Written by the people who make AI Canvas, an app that includes many of these tools
Best image to video AI: which one to use for your photo
Image to video means you give an AI a photo, describe what should happen, and it gives you back a short video clip, usually five to ten seconds long. There are a lot of tools that do this now. Which one is best depends on what is in your photo and what you want it to do. For the full list of tools inside AI Canvas, see the main guide.
In one line. A photo of a person you want to see talking, with a voice: use Veo, Sora or Kling. A photo of a product you want to see turning or being picked up: Kling or Seedance. A clip longer than 15 seconds: Seedance or LTX. If you plan to edit the video on a computer afterwards: Runway. Whatever you pick, try it with your own photo first, using the steps below.
How to try a tool with your own photo, before you pay
- 1
Choose three photos and stick with them
One of a person's face, one of a product on a plain background, and one of a place where something should move, like water or trees. Use the same three every time you try a new tool.
- 2
Write one line saying what should move
The photo already shows what is there. You only need to say what happens: she turns her head and smiles; the bottle slowly turns around; the leaves move in the wind.
- 3
Use the same settings in each tool
The shortest clip length the tool offers, the same shape (tall for phones, wide for TVs), and sound turned off. If a tool does not have the same option, just make a note of it.
- 4
Make each clip at least twice
The same photo and the same words can give a good clip one time and a bad one the next. Two or three tries show you what the tool usually does. Note how long you waited, too.
- 5
Check five things
Does the person or product still look like the photo at the end? Do hands, water and wheels move the way they would in real life? Do edges and any writing stay sharp? Does the camera wander when you did not ask it to? If there is sound, does it fit?
- 6
Work out what one good clip really cost you
Add up what you spent, then divide by the number of clips you would actually use. Include the plan you would need to be on, and whether a free version puts a watermark on the video or stops you using it for business.
- 7
Keep your notes
A score for each of the five checks and a cost, for each of the six clips. When a tool releases a new version, try the same photos again. Because it uses your own pictures, this will tell you more than any list on the internet, including this one.
First, where these opinions come from
We have not yet published a proper scored test. What is in the table below comes from what each tool says it can do and from our own use of them, mostly inside our app. We are working through the steps above with a fixed set of photos, and as each tool gets its turn we will add the results and the clips here with a date. Until a tool has a dated entry, treat its row as the opinion of people who use these tools a lot, and nothing more.
What do you want the photo to do?
Two things matter. The AI model is the engine that makes the video. The app or website you use it through decides what it costs, how long a clip can be, whether you can have sound, and what you can do with the video afterwards. The table has a column for each.
| What you want | Tools we would try first | Where to find them | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A person talking, with a voice | Veo, Sora, Kling | Google's Flow or Gemini app, OpenAI's Sora app, kling.ai, AI Canvas | These make the sound and the picture together, so the mouth and the voice line up. |
| A product turning, pouring, or being picked up | Kling, Seedance | kling.ai, AI Canvas, Runway | The two that have most often kept the shape right and the label readable for us. Not yet scored. |
| A place with a bit of movement, like water or clouds | Almost any tool | Whichever is cheapest for you | This is the easy one. Most tools do it well, so spend the money on extra tries. |
| One clip longer than 15 seconds | Seedance (up to 30 seconds), LTX (up to 20) | AI Canvas, the tools' own sites | Most tools stop at about 8 to 10 seconds per try. |
| A clip that starts on one photo and ends on another | Veo, Kling, Wan, FLUX, MiniMax | AI Canvas, kling.ai, Runway | Only some tools accept two photos. |
| Making a clip you already have longer | Veo (7 seconds at a time), PixVerse (up to 15), FLUX (up to 20) | AI Canvas, PixVerse | Each extra piece costs the same as a new clip. |
| Cheap tries while you work out the words | LTX Fast, FLUX Draft, Seedance Mini, Veo Lite | AI Canvas, LTX, Runway | Get the description right on a cheap tool, then run it once on the expensive one. |
| Cutting and editing the video with other footage | Whichever you used | Runway, then your video editor | Runway has an editor built in. Our app does not; you save the clip and open it somewhere else. |
| Lots of clips every week | Whichever you used | A monthly plan at Runway, kling.ai or Pika | Paying per clip, which is how our app works, adds up at that volume. A flat monthly plan is cheaper. |
| Using a computer, the web, or an Android phone | Anything | Runway, kling.ai, Pika, Luma, the tools' own sites | AI Canvas is only on iPhone. |
| The newest tool on the day it comes out | The new tool | Its maker's own app | Apps like ours that bundle many tools add a new one after its maker releases it, not before. |
The tools, one by one
Prices come from each tool's own price page on the dates shown. They change often. Where we could not confirm a price, we say so.
Sora (OpenAI)
For a photo of a person, especially one you want to see talking, this is usually the first one we try. It is in OpenAI's own Sora app and website, where who can use it has changed during the year depending on country and account, and it is inside AI Canvas as Sora 2 and Sora 2 Pro, making clips of 4, 8 or 12 seconds. Check what OpenAI currently gives free and paid accounts before you plan around it.
