Best AI tools to turn photos into videos

“Best” is a useless word until you know which video you are making. Turning photos into video usually means one of three jobs, and they need different software.

1. One photograph should move. A portrait, a product, a view. The result is a few seconds long.
2. A folder of photographs should become a film. A birthday, a tribute, a holiday. The result is one to four minutes, with music and words you typed.
3. A short social clip. Often vertical, often under ten seconds, often one idea.

The three tools reviewed on this site cover those jobs without pretending to be the same product. Prices below were on their public pages on 14 November 2026. Check again before you pay. The comparison table puts the same facts in one grid.

The short version

You want	Start here	Why
A film from many photos	CapCut	It is an editor with a free plan. AI animation is optional.
A few seconds from one photo, with a small free credit pot	Runway	125 free credits, once. Gen-4.5 image-to-video needs a paid plan.
More control over a short shot, and you will pay	Luma AI	Keyframes and a clear credit table. No free plan is listed.

If you only remember one line: do not ask a clip generator to cut a funeral film, and do not expect a slideshow editor to invent a cinematic camera move.

CapCut, when the photos are the film

CapCut’s useful feature is ordinary and unfashionable. You drop pictures on a timeline, set how long each one stays, and add music, transitions and text. The phone apps, the desktop app and the website all exist, according to CapCut’s own download help. The pricing page lists Free at $0.

It also sells AI credits. Pro was shown at $19.99 and Ultra at $79, with a warning that those are guide prices until you sign in. A September 2026 article on CapCut’s own site says image-to-video may use credits and that “free” is not unlimited. Some of their marketing pages say the opposite, more cheerfully. Believe the pricing page and the number on your export screen.

Use CapCut for memorial tributes, birthdays, a simple shop or listing video, and any social clip that is really a sequence of photos.

Runway, when one picture should become a shot

Runway’s Gen-4.5 help page describes image-to-video: upload the picture, describe the motion, pick 2 to 10 seconds, export at 720p. The rate published there is 12 credits a second. The web app is the platform listed for that model. Vertical 9:16 is one of the aspect ratios, which is what a phone post wants.

The free plan is real and narrow. 125 credits, once, they do not renew, and free videos are watermarked. Gen-4.5 itself requires Standard or higher. Standard was $15 a month, or $12 if you pay yearly, with 625 credits a month. So the honest summary is: you can open an account free, and the model people mean when they say “Runway video” is a paid model.

Luma AI, when you want handles on the shot

Luma retired the Dream Machine name. The company’s own information page says the current video model is Ray3.2 and that Dream Machine and Ray2 are deprecated. The app is in the browser, and they say there is an iOS app. Android is not listed there.

The pricing page has no free row. Plus is $30 a month, or $25 billed yearly, with 10,000 credits. A 5-second Ray image-to-video clip was 20 credits at 360p and 400 credits at 1080p. That gap is the thing to understand: make a cheap draft, keep the expensive render for the take you will actually post. HDR costs more again. The Ray rows we read did not show an audio price, so do not assume the clip has sound.

Luma is the one to open if you care about keyframes and reframing and you have already decided to pay. It is a bad place to “just try something” with a folder of family photos.

What “free” is hiding

Each company uses “free” differently.

• CapCut free is an editor. AI generation is metered.
• Runway free is a one-time pile of credits and a watermark, and not every model is in it.
• Luma does not publish a free plan. A line about trial credits is not a plan you can budget.

A watermark matters if the video will be seen by other people. Runway says free videos have one, and that Standard and above do not. CapCut’s marketing claims of “no watermark” are not consistent across their pages, so look at the file you export. Luma’s pricing page did not say.

A fair test with your own photo

Do this before you subscribe for a year.

1. Pick one photograph you are allowed to upload. Not a child’s medical moment, not a customer’s ID, not the only copy of a wedding picture.
2. Write one sentence of motion. “Slow push in. The background softens. The face stays still.”
3. Generate the cheapest length and resolution on offer.
4. Watch it once with the sound off. If the face, hands, product edges or room layout change, it has failed, even if the motion looks expensive.
5. Only then spend credits on a longer or sharper take.

For a multi-photo film, the test is different. Put six pictures on a timeline, add one line of text, and export. If that feels clumsy, the tool is the wrong kind, however impressive its AI page looks.

People in the pictures

You need the right to use the photograph. A picture of a friend, a customer or a person who has died is not automatically yours to upload to a US company’s generator. Read that company’s privacy and training terms on the day you upload. This site does not copy those terms in, because a summary would rot.

If the video is an advert, for a product or a property, do not let the model add rooms, views or features that are not really there. UK advertising rules are not kind to that, and neither are the people who turn up to a viewing. More on that in the property and product guide.

Where to go next

• Build the long, careful film: a memorial tribute from photos.
• Animate a single frame without fooling yourself: how to animate a still photo.
• Put the three offers side by side: Runway vs Luma vs CapCut.