Hailuo AI vs Vidu: 2K Footage or Reference Consistency?

The Short Answer

Hailuo AI and Vidu are two of the most cost-focused AI video platforms on the market. Both sell monthly credit plans to creators, both offer a separate developer API priced per second, and both keep their entry paid tier near $10 a month. The choice between them comes down to how you want to control a shot and how you want to pay for it.

Hailuo AI, MiniMax's creator app, is the better default for teams that want high-resolution footage at a predictable price per second: its MiniMax H3 model renders 4 to 15 second clips at up to 2K, and the plan page tells you exactly how many seconds each tier buys. Vidu, built by Shengshu, is the better default for reference-driven work and for batch pipelines that can wait: its Reference to Video workflow is the product's front door, its clips run up to 16 seconds, and its API charges roughly half price for off-peak generation.

All prices and limits below come from the official Hailuo and Vidu plan pages, the MiniMax API pricing guide and the Vidu API pricing documentation, checked on September 27 and 28, 2026. Vidu's pricing page states that its plans will be upgraded on October 6, 2026, so confirm Vidu figures before paying for a year.

Models and Workflows

Hailuo's flagship is MiniMax H3, described by MiniMax as native multimodal generation with precise multimodal editing. H3 produces clips from 4 to 15 seconds at 768p or 2K, and H3-Max offers a cheaper route at 480p or 768p for 5 to 15 seconds. The generator accepts up to 12 reference inputs for Omni Reference generation, and the older Hailuo 2.3 model remains available. Paid plans also include Google's Veo 3.1 inside the Hailuo credit wallet, so one subscription covers two model families.

Vidu's flagship is Vidu Q3, which covers text-to-video, image-to-video, start-and-end-frame video and Reference to Video. Subscriptions support clips of 3 to 16 seconds, with Q3 generating 11 to 16 second clips as well as shorter ones, and paid plans offer 1080p output with upscaling up to 4K. The API splits Q3 into Q3-pro for quality, Q3-turbo for cost and Q3-mix for reference-to-video, and keeps the older Q2 family as a cheaper fallback. Vidu also offers an agent mode for multi-step creation, AI sound effects and reference-to-image generation.

The emphasis differs. Hailuo sells resolution and throughput: more seconds of sharper footage per dollar. Vidu sells continuity: the same subject, product or character across many clips, with pricing levers that reward patience.

Consumer Plans Compared

Hailuo's monthly prices are currently promotional discounts from the list price, which the plan page shows crossed out. Vidu's monthly equivalents are derived from the yearly savings it displays: Standard is $96 a year, Premium $336 and Ultimate $948.

The two vendors describe their allowances differently. Hailuo translates credits into seconds of output at each resolution: about 12 credits per second for H3 at 2K, about 7 at 768p and about 4 for H3-Max at 480p. Vidu translates credits into a maximum number of videos: Standard's 800 credits cover up to 200 videos, which implies a floor of 4 credits per video at the cheapest settings. Longer, higher-resolution Q3 clips cost more, so treat Vidu's video counts as ceilings rather than expectations.

Vidu's plans carry features that matter for reference work. The monthly subject creation quota rises from 50 on Standard to 100 on Premium and 300 on Ultimate, every paid tier can generate four videos at once, and Ultimate includes a free Off-Peak Mode that accepts up to 200 video submissions per day plus unlimited Q2 1080p image generation. Hailuo's Pro tier and above run two tasks in parallel and add unlimited 1K image generation with models such as Nano Banana Pro and Seedream; Max adds unlimited Hailuo 2.0 and 2.3 video generation.

Both platforms allow commercial use and watermark-free downloads on paid plans.

Where Hailuo AI Wins

Resolution per dollar. H3 renders at 2K, above Vidu's 1080p native output, and Hailuo's plan page puts the effective cost at $0.081 per second on Pro or Master billed yearly. Teams delivering to large screens or cropping for multiple aspect ratios benefit from the extra pixels.

