Hailuo AI pricing uses a credit-based subscription model across six tiers, starting at free and climbing to $199.99 per month.
The platform is built by MiniMax, a Beijing-based AI company that completed a $619 million Hong Kong IPO in January 2026 at a $4 billion valuation, backed by Tencent, Alibaba, and miHoYo.
Here is what you need to know before you spend anything: the plan price is not the real cost. The real cost is how many usable videos your credits produce. And that number is much smaller than you think.
After running Hailuo across three paid tiers and tracking every credit spent, I found that the gap between what the pricing page suggests and what you actually get is one of the widest in the AI video space.
This article breaks down exactly where the money goes.
What Are the Hailuo AI Pricing Plans?
Hailuo has restructured its pricing multiple times since launch.
| Plan | Monthly price | Credits/month | Max resolution | Max duration | Parallel tasks | Unlimited models |
| Free | $0 | Daily bonus (~50-80) | 720p/768p | 6 seconds | 1 | None |
| Standard | $9.99 | 1,000 | 1080p | 6 seconds | 1 (5 queued) | None |
| Pro | $34.99 | 4,500 | 1080p | 10 seconds | 2 | None |
| Master | $79.99 | 10,000 | 1080p | 10 seconds | 2 | None |
| Ultra | $124.99 | 12,000 | 1080p | 10 seconds | 2 | Hailuo 01 unlimited |
| Max | $199.99 | 20,000 | 1080p | 10 seconds | 2 | Hailuo 01 + 02 unlimited |
All paid plans remove the watermark and include commercial usage rights. Unused credits do not roll over. They expire at the end of your billing cycle.
Additional credits can be purchased separately at $1 for 70 credits.
These purchased credits remain valid until December 31st of the second calendar year after purchase, which is significantly more generous than the monthly expiration.
How Many Videos Do You Actually Get Per Plan?
This is where Hailuo’s pricing gets tricky. The number of videos you produce depends entirely on which model and resolution you use. Different models burn credits at wildly different rates.
| Model + settings | Credits per video | Standard plan (1,000 credits) | Pro plan (4,500 credits) |
| Hailuo 01 at 768p, 6s | ~15 credits | ~66 videos | ~300 videos |
| Hailuo 02 at 768p, 6s | ~25 credits | ~40 videos | ~180 videos |
| Hailuo 02 at 1080p, 6s | ~80 credits | ~12 videos | ~56 videos |
| Hailuo 02 PRO at 1080p, 6s | ~290 credits | ~3 videos | ~15 videos |
| Hailuo 2.3 at 768p, 6s | ~25 credits | ~40 videos | ~180 videos |
| Hailuo 2.3 PRO at 1080p, 6s | ~290 credits | ~3 videos | ~15 videos |
Read that table again. The Standard plan at $9.99 per month sounds reasonable until you realize that at 1080p using the latest PRO model, you get approximately 3 videos. Three. For fifteen dollars.
The 1080p credit jump caught many users off guard. While 768p stays at 25 credits, 1080p jumps to 80 credits. That is a 3.2x multiplier that the pricing page does not make obvious.
In my testing, I started on the Standard plan expecting to produce around 30 to 40 videos for the month. I produced 11. The gap came from using 1080p (which I needed for a client project) and from failed generations that still consumed credits. By day 12, I was out of credits and had to buy a top-up pack.
Do Failed Generations Cost Credits?
This is one of the most frustrating aspects of Hailuo’s pricing.
According to the official terms, credits are refunded if a video generation fails or does not pass review. In practice, community reports on r/HailuoAiOfficial paint a more complicated picture.
According to AI Video Bootcamp’s analysis, 30 to 50 percent of generations can produce unusable output due to morphing artifacts, prompt misinterpretation, or content filter rejections.
Whether credits are refunded depends on whether Hailuo classifies the output as a “failure” (refunded) or a “completed generation that did not meet expectations” (not refunded).
My honest take: budget for a 20 to 30 percent waste rate on credits, especially if you are experimenting with complex prompts or pushing the models on subjects they handle inconsistently (human hands, text rendering, multi-character scenes).
That waste rate effectively raises your cost per usable video by 20 to 30 percent over what the credit math suggests.
What Do You Get for Free?
The free tier is designed for testing, not production. Here is what it includes:
- A small pool of daily bonus credits (enough for roughly 2 to 3 videos per day at 768p)
- 720p/768p resolution only
- 6-second maximum duration
- Watermark on every video
- No commercial usage rights
- Lowest queue priority (generation can take several minutes instead of the typical 30 to 90 seconds)
- Maximum 3 queued tasks, 1 parallel generation
For trying Hailuo to see if the style fits your needs, the free tier works. For anything you plan to publish or sell, you need a paid plan.
Is There an API Option?
Yes, and for some workflows it is cheaper than a subscription.
Hailuo is available through fal.ai at approximately $0.28 per video or $0.046 per second for Hailuo 02. The API also unlocks parameters the web interface does not expose: seed values, CFG scale, and negative prompts.
According to AI Video Bootcamp, the API route is cheaper than subscriptions if you produce fewer than about 36 videos per month at 1080p. Above that volume, the Max plan at $199.99 (20,000 credits) brings the per-video cost down to roughly $0.15 at 1080p.
If your volume is unpredictable month to month, the API avoids the wasted-credits problem entirely. You only pay for what you generate.
How Does Hailuo AI Pricing Compare to Competitors?
Hailuo positions itself as the volume play: more generations per dollar than Runway or Sora, with a focus on speed and character animation.
