Kling AI (Kuaishou)

Listed at https://klingai.com

Overall Rank #19 ⭐ Consider
✅ Official Chinese service available (Kuaishou first-party, mainland cloud nodes available via Kling Open Platform); the global klingai.com developer API can require network setup depending on region | 🌍 International

💰 Token Pricing

TypePriceNote
Input Per-second video billing. Kling 3.0 Turbo: 720p $0.112/s, 1080p $0.14/s. Kling 3.0: 720p $0.084-0.126/s, 1080p $0.112-0.168/s (Native Audio), 4K $0.42/s. Kling 3.0 Omni: 720p $0.084-0.126/s, 1080p $0.112-0.168/s, 4K $0.42/s, varies by video/audio input. per million tokens
Output Image API: Kling Image 3.0 $0.028/image (1K/2K), 3.0-omni $0.028-0.056/image (up to 4K), Image 2.1 $0.014-0.028/image, Image O1 $0.028/image, Multi-Shot $0.07/call. Video list price 1 Unit = $0.14; image list price 1 Unit = $0.0035. per million tokens
💡 Free Credits: New users get a small one-time free credit grant on the platform to try video/image generation; there is no permanent free API tier — API usage is billed per generated second (video) or per image.

🤖 Supported Models (9)

Kling 3.0 (native 4K video, multi-shot sequencing, Native Audio)Kling 3.0 Omni (multimodal video, video/image reference input)Kling 3.0 Turbo (fast previews, 1080p, audio-visual sync)Kling 2.6 / 2.5 Turbo (previous-gen, voice control + motion)Kling Image 3.0 / 3.0-omni (cinematic image, native 2K/4K)Kling Image O1 / 2.1 (reasoning image, standard image)Kling Motion Control (character motion + expression transfer)Kling Avatar (image + voice to talking avatar)Kling Video Effects (AI video effects, template-based)

✨ Pros

  • Kling 3.0: world's first native 4K video model, multi-shot sequencing + Native Audio (launched 2026-02-05, confirmed by CineD)
  • Kling 3.0 Turbo (released 6/18): cinematic audio-visual sync, faster generation, lower cost — 1080p at just $0.14/s
  • Kling 2.5 Turbo previously topped the Artificial Analysis Video Arena, surpassing Hailuo 02 Pro, Veo 3, and Luma Ray 3
  • Full video API family: Text-to-Video / Image-to-Video / Video Omni (video reference) / Motion Control / Avatar / Video Effects
  • Per-second video billing (720p from $0.084-0.112/s); 4K $0.42/s; images from $0.028 each (1K/2K)
  • Kling Image 3.0-omni native 2K/4K image output with cinematic composition and visual storytelling
  • Kuaishou first-party — China developers can access the domestic API without a proxy; global klingai.com serves worldwide creators

⚠️ Cons

  • ×No permanent free API tier; new-user credits are limited and billing starts from the first second
  • ×The global klingai.com international endpoint can require network setup in some regions
  • ×Unit/credit billing with per-second × resolution × audio nesting makes cost estimation complex
  • ×4K long video is expensive ($0.42/s; a 5s clip is ~$2.10), not ideal for high-frequency low-cost testing
  • ×Video generation is async; wait time grows with clip length and resolution
  • ×No function calling / tool use — a pure generation API, not suited for agent orchestration
  • ×No public affiliate program

🎯 Best For

Teams needing production-grade AI video generation (e-commerce ads, brand marketing, short drama, game CG); developers who want a one-stop video API with native 4K, multi-shot continuity, and Native Audio; China teams wanting low-latency domestic API access; full AIGC video pipelines from text-to-video to motion control / avatar

💰 Pricing & Plans

Model720p ($/s)1080p ($/s)4K ($/s)Notes
Kling 3.0 Turbo$0.112$0.14Fast previews, audio-visual sync; no 4K
Kling 3.0 (no audio)$0.084$0.112$0.42Native 4K, multi-shot sequencing
Kling 3.0 (w/ Native Audio)$0.126$0.168$0.42Synchronized audio-video generation
Kling 3.0 Omni$0.084-0.126$0.112-0.168$0.42Video/image reference input, varies by input
Kling Image 3.0 (per image)$0.0281K/2K; Image O1 same $0.028
Kling Image 3.0-omni$0.028-0.056Up to native 4K image output
Kling Multi-Shot (per call)$0.07AI multi-shot image sequencing

🔧 API & Developer Experience

  • Interface: Video generation is an asynchronous REST API: submit a job (text/image/video input), poll for status, download the finished clip from a returned URL — the standard for production video APIs.
  • Video endpoints: Text-to-Video, Image-to-Video, Video Omni (reference-to-video for element/character/video reference), Motion Control, Avatar (still image + voice to talking avatar), and Video Effects.
  • Kling 3.0 Omni: Native multimodal generation: accepts video/image reference input, synchronizes audio and video, and keeps style/element consistency across multi-scene sequences.
  • Native 4K: Kling 3.0 is positioned as the world's first native 4K video model (no upscale-from-1080p pipeline); multi-shot sequencing keeps characters and style consistent across cuts.
  • Per-second billing: Video is metered per generated second at the chosen resolution, so cost is proportional to clip length, not a fixed per-clip fee — good for short-form ('5s clip = 5× per-second rate').
  • OpenAI-style console: KlingAI Open Platform provides an API console, per-key usage, and model-specific API docs (app.klingai.com/global/dev).
  • No function calling: A pure generation API — no tools/function-calling surface, so integrate it as a generation service inside your own orchestration layer.

🎬 Native 4K & Multi-Shot Video Generation

Kling 3.0 is Kuaishou's flagship 2026 video model and the standing claim of being the world's first native 4K video model. Announced February 5, 2026 (GlobeNewswire, CineD), it pairs native 4K output with multi-shot sequencing — generating multiple connected camera angles in one pass while keeping characters, wardrobe, and style consistent across cuts — plus Native Audio for synchronized sound. The June 18, 2026 Kling 3.0 Turbo release delivered faster previews with enhanced audio-visual sync at a lower list price, making rapid iteration practical. Kling 2.5 Turbo had already topped the Artificial Analysis Video Arena in late 2025, ahead of Hailuo 02 Pro, Google Veo 3, and Luma Ray 3. For API developers this means a single vendor covering text-to-video, image-to-video, video-reference (Omni), motion control, avatar, and effects — an unusually complete AIGC video stack.

🌐 Regional Availability & Latency

As a Kuaishou first-party product, Kling is unique among the international-category video APIs on APIRank in offering a China-native path: mainland developers can access the Kuaishou-hosted domestic API without a proxy, which matters for latency-sensitive short-video and e-commerce pipelines. The global klingai.com developer platform serves creators worldwide, though some regions may still require network configuration. There is no mainland-US edge compared with AWS/GCP-hosted rivals; latency between China and non-mainland regions is the usual trade-off. For a China team building a video feature, Kling's domestic access + per-second billing is the most pragmatic option; for teams outside China, latency to the mainland fleet should be tested against the global endpoint before committing.