Veo (Google)
Makes the sound together with the picture, and inside AI Canvas it can produce very high resolution video. You can use it in Google's Flow and Gemini apps, and in AI Canvas as Veo 3.1 with cheaper Fast and Lite versions; the standard one makes clips of 4, 6 or 8 seconds. It can make a clip longer in 7-second pieces. Google sells it as part of its other AI subscriptions, so the price depends on which plan you already have.
Kling (Kuaishou)
The one we use when the movement has to look real: hands, clothes, liquids, a product being turned. It is at kling.ai, where you buy credits (their price page would not load for us on 20 September 2026, so no numbers here), and inside AI Canvas as Kling v3 Pro, Kling v3 Standard and Kling 3.0 Turbo. Runway includes Kling on its Pro plan. Sound can be turned on, and it costs more.
Runway
Runway is for people who make videos on a computer. It has a proper video editor around the AI, and you pay for both. Checked on runway.com on 20 September 2026: the free plan gives 125 credits once; Standard is $12 a month if you pay yearly ($15 monthly) and includes 625 credits, about 52 seconds of video with its best model; Pro is $28 a month yearly ($35 monthly) for 2,250 credits, about 187 seconds, and adds Kling; Max is $76 a month yearly for 9,500 credits. Paid plans have no watermark. If you are going to cut and edit the video afterwards, this is the one.
Luma Dream Machine
Available inside AI Canvas in an older version and on Luma's own site. When we looked on 20 September 2026, Luma's price page was mostly about its newer products, at $30, $90 and $300 a month, and did not say how many clips Dream Machine gives you or what the free version allows. So we have no per-clip price to give you.
Pika
Pika is better known for effects and fun transformations than for realistic video. Checked on pika.art on 20 September 2026: the free plan has no monthly credits and puts a watermark on the video; Starter is $10 a month ($8 yearly) for 900 credits; Creator is $35 ($28 yearly) for 3,150 credits and allows business use; Fancy is $95 for 8,550 credits or more. The page did not say how clip length changes by plan.
Seedance, LTX, Wan, PixVerse, MiniMax
You may not have heard of these. They are in the table because each is good at one particular thing: Seedance for 30-second clips, LTX for cheap tries at high quality, Wan and MiniMax for clips that go from one photo to another, PixVerse for making a clip longer. Each has its own website and prices. Many people first come across them inside an app that bundles many tools, which is what ours does.
AI Canvas, which is ours
An iPhone app with 48 video tools in one place, including the ones above. You can turn a photo into a video, write a description and get a video, start on one photo and end on another, make a clip longer, sharpen a video, and add effects. Clips save to your camera roll or go straight to Instagram and TikTok. You pay with credits: a subscription gives you 500 credits a week, on weekly, monthly or yearly plans, or you can buy packs from $4.99. A clip costs between 15 and 500 credits depending on the tool, and more with sound. Installing the app gives you five free credits, which is enough to look around but not to make a video.
There are four situations where it is the wrong choice, and the table says so in each: if you want to edit on a computer, if you make dozens of clips a week and would be better off on a flat monthly plan, if you do not have an iPhone, and if you need a brand new tool on the day it comes out.
A few things that catch people out
Clip length is per try. Most tools give you 4 to 10 seconds, and making it longer means paying again for each extra piece. Higher resolution costs more, and for anything you will post on social media the standard setting is fine. Sound is priced separately on the tools that can make it, and it is easy to leave switched on by mistake. "Free" nearly always means a watermark, a queue, or no business use, so read the small line under the price. And there are tools that advertise themselves as having no restrictions on content; they are not on this page.
Frequently asked questions
Which image to video AI is best?
It depends on the photo. For a person talking with a voice, Veo, Sora or Kling. For a product moving, Kling or Seedance have worked best for us. For one clip longer than 15 seconds, Seedance or LTX. Try the steps above with your own photo before you pay for a month of anything.
Is there a free image to video AI?
Most tools let you start for free with a small number of tries. The free version usually puts a watermark on the video or does not allow business use, and the details change often, so check the tool's own price page on the day you sign up. Our own app gives you five free credits when you install it, which is not enough for a video.
Which tools add a voice or sound to the video?
Veo, Sora and Kling can make the sound at the same time as the video, so a person's mouth and voice match. In AI Canvas, turning sound on costs more. Runway, Luma and Pika handle sound differently, so check before you assume.
How long can the video be?
Usually 4 to 10 seconds per try. Seedance goes up to 30 seconds and LTX up to 20, at least inside AI Canvas. Longer than that, you make the clip longer in pieces, and each piece costs the same as a new clip.
Will the person still look like themselves?
Not always. It is the first thing we check. The face drifts more with some tools, with more movement, and just by chance between tries. A sharp photo taken from the front, with a small movement, gives the best chance.
You make AI Canvas. Why should I trust this page?
Read it knowing that. We have tried to make it easy to check us: the prices are dated and taken from each tool's own website, the opinions are marked as ours, and the table includes the cases where our app is the wrong choice. The steps at the top are there so you do not have to take our word for anything.
AI Canvas
Image to video with 48 models in one picker, including Sora 2, Veo 3.1, Kling v3 and Seedance 2.5, plus frame to frame, extension and 4K upscaling. Export to the camera roll or straight to Instagram and TikTok.
Five free credits on install · credits per clip · iOS 17 or later