September 2026 · Pika is now a full creative platform: video · image · audio

AI Video, Image & Audio,
reimagined for creators.

Pika Labs has grown from a single short-form video model into an all-in-one creative studio. Generate multi-shot videos up to 3 minutes with sound, build consistent characters, grade color, score scenes with Pika Soundtrack, and tap 100+ models through the $10/month Pika API Club — all from one workspace.

🚀 Try Pika Free See What's New
Introducing the Pika API Club — official launch video (August 2026)
100+
Models via API Club
3 min
Video Studio Max
4
Pika Audio Models
88%
Cheaper API Pricing*
What is Pika

One creative studio, every model you need.

Pika began as an AI video generator built on its own proprietary model. In 2026 it rebuilt itself as a comprehensive AI creative platform — a set of focused apps for video, image, character and audio work that automatically route each job to the best model for the task, whether that's Pika 2.5, Seedance 2.5, MiniMax H3, Wan 3.0, GPT Image 2.5 or Nano Banana 2.

Alongside the studio, Pika ships its own frontier audio models (Music, Soundtrack, SFX and Speech), a developer-facing API Club with wholesale-level pricing on 100+ models, and an MCP toolkit that lets agents like Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT generate media directly. The classic Pika tools — Pikaframes, Pikaswaps, Pikadditions, Pikaffects and Pikaformance — still live inside the platform.

Available on web, iOS and Android, with a free tier and one-time credit packs so you never need a subscription to get started.

Pika AI creative platform
What's New · 2026

Latest from Pika Labs.

The busiest year in Pika's history: real-time agents in spring, a developer API Club and four audio models in summer, and a full platform rebuild in September. Here's the timeline, then the details.

Sep 24, 2026

API Club Member Spotlights

Studios report five-figure monthly savings building anime, short dramas and global campaigns.

Sep 17, 2026

Unified Creative Platform

Video, image and audio apps in one interface with automatic model routing.

Aug 14–18, 2026

Pika Audio Models

Soundtrack, Music, SFX and Speech — "the lowest-priced audio models on the market."

Aug 5, 2026

Pika API Club

$10/mo membership, 100+ models, up to 88% cheaper than other aggregators.

May 26–28, 2026

Experiments + Founder Kit

Open-source prototypes workshop and four MCP skills for launching a product.

Apr 2–10, 2026

PikaStream + Agent Earnings

Real-time video chat for agents, and AI Selves that earn tokens redeemable for cash.

New · Sept 2026
The New Pika · Unified Creative Platform

From one video model to a full creative studio.

Video Studio, Character Studio, Color Grade, Product Shot and Soundtrack — with the right model picked for you.

On September 17, 2026 Pika relaunched pika.art as a multi-app studio. Instead of one prompt box, you get purpose-built apps that route each request across Seedance 2.5, Pika 2.5, MiniMax H3, Wan 3.0, Google Omni Flash, GPT Image 2.5, Nano Banana 2, Grok Imagine and Pika's own audio models. Existing accounts, plans and creations carried over automatically. Power users can still hand-pick a model; everyone else just describes the result.

  • Video Studio: single clips or multi-shot sequences up to 3 minutes, sound included
  • Attach up to 50 characters, products, settings and styles and @mention them in prompts
  • Automatic model routing with manual override
  • Transparent credit pricing — Seedance runs at roughly half the cost of other platforms
Seedance 2.5 Pika 2.5 MiniMax H3 Wan 3.0 GPT Image 2.5 Nano Banana 2 Grok Imagine 25+ app integrations
Pika API Club — one API for 100+ generative media models
Developers · Aug 5
Pika API Club · dev.pika.art

100+ models. One API. $10 a month.

"We were shocked by the 3x markup on API aggregators. So we built our own."

The Pika API Club is a membership that unlocks wholesale-level, pay-as-you-go pricing on video, image, audio, speech and LLM models — Seedance 2.5, Kling 3.0, Veo 3.1, FLUX 3, Seedream 5, GPT Image 2, ElevenLabs, Claude and Gemini among them. Members get $10 of usage credit in their first month and can cancel anytime. It's built "agent-native" so Claude, Cursor, Codex and Lovable can call it without parsing docs.

