Hailuo AI

Hailuo AI is the video generation platform built by MiniMax, a Shanghai-based AI company that raised $850 million from Tencent, Alibaba, and Hoyoverse. The product runs at hailuoai.video and through iOS and Android apps, letting users generate video clips from text prompts or still images without installing anything locally. MiniMax positions Hailuo as the most affordable path to professional-quality short video: in June 2025, the Hailuo 02 model ranked second globally on the Artificial Analysis Video Arena benchmark, ahead of Google Veo 3, at roughly one-tenth the per-clip API cost.

The current model as of April 2026 is Hailuo 2.3, released October 28, 2025, with a physics-first approach that excels at realistic material simulation: water surface tension, fabric behavior, hair responding to wind with correct inertia. Core modes include Text-to-Video, Image-to-Video, and Subject Reference for maintaining consistent character appearance across multiple generations. The Hailuo 2.3-Fast variant cuts batch generation cost by approximately 50% for high-volume use. A free tier provides 2-3 daily generations at 720p with watermarks; paid plans start at $9.99/month and unlock 1080p, watermark removal, and priority queue access.

What Hailuo outputs in April 2026

Hailuo 2.3 generates clips up to 10 seconds at up to 1080p resolution and 24-30fps. Three resolution/length configurations are available depending on subscription tier: 768p at 6 seconds, 768p at 10 seconds, and native 1080p at 6 seconds. Free users are capped at 720p. The model supports 16:9, 9:16, and 1:1 aspect ratios natively, which means no external cropping before posting to Instagram Reels or TikTok.

The Hailuo 02 model that powers 2.3 uses MiniMax's Noise-aware Compute Redistribution (NCR) architecture, which the company reports increases training and inference speed by 2.5x compared to previous models at comparable parameter scales. The parameter count is 3x larger than Hailuo 01, trained on 4x more data. In practice this shows up as better physics: the viral "Cat Olympics" clips from June 2025 demonstrated accurate fur dynamics, realistic mid-air body arcs, and plausible water splash behavior that earlier AI video tools could not replicate.

Hailuo 2.3 added expanded art style support over 02: anime, illustration, ink wash painting, and game CG are now selectable output styles alongside photorealism. Character micro-expressions and body movement fluidity also improved meaningfully in the 2.3 update. A Media Agent mode enables multi-modal creation from a single text prompt, chaining image and video generation steps.

What Hailuo does not output: audio. Generated clips are silent. Adding music, dialogue, or sound effects requires a separate tool. This is a real limitation compared to Kling 3.0 and Veo 3, both of which include native audio synthesis.

Where Hailuo sits versus Kling AI and Runway Gen-4

The two direct mechanical comparisons worth making are Kling AI (by Kuaishou, Chinese peer with a different architecture) and Runway Gen-4 (the Western professional-tier benchmark).

Hailuo vs. Kling AI

Kling uses a Diffusion Transformer architecture tuned for cinematic motion rather than physical realism. The key mechanical differences: Kling 3.0 supports native 4K output (Hailuo tops at 1080p), native audio generation (doubles credit consumption when enabled), and clip extension up to 3 minutes via the built-in Extend feature. Hailuo caps at 10 seconds with no extension option. Kling also handles multi-shot storyboards across up to 6 consecutive scenes, producing something that reads as deliberately filmed footage. Hailuo's camera control is text-prompt based and struggles with directional panning.

The trade-off is precise. Hailuo's physics simulation is substantially stronger for close-up and material-heavy scenarios: product pours, fabric movement, liquid dynamics, animal motion with realistic weight. Kling looks cinematic until you ask it to be physically precise. Hailuo holds up physically until you ask it to move a camera. As one hands-on comparison put it: "Hailuo's physics hold up until you ask it to move a camera." The choice between them depends entirely on whether your clips need physical accuracy or camera storytelling.

Hailuo vs. Runway Gen-4

Runway's Gen-4 offers localized motion brushes: you paint exactly which region of an uploaded image should animate, and the rest stays still. Hailuo has no equivalent feature; motion instructions are entirely text-based. Runway also generates clips up to 16 seconds with a built-in Extend feature and integrates into a broader post-production editing suite with inpainting and masking. Quality benchmarks place Runway Gen-4.5 at approximately 8.8/10 vs. Hailuo 2.3 at approximately 7.8/10 on comparative quality scoring.

The cost gap is the counterweight. Runway costs roughly $1.20 per 10-second clip. Hailuo via API runs approximately $0.28 per clip. At volume, that difference is decisive. For a social media team generating 30 creative variants, Runway costs roughly $36; Hailuo costs $8.40. Runway is the professional filmmaker's tool; Hailuo is the volume content creator's tool.

