Pika AI turns prompts, photos and footage into finished videos with sound. Use 25+ creative apps on pika.art, Pika's new H3 Flex model, and top models like Seedance, Kling and GPT Image - or just ask @Pika in ChatGPT.
Pika H3 Flex · 2.5 · Audio
Seedance 2.5
MiniMax H3
GPT Image 2.5
Gemini Omni · Nano Banana 2
Grok Imagine 1.5
Multi-shot videos up to 30 seconds with sound, from your prompts and references.
Explore →
Create a character once and reuse it in every scene.
Explore →
Music, ambience and Foley matched to the action in your clip.
Explore →
Adjust color, contrast and mood of any photo or clip.
Explore →Images and model logos © Pika, shown from pika.art for reference.
Pika AI is an AI creative platform from Pika Labs that turns text, images and video into finished content. You describe what you want, and Pika generates the video, image, music, voice or sound effect - picking the best model for the job automatically.
Pika started as a text-to-video generator. Today, pika.art is a studio of focused apps - Video Studio, Image Studio, Character Studio, Swap Anything, Color Grade, Music Studio and more - running on Pika's own models (Pika H3 Flex, Pika 2.5, Pika Audio) and leading third-party models such as Seedance 2.5, Kling 4.0, MiniMax H3 and GPT Image. Every plan, including Free, can use every app and model.
The full studio runs in any browser at pika.art - every app, every model, HD downloads and cloud sync. On iPhone there's also the official app. See download options.
Open Pika AI OnlineType @Pika in ChatGPT, connect Claude or Codex through Pika MCP, or build your own app on the Pika API Club.
Use Pika in ChatGPTOfficial clips from Pika's latest launches. Press play to watch; each card links to the original source. Browse more in the Pika Art video app guide.
All sample videos are official Pika clips, streamed from cdn.pika.art. Credit: Pika (pika.art).
Pika has grown from a text-to-video generator into a complete creative studio. These are the biggest recent changes - a new open-weights model, Pika inside ChatGPT, built-in audio, and tools for developers and AI agents.
Pika's newest video model generates clips with synced stereo audio in just 6 steps, takes up to 12 image, video and audio references, and upscales to 4K. Its weights are open on Hugging Face, so developers can run it locally.
Read the Pika H3 Flex guide →Type @Pika in ChatGPT to use 40+ creative apps without leaving the chat - with inline app panels, a side-panel studio, timeline editing and two-way sync with your Pika library. New users get 250 bonus credits on their first generation there.
How Pika in ChatGPT works →pika.art is now organized into focused apps - Video Studio, Character Studio, Swap Anything, Relight Media, Camera Director, Color Grade, Dynamic Captions and more. Every plan, including Free, can use every app and model.
Explore Pika's apps →Four audio models turn silent clips into finished pieces: motion-synced Foley and ambience, full songs, sound effects, and expressive voices - available in Music, Speech and SFX Studio.
See Pika Audio →Connect AI agents to Pika through the Model Context Protocol. Your agent gets 40+ tools and 60+ models for video, image and audio - using your Pika account, with no extra API keys.
Set up Pika MCP →A developer membership that unlocks 100+ video, image, audio and language models - including Pika H3 Flex with separate audio stems - behind one API key, with pay-as-you-go pricing.
Read the Pika API guide →H3 Flex is Pika's newest model and its first with open weights. It's tuned for professional creators who want to draft fast, steer with references, and finish in high resolution. Read the full deep dive on our Pika H3 Flex page.
What it is: Pika H3 Flex isn't a brand-new architecture - it's MiniMax H3 post-trained by Pika's research team for speed and control. The headline number: a 15-second, 768p clip with audio in as little as 7 seconds of transformer compute in Pika's controlled benchmark. Real-world wait times are longer once references, upscaling and stem separation are added.
References and editing: feed it sketches, character sheets, product photos, moodboards, voice samples or motion videos - up to 12 at once - and use reference-guided editing to change an outfit, prop or setting while keeping the original performance and timing. It pairs naturally with Scene Ingredients and chained-scene storytelling.
Audio stems: through the Pika API you can export five separate stems - Dialogue, Score, SFX, Foley and Ambience - so editors can remix the sound instead of living with one baked-in track.