  • Up to 88% cheaper than other API aggregators
  • Example: MiniMax H3 T2V 2K at $0.13/sec · Seedream 5 Pro 2K at $0.09/image
  • Unified auth and billing across every media type
  • Enterprise tier with volume pricing and higher concurrency
Pika Audio — four frontier sound models
New Models · Aug 14
Pika Audio · Music · Soundtrack · SFX · Speech

Everything you want to hear.

Four foundation sound models, priced up to 20× below comparable alternatives.

Pika's first audio drop covers the whole soundscape: Pika Soundtrack scores silent video with motion-aware effects, music, ambience and voice; Pika Music writes full tracks up to six minutes from text, lyrics or references; Pika SFX renders a sound effect in under a second; and Pika Speech clones a voice from five seconds of audio at a 0.02 real-time factor. See the Pika Audio section for specs.

  • Soundtrack: strongest semantic alignment vs. HunyuanVideo-Foley & MMAudio v2
  • Music: a 90-second song in ~6.2 seconds
  • Speech: 9× more cost-efficient than ElevenLabs v3
  • Available in the studio and the API Club
Pika Founder Starter Kit — MCP skills
Agents · May 28
Pika MCP · Founder Starter Kit

Four skills to get your product out there.

Brand, app-store screens, sizzle video and founder video — from inside your agent.

Install the Pika MCP (pika.me/mcp) and your agent can run the Build-a-Brand skill (positioning, logo, type, palette), generate App Store Screens from Figma or brand guidelines, cut a 15-second App Sizzle Video from screenshots or a store link, and produce a Founder Video from a selfie. It pairs with Pika Experiments, an open workshop that shipped a generative-UI prototype the same week.

  • Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients
  • Pika Experiments: open-source prototypes on GitHub
  • Generative UI: agents build live HTML layouts mid-conversation
PikaStream 1.0 — real-time AI video chat
Real-Time · Apr 2
PikaStream 1.0 · Beta

Real-time video chat for any AI agent.

A face and a voice for your agent — live, with memory that persists.

PikaStream 1.0 lets agents respond live on a video call, adapting to tone and context while keeping memory and personality across sessions. Pair it with a Pika AI Self and the agent can run tasks during the call.

  • Live face & voice presence for any agent
  • Persistent memory across conversations
  • Agentic task execution during calls
Pika AI Selves — your living digital twin
pika.me · Apr 10
Pika AI Selves · Your Agent Got a Job

A living extension of you that can earn.

Persistent. Portable. Multi-modal.

Build a personal AI Self trained on your personality, voice and appearance. It chats, creates content and travels with you across messaging apps — and since April it can accumulate tokens redeemable for cash every time someone uses it. See Earn below.

Slack Telegram WhatsApp Discord Signal iMessage Google Chat
The New Studio

Seven apps, one workspace.

The September 2026 relaunch replaced a single prompt box with purpose-built apps. Each one is self-contained, picks the best model for the job, and hands off cleanly to the next.

VS

Video Studio

Generate a short clip or a 3-minute multi-shot sequence with sound. Attach up to 50 characters, products, settings and styles and @mention them in your prompt.

EX

Extend Video

Lengthen any footage by generating new frames that continue the motion, lighting and subject of the original.

CG

Color Grade

Shift mood, contrast and palette on generated or uploaded video — a LUT you describe instead of build.

EI

Edit Image

Replace, remove or restyle any element in an image with GPT Image 2.5, Nano Banana 2 or Seedream 5.

CS

Character Studio

Create reusable characters that stay consistent across images, shots and whole videos.

PS

Product Shot

Styled product photography and video without a set — drop in your product and describe the campaign.

ST

Pika Soundtrack

Add synchronized music, ambience, Foley and voice to any clip. Motion-aware, so a footstep lands where the foot does.

API

API Club

Everything above, plus 100+ third-party models, through one API with unified billing — for developers and agents.

Video models routed
Seedance 2.5 Pika 2.5 MiniMax H3 Wan 3.0 Google Omni Flash Kling 3.0 (API) Veo 3.1 (API)
Image models routed
GPT Image 2.5 Nano Banana 2 Seedream 5 Grok Imagine 1.5 FLUX 3 (API) Recraft 4.1 (API)
Audio & speech
Pika Music Pika Soundtrack Pika SFX Pika Speech MiniMax Music 3.0 ElevenLabs (API)
Pika Audio

Four sound models, one drop.

