Can you use a free AI video commercially?
We do not currently have an affiliate relationship with any product on this page, and no vendor paid for placement or review. Outbound product links are marked nofollow.
The Short Answer
- Pika — Pika's terms grant free users a licence "solely for your personal, noncommercial use—except where your subscription Plan expressly permits commercial use", at 480p and image-to-video only.
- Runway — Runway's terms say "the Company does not restrict your commercial use of your Outputs", and its help centre says "All videos generated on a Free plan feature a Runway watermark".
- Luma AI (Dream Machine) — Luma's pricing page lists three paid plans and mentions "free trial credits" only in passing, while its terms limit free-use output to "internal evaluation and testing".
- Kling AI — Kling's free Basic card carries the line "Generated content is not for commercial use", against "Generated content is for commercial use" on all four paid tiers.
| Product | Best for | From | Free plan | Free-plan clip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pika | The only free licence stated outright | $8/mo (annual) | Yes | Conditions attached |
| Runway | Sell it freely, with Runway's name on it | $12/mo (annual) | Yes | Conditions attached |
| Luma AI (Dream Machine) | Two documents describing different free tiers | $25/mo (annual) | No | Not confirmed |
| Kling AI | The plainest no on the page | $8.80/mo | Yes | Payment required |
What we checked, and what we did not test
AI video is the loudest category on the internet right now and the least willing to say what its free tier produces. Two facts decide whether a free clip is usable for anything real: whether a logo is burned into the corner, and whether you are allowed to put it in something that earns money. Neither is on a marketing page.
We read four pricing pages and four sets of terms on 6 August 2026, and quote the clauses. We did not generate video.
What we refused to conclude, and what we found when we went looking
Runway’s pricing page lists “No watermarks” as a feature of the paid Standard tier. The first version of this page declined to conclude from that alone that free output is watermarked, and that was right: a feature named on a paid tier tells you what paying includes, not what not paying excludes.
Then we searched Runway’s help centre, which answers it in one line: “All videos generated on a Free plan feature a Runway watermark.” So the conclusion we refused to infer turned out to be correct — and it is worth being clear that this does not retroactively justify the inference. We now publish it because a vendor wrote it down, which is the only reason this site ever publishes anything. The difference between a guess that happens to be right and a sourced fact is the entire product.
The same discipline leaves Luma blank: its two documents describe different things by the same word, and its rendered pricing page lists no free plan at all.
Kling was a third blank until we opened its pages in a full browser. Its pricing and terms render nothing without JavaScript — one fetcher was refused outright with HTTP 446 — and the earlier version of this page recorded that as unreadable. Rendered, the page is not merely readable but the most direct in the category: the licence sits on the plan card in one line. The lesson we took is about our own method rather than about Kling: a page that returns no text to a plain request has not necessarily said nothing, and the honest move is to go and look with a browser before writing that a vendor is silent.
One of four still unconfirmed leaves this category better documented than it looked on first pass — and every one of those answers took a step past the pricing page, into a help centre, a terms document, or a browser that renders JavaScript. None of it was on the page a buyer lands on, in the category with the most money moving through it.
The only free licence stated outright
1. Pika — The only free licence stated outright
Pika is the only vendor here that writes its free-tier boundary into the terms instead of leaving it to a feature grid.
Best for The only free tier here whose licence is stated outright
From $8/mo (annual). Free plan: Basic — "$0" with "80 monthly video credits", access to Pika 2.5 at "480p only" and "Image-to-Video only"; the free feature list omits the "Download videos with no watermark" and "Commercial use" bullets that paid tiers carry.
- Standard — $8/mo billed annually · 1 seat ("$8 / month billed yearly" with 700 monthly credits; the month-to-month rate is rendered client-side and was not in the page markup)
- Pro — $28/mo billed annually · 1 seat ("$28 / month billed yearly" with 2,300 monthly credits)
- Fancy — $76/mo billed annually · 1 seat ("$76 / month billed yearly" with 6,000 monthly credits)
Pika's terms state the free licence without ambiguity: "Pika hereby grants you a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, nonsublicensable, revocable license to access and use the Service solely for your personal, noncommercial use—except where your subscription Plan expressly permits commercial use." Ownership is unconditional in the other direction — "Pika does not claim ownership of any Inputs you submit or Outputs generated… you retain all interest in those Outputs" — so free output is yours, at 480p, for personal use.
Pros
- Free credits renew monthly rather than being a one-time grant.
- Output ownership is stated unconditionally, on every plan including free.
- The commercial-use boundary is written into the terms rather than implied by a feature list.