Where to use it: available now through the Pika API Club (from about $0.01 per second of video), in the pika.art studio, and as downloadable weights on Hugging Face and GitHub.
| DesignArena text-to-video (at launch) | Elo |
|---|---|
| Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash | 1360 |
| Wan 3.0 | 1324 |
| Pika H3 Flex - #7 overall, #1 open weights | 1293 |
| MiniMax H3 | 1277 |
| Seedance 2.5 | 1256 |
| Capability | Open weights (run locally) | Pika-hosted (API / pika.art) |
|---|---|---|
| Text-to-video, first/last frame, reference-to-video | ✓ | ✓ |
| Synced audio | ✓ mixed stereo | ✓ plus 5 separate stems |
| Resolution | 480p / 768p | 480p - 4K (upsampler) |
| Prompt enhancement | - | ✓ |
| License | Adapters ship under the base model's license terms (MiniMax H3 Community License) - check commercial-use limits before shipping a product on the local weights. | |
All H3 Flex videos above are official samples by Pika, streamed from cdn.pika.art · Source: pika.art/blog/pika-h3-flex. Weights: Hugging Face · Code: GitHub.
On pika.art, each creative job has its own app - for ads, short films, post-production, characters, color and soundtracks. Apps choose the best model automatically, or you can pick one yourself.
The headline app is Video Studio: attach up to 50 characters, products, settings, and styles, reference them with @mentions in your prompt, and generate anything from a single clip to a multi-shot video up to 30 seconds long with sound. Need something longer? Stitch shots together with our guide to making longer Pika videos.
Alongside it, Character Studio builds consistent, reusable characters - the natural evolution of Scene Ingredients - while new apps like Relight Media (rebuild lighting and shadows) and Camera Director (reshoot a scene from new angles) handle post-production jobs that used to need a VFX artist.
Pika also says Seedance generations cost about half what they do on other creation platforms.
Clips or multi-shot videos up to 30 seconds, with sound. Reference up to 50 assets via @mentions. Builds on text-to-video and image-to-video.
Animated, on-brand captions for Reels, Shorts and TikTok in one pass - pair with our short-form content guide and embedding text & graphics.
Replace any object or character in real footage, or transfer motion from a reference clip onto a new subject. Plus Pikaffects for surreal transformations.
Lengthen any clip with consistent motion - see extend video length - or turn a product photo into a ready-to-run video ad.
Production-grade stills with models like Ideogram 4.5 and GPT Image 2.5, plus swap, remove or restyle any element. Use expand canvas and AI image extension for framing.
Rebuild lighting, reshoot a scene from new angles, or adjust color and mood - ideal for cinematic AI videos.
Lock a character's look and cast it anywhere (great for chaining scenes), or turn phone snaps of products into styled campaign images.
Full songs from prompts, lyrics, a voice or a reference track using Pika Music or MiniMax Music 3.0 - details in the Pika Audio section.
Narration with Pika Speech or ElevenLabs voices, and sub-second sound effects. Pair speech with the lip-syncing guide and browse Pika sound effects.
Three ways to create with Pika: type a scene, animate a photo, or remix real footage. Every mode runs in your browser - no editing software required.
Pika text to video generates a complete video clip from nothing but a written description. Type something like "a girl floating in a futuristic forest at night, cinematic lighting, panning camera" and Pika builds the scene from scratch - motion, style, and atmosphere included.
With Pika H3 Flex, a single prompt can even describe several shots, hard cuts, dialogue and sound. You control the details: camera directions (zoom, pan, crane, orbit), visual styles (anime, 3D animation, live action), aspect ratio, and duration. Negative prompts let you exclude anything you don't want, like "no people". Need ideas? Start with our Pika prompt guide.
With Pika image to video, you can create an AI video from a photo in seconds. Upload art, a sketch, a portrait or a product shot - or up to 12 references at once with H3 Flex - and Pika animates it with natural motion and camera moves.
To turn an image into a video with Pika or animate a photo with Pika AI:
Pika video to video tools transform footage you already have while keeping the original motion. Replace any object or character with Swap Anything (see our object-swapping guide), copy movement onto a new subject with Motion Transfer, rebuild lighting with Relight Media, change the angle with Camera Director, set the mood with Color Grade, or edit just one area with Modify Region.