Released August 14–18, 2026 and built with "highly efficient training and inference techniques," Pika's audio family is pitched as the fastest and lowest-priced on the market. All four run in the studio and via the API Club.

S

Pika Soundtrack

Video-to-audio. Analyses the frames and an optional text note, then generates motion-aware sound effects, ambience, music and voiceover that follow what happens on screen. Latent-diffusion transformer trained with flow matching; benchmarked with the strongest semantic alignment and lowest A/V desync versus LTX-2.3 Foley, HunyuanVideo-Foley and MMAudio v2.

Full-scene coverage 2× cheaper than Hunyuan Foley ~$0.005 / sec via API
M

Pika Music

Finished tracks up to six minutes from a text prompt, a lyric sheet, a reference vocal or an existing song. Control tempo, key, duration and structure. A 90-second song renders in about 6.2 seconds — 14.5× faster than playback.

Up to 6 min Lyrics & voice conditioning ~$0.015 / min via API
FX

Pika SFX

Text-to-sound-effect. Describe the sound and get 1–20 seconds of 44.1 kHz stereo in an average of 0.85 seconds — fast enough to iterate in real time while editing.

0.85 s average 44.1 kHz stereo ~$0.0002 / sec via API
V

Pika Speech

Expressive text-to-speech from a 3B flow-matching transformer. Preset voices or a clone from five seconds of reference audio, up to five minutes per request at 48 kHz, with a 0.02 real-time factor — a minute of speech in about a second.

Voice cloning · 5 s sample 48 kHz 9× cheaper than ElevenLabs v3
Made With Pika · Sept 2026

What API Club members are shipping.

From Pika's September 24 member spotlight: three studios building original series, anime and global brand campaigns on the API Club — and what they say they're saving compared with other aggregators.

Vuvie · Streaming app

"The Collateral Bride" — Episode 1

A streaming service producing original action-adventure and drama-romance series with Seedance 2.5 through Pika. "Pika API Club gives us room to keep creating until we get the shot we want."

Reported: $12,185 saved in 30 days
AI-Bridge · Tokyo

Anime production & brand films

Builders of Creative Canvas, an open-source node-based workspace, producing anime scenes and corporate brand films. "The more we generate, the more we save compared to other aggregators."

Reported: ~$12,120 saved per year
Secret Level · Liquid Engine

Raising Cane's campaign

A proprietary filmmaking platform powering branded campaigns (Raising Cane's, Coca-Cola Holidays) and original films like "The Heist 3." "Pika powers a critical part of it, and the support is better than any other provider."

Branded campaigns at scale
Earn While You Sleep

Make money from your Pika AI Self agent.

In April 2026 Pika reframed the economics of personal AI. Instead of paying to run an agent, your AI Self earns tokens redeemable for real cash every time someone interacts with it. Build it once. Let it work for you 24/7.

Tokens redeemable for cash

Your agent works for you, in every sense of the phrase.

Every time someone chats with your agent, uses one of its skills, or requests a photo through it, you earn tokens. Pika handles the transactions internally and converts tokens into cash once you hit the payout threshold.

A creator with a sharp niche — social-media strategy, video editing, fashion advice — can spin up a specialized AI Self, share its profile link, and turn passive interest into recurring earnings without lifting a finger.

Agent Earnings · Example
Illustrative
$ 124.50
4,328 tokens ↑ 18% this week
Recent Activity
💬
Chat session
+12
⚡
Autoedit skill used
+25
📸
Photo request
+5
🎙
Voice call · 3 min
+18
📊
PPT skill — slide deck
+30
01

Conversations earn tokens

Every chat someone has with your agent — text, voice, or live video via PikaStream — generates tokens. The richer the conversation, the bigger the reward.

+ Per chat
02

Skills get paid

Autoedit, Sticker Gen, PPT Skill, Real-Time Video Chat, Google Suite connections — each time your agent's skill is used by someone else, your wallet ticks up.