Predictable seconds. Because Hailuo states seconds per tier at each resolution, a producer can size a plan to a content calendar before trying it. Pro's 4,500 credits cover about 643 seconds at 768p, which is enough for sixty ten-second clips with a healthy retry margin.

Simple pay-as-you-go API. MiniMax charges $0.08 per second for H3 at 768p, $0.13 at 2K, and $0.05 for H3-Max at 480p, drawn from a prepaid balance with no minimum package. Audio input is free, the first five image inputs are free before a $0.04 per-image charge, and video inputs are billed by duration at the output resolution.

Two model families in one plan. Veo 3.1 access on paid Hailuo plans lets creators compare MiniMax and Google output without a second subscription.

Where Vidu Wins

Reference-led continuity. Reference to Video is Vidu's core workflow rather than an add-on, and the API's Q3-mix route is purpose-built for it. For e-commerce catalogues, recurring mascots or episodic characters, the monthly subject quota is the real unit of production, and Vidu sells up to 300 subjects a month on Ultimate.

Off-peak pricing. Vidu's API charges roughly half the normal rate for off-peak Q3-pro and Q3-turbo jobs, and Ultimate subscribers get free Off-Peak Mode for up to 200 submissions a day. No comparable discount appears on Hailuo's or MiniMax's public pricing.

Longer clips. Vidu Q3 generates up to 16 seconds per clip, one second more than H3's 15, and its API accepts durations from 1 to 16 seconds for text, image and start-end workflows.

Cheaper 1080p API output. Q3-turbo costs $0.065 per second at 1080p, or $0.035 off-peak, below MiniMax's $0.08 per second for H3 at 768p.

API Pricing for Developers

Vidu sells API credits at $0.005 each and publishes per-second credit costs for every model, resolution and workflow. MiniMax publishes dollar prices per second.

The 8-second figures follow directly from the per-second prices: 8 × $0.13 for H3 at 2K and 8 × $0.12 for Q3-pro at 1080p. At similar top-tier prices, Hailuo delivers more pixels while Vidu delivers a cheaper path when jobs can wait.

Cost Scenarios

A creator publishing 40 ten-second 1080p-class clips a month. That is 400 seconds of output. On Hailuo at 2K, Pro's roughly 375 seconds falls just short, so a creator would either drop some clips to 768p, where Pro covers about 643 seconds, or move to Master. On Vidu, Premium's 4,000 credits are the realistic tier; test your settings to see how many 1080p Q3 clips they cover before committing.

An e-commerce team producing 500 eight-second reference clips a month through an API. That is 4,000 seconds. On Vidu with Q3 reference-to-video at 1080p, it costs 4,000 × $0.075 = $300. With Q3-mix for higher consistency it costs $580. On MiniMax, H3 at 768p costs 4,000 × $0.08 = $320 plus reference image charges beyond the first five per request.

A nightly batch of 1,000 five-second clips at 1080p. On Vidu with off-peak Q3-turbo, 5,000 seconds × $0.035 = $175. The closest MiniMax option is H3 at 2K at 5,000 × $0.13 = $650, or H3 at 768p at $400.

Decision Framework

Final Recommendation

Pick Hailuo AI when resolution and predictable seconds matter most, when you want MiniMax's straightforward per-second API, or when you want Veo 3.1 bundled into the same plan. Pick Vidu when your work depends on reference consistency, when a pipeline can run off-peak, or when you need the cheapest 1080p API output.

A fair trial takes about a week. Use each platform's entry paid tier, which costs roughly $10 month-to-month on both, and run the same briefs: a reference-led product shot, a ten-second scene with camera movement, and a 15-second sequence. Record the attempts, credits and waiting time for every accepted clip, then divide spend by accepted clips. If you plan to automate, repeat the product shot through each API, using MiniMax H3 at 768p and Vidu Q3-turbo at 1080p, once at normal priority and once off-peak, so the comparison reflects the price you would actually pay. Accepted-output cost, not list price, decides which platform is cheaper for your work.