Today, we’re excited to launch Pika H3 Flex, an open-source omni video model family that ranks #1 among open-source text-to-video models and delivers real-time video generation. Post-trained by the Pika team on MiniMax H3, Pika H3 Flex combines advanced fine-tuning and reward-based optimization on an internally curated dataset selected for aesthetic quality. It delivers state-of-the-art results across visual and audio quality metrics and human preference evaluations, outperforming leading competitors by up to 91% while remaining competitively priced (see Table 1).
In our human evaluation study, Pika H3 Flex ranks #1 for human anatomy and artistic and aesthetic styles. Pika H3 Flex also supports a range of downstream editing tasks, including but not limited to style transfer, movement transfer, object replacement, character swap and targeted edits, opening up new possibilities for interactive content creation and rapid creative iteration.
Pika H3 Flex supports output resolutions from 480p to 4K and offers five separate, editable audio stems—dialogue, score, SFX, foley, and ambience—alongside the generated soundtrack, a first for a video model. Pika H3 Flex is available through our API, ComfyUI, and Diffusers, with model weights available on Hugging Face and code on GitHub. Pika also offers customized training services. To learn more, contact enterprise@pika.art.
Table 1. Pricing and capabilities of text/image-to-video models. Cost-cell colors progress from green (lowest) to red (highest). Real-time refers to generation latency below the output clip duration. 4K denotes output resolution availability.
Model
Starting cost (USD/output-s)
Real-time
4K output
Open weights
Audio stems
Pika H3 Flex
$0.01
HeyGen Speed
$0.01
Not disclosed
HeyGen Quality
$0.01
Not disclosed
HeyGen Ultra
$0.01
Not disclosed
MiniMax H3
$0.08
Fal H3 Max
$0.0325
Fal H3 Turbo
$0.01625
Seedance 2.5
$0.103
FLUX 3 Video
$0.06
Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash
$0.101
Wan 3.0
$0.03
Table 2. Reference-to-video pricing and capabilities. Pika H3 Flex offers competitive pricing while supporting all listed applications. ‡ Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash supports image and limited video references, but does not support uploaded audio references; audio embedded in reference videos is ignored (API documentation). * Seedance 2.5 and Wan3.0 adds video reference charge.
Model
Starting cost (USD/s)
4K output
Open weights
Multiple image, audio, video references
Uploaded-audio lip sync/redub
Pika H3 Flex
0.03
HeyGen Speed
0.035
HeyGen Quality
0.035
HeyGen Ultra
0.035
MiniMax H3
0.08
Fal H3 Max
0.05
Seedance 2.5
0.103 • 0.0615*
Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash
0.101
Limited; no uploaded audio‡
Wan 3.0
0.03 • 0.03*
Showcases
Our showcases demonstrate Pika H3 Flex’s capabilities across text-, image-, and reference-conditioned video generation, including controlled camera motion, multi-shot generation, and composition from multiple references. Our model further demonstrates strong capabilities in downstream applications, including but not limited to motion transfer, object replacement, character swapping, and selective video editing. Its low latency and competitive pricing support rapid iteration from initial concept to high-resolution output, while its open-source availability enables flexible integration into creative workflows and experimentation with new applications.
Complex camera choreography
Table-tennis rally
Five scripted camera moves in a 15-second take: overhead, crane, whip pans, a 180° orbit, and a low dolly.
Input
Generated output
Image 1 is the exact two players, outfits, frog mask, table-tennis table and drained pool: keep them exactly as in Image 1. A fast table-tennis rally, shot with exactly these camera moves: 00:00–00:03 — top-down from directly overhead, as in Image 1, as the rally begins and the ball flicks back and forth. 00:03–00:06 — a smooth crane straight down from overhead to table height, ending right beside the net as the ball zips across. 00:06–00:09 — fast whip pans left and right following the ball across the net, from one player to the other. 00:09–00:12 — a 180-degree orbit around the frog-masked player as she leaps and smashes the ball. 00:12–00:15 — a low-angle dolly backward along the pool floor as the woman in the red tracksuit dives and misses; the frog raises both arms and does a little victory dance; the camera settles and holds. The players, table and pool stay consistent and in the same place throughout. Photoreal 35mm film look, true colour, light natural grain, matching Image 1. SPEED IS CRITICAL: everything moves at normal real-time speed, like 24fps footage played back at 24fps - natural motion, NO slow motion. Sound: the quick tock-tock of the ball, sneakers squeaking on concrete, the smash, a thud as she dives, echo in the empty pool, the frog's muffled cheer. Music: a funky, upbeat drum-and-bass groove.