Skip it if
- Free generation is capped at 480p and image-to-video only.
- The terms restrict free output to personal, non-commercial use.
- Month-to-month prices are not present in the page's markup, only the annual rates.
Sell it freely, with Runway's name on it
2. Runway — Sell it freely, with Runway's name on it
Runway has the most permissive licence in the category and puts a watermark on every free video it covers.
Best for Commercial use granted, watermark confirmed
From $12/mo (annual). Free plan: Free — "$0 /month" with "125 credits (one time)", a selection of generative models "to test concepts" and 5GB asset storage; the FAQ adds that "the Free plan includes a one-time deposit of 125 credits that doesn't expire".
- Standard — $15/mo, or $12/mo billed annually · 1 seat (625 credits a month; the page states a $36 annual saving)
- Pro — $35/mo, or $28/mo billed annually · 1 seat (2,250 credits a month)
- Max — $95/mo, or $76/mo billed annually · 1 seat (9,500 credits a month with one month of credit rollover)
- Enterprise — price not shown on the page we opened ("Contact Us" for custom credit packages)
Both halves are now answered, and they point in opposite directions. The licence is the most permissive in this category: "the Company does not restrict your commercial use of your Outputs" and "The Company does not claim ownership of any of your Inputs or Outputs", with no tier carve-out. The mark is confirmed in Runway's help centre: "All videos generated on a Free plan feature a Runway watermark." So free output is yours to sell, with Runway's name burned into it.
Pros
- The terms place no commercial restriction on output and claim no ownership of it, on any tier.
- The 125 free credits are a real grant that "doesn't expire" rather than a countdown.
- Every paid tier's credit allowance and annual saving is published as a number.
Skip it if
- Every video generated on the free plan carries a Runway watermark, per its help centre.
- Free credits are a one-time deposit of 125 that "does not renew or refresh once spent"; every paid tier renews monthly.
- The pricing page never mentions the watermark — that fact lives only in the help centre.
Two documents describing different free tiers
3. Luma AI (Dream Machine) — Two documents describing different free tiers
Luma’s pricing page and terms do not describe the same free tier, so we record neither.
Best for Nothing we can confirm on this axis yet
From $25/mo (annual). No free plan.
- Plus — $30/mo, or $25/mo billed annually · 1 seat ($300 billed yearly; 10,000 credits and commercial use per the plan description)
- Pro — $90/mo, or $75/mo billed annually · 1 seat ($900 billed yearly; 40,000 credits)
- Ultra — $300/mo, or $250/mo billed annually · 1 seat ($3,000 billed yearly; 150,000 credits)
- Team / Enterprise — price not shown on the page we opened ("Contact us" for both, with no published price)
We rendered the pricing page in a full browser to be sure, and it lists Plus, Pro and Ultra with no $0 plan of any kind; lumalabs.ai/dream-machine/pricing now resolves to that same page. Its metadata mentions "free trial credits" without naming a credit amount, resolution or watermark policy, while the terms describe free-use output as usable "only for your internal evaluation and testing" and reserve the right to "embed watermarks, content credentials, provenance metadata, or other identifying information" without saying when. A trial that is never described is not a free tier we can judge.
Pros
- Ownership for paid use is assigned outright: "Customer owns and retains all right, title, and interest in and to the Output".
- All three individual plans list commercial use in their published plan data.
Skip it if
- No free plan appears anywhere on the rendered pricing page — only Plus, Pro and Ultra.
- The terms limit free-use output to "internal evaluation and testing", which is narrower than the pricing page's passing mention of free trial credits.
- The Dream Machine pricing URL now resolves to the general Luma app page.
The plainest no on the page
4. Kling AI — The plainest no on the page
Kling puts the licence on the plan card, which is the one place in this category a buyer will definitely look.
Best for A free tier that says outright it is not for commercial use
From $8.80/mo. Free plan: Basic — "$0", "Free forever", with "No monthly Credits", "Login to receive monthly credits", an element creation quantity of 30, and the plain statement "Generated content is not for commercial use".
- Standard — $8.80/mo · 1 seat (Shown as "$6.99 / Month" against a $10 list price, with "Next monthly renewal: $8.8 (12% off)" — the $6.99 is a first-subscription offer, so the recurring figure is the one recorded. 660 credits a month. A yearly toggle advertises -34% but we did not capture its figures)
- Pro — $32.56/mo · 1 seat ("$25.99 / Month" as a first-subscription offer against $37, renewing at $32.56. 3,000 credits a month)
- Premier — $80.96/mo · 1 seat ("$64.99 / Month" first-subscription offer against $92, renewing at $80.96. 8,000 credits a month)
- Ultra — $159.99/mo · 1 seat ("$127.99 / Month" first-subscription offer against $180, renewing at $159.99. 26,000 credits a month)
Kling's free Basic card answers the licence half in one line: "Generated content is not for commercial use", against "Generated content is for commercial use" on every paid tier. It also carries "No monthly Credits" and "Login to receive monthly credits". The watermark half is not stated for the free plan — "Brand watermark removal" is listed as a paid feature, and a feature named on a paid tier is not a statement about the free one.
