This comparison uses official documentation, public pricing and playable showcase footage.
Separate models, resolution tiers and workflows before comparing total cost.
Capability judgments remain bounded by the absence of a controlled generation test.
Choose the task before the tier. Start with Kling 4.0 for precise keyframe direction, Seedance 2.5 for reference-heavy 30-second stories, H3 for detailed 2K short clips, and H3 Max Turbo for inexpensive iteration. These are feature-and-price-based judgments, not a matched-prompt quality ranking.
Verified 2026-10-22, Asia/Shanghai. Official specifications, author inferences, public showcase footage and measured file metadata are distinguished. No paid generations, acceptance-rate tests or conversion measurements were performed. USD prices exclude taxes, retries and post-production.
Similar names, different boundaries
| Version / endpoint | Duration / output | Control and inputs | Assessment and source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kling 4.0 | 3–30s; 720p; 1080p / 4K and HDR carry rollout caveats | 15 references; 10 keyframes; native stereo | Precise shot planning; verify the account’s available output tiers [1] Kling 4.0 launch announcement |
| Kling 4.0 Flash | Up to 20s; up to 720p | Fast iteration; no first/last-frame or multi-keyframe control currently | Useful for drafts; not the full flagship feature set [2] Kling 4.0 guide and Flash FAQ |
| Seedance 2.5 | Up to 30s; 480p / 720p / 1080p | 30 images + 10 videos + 10 audio clips; timestamp editing | Reference-heavy stories; 1080p uses 10-bit HEVC [4] BytePlus Seedance 2.5 API guide |
| Seedance 2.5 Draft | 480p preview → 1080p final | Two stages of the same model, separately billed | Reject weak drafts early; promoting every draft adds cost [5] BytePlus API pricing |
| MiniMax-H3 (official API) | 4–15s; 768P / 2K | Multimodal references; first/last frames; native stereo | Consider for detailed, text-rich commercial clips [6] MiniMax H3 launch and examples |
| MiniMax-H3-Max (official API) | 5–15s; 480P / 768P | Jointly released; post-trained by fal for faster generation | No 2K on this official endpoint; Max does not mean higher resolution [7] MiniMax H3 / H3 Max API guide |
| H3 Max / Turbo (fal) | Up to 15s; 480p / 768p / 1080p | Separate Max and Turbo endpoints; lower Turbo rates | Different hosted specifications from MiniMax’s API [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices |
| H3-Base (open weights) | 768p baseline in the official local guide | FL2VA / Ref2VA; excludes Context-IR and 2K regeneration | A separate self-hosting choice, not the whole cloud product [10] MiniMax H3 self-hosting scope |
Subscription names such as Standard, Pro and Unlimited are not model identifiers. No separate official Seedance 2.5 Fast / Lite / Pro model was verified; 2.0 Fast belongs to the preceding generation. H3 resolution tiers, Context-IR prompt interpretation and 2K Regeneration are distinct settings or workflow stages.
Three input-control differences
Kling’s 15-reference cap is combined, not the sum of individual media limits. Omni Reference and Keyframes are separate entry points. Audio references currently specify voices, not arbitrary music or sound-effect files. Seedance accepts larger multimodal sets and timestamp edits; more references do not prove better quality. H3’s official reference mode allows up to 9 images, 3 videos and 3 audio clips, capped at 12 files combined; distinguish it from the first/last-frame entry. [2] Kling 4.0 guide and Flash FAQ · [4] BytePlus Seedance 2.5 API guide · [7] MiniMax H3 / H3 Max API guide
Separate output cost from reference cost
At the same 768p tier, 10 seconds of output costs $0.80 for official H3, official H3 Max and fal H3 Max, versus $0.40 for fal Turbo. Equal prices do not establish equal quality or latency. These are public list prices read on 2026-10-22, without expired launch discounts. [8] MiniMax API list prices · [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices
| Endpoint | Resolution | Output rate | 10s output only | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H3 · MiniMax API | 768P | $0.08/s | $0.80 | [8] MiniMax API list prices |
| H3 · MiniMax API | 2K | $0.13/s | $1.30 | [8] MiniMax API list prices |
| H3 Max · MiniMax API | 480P | $0.05/s | $0.50 | [8] MiniMax API list prices |
| H3 Max · MiniMax API | 768P | $0.08/s | $0.80 | [8] MiniMax API list prices |
| H3 Max · fal | 480p | $0.05/s | $0.50 | [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices |
| H3 Max · fal | 768p | $0.08/s | $0.80 | [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices |
| H3 Max · fal | 1080p | $0.16/s | $1.60 | [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices |
| H3 Max Turbo · fal | 480p | $0.025/s | $0.25 | [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices |
| H3 Max Turbo · fal | 768p | $0.04/s | $0.40 | [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices |
| H3 Max Turbo · fal | 1080p | $0.08/s | $0.80 | [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices |
H3 input charges and the 768P-to-2K workflow
Official H3 includes 5 free images, then charges $0.04/image; audio is free. Video input costs $0.08/s at 768P or $0.13/s at 2K. Official H3 Max includes 2 free images, then $0.074/image; video-input rates are $0.0553/s at 480P and $0.143/s at 768P. Do not apply these rules to fal.
