AIREITERSearch Hailuo AI pricing and you get four different prices for the same entry plan: $7.99, $9.99, $14.99, and an $184 top tier absent from the official terms. What decides your budget is the cost of one finished second of video, and on that measure the cheapest Hailuo route is not always the subscription.
Why the same Hailuo plan is quoted at $7.99, $9.99 and $14.99
Hailuo AI's official subscription service terms list Standard at $14.99/month for 1,000 credits, Pro at $54.99 for 4,500, Master at $119.99 for 10,000, Ultra at $124.99 for 12,000, and Max at $199.99 for 20,000. Those are list prices, and that document was last updated July 14, 2025. Three things move the live checkout away from it:
- Promotions. Fello AI's MiniMax pricing breakdown, checked against the subscribe page on June 13, 2026, recorded Standard discounted to $7.99 and Pro to $24.99, with both reverting to list price after the promo window. Reviral's pricing page, checked on August 22, 2026, logged the entry plan at $9.99, which is where that third figure comes from.
- Annual billing. Real AI Test's credits guide, verified against the same page on August 16, 2026, logged annual Standard at $100.80 per year, which the page displays as a monthly-equivalent $8.40. That is the only annual rate verified here; treat the other tiers' annual pricing as unconfirmed.
- Legacy and repackaged tiers. The $94.99 Unlimited plan was purchasable only before June 18, 2025, and its unlimited credits apply to Hailuo 01 only. That same August 2026 check also logged Master at 10,500 credits and a $184 Max tier carrying 27,000, where the terms document still lists 10,000 and $199.99 for 20,000.
Use the credit figure in the model picker plus the Stripe checkout total as your authoritative price; every calculation below runs on official list rates.
What one Hailuo clip costs in credits
Hailuo bills a fixed credit price per finished clip, set by model, resolution and duration. The official Hailuo 2.3 model page publishes these rates:
| Spec | Credits | Cost on Standard ($0.0150/credit) | Cost on Max ($0.0100/credit) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hailuo 2.3, 768p, 6s | 25 | $0.37 | $0.25 |
| Hailuo 2.3, 768p, 10s | 50 | $0.75 | $0.50 |
| Hailuo 2.3, 1080p, 6s | 50 | $0.75 | $0.50 |
Per-credit cost is plan price divided by included credits: $0.0150 on Standard, $0.0122 on Pro, $0.0120 on Master, $0.0104 on Ultra, $0.0100 on Max. On that basis 1,000 Standard credits buy 40 clips at 768p/6s or 20 at 1080p/6s.
Two models sit outside that table. Hailuo 2.3-Fast publishes no fixed credit rate, so read it off the picker; the official page describes it as the speed-optimised image-to-video variant for "quicker, lower-cost" iteration. MiniMax H3, the current flagship, is billed per second rather than per clip.
Dollars per finished second: subscription credits vs the MiniMax API
Converting everything to cost per second of delivered video is the only way to compare Hailuo against itself, let alone against Kling or Seedance. Here is where the routes land at list prices.
The subscription route
A 25-credit 768p/6s clip works out to $0.062 per second on Standard and $0.051 on Pro. Push the same six seconds to 1080p and the credit cost doubles to 50, so the per-second rate doubles to $0.125. Resolution, not duration, is what moves the bill: a 10-second 768p clip costs the same 50 credits, making it the best credit value in the lineup at $0.075 per second.
The API route
MiniMax's platform pricing charges H3 video generation at $0.08 per second at 768p and $0.13 per second at 2K, with audio input free and the first five reference images free before $0.04 each. Regenerating an existing 768p render at 2K is billed separately at $0.05 per second. A six-second 768p H3 clip therefore costs $0.48 on the API, against $0.37 for a six-second 768p Hailuo 2.3 clip on Standard. H3 and 2.3 are different models at different quality tiers, so treat that as a sense of scale rather than a like-for-like swap.
Where each route wins
The breakeven is volume. Standard's $14.99 covers 40 clips at 768p/6s; forty equivalent six-second H3 API renders cost about $19.20. Below roughly 31 clips a month, pay-as-you-go is cheaper and nothing expires. Above it, the subscription wins, provided you actually burn the credits, because membership credits reset monthly and do not roll over.
The MiniMax H3 endpoint and Kling API pricing are the reference points for running both models on one key. Kling 3.0's own model guide publishes 6 credits per second at 720p and 8 at 1080p without native audio, which Modellix's Kling 3.0 API guide prices at roughly $0.084 and $0.112 per second on Kling's international developer plans.
The free tier: one grant, three days, no daily refill
Hailuo's free plan in 2026 is a trial, not an allowance. The official terms state that users who registered on or after June 18, 2025 receive a one-time welcome credit package that expires three days after it is granted, limited to one per user. Two independent checks of the signup flow in August 2026, by Real AI Test and by Reviral, both put that grant at 200 credits: eight clips at 768p/6s, and only if you spend them inside 72 hours.
