Pika

Pika is a web-based AI creation platform for generating short video clips, images, and audio from text or image prompts. Its own video model, Pika 2.5, sits alongside third-party video models from vendors such as Google, Seedance, MiniMax, and Wan, image models from vendors including OpenAI, Nano Banana, Seedream, and Grok, and audio tools including Pika's own Speech, Music, and SFX offerings plus ElevenLabs and MiniMax Music.

Pika has repositioned itself from a single video generator into a multi-model creation hub. Alongside the consumer web app at pika.art, the company now offers a developer API at dev.pika.art and an MCP integration for connecting Pika's models into external workflows. Its pricing tiers have also been renamed: the former Standard and Pro plans are now called Starter and Creator.

On the web app, users can generate clips with Pika 2.5 using camera-direction controls, with native clip lengths of about 5 seconds from a text prompt or 5 to 10 seconds from a photo, at 720p or 1080p. A Frames feature stitches together 1-to-5-second transitions between images, extending to about 10 seconds when exactly two frames are used. Renders come back silent by default; audio has to be added afterward with Pika Soundtrack or one of the other audio models on the platform.

Pika runs on a credit system. A free account has 0 monthly credits and requires buying one-off credit packs, priced at roughly 60 credits per dollar from $25 for 1,500 credits up to $1,000 for 66,000, and carries no commercial license. Starter costs $10 per month billed monthly or $8 per month billed annually for 900 credits a month, also without a commercial license. Creator costs $35 per month billed monthly or $28 per month billed annually for 3,150 credits a month and includes a commercial license. Fancy scales from $95 to $880 per month billed monthly, or $76 to $704 per month billed annually, for 8,550 or more credits, with a priority queue and early access to new features. A custom-priced Enterprise plan is also available.

There is no usable free plan: free accounts have no monthly credit allowance and must pay for credit packs to generate anything. Even the paid Starter tier withholds a commercial license, which only arrives at Creator and above. Output remains silent unless paired with a separate audio step, and native clip lengths are short before any extension work.

Pika suits creators and teams who want to try multiple AI video, image, and audio models in a single credit-based platform, including those building through its developer API. Users needing a genuinely free tier or built-in automatic sound effects should look elsewhere.