AI Video Generation Statistics 2026
AI video went from party trick to production tool in under two years: 124 million monthly users, generation volume up 840%, per-clip costs measured in cents — and, in the middle of the boom, the shutdown of the product that started it. This index tracks the users, volumes, platforms, prices and enterprise adoption behind AI video. Every figure is attributed, dated, and rated for confidence.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!
The state of play: video follows the text curve
AI video in 2026 looks like AI text did in 2024: explosive volume growth, collapsing unit costs, and rapid consolidation around a handful of winners. Monthly active users across AI video platforms passed 124 million in January 2026, and the number of videos generated grew roughly 840% in two years. What was a research demo in early 2024 is now a routine production input — 78% of marketing teams use AI-generated video in at least one campaign per quarter, and 73% of Fortune 500 companies have integrated AI video tools into their content workflows.
The economics explain the speed. A ten-second clip that would have required a shoot, a crew and an edit suite now costs between five cents and a few dollars depending on the model, and renders in minutes. At those prices, video stops being a scarce asset and becomes a volume medium — the same shift text went through when token prices collapsed.
The market’s defining event, though, was a failure: OpenAI’s Sora — the product that made AI video famous — is being shut down in stages through 2026 even as the category booms. The lesson of the reshuffle is that model quality alone does not decide who survives; distribution and unit economics do. Kuaishou’s Kling, attached to an existing short-video ecosystem, reached an estimated $500M revenue run-rate; Google’s Veo, distributed through Gemini, Flow and Adobe, generated hundreds of millions of clips in months. The standalone-app model lost.
- Volume, not novelty. 124M monthly users and +840% generation growth in two years make video the fastest-scaling generative modality after text.
- Costs are collapsing. Ten seconds of usable video now costs $0.05–$7.50 depending on tier — cheap enough to A/B-test video like display ads.
- Distribution beats models. Sora’s shutdown amid a boom shows ecosystems (Kling×Kuaishou, Veo×Google/Adobe) win over standalone apps.
Adoption & volume
Cross-platform monthly active users surpassed 124 million in January 2026, with generation volume up ~840% between January 2024 and January 2026 (Luma Labs industry tracking MEDIUM). On the demand side, 78% of marketing teams now use AI-generated video in at least one campaign per quarter and 73% of Fortune 500 companies have integrated AI video tools into content workflows (Pictory, 2026 MEDIUM).
The dominant use cases are short-form: social and ad creative, product explainers, localization (regenerating the same spot per market), and previsualization for traditional shoots. Long-form remains constrained by clip-length limits — most models generate 5–20 seconds per pass, so longer pieces are chained from short clips in editors. For how AI-generated video fits the broader synthetic-content picture across text, code, images and audio, see our AI-Generated Content index.
