You have a story with six shots, a heroine who must look the same in all of them, and a budget. Seedance vs Kling vs Hailuo is the choice that comes up every time. Three video model families: Seedance from ByteDance, Kling from Kuaishou and the H3 models from MiniMax, which its Hailuo app sells. This guide puts them side by side for story video: how long a take each makes, whether it makes sound, what it accepts as a reference, and what it costs for a 5 second clip and for a 60 second episode.
Ziztu runs all three, so we can price them with the same billing code. Read the verdict with that in mind: Ziztu makes the studio around the models, and we say plainly where buying a model directly is cheaper. Short version: use MiniMax H3 Max Turbo for most shots, Kling O3 for action with reference images, and Seedance 2.5 for one long take with sound.
How we compared them
We did three things, and one thing we did not do.
- Specs come from each model's page on fal, the API host, read on 15 October 2026 (see Sources). Where a page did not say something, we say we did not find it.
- Ziztu prices are quotes from the billing code that charges you: credits for a 5 second clip, then dollars at the Starter plan's price ($12 for 1,000 credits). Nothing in the tables is typed by hand.
- Other prices come from the official pricing pages of Kling, Hailuo, Pika and Higgsfield, read on 14 October 2026.
- What we did not do: run a blind quality test across the three. A model that is better in a lab can be worse on your shot, so treat the "good for" notes as how we use them, not as a ranking of picture quality.
Side by side
| Seedance 2.5 | Kling 3.0 Pro and O3 | MiniMax H3 Max Turbo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | ByteDance | Kuaishou | MiniMax |
| Longest take | 30 seconds in one pass | 15 seconds | 15 seconds |
| Shortest take in Ziztu | 4 seconds | 3 seconds | 1 second |
| Sizes in Ziztu | 480p, 720p, 1080p | 720p Standard, 1080p Pro | 480p, 768p, 1080p |
| Sound | Yes, made with the picture | Yes | Yes, per fal's page |
| First and last frame | Yes | Yes (O3 and 3.0 Pro) | Yes (Turbo) |
| References | Images, video and audio | O3: up to 4 images; 3.0 Pro: characters as elements | H3 Max References: your character sheet |
| 5 second clip in Ziztu | 137 credits at 480p to 1438 at 1080p | 139 credits at 720p (O3) to 208 at 1080p (3.0 Pro) | 31 credits at 480p to 99 at 1080p |
The prices in the last row are for 5 seconds, from a start frame. A longer clip scales with its length.
Seedance 2.5: the long take
Seedance 2.5 is the model to reach for when a scene should not be cut (Seedance 2.5 page). fal's page describes it as making video and audio together in one pass, up to 30 seconds, from text or a first frame, with dialogue in quotes for lip-synced speech. Most models stop at 15 seconds, so a 30 second take means one clip instead of two with a seam in between.
- Good for: a continuous camera move through a room, a monologue, a dance, a chase you do not want to cut.
- In Ziztu: 4 to 30 seconds, 480p, 720p or 1080p, first and last frame, text only, or references (images, video and audio). 137 credits for 5 seconds at 480p, 293 at 720p. The 1080p price is much higher (1438 credits), because that size is billed by the token on a different route.
- Cheaper sibling: Seedance 2.0 Mini, 45 to 96 credits for 5 seconds at 480p to 720p, 4 to 15 seconds.
- Limits: the most expensive of the three per second. For six quick shots it is the wrong tool.
For comparison, on the official pages we read, Pika lists a 5 second Seedance 2.5 clip at 720p at 122 credits, about $1.36 on its $10 Starter plan, and Higgsfield estimates about 40 Seedance 2.5 videos on its 600 credit Pro plan. Both are cheaper than buying that clip in Ziztu ($3.52), as long as you only want the clip.
Kling 3.0 and O3: action and reference images
Kling is the family people choose for human motion and fast camera moves (Kling 3.0 and Kling O3 pages). fal describes Kling V3 Pro as offering cinematic visuals, fluid motion and native audio, with custom elements, multi-shot generation and 3 to 15 seconds. Kling O3 is the "omni" model: a start frame, an optional end frame, text and reference images together.
- Good for: fights, chases, sport, dance, any shot where a body moves fast.
- In Ziztu: Kling O3 takes up to four reference images next to a first and last frame, with sound on: 139 credits for 5 seconds at 720p (Standard), 174 at 1080p (Pro). Kling 3.0 Pro is for the hero shot: 208 credits at 1080p, with the characters you add sent as elements. Kling 3.0 Turbo is the quick draft (139 credits at 720p), and Kling Motion Control copies the motion of a reference video onto your character.
