Higgsfield vs Hailuo: AI Video Generator Comparison 2026

Search for how to make AI videos, and two names keep showing up side by side these days: Higgsfield and Hailuo. Both turn text or a single photo into a short video, and both start with an inexpensive monthly plan, but they are quite different. Higgsfield is a 'model department store' that bundles models from many companies into one subscription, while Hailuo is the 'model source' that builds its own models. Which one is better depends on what you want to make. This comparison first checked both services' official pricing pages, help docs, terms and review-platform ratings on September 8, 2026, and rechecked them on November 1, 2026. The key questions are how far the free plans go, which one is easier to use in Korean, and what one video actually costs on each.

Higgsfield vs Hailuo in 3 lines

What is Higgsfield AI?

Higgsfield was founded in 2023 by Alex Mashrabov, Snap's former head of generative AI. In August 2026 it raised a $400 million Series B and announced a $5.4 billion valuation and $700 million in annualized revenue, and its official site says 25 million creators use it (the company's own count). It has no general-purpose video model of its own. Instead, it lets you pick image, video and audio models from many companies inside one subscription, including Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.5, Veo, Sora and even Hailuo's MiniMax H3 (30+ by its own marketing copy).

It has three strengths of its own. First, its in-house photoreal image model Soul 2.0, plus Soul ID, which trains on 20 of your photos to keep the same face in any scene. Second, the camera presets in Cinema Studio: you pick camera moves such as dolly, crash zoom and bullet time with a click. Third, purpose-built tools such as face swap, lip sync and virtual try-on (40+ by its own marketing copy). I covered how to use Higgsfield itself, with a Soul 2.0 walkthrough, in an earlier post. (My Higgsfield AI user review (in Korean))

What is Hailuo AI?

Hailuo is a video and image generation service made by MiniMax, based in Shanghai. MiniMax was founded in late 2021 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January 2026, and its shares more than doubled from the offer price on the first day. A Singapore entity runs the global service. After its first video model in September 2024, it moved to 1080p with Hailuo 02 in June 2025, improved motion and facial expressions with Hailuo 2.3 in October, and released its latest model, MiniMax H3, on July 31, 2026. H3 makes 4 to 15-second videos at 2K resolution and generates sound along with them, and Korean is one of its 11 supported dialogue languages.

Hailuo no longer sells only its own models, either. Its subscription includes Sora 2 and Veo 3.1, and its image generator includes Nano Banana Pro, Seedream, Midjourney and GPT Image. But those two are its only third-party video models, so there is no Kling or Seedance.

The key difference: model department store vs model source

Boiled down to one sentence, the difference is this. Higgsfield gathers other companies' models so they are easy to use, and charges a higher price per credit in return. Hailuo sells its own models at close to cost, and offers fewer choices in exchange.

You can run MiniMax H3 inside Higgsfield too. According to Higgsfield's official blog, one 5-second 2K clip costs 20 credits. Going by the pricing page, Starter is $19 a month for 270 credits, so about $1.41 per clip; Plus is $47 a month billed yearly for 1,200 credits, about $0.78; and Ultra is $99 a month billed yearly for 3,000 credits, about $0.66. Make the same video on Hailuo's own site and it takes 60 credits; since 1,000 credits cost $8.40 on the Standard plan billed yearly, that is about $0.50 per clip. For Pro and above billed yearly, the subscription page lists $0.081 per second, about $0.41 for 5 seconds. Same model, same specs, and a price gap of two to three times.

What Higgsfield adds for that difference is Soul ID's character consistency, camera presets, and models Hailuo doesn't offer, such as Kling and Seedance. If the same person has to keep appearing, as on a YouTube character channel, or you don't want to specify camera work by hand, that is a reason to pay more. If your goal is simply to run a good video model a lot, buying at the source is cheaper.

How far can you get making AI videos for free?

Short answer: on both, free is just a taste.

Higgsfield's free plan has 0 monthly credits. According to the official comparison table, outputs carry a watermark, commercial use is not allowed, and you get 1 concurrent job. Only some image models (Nano Banana Pro) are open for free generation. The $3 one-time access offered on September 8, 2026 does not appear on the pricing page as of November 1, 2026. To make videos yourself, you have to pay for at least the lowest paid plan.

Hailuo's free plan gives one-time trial credits. The official subscription page lists 0 monthly credits, 'one-time free trial credits' and 'Hailuo models only,' with no amount stated. The sign-up pop-up shown during a September 8, 2026 visit said 200 credits, but that number changes with promotions. Free outputs carry a watermark and get lower queue priority. Claims in older Korean blog posts, such as '100 credits every day,' refer to an offer discontinued in 2025 and no longer apply.