"Its instruction following and camera controls are far better than peers like Sora." - Joakim Kling, VideoProc, 2025

"There aren't many good options in this field without paywalls." - Google Play reviewer, cited in Techpoint Africa, 2025

The real cost of generating video with Hailuo

The free tier gives approximately 2-3 video generations per day, 720p with watermarks. New accounts created after June 18, 2025 receive a one-time 500-credit welcome pack that expires three days after grant. No credit card required to start.

Paid plans as of April 2026:

• Standard: $9.99/month, 1,000 credits (~40 videos at 6s 768p), watermark removal, fast-track generation, 5 queued tasks

• Pro: $34.99/month, 4,500 credits (~180 videos), all Standard features

• Master: $119.99/month, 10,000 credits, accelerated generation, watermark-free

• Ultra: $124.99/month, 12,000 credits plus unlimited Hailuo 01 access in Relax mode

• Max: $199.99/month, 20,000 credits plus unlimited Hailuo 01 and 02 in Relax mode

The API route costs approximately $0.27-$0.28 per 6-second 768p clip. For context: Google Veo 3 API costs around $3.00 per generation, and Runway's per-second API rate works out to roughly $1.20 per 10-second clip. Additional credits outside a subscription are $1 per 70 credits.

Three important caveats: credits expire at the end of each billing month with no rollover. Failed generations may still consume credits. In mid-2025, MiniMax removed bonus daily credits from existing subscribers without grandfathering plans, which prompted significant user backlash. The "Unlimited" tier was also rebranded to "Ultra" and quietly restricted access to the newer Hailuo 02 model to credit-based consumption rather than true unlimited use.

Where Hailuo consistently breaks

The camera problem is the most reported limitation. Hailuo's text-based camera controls work adequately for static framing and minor zoom. Asking for panning, tracking shots, or dolly-in movements produces degraded output: one reviewer described the result of a camera pan request as looking "like a phone recording a TV screen." This is a fundamental architectural limitation rather than a prompt-writing issue. Creators who need cinematic camera movement need to look at Kling or Runway.

The 10-second hard cap is the second major constraint. There is no extension feature, no workaround, no queuing of segments. Runway does 16 seconds. Sora handles up to 60 seconds. Kling extends to 3 minutes. For anything beyond a short social clip, Hailuo is simply the wrong tool.

Silent output is the third gap. Hailuo generates video with no audio track. Every finished clip requires a separate audio production step. At scale this is manageable, but it means Hailuo is never a one-stop shop for polished short-form content.

Content moderation is aggressive and inconsistently applied. Users have reported rejections for prompts depicting Christmas greetings, romantic scenes with soft lighting, and standard human interactions. One paying subscriber documented a rejection for showing "too much wrist" in a scene. The platform does not provide clear guidelines for which specific content triggers rejections, making creative iteration unpredictable.

"We are cancelling any further payments with Hailuo AI for ridiculous censorship and not allowing refunds." - angelgirlbrianna.com, December 21, 2025

Commercial licensing terms remain vague for free and Standard tier users. The terms do not explicitly grant commercial rights for generated content used in paid advertising. Teams planning to deploy Hailuo output in global campaigns are advised to contact MiniMax directly for explicit licensing confirmation before publication.

Best use cases versus skip-this scenarios

Where Hailuo is the right choice:

Social media content at volume is Hailuo's clearest use case. A/B testing creative variants, character-driven short clips, product lifestyle video, and viral-format spectacle content (physics demonstrations, animal motion, nature scenes) are all scenarios where Hailuo's combination of free tier, low API cost, and strong physics output makes it the most efficient option available.

Product animation for e-commerce and advertising is a genuine strength. The Subject Reference mode maintains character and product consistency across generations. The physics engine handles liquid pours, fabric texture, and surface reflection with accuracy that competitors at the same price point cannot match. Five consistent outputs from the same perfume bottle prompt (goenhance.ai hands-on test) with no camera movement requests: this is where Hailuo excels.

The freemium tier makes Hailuo the easiest entry point for anyone new to AI video generation. No credit card required, 2-3 clips per day, browser-based with no local install, iOS and Android apps for mobile generation. The learning curve is low enough that non-technical users are regularly productive within a single session.

Skip Hailuo when:

Skip it for any project requiring clips longer than 10 seconds, any clip that needs synchronized audio, or any scenario requiring dynamic camera movement. Skip it if your content moderation tolerance is low: the arbitrary rejection patterns make creative iteration on borderline topics expensive in both credits and time. Skip it for enterprise deployments that require documented commercial licensing. And skip it if quality ceiling matters more than cost: Runway Gen-4.5 and Sora 2 produce higher-quality output, and the approximately 1-point quality gap in benchmark scoring is visible in outputs that need to hold up at larger display sizes or in more demanding production contexts.

Hailuo is best understood as a physics-first, cost-first video generation tool. It does what it does better than anything at its price point, but the 10-second cap, silent output, and camera limitations mean it covers only part of what professional video production actually requires.