Kling is the AI video service from the Chinese company Kuaishou, which also owns the short-video platform Kwai. From a text, a photo or several reference images, Kling makes short clips with natural motion, believable physics and, in newer generations, synchronized sound, and it has tools for editing existing video too. Its main difference from competitors is the combination of top-tier quality with a lot of control: you can specify camera motion, the path of objects, the first and last frame, and a consistent character.
What is Kling good for?#
- Product video from a photo: A clothing shop makes a clip from a photo of a coat in which a model walks in it and the camera circles around.
- Teasers and short ads: An ad agency makes several cinematic shots and turns them into a teaser in an editor.
- Video from a first and last frame: You provide two images and Kling creates the motion between them, for example from a closed box to the opened product.
- Character consistency: For a short story series, you keep the main character consistent across several scenes using a reference image.
- Editing existing video: In recorded video, you change the background or clothing with a text command.
- Generating images: It also has a built-in image model so you can create the first frame there.
Strengths and weaknesses#
Strengths:
- Image and motion quality among the best on the market
- Varied controls: camera motion, first and last frame, reference images
- Periodic free credit for testing
- Web, mobile app and API
Weaknesses:
- At busy hours the free generation queue gets very long
- Credit use is high at high quality and for longer clips
- No serious support for prompts and speech in languages other than English and Chinese
- Text inside video and fine details such as hands and fingers still sometimes break
Free version and pricing#
Kling is freemium. When you sign up you get periodic free credit, enough for a few short clips at standard quality. Subscriptions and credit packs unlock higher quality, a faster queue, watermark removal and advanced features, and there is a separate API for developers. Check the official site for current prices.
Language support#
Kling is optimized for Chinese and English prompts. It understands prompts in other languages only to a degree and doesn't correctly produce speech or on-screen text in them. It is better to write the scene description in precise English: subject, action, camera motion, lighting and mood.
Getting started in three steps#
- Sign up on the site or app with email and check the free credit.
- Start with image-to-video, because it is more controllable than generating from empty text.
- Write a short English prompt for the motion, generate a few versions and keep the best.
Kling alternatives#
- Google Veo: very strong realism and synchronized sound in Google's ecosystem.
- Hailuo: another Chinese rival with natural body motion and a good free allowance.
- Runway: a fuller set of professional video editing tools.
- Vidu: strong at character consistency with several reference images.
To understand the real limits of these tools, read making and editing video with AI: what is possible and what isn't, and before using the output in advertising, see copyright and commercial use of AI images.