So if you are looking for free AI video generation, both services get you only as far as making a few videos, and to use results without a watermark you have to pay for the lowest plan. That lowest plan is $19 on Higgsfield and $10.50 on Hailuo ($8.40 a month billed yearly; this is a promotional price checked on November 1, 2026 and may change).

Language support: which one is easier for making AI videos in Korean?

Hailuo is clearly ahead here. Visit hailuoai.video and it switches to a Korean interface automatically, with the menus, plan descriptions and even the FAQ in Korean. The sample prompt in the generation panel is itself written in Korean (along the lines of 'a child flying a kite in a park, golden sunlight, camera tilting up'), so it is fair to say Korean prompts are officially expected. The H3 model also lists Korean dialogue generation among its stably supported languages. Many search results say it 'only supports English and Chinese,' but as of a November 2026 visit, that is outdated.

Higgsfield also shows its menus, banners and pricing page (prices included) in Korean if you pick '한국어' (Korean) from the language switcher in the top navigation (English/Español/日本語/한국어). But the default screen on arrival is English and you have to switch manually, and how well Korean prompts are understood depends on which model the request is routed to, so writing prompts in English is still the safer choice. Hailuo, by contrast, switches to Korean as soon as you arrive, and its sample prompts are in Korean from the start. How accessible each one feels comes down to that automatic switch. For both services, I could not confirm whether Korean-language customer support is offered.

Higgsfield AI vs Hailuo AI: quality, length and features

Item	Higgsfield	Hailuo
Lowest paid plan	Starter $19 a month (270 credits)	Standard $10.50 a month, $8.40 a month billed yearly (1,000 credits, promotional price)
Free tier	0 credits, watermark, no commercial use	One-time trial credits, watermark, in-house models only
Max resolution	Varies by model. H3 2K, Seedance 2.0 4K, images 4K	H3 2K, Hailuo 2.3 at 1080p
Clip length	Varies by model. H3 5 to 15 seconds, Veo 8 seconds	H3 4 to 15 seconds, 2.3 at 6 or 10 seconds, Sora 2 up to 12 seconds
Models	30+ (company's own count) + Soul 2.0 + camera presets	In-house H3, H3 Max/2.3/2.0/1.0 + Sora 2 and Veo 3.1 + 11 image models
Audio generated with video	Depends on the model (Veo, H3 and others)	Among in-house models, H3 only; 2.3 and earlier are silent (Sora 2 and Veo 3.1 support audio)
Korean	Korean UI through the language switcher (English by default)	Korean screen automatically on arrival, Korean prompts, Korean dialogue in H3
Commercial use	Allowed on every paid plan, not on free	Allowed on every paid plan; for free, the terms do not state any rights
Refunds	Could not find a policy on the pricing page or FAQ	Not offered (official FAQ)

On features, what stands out on Hailuo is H3's 'all-in-one reference.' You can add up to 9 images, 3 videos and 3 audio clips as references to combine characters, scenes, motion and music. The tools page adds multi-shot storyboards, 'Any Angle' for changing the camera angle of any image, and 'Light Studio' for relighting a scene. Higgsfield offers the same H3 with separate start and end frame controls, and stacks Soul ID, camera presets, and face swap and lip sync apps on top. Some reviews say Hailuo's editing tools are not as deep as those of editing-focused services like Runway.

Higgsfield pricing plans vs Hailuo AI pricing, and how to read the discounts

Service	Plan	Monthly billing	Billed yearly (per month)	Monthly credits	Notes
Higgsfield	Starter	$19	$19	270	No Seedance 2.5 access, 2 concurrent videos
Higgsfield	Plus	$59	$47	1,200	Seedance 2.5 access, 9 unlimited models (4 of them for 7 days only, as of 2026-11-01)
Higgsfield	Ultra	$129	$99	3,000 to 9,000	Credit slider, priority access to new models
Hailuo	Standard	$10.50	$8.40	1,000	List price $14.99, 1 concurrent
Hailuo	Pro	$38	$30.40	4,500	List price $54.99, unlimited 1K images
Hailuo	Master	$89	$71.20	10,500	List price $119.99, unlimited 2K images
Hailuo	Max	$216	$184	27,000	Unlimited Hailuo 1.0/2.0/2.3 (queued)

Keep a few things in mind when you read this table. Every Hailuo price is a promotional price. The checkout screen shows labels like '44% OFF,' and the official FAQ says prices go back to list price when the promotion ends. The sidebar shows 'from $9.99,' which does not match the numbers on the actual subscription page. The amount on the screen right before you pay is the one that counts. Higgsfield's 'unlimited models' let you run each plan's designated models without spending credits, but this applies only on the web and uses the standard queue, so it slows down at busy times. Seedance 2.5, Nano Banana Pro, Seedream 5.0 Pro and GPT Image 2.5, tagged '7-day unlimited,' are limited-time offers. On both services, credits do not roll over. Higgsfield prices exclude tax, and I could not confirm how Hailuo handles tax.

