In the second half of 2026 the AI video generation market went through a quiet but real reshuffle: Sora, the one-time pioneer, entered a sunset countdown, while Veo and Kling each iterated to 3.x, and Runway went as far as hosting its rivals' models on its own platform, turning itself into an "aggregator." For creators that means comparing sideways now beats betting on a single tool, because the capability curve of any one model has diverged so much that none of them wins every scenario.
This piece compares five of the most representative AI video generation tools head to head: Sora, Kling, Jimeng, Runway, and Veo. All five are closed-source commercial products with no GitHub stars to compare, so we won't talk about open source or stars - only access methods, pricing tiers, capabilities, and best-fit scenarios.
One thing up front: everything below is a representative comparison built from each tool's official public pages, verified on 2026-08-06, not my own hands-on stress test. All five are closed-source commercial products with no public repos and no star counts. Prices change often; any specific figure should be confirmed against the official site, and this article does not fabricate prices it cannot verify. Capability descriptions follow the current official pages, and anything that can't be verified isn't stated.
1. Why compare AI video generation sideways in 2026
There are three direct reasons to "compare sideways" in 2026.
First, Sora's exit shattered the expectation that a single player could win it all. According to OpenAI's official help center sunset notice, the Sora web and app experiences were discontinued on April 26, 2026, and the Sora API will be discontinued on September 24, 2026. In other words, as of the day this article is being written (August 6), the Sora API is still alive but has less than two months to live. Teams that welded their workflow to Sora now have to re-evaluate. This is itself a lesson: a closed-source commercial video model can be shut down by the vendor at any time, so betting on a single provider is betting on risk.
Second, model capabilities have diverged - it's no longer "whoever shipped most recently wins." Veo 3.1 made "native audio" standard - picture, sound effects, ambient sound, even dialogue generated in one pass. Kling 3.0 took the "native 4K plus multimodal instructions" route, focused on storyboarding for long videos and audio-visual sync. Runway's in-house Gen-4.5 pushes on quality and consistency while also offering Veo 3.1 and Kling 3.0 as selectable models inside its platform. Each bets on a different direction, and your job should decide which direction fits.
Third, China availability has become a hard gate. Kling and Jimeng come from Chinese vendors (Kuaishou and ByteDance), so they work natively in China with Chinese-prompt friendliness. Veo and Runway are overseas services that require a proxy to access from China and involve cross-border data transfer. For creators in China this isn't a "experience gap," it's a "can I use it at all" difference.
So the reality of 2026 is: stop believing in a single winner, and mix by scenario - that's the right answer.
2. The five contenders enter (data as of 2026-08-06)
Here's the rundown. The access methods and pricing tiers below come from each vendor's current official page, and figures marked "confirm on official site" haven't been re-verified month by month. Note: all five are closed-source, so there is no GitHub star column - the "access method" and "pricing tier" columns stand in for it, because those are what actually matter when choosing.
| Tool | Maker | Access | Pricing tier | One-line positioning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sora | OpenAI | Was ChatGPT subscription + API; web/app discontinued 2026-04-26, API to be discontinued 2026-09-24 | Was bundled with ChatGPT Plus/Pro | The pioneer exits, API on a countdown |
| Kling | Kuaishou | Web (klingai.com / klingai.kuaishou.com) / App / developer API | Free credits + subscription (confirm on official site) | Native 4K + multimodal, China's pro video workhorse |
| Jimeng | ByteDance | Web (jimeng.jianying.com) / App | Mostly free (confirm on official site) | Chinese-prompt friendly, zero-cost entry |
| Runway | Runway | Web / API | Free + $15-$95/mo (confirm on official site) | In-house Gen-4.5 + aggregated Veo/Kling, one-stop |
| Veo | Google DeepMind | Gemini app / Google Flow / API | Bundled with Google AI premium tier (confirm on official site) | Native audio + physical realism, cinematic narrative |
Three details to flag. First, almost every decision about the Sora row is now overridden by the word "sunset" - it's no longer a question of choosing it but of migrating off it. Second, Runway is no longer purely a model vendor; its platform runs the in-house Gen-4.5 alongside third-party Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, and Seedance 2.0, which is the most notable "aggregator" shape of 2026. Third, Kling and Jimeng are both Chinese-made but positioned very differently: Kling bets on professional commercial video (TVC, product films, long-form storyboards), while Jimeng bets on mass consumer creation (Chinese-friendly, low free-tier barrier).