It's the fastest way to add VFX-level polish to real clips for TikTok, Reels and Shorts and ads - then add animated captions with Dynamic Captions and a matching track with Pika Soundtrack.
Pika Audio gives every video a sound layer. Four fast models cover the whole job - scoring a clip, writing a song, narrating a script and making sound effects. Use them in Pika's Music, Speech and SFX Studio apps, inside ChatGPT, or on the Pika API Club.
Upload a video and get effects, voice, music and ambience that follow the action on screen.
Full songs with vocals from a prompt, lyrics, a voice reference or a music reference - a 90-second song in about 6 seconds.
Expressive 48 kHz voiceovers up to five minutes, with voice cloning from about five seconds of audio.
Describe a sound and get up to 20 seconds of 44.1 kHz stereo audio in under a second.
How the four fit together: make a clip with Pika H3 Flex or Video Studio, add Foley and ambience with Pika Soundtrack, a music bed with Pika Music, narration with Pika Speech, and extra hits with Pika SFX - all in one project on pika.art, or by asking @Pika in ChatGPT. H3 Flex can also generate synced audio by itself.
Pika Soundtrack listens to your video and writes the sound for it - effects, voice, music and ambience that follow what happens on screen. Full guide: Pika Soundtrack.
Most AI video comes out silent. Upload a clip to Pika Soundtrack and it generates a new audio track for the whole scene, with motion-aware sound effects timed to the action. Add an optional instruction - "emphasize the footsteps, no music" - to steer what it includes or leaves out, or give it no prompt at all.
In Pika's tests against LTX-2.3 Foley, HunyuanVideo-Foley and MMAudio v2, Soundtrack scored highest on semantic alignment and lowest on audio-video desync, while MMAudio v2 led on two quality and diversity scores. Pika also says it's up to 2× more cost-efficient than competing video-to-audio models.
Turn your sound on. Input/output pair from Pika's drum-solo example. Videos © Pika, from pika.art/blog/pika-soundtrack.
Pika Music turns creative direction into complete, mixed songs with vocals - in seconds. Full guide: Pika Music.
Start from whatever you have. Describe the genre, mood, instruments, vocals and tempo in a prompt; paste lyrics with section tags like [verse] and [chorus]; add a short voice reference to set the singer's tone; or add a music reference to borrow a track's texture and energy. You can keep the lyrics fixed and change only the style, then set the duration and seed.
It's fast: in Pika's tests a 90-second song took about 6.2 seconds to generate - roughly 14.6× faster than playback. On the Audiobox Aesthetics benchmark it scored close to Suno (content enjoyment 7.403 vs 7.412; production quality 8.064 vs 8.151).
| Audiobox Aesthetics | Pika Music | Suno |
|---|---|---|
| Content enjoyment | 7.403 | 7.412 |
| Production quality | 8.064 | 8.151 |
| 90-second song, generation time | ≈ 6.2 s (Pika, local tests) | |
Only use voices and tracks you have the rights to - Pika asks you to confirm this. Videos © Pika, from pika.art/blog/pika-music.
Pika Speech is Pika's text-to-speech model for natural, characterful narration - with voice cloning from a few seconds of audio. Full guide: Pika Speech.
Type a script, choose the delivery - posh, retro radio host, documentary narrator - and Pika Speech reads it with matching style and pacing. Give it about five seconds of reference audio and it can speak in that voice. You can also set the total duration and speaking rate, which helps when narration has to fit a video cut.
Under the hood it's a 3-billion-parameter flow-matching model that outputs studio-quality 48 kHz audio, up to five minutes per request. At $0.01 per minute on the API, Pika says it's about 9× cheaper than ElevenLabs v3. In Pika's own benchmark it led on English perceptual quality (DNSMOS), but its word error rate and speaker similarity trailed some rivals.
Only clone voices you own or have clear permission to use. Video © Pika, from pika.art/blog/pika-speech.
Example voiceovers © Pika, from pika.art/blog/pika-speech.
Pika SFX turns a written description into a clean sound effect in under a second. Full guide: Pika SFX.
