Cheapest AI video generator

Opus Clip lists a free plan and a $15 per month Starter plan on opus.pro/pricing, measured 23 August 2026. That is the lowest paid entry point in this comparison. This list arranges eleven AI video tools by what each one is built to do, not by rank, and it does not name a single winner.

How this list is organised

This page does not rank the tools. Every "best of" list in this category orders products so that one vendor appears first, and readers and search engines both recognise the pattern. Instead, the table below groups each tool by the job it performs and the footage source it uses, alphabetically. Prices come from a direct HTTP fetch of each vendor's own pricing page on 23 August 2026, without JavaScript execution. Where a pricing page could not be read that way, the cell says "Not measured" rather than guessing. ViewMade, which publishes this page, appears in the same table as every other tool, at no special position, with its own price listed like anyone else's. Where a competitor wins on a dimension, that fact is stated plainly.

The tools

Tool	Built for	Footage source	Starts at
AutoShorts	Scheduled, hands-off publishing from a topic	Generated	Not measured
CapCut	Editing a script and clips you already have	Whatever you supply	Not measured
Descript	Editing around a recording, with the most control	Whatever you supply	$16/month billed annually, $24 month-to-month
HeyGen	A presenter on camera, without a camera	Avatar and supplied media	$29/month, or $24/month billed annually
InVideo	Broad general-purpose generation from a prompt	Generation and stock	$17/month equivalent, billed annually ($200/year)
Opus Clip	Finding clips inside a long video you already made	Whatever you supply	Free plan; Starter $15/month
Pictory	Turning an article or script into a stock-footage video	Stock library	$25/month billed annually, $29 month-to-month
Revid	High-volume short-form output with generated visuals	Generated	$39/month (Hobby plan, monthly billing)
StoryShort	Topic-to-video with web-sourced imagery	Web-sourced imagery	Not measured
Submagic	Captioning and polishing an existing clip	Whatever you supply	Not measured
ViewMade	Vertical documentaries about real events, with sources named	Real archive footage	$29/month

Two notes on the pricing column. Crayo's published rates apply to annual payment only, so they are excluded here rather than presented as monthly figures. Submagic's pricing page shows two columns per plan whose billing periods could not be distinguished in a single pass, so its entry reads "Not measured".

When each one is the right answer

AutoShorts fits when you want scheduled publishing handled for you after you pick a topic. Its visuals are generated, not sourced.

CapCut fits when you already have a script and clips and need an editor. It supplies nothing itself.

Descript fits when you have a recording and want the deepest editing control around it. At $16 per month billed annually it is also the cheapest paid entry in this list.

HeyGen fits when the output needs a person on camera but no camera exists. Pricing starts at $29 per month, dropping to $24 per month on annual billing.

InVideo fits when you want broad generation from a single prompt. Its Plus plan works out to $17 per month on annual payment, with 75 credits.

Opus Clip fits when you made a long video and want short clips extracted from it. The free plan costs nothing and requires no card.

Pictory fits when an article or script should become a stock-footage video. Annual billing starts at $25 per month.

Revid fits when volume matters more than footage authenticity. The Hobby plan costs $39 per month on monthly billing.

StoryShort fits topic-to-video production using imagery pulled from the web. Its pricing page did not return readable figures to our measurement method, so no price is quoted here.

Submagic fits captioning and polishing a clip you already shot. Its pricing could not be resolved unambiguously, so it reads "Not measured".

ViewMade fits vertical documentaries about real events, built from real archive footage, maps, and charts, with a media credit file naming the source of every clip. The Starter plan costs $29 per month for 50 renders, which works out to $0.58 per Short.

What none of them do

None of these tools solves the problem of producing a documentary about a real event where every image must be verifiably authentic. Generated visuals cannot show a real crash, a real archive reel, or a real historical map, and stock libraries rarely cover specific incidents. Only ViewMade draws footage from real archives and ships a credit file listing the source of each clip, which matters if your channel makes claims about events that viewers will check. If your content is fictional, motivational, or entertainment-first, that constraint does not apply to you, and any tool above may serve. If your content makes factual claims about real events, the footage question decides the choice before price does.

<!-- faq -->

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest AI video generator overall?

By our measurement on 23 August 2026, Opus Clip has the lowest entry point: a free plan plus a $15 per month Starter tier. Among paid-only tools, Descript starts at $16 per month billed annually.

What is the cheapest tool for generating videos from a topic alone?

Revid starts at $39 per month on monthly billing for generated visuals. ViewMade starts at $29 per month for archive-footage documentaries at $0.58 per Short. StoryShort and AutoShorts were not price-measured, so no figure is given here.

Do any of these tools have a free plan?

One measured tool does: Opus Clip offers a free plan, and its pricing page states the trial needs no card. No other tool in this list was measured as having a free tier.

Why do some rows say "Not measured"?

Because those vendors' pricing pages either render prices only through JavaScript or present ambiguous billing columns. Rather than quote numbers we could not verify directly, we leave the cell empty. Vendors change their pages often, so treat every figure here as a snapshot of 23 August 2026.