+ Per skill use
03

Photo requests pay

When users request a photo through your agent — a styled portrait, a scene, a custom image — that's another token-generating interaction routed back to you.

+ Per request
i

Status note. Pika has said it is recalibrating monetization features and expects to re-introduce earning in the future. The dashboard above is an illustration of the announced design, not real earnings — confirm current availability inside pika.me before building a strategy around it.

Model Lineup

Every version, every era of Pika.

From Pika 1.0 to Pika 2.5, each release expanded what AI video could be. Today Pika 2.5 sits alongside partner models inside the studio — still the go-to for effects-driven, social-first clips.

Pika's Own · Pika 2.5

Sharper visuals. Smoother motion. Faster turnarounds.

Pika 2.5 is Pika's in-house video engine, delivering reliable styles from every prompt and strong character consistency. Built for short-form work — TikToks, Reels, Shorts, product teasers, ads — with image-reference guidance so you steer scenes visually. In the new studio it's one of the models Video Studio routes to automatically, and it's available at member pricing in the API Club.

  • Stronger character & style consistency
  • Better camera motion & control
  • Image-reference guidance for scene look
  • Turbo speed for fast iteration · Pikaffects, Pikaswaps & co. on top
Pika 2.2

Pikaframes & 1080p HD.

Frame-to-frame animation with up to 10-second generations at full HD. The release that introduced keyframe-style control to AI video.

Pika Turbo

Speed first.

Generates 3× faster while using 7× fewer credits. The everyday driver for high-volume creators.

Pika 2.1

Cinematic polish.

Stable generations, fewer retries, and smoother camera motion for film-grade short clips.

Pika 2.0

Scene Ingredients.

Stitch your own characters, props, and backgrounds into custom AI-generated scenes.

Pika 1.5

The Pikaffects era.

Crush, melt, inflate, explode, or cake-ify anything. Surreal physics meets cinematic camera work.

Pika 1.0

Where it began.

The first public model: text-to-video, image-to-video, and a UI that put AI cinema in anyone's hands.

The Classic Toolkit

Tools that change how video gets made.

Pika's signature tools each solve a specific creative problem — animation, replacement, insertion, scene-building, transformation, or live performance. They still live inside the new studio; use them on their own or stack them together.

Pikaframes

Upload a start frame and an end frame; Pika animates everything in between. Smooth, AI-generated transitions for storytelling, concept visuals, and short-form social content — no animation skills required.

Frame-to-frame Up to 25s 1080p Try Pikaframes

Pikaformance

Turn any portrait into a talking video. Drop in audio and Pika syncs lips, eyes, and expression in seconds. Pair it with Pika Speech for a fully generated presenter — script to voice to face.

Audio-driven Lip-sync Up to 30s Try Pikaformance

Pikaswaps

AI-powered video inpainting. Replace, erase, or modify any object in a clip while preserving the original motion, lighting, and perspective. Ideal for re-imagining footage or fixing on-set mistakes without rotoscoping.

Object replacement Lighting-aware Real footage Try Pikaswaps

Pikadditions

Drop new objects, characters, or creatures into existing video while keeping the original audio and motion intact. Pika handles motion-tracking, lighting, and depth automatically — great for VFX shots and surprise visual gags.

Insert anything Audio preserved Realistic depth Try Pikadditions

Pikascenes

Generate brand-new scenes from a written prompt or source image. Combine multiple ingredients — characters, props, environments — into a single coherent shot. In the new studio this evolved into Video Studio's @mention system for up to 50 attached assets.

Text-to-scene Multi-input Custom worlds Try Pikascenes

Pikaffects

Crush, inflate, melt, explode, squish, or cake-ify any object on screen. Pika's signature playful effects engine, built for content that stops the scroll. One-click presets, instant results.

Surreal physics One-click Social-ready Try Pikaffects

Pikatwists

Reshape motion, change poses, or alter character actions inside an existing video while leaving the rest of the scene untouched. Direction without re-shooting — remix without rebuilding.

Pose control Targeted edits Scene-safe Try Pikatwists

Partner models: Wan 3.0, Seedance 2.5, FLUX 3

The newest addition isn't a Pika tool at all — it's the ability to run the best third-party video and image models inside the same workspace and API. Wan 3.0 costs just 33 credits for a 720p 5-second clip; Seedance 2.5 is the studio's cinematic workhorse.

