Pika pricing (2026): free plan, credits & video costs

Magic Hour publishes this guide and offers alternative video workflows. On October 2, 2026 we checked both Pika Create and the still-accessible legacy site. The same Pika brand now has different plan names, credit balances and commercial boundaries across those routes. Calculations below describe billed attempts, not measured output quality.

Pika Create: current plans and commercial licensing

The new Pika Create pricing page was rechecked October 23, 2026. Monthly and annual billing are different commitments; amounts below are the advertised USD rates before checkout-specific adjustments.

Historical capture of Pika Create’s four monthly plan cards, October 2, 2026. Starter now includes commercial use; use the current table above for that entitlement. The free account and clean export are separate from included generation credits and a commercial license. This is a pricing-page capture, not a checkout or output-quality test.

Free account, usable credits and commercial use are different

A Free account has zero recurring Create credits. Starter includes commercial use. Choose between Starter and Creator by the number of attempts your brief needs, rather than treating Creator as the first commercial tier. Keep the actual invoice and chosen settings with your project.

For a one-off experiment, compare a credit pack with a recurring plan. A pack does not add the commercial license absent from Free. For a recurring project, estimate candidate generations and finishing work before paying annually. Preserve completed exports you are permitted to keep; the legacy site says it is available only temporarily.

How many Pika Create videos do the credits buy?

Pika’s current Create pricing table quotes these five-second, 720p examples, checked October 10, 2026. They are Create rates, not the legacy Pika 2.5 tariff below.

Example: four approved shots, with three attempts each. Twelve attempts total 1,464 Seedance credits or 396 Wan credits at those settings. This is budget arithmetic, not a measured acceptance rate or quality comparison. A cheaper attempt may still take more retries; choose against the same shot brief.

The 396-credit Wan example fits Starter’s allowance and commercial-use entitlement, leaving 504 credits. The 1,464-credit Seedance example exceeds Starter by 564 credits. An upgrade here buys capacity, not the first commercial license. Confirm the selected model’s quote before generating; longer clips, other resolutions and other modes can differ.

Should you buy a credit pack or subscribe?

The Pika Create credit-pack list starts at $25 for 1,500 credits. A top-up is a one-time purchase, available on Free, and does not start a subscription.

For the twelve-attempt Seedance example above, 1,500 credits cover the 1,464-credit budget with 36 left. That makes the $25 pack a route for this specific personal project. Starter costs $10 monthly but includes only 900 credits, so its allowance alone cannot cover the same brief. These are advertised-rate calculations, not tested acceptance rates.

For an ad or client video, Starter is commercially eligible; compare capacity before buying Creator. A $25 pack on Free does not provide that license. For a small Wan project, the twelve-attempt example costs 396 credits and fits Starter. Match the purchase to the model, use rights and total attempts; buying the largest balance is not automatically cheaper.

Legacy Pika monthly and annual plans

Legacy Pika annual-plan cards, captured October 2, 2026. Basic and Standard exclude watermark-free downloads and commercial use; Pro and Fancy include both. The legacy experience is available temporarily. Check the legacy offer. Further reading: Check the legacy offer · View official source.

Annual billing means a yearly commitment; the credit allowance is still monthly. VAT may apply depending on your country. Model access and output settings differ by plan, so compare the mode you need as well as the balance.

Legacy Pika 2.5 credit costs

On the legacy route, 80 monthly Basic credits fund six five-second 480p attempts at 12 credits each, leaving eight. Basic excludes clean downloads and commercial use. Its combined text/image rate table is not proof that every input mode is available in a free account; check the account’s actual controls. This is not a Pika Create quote. The new Pika 2.5 app guide documents silent five-second prompt-only video at 720p or 1080p, and five- or ten-second image-led video. Frames accepts two to five ordered stills; five-keyframe output is 720p. Further reading: Pika 2.5 app guide.

Budget a finished project on the correct route

For the legacy rate above, fifteen five-second 720p generations at 20 credits total 300 credits. If five pass your brief, that is 60 credits per accepted clip. This is illustrative arithmetic, not a measured acceptance rate. On Create, use the selected model’s current quote instead; a legacy credit price cannot be transferred to another model or balance.

Start with the cheapest plan that includes the settings you need. A larger annual plan saves nothing if most of its credits go unused.

Do Pika credits roll over?

Pika Create’s pricing FAQ says plan credits reset without rollover, while purchased top-ups expire 365 days after purchase. Create top-ups also work with Pika MCP, but not the API, iOS app or legacy site. The legacy pricing page offers purchased rollover credits on Standard, Pro and Fancy, but excludes them on Basic. Do not transfer legacy allowances to Create; confirm the route and current account balance before buying. Further reading: legacy pricing page · official FAQ.

Commercial use and watermarks

Pika Create includes watermark-free exports on all listed plans, but commercial licensing on Starter, Creator and Fancy. On the legacy site, Basic and Standard exclude both watermark-free downloads and commercial use; Pro and Fancy include both. Check the inclusion and exclusion icons on the actual plan card. Obtain rights to source media, likenesses and trademarks separately.

Will upgrading license an older output? Pika says commercial terms apply to videos created under a plan that includes those benefits. Its support guidance does not present upgrading as a way to retroactively license a generation made on Free. For a commercial deliverable, generate under the eligible plan and keep the invoice and export with the project.

How do you cancel Pika Create?

For a web purchase, Pika’s cancellation instructions say to open Subscription, choose Adjust plan, select Downgrade to free and complete Cancel plan. Paid access continues through the current billing period; cancellation stops the next renewal. If the subscription was purchased in the iOS app, manage it through the App Store instead.

Cancel the subscription rather than delete the account if you want to stop renewal while keeping your videos. Pika’s terms generally exclude refunds for subscriptions, prepaid credits and partially used periods, subject to stated exceptions and applicable law. Do not budget on receiving unused subscription money back.

Pika or another tool?

Compare the same shot, including retries and final editing. Magic Hour Image-to-Video is another option for animating an existing image. Use our image-to-video comparison to shortlist the right workflow. Different vendors' credits are not interchangeable, and their free watermark policies differ.

Does the web plan cover API usage?

No. Pika's consumer web subscription and the Pika API Club are separate billing products. The official API page lists a $10 monthly membership fee, a $10 usage credit for the first month, and pay-as-you-go model usage at member rates. It exposes Pika 2.5 plus third-party image, video and audio models. Consumer plan credits do not fund API calls; verify the exact hosted model, settings and per-unit price before building an automated workflow.

For a broader decision, compare consumer plans in the AI video generator pricing guide and exact developer billing units in the AI video pricing index.