3. Six-dimension comparison
Spread the official descriptions out and line them up across six dimensions. This table is a representative comparison built from official public information, not a hands-on stress test; any specific figure should be confirmed on the official site.
| Dimension | Sora | Kling | Jimeng | Runway | Veo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clip length | Discontinued (API ends 2026-09-24) | Supports long videos with precise storyboarding (confirm on site) | Mostly short clips (confirm on site) | Gen-4.5 billed from 5s, extendable | Supports extended long video (confirm on site) |
| Quality ceiling | Discontinued | Native 4K | Mostly HD (confirm on site) | 1080p, 4K upscaling (Topaz) | High fidelity, strong physical realism (confirm on site) |
| Camera control | Discontinued | Strong (motion control + first/last frame + Omni multimodal) | Medium (first/last frame) | Strong (multi-model + control toolchain) | Strong (reference image/style/character consistency/motion path) |
| China availability | Unavailable | Natively available | Natively available | Proxy required | Proxy required |
| Price friendliness | N/A (sunset) | Medium (free credits + subscription) | High (mostly free) | Medium ($15-$95/mo) | On the high side (Google AI premium tier) |
| Best-fit scenario | - | Ads / TVC / long video | Chinese creation / zero-cost entry | Multi-model one-stop pro creation | Cinematic narrative / native audio |
A few mismatches to clarify. The Sora column is essentially "discontinued" - not because it historically had no capability, but because recommending an API that shuts down in under two months makes no sense in a selection article dated 2026-08-06, so its role here is more "cautionary tale" than "option." Kling's "native 4K" and "long video storyboarding" come from its official 3.0 series description and are its core differentiator. Runway's Gen-4.5 billing unit (60 credits/5s) comes straight from its pricing page and is a verifiable real figure. Veo's "native audio" is the biggest label of this generation - picture and sound in one pass, which most rivals still handle via post-production.
4. Broken down: each tool's best range
Sora: the pioneer exits, leaving mostly lessons
Sora is OpenAI's text-to-video model, previously offered via ChatGPT subscription and API, iterating historically to Sora 2 / Sora 2 Pro. But per OpenAI's official notice, its web and app experiences were discontinued on 2026-04-26 and the API will be discontinued on 2026-09-24; after shutdown, user data will be permanently deleted, and users are advised to export their content via sora.chatgpt.com/sunset as soon as possible.
For teams still on the Sora API, the only thing to do now is migrate: switch the generation pipeline to the Veo API or Runway API, and export and back up existing Sora outputs. The lesson from Sora is hard - a closed-source commercial model can be shut down by the vendor at any time, and welding your production flow to a single API is handing over your lifeline. So its value in this piece is mostly as a cautionary tale, reminding you not to single-bet on the other four either.
Kling: native 4K + multimodal, China's pro video workhorse
Kling is Kuaishou's AI video generation platform, currently on the 3.0 series (including Video 3.0 and Video 3.0 Omni). Per its official site, the 3.0 series natively supports 4K video generation, motion control, and first/last frame input; the Omni version also deeply parses multimodal instructions, does precise storyboarding for long videos, and achieves dual binding of visual subject and audio timbre (audio-visual sync). Access spans the web (international klingai.com, domestic klingai.kuaishou.com), app, and a developer API, priced as free credits plus subscription - specifics per the official site.
Its bet is "professional commercial video." The official site explicitly positions its scenarios around TVC, product films, marketing assets, animated shorts, and even film and TV episodes, meaning its target users are design teams, marketing teams, and content production teams rather than casual individuals. Native 4K and long video storyboarding are where it pulls away from Jimeng.
Who it's for: professional teams in China making ads, product promo videos, or long-shot storyboards, plus developers who need native Chinese availability and want to do batch production via API. For zero-cost casual play, look at Jimeng.