Wan 3.0 · 33 cr Seedance 2.5 · 122 cr FLUX 3 Explore the API
Built For

For anyone who needs video, fast.

Pika now positions itself for ad creatives, editors, marketers and filmmakers — as well as the creators it started with — without the complexity of professional editing software.

🎥

Creators & Influencers

TikToks, Reels, Shorts, and stories with cinematic shots and trend-ready visuals.

📣

Marketers & Ad Creatives

Product Shot, campaign spots, animated banners and logo reveals to test campaigns fast.

🎬

Filmmakers & Editors

Multi-shot sequences, color grading, extend-video and a synchronized soundtrack in one pass.

🧑‍💻

Developers & Agents

One API and an MCP server for 100+ models — build apps, pipelines and agent skills.

🚀

Founders & Startups

Brand kit, app-store screens, sizzle reel and founder video from the Founder Starter Kit.

Four Ways In

Start from anything.

Pika accepts the input you have. Type a prompt, upload a still image, feed it existing video, or drop in audio for a talking-face performance — and now, hand a silent clip to Soundtrack.

01

Text → Video

Describe a scene in plain language. Video Studio picks a model and renders motion, lighting, atmosphere — and sound — from scratch.

02

Image → Video

Upload a photo, painting, or drawing. Pika animates the still — adding camera movement and depth so it feels alive.

03

Video → Video

Feed Pika existing footage and transform it. Restyle, swap elements, color-grade, extend duration, or add a full soundtrack.

04

Audio → Performance

Drop in audio and a portrait. Pikaformance produces a lip-synced talking-face video — or generate the voice first with Pika Speech.

The Workflow

From idea to share, in four steps.

A simple loop that produces consistently better videos. Most creators tighten it into muscle memory after a few attempts.

Step 01

Build your ingredients first

Create the character in Character Studio and the product in Product Shot before touching Video Studio — then @mention them.

Step 02

Draft cheap, finish expensive

Iterate on Wan 3.0 (33 credits) or Pika Turbo, then commit the final take to Seedance 2.5 or Pika 2.5 at full resolution.

Step 03

Change one thing at a time

Lighting, camera, action, or style — adjust a single variable per generation to learn what moves the result.

Step 04

Grade, score, extend

Run Color Grade for mood, Pika Soundtrack for sound, and Extend Video if the cut needs breathing room. Save the prompt template.

Prompt Library

Templates that just work.

Copy, paste, swap the bracketed pieces for your subject. These structures consistently produce clean results across Pika 2.5 and Seedance 2.5 in Video Studio.

Template 01

Cinematic Realism

A [subject] [action] in [setting], cinematic lighting, realistic motion, shallow depth of field, film look, slow camera push-in.
Template 02

Multi-shot with @mentions

Shot 1: @[character] walks into [setting], wide. Shot 2: close-up on @[product] on the table, soft window light. Shot 3: @[character] smiles at camera. Consistent look, gentle score.
Template 03

Product Ad Shot

A clean product shot of [product] on a minimal background, studio lighting, subtle camera movement, premium commercial style.
Template 04

Soundtrack Direction

Motion-matched footsteps and cloth rustle, distant city ambience, sparse piano underscore that swells on the final shot, no dialogue.
Avoid The Pitfalls

Common mistakes, simple fixes.

Most "bad" Pika results trace back to a handful of predictable problems. Here is the fix list.

i

Scene looks messy or random

Reduce the number of objects, specify "clean background" or "minimal scene", and focus on one subject and one action per shot.

i

Character drifts between shots

Don't describe the character in text — build them once in Character Studio and @mention the same asset in every shot.

i

Burning through credits

Seedance 2.5 costs ~4× more per clip than Wan 3.0. Draft on the cheaper model, or buy a credit pack (60 credits per $1) rather than upgrading tiers.

i

Result doesn't match prompt

Add 1–2 specific cues like camera move and style. Remove conflicting style words. If auto-routing picked the wrong model, switch to manual selection.

Tool Comparison

How Pika stacks up against the field.

