only figure here backed by a direct primary pricing fetch.

6. Commercial Use

Hailuo (vendor-listed): commercial use permitted on all paid tiers; free-tier output is not licensed for commercial use per multiple convergent secondary sources (the public Terms do not explicitly address free-tier commercial restrictions, so the reported restriction remains uncertain). Kling and Pika's commercial terms are not re-derived here — Pika's rates are documented in the existing guide; Kling API pricing is not modeled here.

FAQ

Is Hailuo or Kling cheaper than Pika? At comparable resolutions, Pika (720p, $0.04/s, vendor-listed), Hailuo (768p, $0.045–$0.063/s, reported) and Kling (720p, $0.042–$0.091/s depending on tier, reported) cluster within a similar band — none is confidently "cheapest" across the board once resolution and plan tier are matched. Pika's figure is the only one this research could confirm against a direct primary fetch; the other two rest on convergent, cross-validated secondary evidence.

Does Hailuo refund credits for failed generations? Yes — this is explicitly stated in Hailuo's own Subscription Service Terms and automatic, not something you have to request.

What is Hailuo's Relax Mode? A Max-tier ($199.99/month) feature that lets you keep generating with the Hailuo01/02 models even after your monthly credits run out, instead of being blocked.

Why does Kling's price look different everywhere I check? Kling runs a discounted first-month promotional price on most tiers that reverts to a higher renewal rate — many pricing guides quote the promo price as if it were the ongoing cost.