The persistent "100 free credits every day" figure comes from an older policy that users watched disappear without an announcement. On r/HailuoAiOfficial, u/thespacebetween1 summed up the change in five words:
They got rid of them without saying anything
Free downloads also carry a watermark, and free accounts get the bottom queue tier: three sequential tasks and one parallel generation under the official terms, against five and two for paid accounts. Launch campaigns are the exception. MiniMax's Hailuo 2.3 announcement promised daily trial credits refreshing every 24 hours during launch week, and the official @Hailuo_AI account advertised three free H3 Max generations in a window closing September 3, 2026. Those are promotions, not a standing free tier.
What Hailuo refunds, and what it quietly charges you for
The official terms are precise here and worth reading before you budget: credits are automatically refunded when a generation fails or when the output does not pass review. Nothing is refunded when the generation succeeds and you dislike the result.
That distinction is the biggest gap between the advertised cost of a clip and what creators spend. Two commenters in the same r/HailuoAiOfficial thread put numbers on it. u/Far-Business-8761 wrote:
usually only one out four/five videos you get what you are aiming for and if you dont like the result or its wrong you already wasted the crédits
u/dmc_dtc, replying in the same thread, reported needing "5-6 bad video before one right." Those are two individual reports, not a measured average, but they show the shape of the problem: run that one-in-five figure through the arithmetic and a 768p/6s clip on Standard costs about $1.85 per keeper instead of $0.37. Substitute your own ratio into the same formula: credit price × attempts per usable result ÷ credits per dollar.
One workaround creators share is tiering the render. On X, @LikeToasters described it after testing H3's 768p option: "Think this was 105 credits and then 75 to upscale. So in the end it would be the same price but only for the good results this way." Draft cheap, upscale only the winners, and pay MiniMax's $0.05 per second regeneration rate on the survivors.
Which route fits which workload
| Your situation | Cheapest sane route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Testing whether Hailuo suits you at all | Free grant, then top-ups at $1 for 70 credits | No subscription, and top-ups undercut Standard's per-credit rate; the 200-credit grant dies in 3 days |
| Under ~30 clips a month, H3 quality or an API workflow needed | MiniMax API pay-as-you-go | $0.08/s at 768p, nothing expires; for Hailuo 2.3 output at this volume, top-ups stay cheaper |
| Steady social output, 768p drafts | Standard at $14.99 list | 40 clips of 768p/6s; check the picker for the cheaper 2.3-Fast rate when prompt testing |
| Client work at 1080p | Pro at $54.99 list | 1080p doubles credit cost; Standard's 1,000 credits cover only 20 such clips |
| Batch pipelines, hundreds of clips | MiniMax API, 768p then selective 2K regeneration | Per-second billing plus $0.05/s regeneration beats credit rationing |
MiniMax H3 arrived as the flagship billing per second while Hailuo 02 and 2.3 kept fixed per-clip credits, so measure your cost per keeper before renewing anything annual.
Hailuo AI pricing FAQ
Is Hailuo AI free?
There is a free tier, but it is a one-time welcome credit grant that expires three days after issue, with watermarked downloads and the lowest queue priority. The current terms document no recurring daily credit allowance for free accounts.
Do Hailuo AI credits roll over?
No. Membership credits are valid for one month and expire at the end of the billing cycle. Separately purchased credits last far longer, through December 31 of the second calendar year after purchase, per the official terms.
Do failed generations cost credits?
No. Hailuo automatically refunds credits when a generation fails or when the content does not pass review. Successful generations you dislike are not refunded.
Can I buy Hailuo credits without subscribing?
The credit system section of the subscription terms prices separately purchased credits at $1 for 70 credits, a $0.0143 per-credit rate sitting between the Standard and Pro subscription rates. Users have repeatedly asked for a cleaner one-off option. u/Deltarno1 on r/HailuoAiOfficial wanted to "toss them twenty dollars for a pile of credits like Kling does."
Is Hailuo cheaper than Kling?
At 768p/720p without audio the two land close: roughly $0.062 per second for Hailuo 2.3 on Standard against about $0.084 per second for Kling 3.0. Hailuo is cheaper per second at the entry spec; Kling publishes a per-second rate card that is easier to forecast.
Do paid plans include commercial rights?
Yes. The terms state that MiniMax does not claim ownership of content generated and downloaded on a paid plan, including commercial use, while also granting itself a worldwide, royalty-free licence to use that content for operating and promoting the service. That licence survives cancellation.
The trade-off Hailuo has not fixed
The terms document exactly two ways to pay: monthly subscriptions whose credits expire, and $1-for-70-credit top-ups. Neither meters by output the way MiniMax's own API does, which is why the pay-per-clip request keeps resurfacing in Hailuo's subreddit. Until that changes, buy one month at a time and let your measured cost per keeper pick the tier instead of the plan page.