Pika 1.0 AI video generator is free to try right now — here is why you should give it a go

Pika Labs has finally taken its Pika 1.0 artificial intelligence generative video model out of the waitlist. It is currently free for anyone to sign up and try out. 

The AI video model announced earlier this month has been slowly rolling out, with the company using feedback from early users to improve the service before making it widely available.

Its general release comes at a time of increasing competition in the AI video space from more established players like Runway rolling out new features like Ambient Motion, to image tools adding video capability like Leonardo with Motion.

The web-based Pika 1.0 lets you generate short video clips from an image, video or text prompts, and you can customize how the movement works or what it looks like.

How do I get access to Pika 1.0?

Pika 1.0 has both a thriving Discord community with regular competitions and creator jams, as well as an easy-to-use website. Available at Pika.Art, the website also includes a library of creations from other users.

It is currently free to use and only available with the embedded Pika Labs watermark, for non-commercial use and with all clips created shared publicly.

You can register with a Discord or a Google account but I recommend using Discord if you already have the app. It gives you access to the wider community with tips and advice on using Pika 1.0 and video generation tools generally.

During a more immersive test of the tool earlier this month I found it to be easy to use, quick to respond and relatively customizable. It suffers from some of the same "slow motion" and distortion issues as other models but is being improved daily.

What can Pika 1.0 do?

Pika 1.0 is the next step in the generative video space that we’ve been waiting for. But while the output looks pretty, the motion still needs work. You can use it to generate video from a text, image or video prompt. 

The video-to-video being part of the same underlying model as text and image is a step up from Runway, where video-to-video is restricted to its Gen-1 model. 

Overall it is still very early days for video generation, the first commercial model only came out earlier this year, but the field is evolving quickly. Pika Labs offering up access to Pika 1.0 for free is a great way to experiment with new tech early.

More from Tom's Guide

• AI video is bringing new life to memes — here’s some of my favorites
• Pika Labs new generative AI video tool unveiled — and it looks like a big deal
• Meta confirms AI video and image editing for Instagram and Facebook — here's how it'll work