Hailuo AI

Hailuo AI is a generative AI creative platform developed by MiniMax, a Chinese artificial intelligence company, with a strong focus on AI-powered video generation. The platform enables users to transform text prompts, images, and reference materials into short AI-generated videos and visual content. It is designed to make video creation more accessible to individual creators, marketers, designers, filmmakers, educators, businesses, and other users who want to produce visual content without relying entirely on traditional filming and editing workflows.

Hailuo AI began attracting international attention after MiniMax introduced its early video-generation technology in 2024. The platform subsequently expanded from a basic text-to-video experience into a broader AI video-creation environment. MiniMax has continued releasing new video models and creative features, including image-to-video generation, subject reference, camera controls, and higher-resolution video generation. Hailuo 02, introduced in June 2025, added native 1080p generation, stronger prompt following, and improved physical movement for supported video-generation workflows.

One of Hailuo AI’s main capabilities is text-to-video generation. Users can describe a scene, character, action, environment, camera movement, or visual style in natural language, and the system generates a corresponding video. This makes it possible to develop concepts for advertisements, short films, social media videos, animations, product demonstrations, and visual storytelling without recording every scene manually.

Hailuo also supports image-to-video generation, allowing users to upload an image and transform it into an animated video. This can be useful for bringing illustrations, photographs, product images, character designs, and other static visual assets to life. Users can combine an image with a text prompt to describe the desired movement, environment, action, or cinematic effect.

Another important feature is subject reference. Hailuo’s S2V-01 technology was introduced to help maintain the visual identity of a subject across generated video content. Instead of repeatedly generating a character from scratch, users can provide an image reference and use prompts to place the subject in different environments, poses, and situations. This can be useful when creating multiple scenes that need to feature a consistent character or visual subject.

Hailuo has also introduced camera-control capabilities for users who want more control over how generated scenes are presented. Its Director models support multiple camera movements that can be combined to create different cinematic effects. Users can control movements such as tracking, panning, tilting, zooming, and other camera behaviors through prompts and dedicated controls. This gives creators more control than a basic prompt-to-video workflow.

The platform’s newer models are also designed for more complex visual scenes. Hailuo 02 supports native 1080p generation on supported workflows and is designed to handle complex prompts and physical interactions. This makes the model useful for scenes involving movement, sports, action, objects interacting with environments, and other situations where motion consistency is important.

Hailuo AI is not limited to video generation. MiniMax has developed a wider collection of multimodal AI technologies covering images, speech, music, and other forms of generated media. Hailuo’s ecosystem can therefore be used alongside MiniMax’s audio and multimedia capabilities. MiniMax has also developed music-generation technology capable of creating instrumental and vocal music, while its speech technology supports applications such as voice generation and audio content.

Hailuo also provides AI video-agent capabilities for more structured production workflows. These tools are intended to assist with larger video projects by combining different elements of the production process. Instead of simply generating an isolated clip, users can use AI-assisted workflows to develop more complete videos involving concepts, scenes, narration, and visual assets.

For businesses and professional creators, Hailuo can be used in advertising and marketing. A company can use generated video content for social media campaigns, product presentations, promotional concepts, advertisements, and visual storytelling. Retail and e-commerce businesses can also use image-to-video workflows to turn product photographs into more engaging promotional content.

The platform is also relevant to entertainment and media production. Filmmakers and independent creators can use Hailuo to explore story concepts, create previsualization material, experiment with visual effects, and produce short-form content. Animation and gaming creators can use generated scenes and character references to explore environments, character concepts, and cinematic sequences before investing in more traditional production.

Education is another potential application. Teachers, students, and educational-content creators can use AI-generated video to create visual explanations, demonstrations, historical scenes, creative projects, and other educational materials. The ability to transform text descriptions and images into video can make certain concepts easier to present visually.

Hailuo is also available through MiniMax’s developer platform. Its video-generation models can be accessed through APIs, allowing developers and businesses to integrate AI video generation into their own applications and automated workflows. The availability of an API makes Hailuo relevant not only to individual creators but also to companies developing products that require programmatic image, video, speech, or multimedia generation.

The platform operates through a credit-based system. Free users can access basic generation capabilities but have limitations such as watermarked downloads and lower generation priority. Paid subscriptions provide larger monthly credit allowances, faster processing, watermark-free downloads, and access to additional capabilities. Credit consumption depends on the model and generation settings being used, so users producing large amounts of video need to monitor their usage.

Hailuo AI has therefore developed from an AI video-generation experiment into a broader creative platform combining video generation, image-based animation, subject reference, camera control, multimodal creation, and developer access. Its continued model development gives creators multiple ways to experiment with AI-generated visual content, while its API provides a path for integrating those capabilities into software and commercial workflows.

Pricing

Hailuo AI uses a freemium, subscription, and credit-based pricing model.

Current published Hailuo AI pricing information includes:

• Free: $0 with basic access and limited generation.
• Standard: approximately $6.99/month with 1,000 credits.
• Pro: approximately $23.99/month with 4,500 credits.
• Master: approximately $53.99/month with 10,500 credits.
• Ultra: $124.99/month with 12,000 credits.
• Max: $199.99/month with 20,000 credits.

Hailuo also offers annual subscription options and separately purchased credits. Pricing can vary according to current promotions and subscription terms.

Review

Hailuo AI is primarily focused on AI video creation and offers a broad set of tools for turning text prompts and images into animated visual content. Its development from early video-generation models to Hailuo 02 and newer multimodal capabilities shows a continued emphasis on improving motion, prompt following, visual consistency, and creative control.

Its subject-reference functionality is useful for workflows where maintaining a recognizable character or subject matters, while its Director models give creators greater control over camera movement. Hailuo 02 also supports native 1080p generation on supported workflows.

The credit system is the main consideration for frequent users. Different models and settings consume credits at different rates, and higher-volume video production can require a paid subscription or additional credits. Free users can experiment with the platform, but their generation options and download features are more limited.

Hailuo is particularly suited to creators, marketers, designers, educators, filmmakers, and businesses that need AI-generated video and visual content. API availability also makes it relevant to developers building applications around generative media.