Pika's 2026 pivot changed the comparison: it now hosts several of the models below inside its own studio and API. The sharp strength is no longer one model — it's routing across the best of them with the classic Pika effects toolkit and native audio on top.

Tool Standout Strength Max Length Max Resolution Native Audio / Lip-Sync Free Tier Paid From
Pika Studio Pika Labs · routes Pika 2.5, Seedance 2.5, Wan 3.0 & more
Multi-model studio + effects, swaps, lip-sync and Pika Audio 3 min · Video Studio Depends on model (1080p–4K) Soundtrack + Pikaformance Free tier + credit packs $8 / mo (annual)
Runway Gen-4 Runway
Cinematic control, motion brush, reference-driven consistency ~10s 4K (upscale) — add-on Limited trial $15 / mo
Seedance 2.5 ByteDance · also inside Pika
Photoreal cinematic motion; Pika's default for hero shots ~15s per shot 1080p+ native audio Via Pika free tier 122 cr / 5s in Pika
Luma Dream Machine Luma AI
Fast image-to-video, cinematic motion, generous free tier ~10s 1080p — 30 gens / mo $10 / mo
Kling 3.0 Kuaishou · also on Pika API Club
Long-form clips, anatomically accurate human motion 2 min 4K · 60fps 5 languages 66 daily cr $8 / mo
Google Veo 3.1 Google DeepMind · also on Pika API Club
Strongest all-rounder · prompt adherence + native audio ~8s 4K native native audio Via Gemini $20 / mo
HeyGen HeyGen
Avatar-first · talking heads, localization, training video 5 min+ 1080p 50+ languages 1 min / mo $24 / mo
i

Pricing and capabilities change frequently in this category. Numbers reflect September 2026 entry pricing (annual billing where applicable) and are approximate — always verify on each tool's official site before subscribing. OpenAI's Sora has been removed from this table: its web and app experiences were discontinued in April 2026 and the API followed in September.

Pick Pika when

You want one place for everything

Video, image, character, grading and audio in one studio, with the effects toolkit and the cheapest access to Seedance, Kling and Veo through the API Club.

Pick Runway when

You need fine motion control

Client deliverables and agency work where the motion brush and reference-driven consistency justify the price for production-grade output.

Pick HeyGen when

You need multilingual avatars

Training, localization and long talking-head video across 50+ languages is still HeyGen's home turf — Pikaformance is for shorter, more creative performances.

Pricing · September 2026

Plans for every kind of creator.

Pika runs on credits. Subscriptions refresh monthly, annual billing saves 20%, and one-time credit packs at a flat 60 credits per dollar let free users generate without subscribing. Pika explicitly avoids "unlimited" plans with hidden caps.

Free
$0
Free forever · buy credit packs as needed
  • Access to all models
  • 2 parallel video generations
  • No watermark
  • Web, iOS & Android
Start Free
Starter
$8
per month billed yearly · $10 monthly
  • 900 credits / month
  • All models
  • 2 parallel video · 8 parallel image + audio
  • No watermark
Choose Starter
Creator
$28
per month billed yearly · $35 monthly
  • 3,150 credits / month
  • 8 parallel video · 32 parallel image + audio
  • Commercial license
  • No watermark
Choose Creator
Fancy
$76+
per month billed yearly · $95+ monthly
  • 8,550+ credits / month (scales to $704/mo)
  • Unlimited parallel generations
  • Commercial license & priority queue
  • Early access from the $440/mo tier
Choose Fancy

Studio credit costs

Cost depends on the model Video Studio routes to. Draft on cheaper models, then commit to a hero take. Enterprise plans are custom.

Model Output Credits
Seedance 2.5 Video · 720p · 5s 122
Wan 3.0 Video · 720p · 5s 33 Budget
Pika 2.5 / Turbo Video · 5–10s Varies by res & length
Nano Banana 2 1 image 8
GPT Image 2.5 1 image 2 Budget
Credit packs $50 → 3,000 · $100 → 6,000 · $1,000 → 66,000 60 / $1 +10% at $1k

API Club pricing

$10/month membership (first month includes $10 usage credit), then pay-as-you-go at member rates. Cancel anytime. Audio prices from Pika's August launch.