Here is how the pricing compares across the platforms you are most likely evaluating:
| Platform | Starting paid price | What you get | Max resolution | Max duration | Cost per 1080p video (approx.) |
| Hailuo AI | $9.99/month | 1,000 credits (~12 videos at 1080p) | 1080p | 10 seconds | ~$1.25 (Standard), ~$0.15 (Max) |
| Runway Gen-4 | $12/month | 625 credits (~25 videos at 720p/5s) | 4K upscale | 16 seconds | ~$0.48 |
| Sora 2 (OpenAI) | $20/month (ChatGPT Plus) | 50 videos at 720p/5s | 1080p | 60 seconds | ~$0.40 |
| Kling 2.6 | $5.90/month | 66 credits | 1080p | 10 seconds | ~$0.30 |
| Veo 3.1 (Google) | $20/month (Gemini Advanced) | Unlimited | 1080p | 8 seconds | ~$0 (included) |
A few things jump out from this table.
Hailuo’s Standard plan is actually one of the most expensive options per 1080p video. At $1.25 per clip, you pay more than Runway, Sora, or Kling for a single generation.
The value only improves dramatically at the Max tier ($199.99), where unlimited Hailuo 01 and 02 access brings the effective cost close to zero for those models.
Google’s Veo 3.1, included with Gemini Advanced at $20 per month with unlimited generation, is the hardest value to beat for anyone already in the Google ecosystem.
Kling 2.6 at $5.90 per month is the budget king for human-subject video specifically. If your use case involves realistic people,independent reviews consistently rank Kling higher than Hailuo for human rendering.
Where Does Hailuo Actually Win on Value?
Despite the credit math looking rough, Hailuo has genuine strengths that justify the cost for specific use cases:
Speed. Hailuo generates videos in 30 to 90 seconds. That is the fastest in the category. If your workflow involves rapid iteration (testing 10 prompts to find the right one), that speed advantage compounds across a production session.
Character animation. Hailuo ranks among the best for animating characters with natural body movement and facial expressions. Hailuo 2.3 (released February 2026) added improved micro-expressions, better body movement, and expanded art style support for anime, illustration, and game CG.
Physics simulation. Hailuo was ranked #1 for physics simulation on WorldModelBench, meaning objects in its videos interact with gravity, momentum, and spatial relationships more realistically than competitors.
The Max plan for high-volume studios. At $199.99 per month with unlimited Hailuo 01 and 02 access plus 20,000 credits, heavy users effectively remove the credit constraint. For a studio producing dozens of videos daily, the per-clip cost drops below $0.15, which undercuts Runway and Sora significantly at scale.
What Are Hailuo’s Pricing Weaknesses?
I want to be direct about these because they affect the buying decision:
The credit system punishes experimentation. Most creative workflows involve testing multiple prompts to find the right visual direction. Each test burns credits. On the Standard plan, 3 to 4 exploratory rounds at 1080p can consume a quarter of your monthly allocation. This is the opposite of how creative tools should work.
1080p is disproportionately expensive. The jump from 25 credits (768p) to 80 credits (1080p) is a 3.2x multiplier. For any professional output, you need 1080p. That means the “real” cost of a Standard plan is not $9.99 for 40 videos. It is $9.99 for 12 videos.
Trustpilot rating is 1.4 out of 5. That is remarkably low. Most complaints center on credit consumption, billing confusion, and content filter rejections. Hailuo’s product quality is strong, but the customer experience around pricing and billing has significant room for improvement.
Pricing changes without clear communication. The Standard plan has been listed at $9.99, $12.99, and $14.99 across different periods in 2025 and 2026. Third-party sites frequently show outdated numbers. Always verify directly at hailuoai.video/subscribe before purchasing.
Which Hailuo Plan Should You Pick?
| Your situation | Recommended plan |
| Just want to test if Hailuo fits your style | Free tier |
| Casual creator, a few short clips per month at 768p | Standard ($9.99) |
| Regular social media content at 1080p | Pro ($34.99) or API via fal.ai |
| Professional studio, daily video output | Max ($199.99) |
| Unpredictable monthly volume | API via fal.ai (pay per generation) |
| Budget under $10/month | Skip Hailuo, use Kling ($5.90) or Veo 3.1 (with Gemini at $20) |
| Need human-realistic video | Skip Hailuo, use Kling 2.6 |
| Need film-grade cinematic quality | Skip Hailuo, use Sora 2 or Runway |
FAQs
Is Hailuo AI free?
Technically yes. You get daily bonus credits, enough for 2 to 3 short videos at 768p with a watermark and no commercial rights. For anything publishable, you need a paid plan starting at $9.99 per month.
Does Hailuo AI offer refunds?
Paid subscribers can cancel at any time, but the cancellation takes effect at the next billing cycle. No refunds for payments already made. Failed video generations should automatically refund credits, though community reports suggest this does not always happen reliably.
Can I use Hailuo videos commercially?
Yes, on all paid plans. Free tier videos cannot be used commercially. Hailuo’s terms state they do not claim ownership over content you generate and download on a paid plan.
Why do some sites show different Hailuo prices?
Hailuo has restructured pricing multiple times. Some sources still reference the original $9.99 Standard and $34.99 Pro pricing from early 2025. Always check the official pricing page for current numbers.
Is the API cheaper than a subscription?
For low-to-medium volume (under ~36 videos per month at 1080p), yes. The fal.ai API charges approximately $0.28 per video with no monthly commitment. Above that volume, the Max plan becomes more cost-effective.
How does Hailuo compare to Runway?
Runway costs more per month but delivers higher cinematic quality, longer clips (up to 16 seconds), 4K upscale, and an integrated editing suite. Hailuo generates faster and produces more clips per dollar at scale. For social media volume, Hailuo wins. For professional film and advertising, Runway wins.
