ShengShu Technology · Tools

Vidu

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At a glance

Price
from 8 $/mo
Vendor
ShengShu Technology

Specifications & properties

Key decision factors

Pricing model
Freemium 1
Generation modes
  • Text to video
  • Image to video
1
Maximum resolution
4K 1
Commercial usage rights
Full commercial use 1
Max clip length
16 sec 1

Pricing

Price from
8 $/mo 1
Free tier
Yes 1
Watermark on free tier
Yes 1

Integration

API available
Yes 1

Capabilities

Consistent characters
Yes 1

Model

Model / engine
Vidu Q3 1
Report data / suggest a correction

Metrics vs. the category

Max clip length
16 sec Category max 2,400 sec (3 with data)

Vidu is an AI video generator by ShengShu Technology (model Vidu Q3) offering text-to-video, image-to-video and reference-to-video for consistent characters. Paid plans are credit-based; a free tier is available.

Profile

Vidu is a generative AI video tool by ShengShu Technology, built on the Vidu Q3 model, that turns text prompts, images, or a reference image into short video clips — including a reference-to-video mode designed to keep a character consistent across shots. It's a credit-based freemium product with both a consumer web app (vidu.com) and a separate developer API platform for programmatic access.

Who builds it

Vidu is developed by ShengShu Technology, and the product is built around its own Vidu Q3 generation model rather than a licensed third-party engine. Alongside the standard text-to-video and image-to-video modes common to this category, Vidu emphasizes reference-to-video generation, letting a user supply a reference image so the same character or subject stays visually consistent across multiple generated clips.

Core features

  • Text-to-video and image-to-video, the two core generation modes for turning a prompt or a still image into motion.
  • Reference-to-video for consistent characters, using a supplied reference image to keep a subject's appearance stable across generations.
  • Up to 4K ("Ultra-HD") output, per Vidu's pricing page.
  • Clips of roughly 11–16 seconds with the Vidu Q3 model, per Vidu's pricing page.
  • Downloads without a watermark, listed as a plan feature on Vidu's pricing page.
  • A separate API platform (platform.vidu.com) with pay-as-you-go credits priced at $0.005 each, for developers who want to call video generation programmatically rather than through the web app.

Pricing

Vidu uses a credit-based freemium model rather than a flat price per video:

  • Free: a genuine no-cost tier for trying text-to-video and image-to-video generation.
  • Paid subscription: listed from $8/month when billed annually (billed as $96/year).
  • API credits: on the separate developer platform, each generation consumes credits priced at $0.005 per credit.
  • Enterprise: custom pricing for higher-volume needs.

Because both the consumer app and the API run on credits rather than a fixed per-video fee, actual cost depends on how many clips you generate and at what quality/length settings, which consume different amounts of credits.

Who it's for

Vidu targets creators and developers who want short, AI-generated video clips with a consistent character across shots: social and marketing creators making short-form video ads or story content, indie filmmakers storyboarding scenes with a repeatable character, and developers integrating text/image-to-video generation into their own apps via the API platform's pay-per-credit pricing. The free tier is a reasonable way to test generation quality and the reference-to-video consistency feature before moving to a paid subscription for watermark-free, commercially licensed output at higher resolution.

Frequently asked questions

What does Vidu cost?

Vidu is credit-based freemium: there's a free tier for basic generation, and the paid subscription is listed from $8/month when billed annually (billed as $96/year). Vidu's separate API platform runs on pay-as-you-go credits priced at $0.005 each rather than a subscription, so developers pay per generation rather than per month.

Is Vidu free, and does the free plan add a watermark?

Yes, Vidu has a genuine free tier. Vidu's pricing page lists "download without watermark" as a feature associated with its paid subscription, which implies the free tier's downloads are not watermark-free by default; the page doesn't spell this out in a single explicit sentence, so treat the free tier as likely watermarked and confirm current terms on vidu.com/pricing before relying on it for a clean export.

What is the maximum resolution and clip length in Vidu?

Vidu's pricing page states Ultra-HD output up to 4K, and Vidu Q3 video generation runs roughly 11–16 seconds per clip.

Can I use Vidu videos commercially?

Yes — Vidu's pricing page states that commercial use is permitted ("Kommerzielle Nutzung erlaubt" / commercial use allowed) as part of its plan terms.

Does Vidu have an API?

Yes — Vidu runs a separate developer API platform at platform.vidu.com, where each generation on the API consumes credits priced at $0.005 each rather than being bundled into the consumer subscription.

Vidu vs. Runway — which text/image-to-video generator should I pick?

Both are generative video tools with free tiers and credit-based paid plans. Vidu (Vidu Q3 model) offers up to 4K output, roughly 11–16 second clips, reference-to-video character consistency, and a paid subscription from $8/month annual, plus a separate pay-per-credit API. Runway (Gen-4.5 model) offers image-to-video generation with 4K upscaling, its own consistent-character feature, an API, and paid plans from $12/month with a free tier. Choose based on which model's output style and credit economics fit your workflow, and confirm current numbers on each vendor's pricing page.