Luma AI review: Ray image-to-video, without the old name

If you remember “Luma Dream Machine”, you are remembering the previous product. Luma’s own page for AI assistants, checked on 14 November 2026, says to use the name Luma AI, to call the video models Luma Ray, and not to treat Dream Machine or Ray2 as current. The video model they name is Ray3.2, released June 2026. The creative app is in the browser at app.lumalabs.ai, and that same page says an iOS app is on the App Store. It does not list Android.

This review is about using Luma to start from a photograph. It is not a slideshow tool.

What Ray3.2 is for

Luma describes Ray3.2 as text-to-video and image-to-video, with extra controls: Modify Video up to 20 seconds at 1080p, up to 16 keyframes in a clip, and a reframe tool. Keyframes are the interesting part if you have used a simpler “make it move” button and hated the result. You can mark moments instead of hoping one sentence produces the whole move.

The pricing table is the fact worth trusting. For Ray3.2 text-to-video and image-to-video, a 5-second clip was listed as:

• 360p: 20 credits
• 540p: 50 credits
• 720p: 100 credits
• 1080p: 400 credits

Ten-second versions were 60, 150, 300 and 1,200 credits on those same rows. The table heading says HDR costs twice the base and HDR plus an EXR file costs three times, and that having no keyframes adds 30 credits. The audio column for those Ray rows was blank. Do not assume a Ray image-to-video clip arrives with sound. Some other models inside the same app, such as the Seedance rows, are priced with audio. Read the row for the model you actually select.

That spread is why the bill is easy to misjudge. A draft at 360p is cheap beside a 1080p HDR take. Generate the cheap one first, and only then spend on the resolution you will publish.

What it costs to walk in the door

The pricing page, same day, listed individual plans in US dollars:

• Plus: $30 a month, or $25 a month billed yearly ($300 a year), with 10,000 credits, guest editing, and commercial use
• Pro: $90 a month, or $75 a month billed yearly, with 40,000 credits
• Ultra: $300 a month, or $250 a month billed yearly, with 150,000 credits

Team and Enterprise are “contact us”. Yearly billing is described as saving up to 20 percent. There is no $0 row. Luma’s information page says “free trial credits included on all plans”. That is not the same as a free plan with a published allowance. Open the app and read the number before you upload a set of family photographs.

On Plus, 10,000 credits is 100 of those 720p 5-second Ray clips at the 100-credit rate, or 25 of the 1080p ones, before HDR or other models. Third-party models in the same subscription (the pricing page lists Kling, Veo, Seedance and others) have their own rates, some of them per second rather than per clip. The mix is convenient and also how a credit balance disappears.

Who it suits

Luma suits someone who wants a short, directed shot and is willing to pay to start: a product hero, a slow environment move, a social clip where the face has to stay stable. The keyframe and reframe tools are the reason to pick it over a one-button animator, if you will actually use them.

It is a weak first choice if you need a free experiment, or if the job is “here are 30 photos, make a film”. Runway at least publishes a one-time free credit pot. CapCut is the editor for the long cut. Luma can supply a shot inside that cut.

We could not see a watermark policy on the pricing page. The information page does not settle it either. Look at the export in your account and do not take a blog’s word for it, including ours.

A note on the old tutorials

Advice that still says “open Dream Machine, use the daily free generations, export a 5-second clip” is out of date. The redirect from the old Dream Machine address may land you in the new app, but the limits in that advice are not the limits on the current pricing page. Follow the pricing page.

Sources

Checked 14 November 2026:

• Luma pricing
• Luma information page
• Luma app
• Ray