Describe the sound you need - a single hit like "glass shattering", or a whole sequence like "a champagne cork pops, then fizzy liquid pours". Pika SFX handles timing, material, space and mood, and keeps out unrelated speech, music or background noise unless you ask for it. On the API you can also set negative prompts, seed, steps and guidance.
Pika's tests put average generation at 0.85 seconds, versus about 2.5 seconds for the fastest hosted rivals - and it scored highest on content usefulness and production quality among the systems tested.
| Model (Pika's benchmark) | Avg. generation time |
|---|---|
| Pika SFX | 0.85 s |
| ElevenLabs v2 | 2.47 s |
| Stable Audio 3 SFX | 2.64 s |
Example sound effects © Pika, from pika.art/blog/pika-sfx. Turn your sound on.
Is Pika AI free? Yes - the Pika Free plan costs $0 and lets you try every model with no watermark, buying credits only when you need them. Paid plans (Starter, Creator, Fancy, Enterprise) add monthly credit allowances, more parallel generations and a commercial license - now included from Starter up - plus priority access on Fancy, billed monthly or yearly at 20% off. Every plan, including Free, gets every model (including Pika H3 Flex) and every app; generation speed isn't capped on any plan. Full details on our Pika AI pricing page.
A first taste for the creatively curious
Free forever · no card needed
Monthly credits plus commercial rights
Billed yearly
More credits and 4× the parallel jobs
Billed yearly
Top-tier creativity for power users
Billed yearly · tiers up to $704/mo
Prices reflect pika.art/pricing at the time of writing: yearly rates shown per month at −20% off; the Fancy plan spans several credit tiers ($95–$880/month billed monthly). An Enterprise plan with custom credits, unlimited parallel generations, and dedicated support is also available. Check the official pricing page for exact rates in your region; you can upgrade, switch, or cancel any time, and VAT may apply depending on your country. Curious about the older tiers? See Pika 2.5 pricing and the Pika 2.5 free trial.
| Credits | Price | Credits | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,500 | $25 | 12,000 | $200 |
| 3,000 | $50 | 30,000 | $500 |
| 6,000 | $100 | 66,000 | $1,000 (+10% bonus) |
Packs work out to 60 credits per $1 on every plan and can be spent on pika.art and Pika MCP - not on the API, the iOS app, or old.pika.art. New to Pika in ChatGPT? Your first plugin generation adds 250 free credits.
Pika credits are spent per generation and vary by model, resolution and length. Official examples: a 5-second 720p Seedance 2.5 video costs 122 credits, the same clip on Wan 3.0 costs 33, a 1K Nano Banana 2 image costs 8, and a 1K GPT Image 2.5 image just 2. Audio and image apps draw from the same pool, so drafting cheaply and upscaling only your best take saves the most. Monthly allowances refresh each cycle.
Teams can get an Enterprise plan with custom credits, unlimited parallel generations and dedicated support. Developers who want Pika inside their own app use the separate Pika API Club instead of a studio plan.
Every tier offers a Pika AI monthly plan for flexibility or a Pika AI yearly plan at 20% off. All plans export without a watermark, and Pika AI commercial use rights now start at Starter ($8/mo yearly) - only Free exports are personal-use. Read more in our commercial use guide. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
Pika has one official mobile app - for iPhone. Everywhere else, the full studio runs in your browser, so there's nothing to install.
Open pika.art in Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox, sign in, and start creating. The web version is the complete Pika AI online experience: every app and model, HD and 4K downloads, and the latest features first.
Open Pika AI in your browser →The official Pika AI app is on the App Store. Create videos from photos and prompts on the go; your account and videos sync with the web. Note that credit packs bought on pika.art can't be spent in the iOS app. Step-by-step: download the iOS app.
Pika iOS app guide →pika.art links only to an iOS app. Apps on Google Play that use the "Pika" name come from other developers. For Pika AI on Android, open pika.art in Chrome, and skip any Pika AI APK - unofficial files can contain malware. More in our Pika AI app guide.
Open Pika on Android →There's no desktop installer. Pika AI for PC and Mac means pika.art in your browser - pin it as a browser app for a desktop feel. Prefer chat? The Pika plugin also works in the ChatGPT desktop app.
Launch Pika on your computer →This Pika AI beginner guide walks you through how to make videos with Pika AI from your very first prompt to a finished, share-ready clip with sound - six simple steps, then watch the video walkthrough to see it all in action. For the long-form version, read our full how to use Pika guide.
