Which AI video engine should I use — a decision guide for eroq

eroq runs 16 video engines, and the question we get most isn't "which is best" but "which one for this". The right answer is a short sequence of eliminations. Work through them in order — privacy and moderation, sound, length, resolution, motion, budget — and usually one or two engines are left standing before you reach the end. Every number here is from the engine roster.

Six eliminations, in order

1. Start with privacy and moderation

This one is binary. If you need an engine that keeps nothing upstream, or a provider keeps refusing your prompt, the engine is one of eroq's own: Motion One (768p native, 1080p and 2K upscaled, sound baked in) or Motion Pro (720p or 1080p). Both are uncensored within the acceptable-use policy, private, and on every account, free included.

Everything else — the Seedance, Veo, Kling and Hailuo families, Wan 3.0, Runway Gen-4.5 and Grok Imagine — is moderated upstream by its provider, before eroq sees the output, and those providers may log prompts on their side. A prompt a provider refuses returns content_blocked and costs nothing: the credits come back, but the clip doesn't.

If neither applies, keep going.

2. Then sound

Most engines now render sound with the picture — ambience, effects, a spoken line — and on several it is a switch, cheaper off. Three render silent clips: Hailuo 3 Max, Runway Gen-4.5 and Grok Imagine. If the clip needs a character's own voice, the Seedance family and Hailuo 3 take a voice sample, so the lines come out in that voice.

If sound is coming from an edit afterward, or the clip is silent by design, every engine is still in play.

3. Then length

Now it is a range question.

• More than 15 seconds in one take: Seedance 2.5 (4 to 30 seconds) or Wan 3.0 (2 to 30).
• Up to 15 seconds: the Seedance 2.0 family, Kling 3.0 and 3.0 Pro, Hailuo 3 and 3 Max, Motion One, Motion Pro (5, 10 or 15) and Grok Imagine.
• Up to 10: Runway Gen-4.5.
• 4, 6 or 8: the Veo 3.1 family.

Your plan caps the ceiling regardless of engine: 10 seconds on free, 15 on Hobby, 20 on Creator, 30 on Studio, Team and Agency. A 30-second Seedance 2.5 clip is a Studio-and-up render; on Creator the same engine tops out at 20.

4. Then resolution

• 4K: Seedance 2.0, Veo 3.1 and Veo 3.1 Fast (4K from Creator).
• 2K: Hailuo 3.
• 1080p: Veo 3.1 Lite, Wan 3.0, Grok Imagine and Motion Pro.
• 768p: Motion One, Hailuo 3 Max.
• 720p: Seedance 2.5, Seedance 2.0 Fast and Mini, Kling 3.0 and 3.0 Pro, Runway Gen-4.5.
• 1080p or 2K, upscaled: Motion One and Seedance 2.5 also sell 1080p and 2K tiers, rendered at their own resolution then upscaled, and eroq Upscale (coming soon) takes any clip there — Video › Edit › Upscale, 2K from Creator.

A 9:16 clip watched on a phone rarely needs 1080p. A 16:9 hero on a website or a TV usually does. Decide by the screen, not by pride.

5. Then motion style

If two or three engines are still standing, this is where reputations decide it.

• People — fluid motion and faces: Kling 3.0. @mention a Character and it reads up to four of their pictures, so the same face carries across clips. Side-by-side with Seedance on /compare/seedance-vs-kling.
• Physics and dramatic light — things that fall, splash, hit, lit hard: Hailuo 3 (2K, Creator) or Hailuo 3 Max (Hobby). Side-by-side with Kling on /compare/kling-vs-hailuo.
• Control — a reproducibility seed, a fixed end frame: the Seedance and Veo families honor a seed and take both a first and a last frame; Wan and Runway take a seed too. When you need to land on a known final image, pick an engine with an end frame.
• Dialogue and multi-shot from one prompt: Veo 3.1.
• Drafting: Seedance 2.0 Mini, which shares the Seedance register and controls for the fewest credits of any third-party engine (75 for 5 seconds at 480p).

6. Then budget

Credits for a 5-second clip at each engine's default settings are in the table below; the price is per second, so a 10-second clip costs twice as much. At the entry pack a credit is roughly a cent, so the roster runs from about $0.75 to $8.45 for five seconds.