Converting credits into number of videos makes this concrete. Higgsfield Starter's 270 credits come to about 38 clips of Kling 3.0 at 720p for 5 seconds (about 7 credits each), or about 12 clips of Seedance 2.0 at 720p for 5 seconds (about 22 credits each). Hailuo Standard's 1,000 credits come to 40 clips of Hailuo 2.3 at 768p for 6 seconds (25 credits), 12 clips at 1080p for 6 seconds (80 credits), or 16 clips of H3 at 2K for 5 seconds (60 credits). Hailuo's FAQ states that it does not deduct credits for failed generations, but many reviews say credits were deducted for jobs blocked by moderation, so your experience may differ.

Risks to know before you pay

Outside the price table, the biggest gap between the two companies is trust. On Trustpilot, Higgsfield has a 4.0 rating from 5,200+ reviews (as of 2026-11-01). Complaints center on unused credits expiring and the cancellation process. Hailuo has a 1.4 rating from 94 reviews, and 82% of them are 1-star. The same stories keep repeating: charges continued after canceling, refunds were promised and then delayed, and support never answered. Hailuo's official FAQ states that it does not support refunds, so think carefully before choosing annual billing.

Hailuo also carries legal uncertainty. In September 2025, Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. sued MiniMax, alleging that Hailuo generated their characters and used them in ads, and in May 2026 the court denied the motion to dismiss, so the case is moving forward on the merits. No ruling has been made. Whether or not it is related, many users complain that moderation is excessive, and reviews include cases like Santa Claus being blocked as a celebrity. Also, the license for H3's open weights excludes Korea, but that concerns running the model on your own computer and has nothing to do with using the web or app.

Higgsfield's risk is volatility. Its plan names and prices changed several times in 2026 alone. The Basic, Pro and Max plans in my earlier post came from a third-party tally, and the official page, viewed from Korea, now shows Starter, Plus and Ultra. Make a habit of reopening the pricing page right before you pay.

FAQ

Can you make videos with Higgsfield for free?

The free plan has 0 credits, so in practice you cannot make videos, and only some image models are free. The $3 one-time access that used to exist does not appear on the pricing page as of November 1, 2026, so to try making videos you need to start with Starter ($19 a month), the lowest paid plan.

How many free credits does Hailuo AI give?

The official page only says 'one-time trial credits' and does not state an amount. The pop-up during a September 8, 2026 visit showed 200 credits, but that changes with promotions. Daily credits are not listed on the official page right now.

If you use the same MiniMax H3, which one is cheaper?

Hailuo. One 5-second 2K clip costs about $0.50 on Hailuo Standard billed yearly and about $1.41 on Higgsfield Starter. In exchange, Higgsfield lets you use other models, Soul and camera presets alongside it.

Which one has a Korean interface?

By default, Hailuo. As soon as you arrive, the menus, plan descriptions, FAQ and sample prompts all appear in Korean. Higgsfield's default screen is English, but you can choose a Korean UI (pricing page included) with the language switcher.

Can I use the videos commercially?

Yes, on paid plans for both. Hailuo's FAQ says all rights to videos downloaded without a watermark belong to the user, and Higgsfield also marks its paid plans as allowing commercial use. Neither service guarantees commercial use for free outputs.

Can I get a refund?

Hailuo's official FAQ says refunds are not offered. For Higgsfield, I could not find a refund policy on the pricing page or FAQ, and reviews include complaints about canceling. For both, starting your first month on monthly billing is the safer move.

Who each one is for: the verdict

Higgsfield is for you if you make character content where the same person keeps appearing, want camera work handled by presets, or want to switch among Kling, Seedance and Veo on one subscription. If an English interface is fine and you can accept a higher price per credit in exchange for wider choice, this is your pick. I recommend looking around on the free plan first, then confirming with Starter on monthly billing.

Hailuo is for you if you want a comfortable Korean-language interface and want to run the latest in-house model a lot for less than on Higgsfield. You can get 2K video with sound for around $0.50 per 5 seconds, which is clearly cheaper than Higgsfield. But there are no refunds and moderation is strict, so start your first month on Standard with monthly billing and check that your prompts get through.

Either way, the process is the same. Pick one video you want to make, run the same prompt on both with free credits or the lowest plan on monthly billing, put the results and generation times side by side, and then choose. Paying comes after that.