Create an account at pika.art - the Free plan lets you use every model (including Pika H3 Flex) with no watermark. Prefer chatting? You can also follow along inside ChatGPT with @Pika.
Open Video Studio and pick text, image, or video input - or attach characters and products to @mention. Beginners should start with text-to-video - it needs nothing but a sentence. Leave the model on auto, or pick H3 Flex for fast drafts with sound.
Write your prompt covering subject, style, setting, motion, and duration. Add camera directions like zoom or pan, and use negative prompts (e.g. "no people") to exclude things. Steal ideas from our 50 viral video prompts.
Attach characters or products to keep them consistent, chain images with Pikaframes, or edit afterwards with Swap Anything, Relight Media and Color Grade - all optional.
Hit Generate and watch your clip render. Draft at low resolution first, then upscale your best take. Want different sound? Run Pika Soundtrack, or add a voice in Speech Studio and animated captions with Dynamic Captions. Not quite right? Tweak the prompt and regenerate.
Export in HD (up to 4K with H3 Flex upscaling) or share straight to TikTok, Reels, and Shorts. Want a logo? See how to add text or a watermark. Done - you've made your first AI video.
▶ Watch: creating with the new Pika studio · Video credit: Pika (pika.art)
The best prompts read like camera notes. Include subject, style, setting, motion, and duration every time:
"A cat riding a hoverboard through a neon Tokyo street at night, anime style, 16:9, panning camera, cinematic lighting."
Begin with 5-second, 480p generations - they cost the fewest credits. Once a prompt works, upscale it (up to 4K with H3 Flex) for the final version, or extend it into a multi-shot Video Studio sequence of up to 30 seconds. See how to make a video longer.
After a few text videos, try uploading a photo and animating it - then chain multiple images with Pikaframes for smooth story sequences, or build a trailer with our cinematic trailer guide. That's the moment this beginner guide becomes a Pika AI complete guide.
Your prompt is your script for the AI. The best Pika AI prompts follow one simple formula - then adapt it per style. Below are ready-to-use Pika prompt examples for every mode: click the copy button on any of them and paste it straight into Pika. For hundreds more, visit the Pika prompt guide.
Every great Pika prompt names who or what we see, how it should look, where it happens, what moves, how the camera behaves, and how it's lit. Add a line about sound too - Pika H3 Flex, Pika Soundtrack and Video Studio all read it. See the viral memes guide for meme-specific prompting.
Pika text-to-video prompts build a scene from nothing, so be generous with detail - the model can only show what you describe.
With Pika image-to-video prompts, the picture supplies the look - your words should describe only the motion you want added.
Pika cinematic prompts borrow the language of film: name the shot type, the lens feel, the color grade, and the mood. More in our cinematic AI videos guide.
Pika Soundtrack prompts tell the audio model what to emphasize, while Pika Music and Pika SFX take genre, mood, and event descriptions.
Pika camera movement prompts direct the virtual camera. Combine one movement per clip for clean results: zoom, pan, tilt, dolly, orbit, or crane.
Pika negative prompts tell the model what to leave out - the fastest fix for unwanted objects, extra people, text artifacts, or distorted details.
Pika H3 Flex prompts can point at numbered references and describe several shots, cuts and sound in one go. Tell the model exactly what to keep from each reference.
Inside ChatGPT, write like you're briefing an editor. @Pika can use the brief, files and images already in your conversation.
Describe your subject, pick a style, motion, camera move, lighting, and sound - the generator assembles a polished, formula-perfect Pika prompt instantly. Hit "Surprise me" for random inspiration, then copy and paste it straight into Pika.
💡 Tip: paste this into Pika's text-to-video input. For image-to-video, drop the subject and setting - keep only the motion, camera, lighting, and sound parts. More prompt ideas in the Pika prompt guide.
The Pika plugin puts the whole creative studio inside ChatGPT - 40+ apps and 100+ generative models for image, video and sound - so you can go from idea to finished clip without leaving the conversation.
Mention @Pika in a chat and the plugin opens inline app panels where you pick tool options and visual presets and review generations. Need more control? Pop open the full studio window in a side panel. Pika can also use the files and context already in your ChatGPT conversation - a product brief, a script, a moodboard.
