AI has taken the world by storm over the last few years, with millions of users writing prompts on platforms like ChatGPT to generate content, images, and yes videos.
Still, some of these platforms cost a lot of money, particularly if you’re trying to create something specific for your business. Luckily, there are some free AI video generators out there, and we’ve done some research to find the best of the best.
In this guide, we’ll showcase some of the best free AI video generators, along with what they can do, how many videos you can generate, and how you should go about choosing the right one for your business.
Why Use an AI Video Generator?
Before the AI revolution, companies would have to invest heaps of money and time into making high-impact videos. Today, AI video generators are capable of creating polished content that’s almost indistinguishable from the real deal, opening up major opportunities for creators.
By lowering the barrier to entry for video creation, and allowing users to create content more quickly and efficiently than if they used traditional methods, these tools help users create a much higher volume of content too, helping them keep up in the digital era. With so many AI-generators to choose from, read on to find out which platform may be able to meet your needs the best.
| Brand | Price | Usage limit | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |
| Runway | Synthesia | Colossyan | Fliki | Descript |
| Free | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| 25 seconds/month | 3 minutes/month | 3 minutes/month | 5 minutes/month | 60 minutes/month |
1. Runway – Best for Creatives
- Starting price: $12 per month
- Free plan: Yes
Runway is an AI-powered creative platform capable of creating a wide range of creative video content. Unlike some other video generators on this list, the platform generates advanced text-to-video features that can create highly realistic or animated videos from scratch, based on your unique input.
For example, users are able to use the tool to animate still images, create realistic visual renders, and produce physical-based simulations. From landscape flyovers to architectural mock-ups, the limit really is your imagination, which is why Runway will be the natural choice for creatives like artists and designers.
You’re able to customize the style of your video and its characters too, to ensure the content fully matches your vision. However, while Runway’s text-to-video feature lends itself well to creators with little tech experience, if you’re looking to create advanced content its professional interface will take some time to get to grips with.
Free users will be limited to 125 credits, which amounts to about 25 seconds of video, and the videos will contain watermarks. You’ll also only get 5GB of asset storage.
2. Synthesia – Best for Business on a Budget
- Starting price: $17 per month
- Free plan: Yes
Synthesia is an AI video generator that lets users use AI avatars for talking-head-style videos. The tool offers a wide selection of avatars to choose from. and also lets users create their own at a slight premium. These avatars are almost indistinguishable from the real deal, and are even capable of cloning your own voice if you pay for the Enterprise package.
Most casual users will be able to get by just fine on its free plan though, as it’s a lot more generous than other contenders on this list. It gives you access to over 60 templates, lets you create 3 minutes of video content per month, and unlocks a selection of over 130 languages and voices. The free plan also lets you upload background music and image and video files, to help users customize their content.
Synthesia’s impressive raft of features, in addition to its text-to-video format – which works in a similar way to ChatGPT – has earned its position as the best free video generator on this list. However, if you aren’t looking to make talking head-style videos, we’d recommend using platforms like Runway instead.
Users are able to build a personal av.atar with its $17 per month starter plan too, making it a great option if you’re willing to invest a bit to make your video highly personalized. If you don’t want to buy before you try, you’re able to get started with Synthesia’s plans with a free trial too
3. Colossyan – Best for Ease of Use
- Starting price: $19 per month
- Free plan: Yes
Similarly to Synthesia, Colossyan is a video generator that lets you create videos with AI avatars using text. The platform, which is designed specifically for corporate professionals and content creators, offers a range of useful capabilities, including custom brand kits, avatar-to-avatar conversations, and automatic translations.
Users are able to choose between 30 AI actors to read their scripts, and are even able to create their own AI custom avatar, but this comes at quite a hefty cost of $1,000 per year. While Colossyan is capable of creating high-quality, professional-looking videos, it’s surprisingly intuitive to use, especially compared to other video generators like Deepbrain AI.
