Video tool profile
Pika
A consumer-friendly video generation app known for 5-second short-form clips, effects, and remixing tools with credit-based pricing.
Independent research from official sources · Sources · How we review
- Best for
- Short-form creators who want a cheap, fast, playful video-generation tool for 5-second clips and effects.
- Starting point
- Free plan ($0, no monthly credits, credit packs only, no commercial license).
- Free plan
- Yes — Free plan: $0 with no monthly credits (generation needs purchased credit packs).
- Key limitation
- Standard generations are 5 seconds (Pikaframes extend to roughly 20-25 seconds).
Choose it if
Strongest for
Built for
Avoid it if
- Free and Starter plans have no commercial license; Free has no monthly credits.
- Credit costs vary widely by model (a 5s 720p Seedance 2.5 video costs 122 credits, Wan 3.0 costs 33).
Free-plan suitability
Free plan: $0 with no monthly credits (generation needs purchased credit packs), access to all models, 2 video and 2 image/audio generations in parallel, and no watermark per the pricing page; a commercial license starts at the Creator plan.
Pricing
Free plan ($0, no monthly credits, credit packs only, no commercial license). Starter $10/month or $8/month billed yearly (900 credits/month, no commercial license), Creator $35/month or $28/month billed yearly (3,150 credits/month, commercial license), Fancy $95/month or $76/month billed yearly (8,550+ credits/month, commercial license, priority queue). The pricing page lists no watermark on every plan.
Verify the current plan, credits, output limits, and commercial terms before purchasing.
What Pika does
- AI video generation platform built around Pika 2.5, with Pikascenes, Pikadditions, Pikaswaps, Pikatwists, Pikaffects, Pikaframes, and Pikaformance (audio for video)
- Experiments: Pika Agent (a creative AI partner you talk to), Pika MCP (gives any existing agent creative model access), and AI Trendmaker (star in viral videos from a selfie)
- Pika API (dev.pika.art) with the new 'Pika API Club' offering best gen-media models at low prices
- Plans (yearly billing shown): Free $0 (credit packs only), Starter $8/mo (900 credits), Creator $28/mo (3,150 credits), Fancy $76/mo (8,550+ credits)
- Published per-generation credit costs include Seedance 2.5 video (720p, 5s) 122 credits, Wan 3.0 video (720p, 5s) 33 credits, Nano Banana 2 image 8 credits and GPT Image 2.5 image 2 credits
- Commercial license is not included on Free or Starter; it starts at Creator
Is it legit?
Who is behind Pika, where it is based, and what is publicly known about its funding. Company details change — verify on the official site before committing.
- Company
- Pika Labs
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- Funding
- Raised $55M led by Lightspeed (Nov 2023, per TechCrunch); later rounds tracked on Crunchbase
Evaluation guide
Step-by-step evaluation guides for Pika — workflow fit, pricing, rights, and a same-input test before paying.
Compare Pika with alternatives
Side-by-side pages that weigh Pika against overlapping tools on the same five fields.
Where Pika appears
Best-of lists and roundups that include Pika.
Official sources
These links are retained beside the catalog record so changing details can be rechecked.