Jimeng: Chinese-friendly, zero-cost entry for the masses
Jimeng is an AI creation platform under ByteDance (operated by Shenzhen Lianmeng Technology Co., Ltd.), offered via the web (jimeng.jianying.com) and an app. Per its official site, Jimeng supports text-to-video and image-to-video, offers first-frame + last-frame image input for stronger controllability, and has been semantically optimized for Chinese prompts; it also integrates AI painting and a smart canvas (local repainting, one-click outpainting, object removal, cutout). Pricing is mostly free - specifics per the official site.
Its bet is "Chinese creation plus low barrier." Jimeng's Chinese-prompt understanding is an explicit selling point, and combined with its mostly-free pricing and its affinity with the CapCut/Jianying ecosystem, it's the easiest pick for Chinese mass creators and short-video practitioners to pick up. The trade-off: on hard metrics like native 4K, long video, and pro-grade camera control, it isn't built for professional commercial production the way Kling is.
Who it's for: individual creators in China, short-video bloggers, people who need to describe ideas in Chinese, and newcomers who want to try AI video at zero cost. For TVC-grade commercial work, look at Kling.
Runway: from model vendor to "aggregator"
Runway is a long-established AI video company, currently pushing its in-house Gen-4.5, but the most notable shift in 2026 is its platformization: per its pricing page, a Runway subscription includes Gen-4.5, Gen-4 Turbo, Aleph 2.0, Seedance 2.0, and the third-party Veo 3.1 and Kling 3.0 - meaning you can call Google's and Kuaishou's flagship models directly inside a single Runway workflow.
Pricing is credit-based: Free at $0 (125 one-time credits), Standard at $15/mo ($12 annual, 625 credits/mo), Pro at $35/mo ($28 annual, 2250 credits/mo), Max at $95/mo ($76 annual, 9500 credits/mo), plus an Enterprise tier via sales. For Gen-4.5, 60 credits buys a 5-second video. These figures come from runwayml.com/pricing as of 2026-08-06 and may change at any time - confirm on the official site.
Its bet is "one-stop plus multi-model." For teams that don't want to bounce between five platforms and want to pick models per scenario, Runway's aggregator shape is convenient. The trade-off: credit-based pricing isn't cheap for heavy users, and as an overseas service it requires a proxy from China.
Who it's for: Western-workflow teams, professional creators who want to compare multiple models in one platform, and people already used to the Runway toolchain. For Chinese users who just want Kling, going directly to Kling's site is smoother.
Veo: native audio + physical realism, betting on cinematic narrative
Veo is Google DeepMind's video generation model, latest version Veo 3.1. Per the DeepMind site, Veo 3 introduced native audio generation - adding sound effects, ambient sound, and even dialogue to a video in one pass, and extending video length; Veo 3.1 delivers exceptional results in text-to-video, image-to-video, text-to-audio+video, and realistic physics. Its creative controls are fine-grained: reference images (scene/character/object), style reference images, character consistency across shots, add/remove objects, and define object motion paths. Access is via the Gemini app, Google Flow (a tool for filmmakers), and the API. On Meta's MovieGenBench benchmark, Google states Veo 3.1 performs best on overall preference, prompt adherence, and visual quality (data as of October 2025). Pricing is bundled with a Google AI premium tier - specifics per the official site.
Its bet is "native audio plus physical realism." While most rivals are still solving "does the picture look right," Veo is solving "picture plus sound as one plus is the physics right." That makes it especially suited to film and narrative creation that needs dialogue and audio-visual unity. Google is also working with director Darren Aronofsky's studio Primordial Soup to explore filmmaking. The trade-off: it requires a proxy from China, and the premium-tier barrier is on the high side.
Who it's for: creators doing cinematic narrative, anyone needing native audio sync, teams needing fine reference-image control, and Google-ecosystem users. For silent short videos, its audio advantage goes unused.
5. Match your scenario to a tool
So much for the breakdown - here's "which one should I use," by scenario:
- Commercial ads / TVC / product promos in China: Kling 3.0 first. Native 4K, long video storyboarding, audio-visual sync, natively available in China, and positioned for professional commercial video.
- Individual creation / short video / zero-cost entry in China: Jimeng first. Chinese-prompt friendly, mostly free, quick to pick up.
- Cinematic narrative needing native audio / dialogue / sound-picture unity: Veo 3.1 first. Native audio is its biggest differentiator this generation; most rivals still need post-production.
