Hailuo

MiniMax is a Chinese AI lab that has been building and releasing video models rapidly. Internationally, their video product is branded Hailuo AI. The Hailuo 02 model (mid-2025) and Hailuo 2.3 (October 2025) have positioned it consistently in the upper tier of video generator benchmarks. It generates 1080p video at 24 frames per second and is noted for handling physics-heavy motion well.

What sets Hailuo apart from a user perspective is the free tier: multiple clips per day without paying, which is substantially more generous than Runway, Kling, or Luma at the free level. For beginners exploring AI video or teams that need to prototype at volume without commitment, this makes it a default starting point. The Director Mode feature lets users specify multi-shot sequences by combining multiple prompts for different camera moves or scene beats.

MiniMax also ships open-weight models, which means self-hosted or fine-tuned deployments are possible for teams with infrastructure. The commercial tiers start at $9.99 per month for 1000 credits, scaling to an unlimited plan. Hailuo's positioning is accessible quality, rather than highest possible fidelity, which makes it a solid daily-driver tool for content creators and a sensible starting model for builders testing video generation in a product.