Everything syncs both ways with your Pika library: reuse old clips, make variations, batch-edit assets, and assemble clips on a timeline where you adjust timing, regenerate single shots, add transitions, and generate matching music and SFX - all in plain language. It's built on the same connection as Pika MCP.
Draft a script in chat, then turn it into product ads, product shots and short films - see our branded content tips.
Build a character once and cast it across scenes, with camera moves, swaps and relighting on request.
Score a video with matching music and sound effects, or produce a podcast with Pika Speech.
Choose a specific model (Pika H3 Flex, Kling, Seedance…) or let Pika choose the best one automatically.
Pika's plugin is available in ChatGPT on desktop and web; OpenAI is rolling plugin extensions out in stages, so some panels may appear later on your account.
Pika MCP is Pika's Model Context Protocol server. It gives AI agents 40+ creative tools and 60+ models for video, image and audio - with no extra accounts or API keys. It's the same connection behind Pika in ChatGPT.
Once connected, your agent can call Pika apps like Video Studio, Image Studio, Music Studio, Speech Studio, Swap Anything, Motion Transfer, Upscale, Relight Media, Camera Director, Color Grade, Headshots and Podcast Video - and models including Seedance 2.5, Kling 4.0, Veo 3.1, MiniMax H3, Wan 3.0, Pika 2.5 and ElevenLabs voices.
You just ask in plain language - "make a 10-second product ad from this photo, show me the price first" - and the agent picks the tool, runs it, and returns the result. Generations use your normal Pika credits, and credit packs bought on pika.art work here too. Agents can even run an animated YouTube channel end to end.
Pick your client: ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, or any other MCP-compatible agent.
In ChatGPT, install the Pika plugin. Everywhere else, add the server URL shown on the right as a custom connector.
Complete the Pika sign-in when prompted. This links the agent to your account, credits and library.
Ask your agent to list Pika's apps, then describe what you want to make.
// Official Pika MCP server URL (from pika.art/mcp) https://mcp.pika.art/mcp // Example MCP client entry (format varies by client) { "mcpServers": { "pika": { "url": "https://mcp.pika.art/mcp" } } }
Per-client setup instructions are on pika.art/mcp - check there if your client's config format differs.
The Pika API Club is Pika's official developer membership: $10/month, returned to you as $10 of API credits every month, then pay-as-you-go generation and cancel anytime. It's also where Pika H3 Flex launched first, with audio stems and a prompt rewriter. Read our full Pika API guide.
Pika API integration follows the standard pattern of modern generative APIs: send a request with a prompt (and optionally an image or video), poll or receive a webhook when the render finishes, and download the result. Every model - the new Pika H3 Flex API, the Pika text-to-video and image-to-video APIs, the Pika Audio API, and 100+ third-party models - sits behind one key and a consistent request shape.
/pika/pika-h3-flex/text-to-videoPrompt → video + audio/pika/pika-h3-flex/reference-to-videoUp to 12 refs → video/pika/pika-2.5/image-to-videoPhoto + motion prompt → video/pika/pika-audio/pika-soundtrackVideo → synced audio/pika/pika-audio/pika-speechText → speech (voice clone)/bytedance/seedance-2.5/text-to-videoThird-party model, same key/jobs/{id}Check status & fetch resultThe model roster includes Pika H3 Flex, Pika 2.5 and Pika Audio alongside Kling 4.0 (plus Kling 3.0, Avatar v2 and Lipsync), Seedance 2.5 and the Seedance 2.0 family, MiniMax H3, Wan 3.0, GPT Image 2.5, Seedream, ElevenLabs, Claude, Gemini and 90+ others across video, image, audio, speech and LLMs. Pika says member pricing is up to 88% cheaper than other API aggregators. Teams use it to build anime, short dramas, creation tools and global campaigns. Enterprise plans are also available.
Sign up at dev.pika.art, try any model in its browser playground, and read the machine-readable docs (llms.txt). Prefer to self-host? H3 Flex's open weights are on Hugging Face.