H3 regeneration charges $0.05/s for 2K output and bills the original input materials again. A 10-second clip with no chargeable inputs costs $0.80 + $0.50 = $1.30, matching direct 2K output cost. Chargeable references can make two stages more expensive. [8] MiniMax API list prices
Seedance 2.5 bills video tokens
| Output tier | No video reference: USD / M tokens | With video reference: USD / M tokens |
|---|---|---|
| 480p / 720p | $10.70 | $6.40 |
| 1080p | $11.70 | $7.00 |
BytePlus estimates tokens as (input video seconds + output seconds) × output width × output height × fps / 1024. Video-reference requests use a lower rate but include input duration and minimum-token floors. Adding a video is not automatically cheaper. Actual billing uses usage.completion_tokens. [5] BytePlus API pricing
Illustrative calculation, not an invoice: assuming 16:9, 24fps, 10 seconds and no video reference, 1280×720 yields 216,000 tokens, approximately $2.31; 1920×1080 yields 486,000 tokens, approximately $5.69. At an assumed 854×480, the preview costs about $1.03. Promoting every Draft to 1080p totals approximately $6.71 using unrounded amounts. Drafts are separately billed and help only when rejecting weak concepts avoids final renders. Actual dimensions and token use vary.
Kling 4.0 / Flash: no verifiable cash-per-second rate was found in the official announcement or guide. Unit price and 10-second cost remain unknown. Verify credits, subscription, region and API charges at the chosen checkout; do not substitute old 3.x prices. The launch announcement still describes enterprise API access as upcoming. [1] Kling 4.0 launch announcement
Watch actual examples
These five public official showcase clips retain their original CDN URLs and source links. Playback is manual. Duration and dimensions were measured with ffprobe; they describe the delivered files, not proof of native generation resolution or absence of post-processing. These are not our generations or controlled benchmark samples.
Kling 4.0: continuous action and handheld camera
Inspect fast action, cuts and subject continuity; the guide includes timed scene directions.
[2] Kling 4.0 guide and Flash FAQ · Open original video
Seedance 2.5: backstage-to-stage storytelling
Inspect character, wardrobe and scene continuity across a 30-second story.
[3] Seedance 2.5 launch and examples · Open original video
H3: combined video, image and audio references
This is the output marked H3-generated; separate references provide the camera move, character and singing.
[6] MiniMax H3 launch and examples · Open original video
H3: interface design and text elements
Inspect panel text, character and UI changes. This is footage in the official Product Website section, not an interactive website.
[6] MiniMax H3 launch and examples · Open original video
H3 Max: scooter tracking shot
Inspect tracking, motion and text. The source labels this H3 Max, not specifically Turbo.
[9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices · Open original video
No independently attributable original output was verified for Kling Flash, Seedance Draft or H3 Max Turbo. Flagship examples are not substitutes for those variants. Source hosts may change or remove videos; each clip includes an original-source fallback. Rights remain with their owners.
Choose against a deliverable
| Task | Start with | Acceptance checks |
|---|---|---|
| Timed brand shots and precise compositions | Kling 4.0 | Keyframe adherence, subject/product identity; confirm 4K/HDR rollout |
| 30-second stories, explainers, many references | Seedance 2.5 | Continuity, timestamp edits, reference-video bills |
| Commerce, motion and text-heavy clips under 15s | H3 2K | Product shape, legibility, audiovisual sync |
| High-volume concept and composition drafts | fal H3 Max Turbo, or Kling Flash | Total cost of usable results; Flash lacks multi-keyframes |
| Custom workflows with existing GPU infrastructure | H3-Base open weights | Partial cloud feature coverage; hardware and operation costs |
Limits on speed, commercial use and self-hosting evidence
fal reports 2.46s of inference for Max and 1.54s for Turbo on a 5s, 768p text-to-video task, measured 2026-09-08. This is provider-reported inference time, not full user latency or a matched three-vendor benchmark. [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices
H3 weights are available, but H3-Base lacks cloud Context-IR and 2K regeneration. Its Community License includes territorial and commercial conditions; it is not Apache or MIT. The official Q&A distinguishes API use. Review the current agreement for the intended territory, commercial authorization and distribution. [10] MiniMax H3 self-hosting scope · [11] H3 Community License · [12] H3 license Q&A
Subscription entitlements, output rights, watermark rules, likeness/voice permissions and input rights depend on the product. Account-specific paid terms were not fully audited, so this report makes no unlimited-commercial-use, watermark-free or worldwide-availability promise.
Measure cost per accepted clip
Divide total spend by accepted outputs. Include generation, reference inputs, retries, prompt expansion, upscaling and editing. A useful next test is six identical tasks with three attempts per variant, recording delivery latency, identity, text, physics, audio sync, edit preservation and actual invoices. That paid test was not performed, so no synthetic overall score is assigned.
Fix one real deliverable and compare identical duration and resolution before upgrading. Related: YoloLab Writing.
Primary sources
- [1] Kling 4.0 launch announcement
- [2] Kling 4.0 guide and Flash FAQ
- [3] Seedance 2.5 launch and examples
- [4] BytePlus Seedance 2.5 API guide
- [5] BytePlus API pricing
- [6] MiniMax H3 launch and examples
- [7] MiniMax H3 / H3 Max API guide
- [8] MiniMax API list prices
- [9] fal H3 Max / Turbo specifications and prices
- [10] MiniMax H3 self-hosting scope
- [11] H3 Community License
- [12] H3 license Q&A
Read on 2026-10-22. Video metadata measures showcase files, not raw generation settings. Snapshot, not live pricing.