Colossyan offers a free forever plan, but it’s more limited than Synthesia’s. Videos made with the plan feature watermarks, are limited to 3 minutes and are only able to contain five scenes. It does give users access to Colossyan’s library of AI avatars, though, and is capable of translating the script into over 70 languages and voices.
If you’re planning on making more than one video with the AI generator, Colossyan does let you test out its Starter and Pro plans with a 15-day free trial. Both of these premium plans offer more generous video and scene limits and remove the Colossyan watermark from your content.
4. Fliki – Best for Social Media Creators
- Starting price: $17 per month
- Free plan: Yes
Fliki is another text-to-video AI video generator that enables users to make creative video clips. The platform specializes in creating short-form content under five minutes, which makes it a great option for social media creators wanting to create an online buzz with highly personal content.
Fliki is easy to get started with too. All you have to do is create a new file, enter the name of your project, and then write out a text prompt that describes what you want from your video. You’re also able to choose from a wide range of voices to narrate your video, before customizing its tone, pitch, and pauses to your liking.
The platform has a free plan, but it restricts users to five minutes of videos per month, and all content will contain a Fliki watermark. You’ll also only get access to 300 voices, but you still get access to all 80+ languages available.
If you want to remove the watermark and up your content limit to 180 of minutes a month, you can upgrade to its Standard plan for $17 per month.
5. Descript – Best for Podcasters
- Starting price: $16 per month
- Free plan: Yes
Descript is an AI audio and video editing tool that lets users edit audio and video content like a text document. Unlike other AI video generators on this list, Descript is more focused on refining pre-existing videos and audio content, rather than making it from scratch.
However, if you’re a podcaster or an online creator looking to edit content for different social media platforms, the platform’s text-based editing feature makes it one of the best options out there.
Descript lets users automatically transcribe content, and then trim it down in a couple of clicks. Alongside AI voices, the tool also offers unique features like studio-quality sound enhancements and filler word removal, to help creators create professional-grade output. Users are able to choose from a wide array of templates to get them started, which can be a huge time saver if you’re making a high volume of videos.
The provider lets you edit videos for completely free with a limit of 60 minutes per month, but if you want to create more than one watermark-free video a month, we’d recommend upgrading to its Hobbyist plan which costs $12 per month.
How to Choose a Free AI Video Generator
Now that you know which free AI video generators are the best, it’s time to dig a bit deeper into what you should be looking for when it comes to choosing the right platform for your business. Here’s some criteria you should consider before making your decision.
- Limits – All free AI video generators are going to have some kind of usage limit, so make sure that lines up with your business needs.
- Functionality – Many video generators have specific purposes, like creating talking head AI avatars, and they aren’t as customizable, so make sure that’s what you need before you commit.
- Integrations – A good video generator will be able to seamless integrate with other services, so you can share you videos easily on other platforms.
- Price – In all likelihood, you’ll end up paying for video generation in the long run, so understanding the price of paid options can help inform your decision.
All in all, the important thing to remember about free AI video generators is that they simply aren’t going to be as good as the paid options. Subsequently, you’ll want to pay extra attention to what they do offer to see if that aligns with your business needs.
Should You Pay for an AI Video Generator?
Free AI video generators certainly have their use cases. Businesses with no budget for this kind of innovative technology will obviously be more than happy with the cost-free tool, particularly if they only need for a specific purpose, like the talking head videos from Synthesia.
However, if your video generation needs go even slightly beyond the basic functionality provided by free options, a paid plan is going to be your best bet. For one, paid video generators, like Veo on Gemini or Sora from OpenAI, are very advanced and only getting better.
More importantly, though, they’re a lot more versatile. While Colossyan can only create AI avatars from prompts, paid video generators can do pretty much anything, creating videos of everything from a dog eating a hot dog to the Pope dunking a basketball.
Simply put, free AI video generators are pretty limited and offer unique, niche functionality, and if you need anything beyond that, paying for a video generator is likely your best bet.
