Pika

Pika is a consumer AI video platform built by Stanford AI researchers around the tagline that reality is optional, favouring stylised and imaginative output over strict photorealism. It handles text-to-video, image-to-video and video-to-video, plus a set of branded effects: Pikaffects for physics-defying transformations, Pikadditions for inserting objects, Pikaswaps for replacing them, Pikaframes for keyframe interpolation and Pikaformance for audio-driven lip sync. The licence ladder is where people get caught out. Free gives 80 monthly credits at 480p with a watermark. Multiple pricing analyses report that watermark-free downloads and commercial use rights sit above the cheapest paid plan rather than at it, so paying the entry price does not necessarily buy the right to publish commercially; verify at checkout. A 1080p five-second clip runs around 40 credits, subscription credits expire monthly, and purchased top-up packs roll over.