The platform landscape
Five ecosystems now define the market. The table collects each platform’s best-documented 2026 standing:
| Platform | Owner | 2026 standing | Key figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kling 3.0 | Kuaishou | Revenue leader; best value per clip | ~$500M annualized run-rate (mid-2026); 60M creators and 600M+ videos by Dec 2025 MEDIUM |
| Veo 3.1 / Flow | Enterprise favorite; deepest distribution (Gemini, Flow, Adobe Firefly) | 70M+ videos in ~2 months post-launch; Flow passed 275M videos in ~5 months (Google, Oct 2025) HIGH | |
| Sora 2 | OpenAI | Being retired despite category-leading motion realism | Peaked at ~3.3M monthly downloads (Nov 2025); app closed Apr 26, 2026; API sunsets Sep 24, 2026 MEDIUM |
| Runway Gen-4.5 | Runway | Filmmaker/pro tooling; unlimited-generation subscription model | Unlimited tier at $76/mo; standard from ~$12–15/mo MEDIUM |
| Seedance 2.0 | ByteDance | Fast follower with TikTok-scale distribution potential | Competitive on benchmarks; API pricing among the lowest tier MEDIUM |
The price of a generated second
Video pricing splits into two models: per-second API rates for builders, and subscription credits for creators. Representative mid-2026 figures:
| Model / tier | Pricing model | Representative cost |
|---|---|---|
| Veo 3.1 Lite (API) | Per second | ~$0.05/sec → ~$0.50 per 10-sec clip |
| Kling 3.0 Standard (API) | Per clip | ~$0.84 per 10 sec with audio |
| Sora 2 Pro (API, until sunset) | Per second | ~$0.75/sec → ~$7.50 per 10-sec clip |
| Typical 30-second finished clip | Any model | $1.50–$12 depending on model and tier |
| Runway Unlimited | Subscription | $76/mo, unlimited generations |
| Kling consumer | Subscription | from ~$10/mo |
| Veo via Google AI Pro / Adobe Firefly | Bundled subscription | $28.99/mo / $9.99/mo |
All pricing figures are vendor list prices compiled mid-2026 MEDIUM — they change frequently and generation costs roughly double from 5-sec to 10-sec clips. The trend, however, mirrors LLM tokens: an order-of-magnitude decline in the cost of a given quality level roughly every 12–18 months.
The Sora shutdown, explained
Sora made AI video mainstream — and its retirement is the category’s biggest cautionary tale. The consumer app peaked at roughly 3.3 million monthly downloads in November 2025, but OpenAI confirmed a two-stage wind-down: the consumer app closed on April 26, 2026, and the API sunsets on September 24, 2026.
Why shut a famous product amid a boom? The consistent reading across industry analyses: video inference is enormously compute-hungry, Sora’s standalone app lacked a native distribution ecosystem to monetize against those costs, and OpenAI chose to concentrate compute on its core model line. Users migrated primarily to Veo, Kling and Runway — a reshuffle that concentrated the market around players whose video products sit inside larger ecosystems.
Market size, briefly
Published market-size figures range from under $1B to over $6B for 2025–26 because analysts draw the market’s boundary differently — pure generation engines, generation plus AI editing, or the full platform stack. The headline anchors: the broader AI video platform market was valued at ~$6.2B in 2025 and is projected to reach $47.8B by 2034 (25.4% CAGR, Grand View Research).
→ We break the full numbers down — definitions, forecast path, revenue by player and the risks to the forecast — in our dedicated report: AI Video Market Size & Forecast 2026–2034.
FAQ
How many people use AI video generators in 2026?
Over 124 million monthly active users across AI video platforms as of January 2026, with generation volume up 840% in two years.
What does an AI-generated video cost?
Between roughly $0.05 and $0.75 per second at API rates in mid-2026 — a 30-second clip runs $1.50–$12 depending on model and tier. Subscriptions start around $10/month; Runway offers unlimited generation at $76/month.
What happened to Sora?
OpenAI confirmed a two-stage shutdown: the consumer app closed April 26, 2026, and the API sunsets September 24, 2026 — pushing users toward Veo, Kling and Runway. High compute cost and weak standalone distribution are the consistent explanations.
What is the biggest AI video generator by revenue?
Kling AI, at an estimated ~$500M annualized run-rate by mid-2026, with 60M creators served and 600M+ videos generated.
How big is the AI video market?
~$6.2B in 2025 on the broad platform definition, projected to $47.8B by 2034 at a 25.4% CAGR — full breakdown in our market size & forecast report.
Figures compiled from Google product announcements (Oct 2025), Grand View Research market reports, Luma Labs and Pictory industry trackers, Digital Applied market analyses, and vendor list pricing collected mid-2026. Several usage and revenue figures are vendor-reported and rated MEDIUM until independently corroborated. Corrections: see our methodology and corrections policy.
AI Video Market Size & Forecast 2026–2034 · AI-Generated Content Statistics · LLM Token Price Index · Deepfake Fraud: The $25M Heist Era