# Pika API Club - Pika H3 Flex text-to-video, then Pika Soundtrack (illustrative) import requests, time API_KEY = "YOUR_PIKA_API_KEY" BASE = "https://dev.pika.art/api" # check the docs for the exact base URL headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"} def wait(job_id): while True: job = requests.get(f"{BASE}/jobs/{job_id}", headers=headers).json() if job["status"] == "completed": return job["url"] time.sleep(3) # 1) generate a clip with Pika H3 Flex (draft at 768p, upscale later) video_job = requests.post( f"{BASE}/pika/pika-h3-flex/text-to-video", headers=headers, json={"prompt": "a fox running through fresh snow, cinematic", "duration": 10, "resolution": "768p", "aspect_ratio": "16:9"} ).json() video_url = wait(video_job["id"]) # 2) re-score it with Pika Soundtrack (video-to-audio) audio_job = requests.post( f"{BASE}/pika/pika-audio/pika-soundtrack", headers=headers, json={"video_url": video_url, "prompt": "crunchy snow footsteps, wind, soft piano"} ).json() print("Video with sound:", wait(audio_job["id"]))
// Pika API Club - image-to-video + Pika Speech narration (illustrative) const API_KEY = "YOUR_PIKA_API_KEY"; const BASE = "https://dev.pika.art/api"; // confirm in the docs const H = { Authorization: `Bearer ${API_KEY}`, "Content-Type": "application/json" }; async function wait(id){ for(;;){ const job = await fetch(`${BASE}/jobs/${id}`, { headers: H }).then(r => r.json()); if(job.status === "completed") return job.url; await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 3000)); } } // 1) animate a photo const v = await fetch(`${BASE}/pika/pika-2.5/image-to-video`, { method: "POST", headers: H, body: JSON.stringify({ image_url: "https://example.com/photo.jpg", prompt: "gentle wind, slow zoom in, golden hour light", duration: 5 }) }).then(r => r.json()); // 2) generate narration with Pika Speech ($0.01 / minute) const s = await fetch(`${BASE}/pika/pika-audio/pika-speech`, { method: "POST", headers: H, body: JSON.stringify({ text: "Welcome to the Pika universe.", voice: "preset:warm-female" }) }).then(r => r.json()); console.log(await wait(v.id), await wait(s.id));
Code shown is an illustrative pattern for Pika API Python and Pika API JavaScript integrations - endpoint paths, base URL, and parameters come from the official Pika API Club documentation, so copy them from there rather than from memory.
Your Pika API key authenticates every request - you get one from the API Club dashboard at dev.pika.art and send it as a Bearer token. Treat it like a password: keep it in environment variables, never in client-side code or public repos, and rotate it if it ever leaks.
Pika API pricing is membership plus usage: $10/month to join (returned as $10 of credits), then per-generation rates by model - e.g. Pika H3 Flex from about $0.01 per second of video and Pika Speech $0.01 per minute. Check dev.pika.art for current Soundtrack, Music and SFX rates. Video models are priced per clip by resolution and length; the site includes a comparison calculator against other aggregators.
The Pika API documentation covers authentication, endpoints, request parameters, webhooks, and rate limits, and every model has a browser playground - try our Pika API walkthrough first, then experiment with Pika Music or Soundtrack in the playground before writing code.
Wondering which is the best AI video generator for you? Here are the best Pika AI alternatives compared side by side - from pro filmmaking suites to free AI video generator options. One twist: many of these models are now inside Pika via the studio and API Club. For a deeper dive see best Pika 2.5 alternatives and Pika vs Runway.