Pros
- The commercial-use boundary is printed on the plan card itself rather than buried in terms.
- Every paid tier publishes both its credit allowance and its cost per 100 credits.
Skip it if
- Free output is stated as not for commercial use, and the free card lists no monthly credits at all.
- Every advertised price is a first-subscription offer; the recurring figure is higher and appears in smaller type beneath it.
- The pricing page renders nothing without JavaScript, so its terms are invisible to any reader or crawler that does not execute it.
What this means if you are choosing today
If a clip is going into client work, Runway is the only one of these four whose terms grant commercial use without a subscription clause attached — and every free clip carries its watermark, so the free tier is for deciding whether to pay rather than for delivering anything. Standard is $12 a month billed annually.
If you are experimenting, Pika’s free tier is the most usable of the four for the purpose: 80 renewing credits, 480p, image-to-video, personal use. Kling’s is the most clearly labelled and the least generous — no monthly credits on the free card at all — and its advertised prices are first-subscription offers with the recurring figure printed underneath in smaller type. Read the second number.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which free AI video tool allows commercial use?
Only Runway, going by the documents. Its terms say "the Company does not restrict your commercial use of your Outputs" and "The Company does not claim ownership of any of your Inputs or Outputs", with no free-versus-paid carve-out. Pika's terms restrict free output to "personal, noncommercial use", and Kling's free plan card says "Generated content is not for commercial use" outright.
Are free AI videos watermarked?
Runway's are, stated outright in its help centre: "All videos generated on a Free plan feature a Runway watermark." Pika answers by omission — "Download videos with no watermark" appears on its paid tiers and not the free one. Kling lists "Brand watermark removal" as a paid feature without saying what free carries. Luma reserves the right to embed watermarks without saying when.
Why do two of four verdicts here read Not confirmed?
Because two vendors do not answer the question on their own pages. Runway answers the commercial half generously and leaves the watermark half unwritten. Luma lists no free plan at all, and its terms describe free use as "internal evaluation and testing" without explaining what an unpaid user can actually do. Kling was a third blank until we rendered its pages in a full browser, which is recorded in the change log.
What does Kling's free plan cost and include?
Nothing and very little. The Basic card reads "$0", "Free forever", "No monthly Credits" and "Login to receive monthly credits", with an element creation quantity of 30 and the line "Generated content is not for commercial use". Paid tiers start at $8.80 a month recurring — advertised as $6.99, which is a first-subscription offer — and add commercial use and brand watermark removal.
What does Luma's free tier actually include?
We could not establish it. The pricing page lists Plus, Pro and Ultra with no $0 plan, and mentions "free trial credits" only in passing metadata with no credit amount, resolution or watermark policy. The terms describe free-use output as usable "only for your internal evaluation and testing" and reserve the right to "embed watermarks, content credentials, provenance metadata, or other identifying information" without saying when.
Did you generate any videos?
No. Every verdict here was read on the vendor's own pricing page or terms on 6 August 2026 and is labelled as read, not run. In this category a hands-on test would answer more than usual, because the watermark is visible the instant a clip renders and three vendors decline to describe it.
How We Keep This Updated
Prices move and vendors rewrite their plan tables, so every value on this page carries the date we read it. When a page changes, the change lands here rather than being edited away quietly. The procedure is on the methodology page. tell us and we will re-check it.
- 2026-08-06 — Corrected. Runway's watermark status was first recorded as unconfirmed because its pricing page does not address it. Its help centre does — "All videos generated on a Free plan feature a Runway watermark" — so its verdict is now recorded as a stated condition rather than a blank.
- 2026-08-06 — Corrected. Kling was first published as unreadable because its pages return an empty app shell to plain HTTP requests. Rendering them in a full browser produced its whole pricing table and the line "Generated content is not for commercial use" on the free plan, so its verdict is now recorded rather than blank. Luma's blank was re-checked the same way and stands: the rendered pricing page lists no free plan.
- 2026-08-06 — First published. Licence terms read in each vendor's own terms of service; Runway's watermark status recorded as unconfirmed rather than inferred from its paid-tier feature list.