- Limits: capped at 15 seconds. Anime and stylized looks depend heavily on your first frame.
Kling's own developer pricing page, read on 14 October 2026, lists Kling 3.0 at $0.126 a second with native audio at 720p, and sells the API in prepaid packages, the smallest we saw being $700. fal lists Kling O3 Standard at $0.112 a second with audio, about $0.56 for 5 seconds. In Ziztu the same O3 clip is 139 credits, $1.67 on Starter. That gap is the price of the studio around the model, and for one standalone clip it is a bad deal.
MiniMax H3 and Hailuo: the workhorse
H3 is MiniMax's video model family. Its app is Hailuo, so people search for it as Hailuo 3 (see the Hailuo 3 page). fal describes H3 Max as a post-trained variant tuned for stronger prompt adherence and better aesthetics, with native audio, reference inputs and 5 to 15 second examples. Ziztu's default for most shots is H3 Max Turbo, the faster, lower-cost version.
- Good for: the bulk of an episode: dialogue shots, close-ups, quiet moments, establishing shots.
- In Ziztu: MiniMax H3 Max Turbo, 1 to 15 seconds at 480p, 768p or 1080p, from a first frame, a first and last frame, or text only. 31 credits for 5 seconds at 480p, 50 at 768p, 99 at 1080p. MiniMax H3 Max References (Identity lock) sends your character sheet with the clip, from 69 credits. MiniMax H3 Max Camera moves the camera over a still scene.
- Limits: 15 seconds at most. Faces can drift over a long film, which is what the references are for.
Hailuo's own app is the cheapest place to buy H3 seconds. On the plans page we read on 14 October 2026, Standard is $14.99 a month, or $8.40 a month billed yearly, for 1,000 credits, and H3 Max at 768p works out to about $0.059 a second on the yearly plan. Ziztu's 768p H3 Max Turbo clip is $0.60 for 5 seconds, which is above that. Hailuo is clips only.
What a 60 second episode costs
A minute is twelve 5 second clips. This table prices them in Ziztu, at the size most people use for the final cut, on the Starter plan.
| Model and size | 5 second clip | Twelve clips | In dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| MiniMax H3 Max Turbo, 768p | 50 credits | 600 credits | $7.20 |
| Kling 3.0 Turbo, 720p | 139 credits | 1,668 credits | $20.02 |
| Kling O3, 720p | 139 credits | 1,668 credits | $20.02 |
| Seedance 2.0 Mini, 720p | 96 credits | 1,152 credits | $13.82 |
| Seedance 2.5, 720p | 293 credits | 3,516 credits | $42.19 |
| Kling 3.0 Pro, 1080p | 208 credits | 2,496 credits | $29.95 |
Two things follow. First, a full episode on Seedance 2.5 or Kling 3.0 Pro costs several times a full episode on H3 Max Turbo, so use them for the shots that earn it. Second, nobody should render every shot on the dearest model: draft at 480p, remake the keepers, and keep the hero shots for the strongest model.
A mix that works for a 60 second episode: eight shots on H3 Max Turbo at 768p, three action shots on Kling O3 at 720p and one long take on Seedance 2.5 at 480p. That is 50 x 8 plus 139 x 3 plus 137 credits, before first frames and retakes, with the Director, the character sheets, the voices, the score and the cut in the same project.
Which to pick, shot by shot
- Dialogue, close-ups, establishing shots: MiniMax H3 Max Turbo.
- A face that keeps drifting: MiniMax H3 Max References.
- A fight, a chase, a sport shot, with reference images: Kling O3.
- The shot you will show full screen: Kling 3.0 Pro.
- One take of 20 to 30 seconds: Seedance 2.5.
- Throwaway drafts: Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Lite, from 28 credits for 5 seconds at 480p, or any model at 480p.
Whatever you pick, start from a good first frame. Every one of these models follows the picture you give it, so the look of the episode comes from the frame. Our guides to the best AI video generators and the best AI anime video generators compare the tools around the models, and Ziztu vs Kling and the Hailuo alternatives pages go deeper on each.
The honest limits
- Prices move. fal and the vendors change prices and add models. The Ziztu numbers here are computed when the page is built, so they stay current; the other prices carry the date we read them.
- No quality ranking. We compared specs and prices, not pictures. Run your own hardest shot through two models before you commit a budget.
- Ziztu is not the cheapest way to buy one clip from any of these three. It is the pick for a story: a Director that plans the shots, character sheets that go with every clip, and the voices, music and cut in one project.
To try the three on your own shot, pick a model in the AI video generator, or open the AI anime video generator or the micro drama generator. New accounts get 40 free credits for scripts, character art, storyboards and voices; video starts on any plan.