| Tool | Best for | Free plan | Standout strength | How Pika compares |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pika AIthe baseline | Social-first creators, multi-model studio, fast short-form clips | Yes - all models, no watermark | Open-weights H3 Flex, Pika Audio, 25+ studio apps, ChatGPT plugin, MCP, API | - |
| RunwayPika vs Runway | Professional filmmakers and studios | Limited credits | Pro-grade control: motion brush, camera controls, editing suite | Runway is deeper for pro workflows; Pika is faster, cheaper, and more fun for social content |
| Kling 4.0Pika AI vs Kling AI | Long single takes with native audio | Daily free credits | One continuous take up to 30 s, stereo audio, up to 4K HDR, up to 10 keyframes | Kling 4.0 is a selectable model inside Pika's studio and API Club; Pika adds editing apps, captions and audio tools on top |
| Wan 3.0Pika H3 Flex vs Wan | Developers wanting open-weights video | Open weights | Scored above H3 Flex on DesignArena (1324 vs 1293 Elo at launch) | H3 Flex needs far fewer steps and adds native synced audio and stems; Wan 3.0 is also available inside Pika's studio |
| Seedance 2.5Pika vs Seedance | High-fidelity cinematic clips | Via platforms only | Top-tier motion quality and multi-shot coherence | Not a rival so much as a partner: Seedance 2.5 is a routed model in Pika's studio at roughly half aggregator prices |
| SoraPika vs Sora | ChatGPT users wanting cinematic scenes | Needs ChatGPT plan | Impressive scene coherence and storyboard tools | Sora is bundled with ChatGPT subscriptions; Pika offers a true free tier and social-ready tools |
| Google Veo 3.1Pika vs Google Veo | High-realism clips with native audio | Paid Google AI plans | State-of-the-art realism plus generated sound and dialogue | Pika's own H3 Flex now generates synced audio too, and Pika Soundtrack adds sound to any model's output |
| Luma Dream MachinePika vs Luma | Fast ideation and concept videos | Limited generations | Quick iterations with a slick, simple interface | Both are fast and friendly; Pika has a bigger toolkit (25+ apps, audio models, MCP) |
| Hailuo / MiniMaxPika vs Hailuo AI | Expressive character motion | Daily free credits | Lively, expressive human and character movement | MiniMax H3 is the base of Pika's own H3 Flex, which runs in 6 steps instead of 50 and adds 5 audio stems |
| PixVersePika vs PixVerse | Anime styles and viral effect templates | Free credits | Template-driven viral effects and anime looks | Similar audiences - Pika adds a full studio of editing apps, built-in audio and a ChatGPT plugin |
| ElevenLabsPika Audio vs ElevenLabs | Voice, dubbing, and speech | Limited free minutes | Industry-standard voice quality and dubbing tools | Pika Speech claims 9× better cost-efficiency than ElevenLabs v3 - and ElevenLabs voices are also offered inside Pika |
| CapCutPika vs CapCut | Editing and assembling social videos | Free editor | Full timeline editor with captions, templates, and AI assists | Not a true generator - many creators generate in Pika, then edit and caption in CapCut |
| CanvaPika vs Canva | Teams making branded content and designs | Free tier | All-in-one design suite with AI video baked into templates | Canva is design-first with basic AI video; Pika is video-first with far deeper generation tools |
AI video tools evolve monthly - features, free tiers, and pricing above are indicative snapshots, so double-check each tool's site before committing. Verdicts reflect typical strengths, not absolutes. Comparing Pika's own models? Read Pika Turbo vs Pika Pro and Pika 2.5 vs previous versions.
There's no single winner - it depends on the job. Runway leads for professional control, Kling 4.0 and Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash for raw realism, Pika H3 Flex and Wan 3.0 for open weights, and Pika for social-first video with built-in audio and editing apps - plus access to many of the others in one place.
For a genuinely free AI video generator, Pika's Free plan (every model, no watermark, pay only for credit packs), Kling, and Hailuo (daily free credits) are the strongest starts. Sora and Veo have no standalone free tier - they require paid ChatGPT or Google AI subscriptions.
Choose Pika when speed and shareability matter: fast drafts with sound, reference-driven characters and products, object swaps, captions and soundtracks - plus a ChatGPT plugin, MCP for AI agents, open-weights H3 Flex and the API Club.
The fine print before you publish: how the watermark works, how to stay safe, the ethical lines to respect, and what Pika can't do yet.
Whether you're creating your first account or returning to your projects, both the Pika AI sign up and Pika AI login take seconds - here's exactly how each works.
The Pika AI sign up is free and takes under a minute - no credit card required. New accounts start on the Free plan.
The Pika AI login is the same on the web, the iPhone app and ChatGPT, and your credits and videos sync across all of them. Sign in with the method you registered with:
Log in at pika.art →Quick answers to the questions creators ask most. More on our full Pika AI FAQ page.
https://mcp.pika.art/mcp). It lets ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex and other agents use 40+ Pika tools and 60+ models with your Pika account - no extra API keys. See Pika MCP setup.