- One platform for many models / Western-workflow teams: Runway first. Gen-4.5 + Veo 3.1 + Kling 3.0 on one stage, credit-based pay-as-you-go.
- Teams still on the Sora API: migrate now. The API ends 2026-09-24; export your existing content and switch the generation pipeline to the Veo or Runway API.
- Batch production via API that must be compliant in China: the Kling developer API is the domestic first choice; the Veo and Runway APIs involve cross-border data transfer, so use them cautiously in compliance-sensitive scenarios.
A pragmatic tip: don't single-bet in 2026. Use Kling for commercial projects, Veo for narrative, Jimeng for casual play, and Runway when you need to compare multiple models - that's what "comparing sideways" really means.
6. Three pitfalls to avoid
Pitfall one: don't treat a comparison as a hands-on stress test. Like the vast majority of comparisons out there, this article is a representative comparison built from official public information, not a measured test running the same set of prompts across every tool. An AI video model's actual output is hugely sensitive to prompt wording, reference-image quality, and random seed, and official benchmarks (like the MovieGenBench Veo cites) only reflect results on a specific dataset. Before you commit in production, run a round of A/B with your own real assets on each platform - don't sign off on a comparison's conclusion alone.
Pitfall two: cross-border data transfer with closed-source commercial models. All five are closed-source. Kling and Jimeng are Chinese-made, so data stays in China with low compliance risk. Veo and Runway are overseas services - quite apart from needing a proxy from China, the assets you upload and the videos you generate are processed on overseas servers, which is a real compliance risk for material involving faces, trade secrets, or unreleased products. Run a compliance check before using overseas services on commercial projects.
Pitfall three: clip-length and resolution limits are a moving trap. Each vendor's support for single-clip length (5s/10s/longer) and resolution (1080p/4K) keeps shifting and is usually tied to the subscription tier. Kling's "long video storyboarding," Veo's "extended long video," and Runway's "4K upscaling (Topaz)" aren't provided unconditionally - they either need a higher tier or rely on multi-segment stitching. Before you pay, confirm on the official site exactly how long and at what resolution your tier can actually generate, and don't budget based on the qualitative descriptions in this article.
FAQ
Q1: Can I still use Sora?
No. The Sora web and app experiences were discontinued on 2026-04-26, and the API will be discontinued on 2026-09-24; after shutdown, data will be permanently deleted. Teams still on the API should migrate immediately to the Veo or Runway API and export existing content via sora.chatgpt.com/sunset.
Q2: Which should users in China pick first? The natively-available options in China are Kling (Kuaishou) and Jimeng (ByteDance). Choose Kling 3.0 for commercial-grade video, and Jimeng for zero-cost entry and Chinese-language creation. Veo and Runway require a proxy from China and involve cross-border data issues.
Q3: Can I use Veo and Kling directly on Runway? Yes. Per Runway's pricing page, its subscription includes third-party models like Veo 3.1 and Kling 3.0, callable in the same platform. Each model consumes a different number of credits - confirm the specifics on the Runway site.
Q4: Which one generates video with native sound? Veo 3.1. It supports generating picture + sound effects + ambient sound + dialogue in one pass. Kling 3.0 Omni also has audio-visual sync capability. Most other solutions require adding audio in post.
Q5: How do I choose for a free trial? For zero-cost entry in China, pick Jimeng (mostly free); to try multiple models, pick Runway's Free tier (125 one-time credits); Kling also offers free credits to try. Veo requires a Google AI premium subscription with no pure free tier. Specific quotas are per each official site.
References
- OpenAI - Sora sunset notice (web/app discontinued 2026-04-26, API 2026-09-24): https://openai.com/sora/
- Runway - Pricing page (Gen-4.5, Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0 and other models with credit prices): https://runwayml.com/pricing
- Google DeepMind - Veo 3.1 model page (native audio, reference-image control, MovieGenBench): https://deepmind.google/models/veo/
- Kling AI - Official site (3.0 series, native 4K, multimodal, first/last frame): https://klingai.com/ ; domestic: https://klingai.kuaishou.com/
- Jimeng - Official site (text/image-to-video, first/last frame, Chinese optimization, smart canvas): https://jimeng.jianying.com/