The plan decides what is on the menu before price does: free accounts have Motion One, Motion Pro, Seedance 2.0 Mini and Veo 3.1 Lite; Hobby ($15, 1,800 credits) adds Veo 3.1 Fast, Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.0 Fast, Hailuo 3 Max and Wan 3.0; Creator ($49, 6,000 credits) adds every engine and a priority video queue; Studio ($149, 20,000 credits) raises the clip cap to 30 seconds. Failed renders refund automatically and credits roll over, so the number you are budgeting is renders that succeed. The whole grid is on /pricing.

The short table

Engine	Credits / 5 s	Lengths	Max resolution	Plan	Sound	Uncensored
Motion One	145	5–15 s	768p (2K upscaled)	every account	built in	yes
Motion Pro	150	5, 10, 15 s	1080p	every account	yes	yes
Seedance 2.0 Mini	75	4–15 s	720p	every account	yes	no
Veo 3.1 Lite	110	4, 6, 8 s	1080p	every account	yes	no
Seedance 2.0 Fast	195	4–15 s	720p	Hobby and up	yes	no
Veo 3.1 Fast	215	4, 6, 8 s	4K (from Creator)	Hobby and up	yes	no
Kling 3.0	270	3–15 s	720p	Hobby and up	yes	no
Hailuo 3 Max · MiniMax	170	5–15 s	768p	Hobby and up	no	no
Wan 3.0	215	2–30 s	1080p	Hobby and up	yes	no
Seedance 2.5	490	4–30 s	720p (2K upscaled)	Creator and up	yes	no
Seedance 2.0	320	4–15 s	4K	Creator and up	yes	no
Veo 3.1	845	4, 6, 8 s	4K	Creator and up	yes	no
Kling 3.0 Pro	355	3–15 s	720p	Creator and up	yes	no
Hailuo 3 · MiniMax	275	5–15 s	2K	Creator and up	yes	no
Runway Gen-4.5	255	2–10 s	720p	Creator and up	no	no
Grok Imagine	300	1–15 s	1080p	Creator and up	no	no

Four jobs, four answers

A vertical short on a free account. Motion One, 9:16, 5 seconds, 145 credits. The 40 starting credits fall short of it (they do cover one five-second Motion One clip at 480p, at 35 credits), and the Starter pack ($10, 1,000 credits) is 1,000 ÷ 145 = 6 Motion One clips.

A 20-second establishing shot for a short film. Seedance 2.5 on Creator, 16:9, 720p, seed pinned after the first take. Build the rest of the film around it in Cinema, shot by shot.

A product ad with a spoken line. Veo 3.1 Fast, 8 seconds, 9:16 for Reels, the product saved as an Element. The Ads Studio is built for exactly this: inside a brand, Create → Video with Stories & Reels as the place, the UGC testimonial format, a presenter and a line Clap writes, on an engine that speaks and sees the product photo.

A portrait performance from a Character. Kling 3.0, 5 seconds, Close-up, the Character @mentioned so its pictures ride as references. Or draft the framing as a still in the Image tool first, then Animate it.

One prompt, several engines

The register is the same everywhere — one flowing paragraph, subject, motion, camera, light, mood, 30 to 80 words — which means you can write once and route by the decision above:

A skateboarder drops into an empty concrete pool at golden hour, wheels rattling over the coping as she carves one long arc up the far wall and kicks out at the lip, dust and light behind her. Tracking shot from the deck, FPV drone feel, contre-jour sun, warm film palette, dynamic and loose.

On an engine with sound, "wheels rattling" becomes a sound. On a silent one it is a visual cue for how the wheels move. On Hailuo the dust gets the attention; on Kling, her body does; on Seedance 2.5 you could give the arc 15 seconds. Same prompt, different clips — and the decision list tells you which one you meant.

FAQ

Which eroq video engine is uncensored?

Motion One and Motion Pro, eroq's own engines, which also retain nothing upstream. The other engines — the Seedance, Veo, Kling and Hailuo families, Wan 3.0, Runway Gen-4.5 and Grok Imagine — are moderated upstream by their providers; a prompt a provider refuses returns content_blocked and costs nothing.

Which engine makes the longest clips?

Seedance 2.5 and Wan 3.0, up to 30 seconds. Your plan caps the ceiling — 20 seconds on Creator, 30 on Studio, Team and Agency.

Which engine is cheapest per clip?

eroq's own Motion One at 480p: 35 credits per 5 seconds, on every account, free included (145 at its default 768p). The cheapest third-party engine is Seedance 2.0 Mini, at 75 credits per 5 seconds, also on every account.

Pick the engine, paste the prompt, render — /studio/video.