Model Unit Member price
Pika Speech per minute of speech ~$0.01
Pika Music per minute of music ~$0.015
Pika SFX per second ~$0.0002
Pika Soundtrack per second of video ~$0.005
MiniMax H3 T2V 2K · per second $0.13
Seedream 5.0 Pro T2I 2K · per image $0.09
ElevenLabs TTS v2 per 1K characters $0.105
FAQ

Questions, answered.

What exactly is Pika in 2026? +
Pika is an AI creative platform combining video, image, character and audio generation in one studio. It runs its own models (Pika 2.5 for video; Pika Music, Soundtrack, SFX and Speech for audio) alongside partner models like Seedance 2.5, Wan 3.0, MiniMax H3, GPT Image 2.5 and Nano Banana 2, and picks the right one for each job automatically.
What changed in the September 2026 relaunch? +
The single prompt box became seven focused apps: Video Studio, Extend Video, Color Grade, Edit Image, Character Studio, Product Shot and Pika Soundtrack. Video Studio now produces multi-shot sequences up to 3 minutes with sound, and you can attach up to 50 characters, products, settings and styles and reference them with @mentions. Existing accounts, plans and creations carried over automatically.
Is Pika free to use? +
Yes. The free tier gives access to all models with no watermark and two parallel generations; instead of a monthly credit allowance you buy one-time credit packs at 60 credits per dollar. Paid plans start at $8/month (annual) for 900 credits, with Creator at $28/month adding a commercial license.
What is the Pika API Club? +
A $10/month developer membership (launched August 5, 2026) that unlocks wholesale-level, pay-as-you-go pricing on 100+ generative media models through one API — video (Seedance, Kling, Veo, Pika), image (GPT Image, Seedream, FLUX), audio (Pika Audio, MiniMax Music, ElevenLabs) and LLMs (Claude, Gemini). Pika claims up to 88% savings versus other aggregators. The first month includes $10 of usage credit.
What are the Pika Audio models? +
Four models released August 14–18, 2026: Pika Soundtrack (video-to-synchronized audio), Pika Music (full songs up to six minutes), Pika SFX (sound effects in under a second) and Pika Speech (voice cloning from five seconds of audio, 0.02 real-time factor). Pika describes them as the lowest-priced audio models on the market, up to 20× cheaper than comparable alternatives.
Can I use Pika videos for commercial projects? +
The Creator and Fancy subscriptions include a commercial license. Free and Starter tiers are intended for personal use. Always check the current Terms of Service inside your account, and remember third-party models routed through Pika carry their own usage terms.
How long can my videos be? +
Video Studio can produce multi-shot sequences up to about 3 minutes, sound included. Individual model limits still apply per shot — Pika 2.5 generates 5–10-second clips, Pikaframes runs up to 25 seconds, and Extend Video can lengthen any result.
What is Pikaformance? +
Pikaformance is Pika's talking-face model. Upload an image, drop in audio, and Pika animates lips, eyes, and expressions in sync with your sound. Pair it with Pika Speech to go from script to voice to face without recording anything.
Can Pika keep the same character across videos? +
This is what Character Studio is for. Build a character once, then @mention it in every shot of a Video Studio prompt — far more reliable than re-describing the character in text or reusing a single reference image.
Does Pika work with Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor? +
Yes. The Pika MCP (pika.me/mcp) lets agents call Pika's tools directly, and the API Club is built "agent-native" for Claude, Cursor, Codex and Lovable. The Founder Starter Kit ships four ready-made MCP skills: Build-a-Brand, App Store Screens, App Sizzle Video and Founder Video.
How does Pika compare to Runway and Sora? +
Pika is now a multi-model studio, so the comparison is less about one model. Runway still leads on fine-grained motion control for production work. Sora is no longer an option — OpenAI discontinued the Sora app in April 2026 and the API in September 2026. For most creators the Pika question is whether you prefer the studio interface or the raw API Club pricing.
Web only, or is there a mobile app? +
Both. Pika is available on the web, on iOS through the App Store, and on Android via Google Play. Account, generations, and credits sync across every device.
Get Started

Make your first Pika video.

Free to try, no credit card required. Generate, grade, score and ship video that feels nothing like the last AI clip you saw.

🚀 Try Pika Free Join the API Club