Balcony stretches
Three independently moving subjects with a continuous sequence of orbit, push-in, and vertical camera moves.
Input
Text prompt · excerpt
A white modernist tower with three stacked cantilevered balconies fills the right half of the frame against a pale-blue sky, in a minimal, pastel 1970s film aesthetic.
Generated output
A tall white modernist apartment tower against a soft pale-blue sky with faint streaky cirrus cloud. The building sits on the right half of the frame; the left half is open sky. Smooth off-white render facade with small square windows in thick white frames. Three identical cantilevered concrete balconies are stacked vertically on the building's corner, each a thick white slab with an angled, wedge-shaped underside and a thin white metal railing of vertical balusters. Crisp, graphic, minimal, soft 1970s film palette: chalky whites, powder blue, muted pastels.
Three people are doing a slow, calm morning stretch routine, one per balcony. They are always gently in motion, never frozen, but every movement is slow, smooth and controlled, like yoga or tai chi: each stretch takes three to four seconds to flow into, eases gently at the end, and flows unhurried into the next. No fast, jerky, snapping or flailing movements. Graceful, deliberate, meditative. Top balcony: a young woman with dark hair pulled back, in a lilac fluffy knit jumper and matching lilac wide-leg knit trousers. She slowly reaches both arms high overhead, then gradually leans her upper body into a long side bend to the left, eases back to centre, and slowly leans to the right. Middle balcony: a man with short dark hair in a rust-red tracksuit. He hangs in a deep forward fold with palms on the floor, then slowly rolls up through his spine to standing, and lifts his arms in one wide, slow circle overhead. Bottom balcony: an older woman with short silver-grey hair in a cobalt blue short-sleeved polo and loose cream trousers. She holds a wide warrior lunge with arms stretched out to each side, slowly shifts her weight from one bent knee to the other, and gently sweeps one arm up and over her head into a side bend. Each person moves at their own unhurried rhythm, slightly out of sync with each other, with full-body range of motion: knitwear and trousers stretching and settling, real balance and weight.
Camera, one continuous shot with no cuts: 0-3s: Wide establishing frame. The camera begins a slow, smooth orbit around the corner of the tower, arcing about 40 degrees, with strong parallax between the balconies, building face and sky. 3-5s: Still moving, the camera pushes in hard on the middle balcony until the man in the red tracksuit fills the frame alone, waist-up, mid-stretch, railing in the foreground. 5-7s: A steady vertical boom up the face of the building, past the concrete underside of the slab above, revealing the lilac woman mid-side-bend. 7-10s: A fast, controlled boom straight down past the middle balcony to the bottom one, revealing the older woman shifting through her lunge. 10-13s: Smooth pull back and reverse orbit, landing on the opening wide composition, all three still actively stretching.
Soft diffused daylight, gentle soft shadows under each slab, no hard sun. 35mm film look with fine grain. Stabilized crane/drone motion, never jittery.
Sound: natural diegetic location sound only — light wind gusting past the building, distant city hum, faint birds, soft fabric rustle. No music, no score, no singing, no melody, no rhythm track. No speech, no voices, no talking, no dialogue, no murmuring, no vocal sounds of any kind.
Farm tracking shot
A rapid lateral truck transitions into a forward dolly, followed by a close-up cut.
Input
Text prompt · excerpt
A vegetable farm with parallel raised beds, bamboo A-frame trellises, young tomato and bean plants, and terracotta pots under a soft overcast sky.
Generated output
A large working vegetable farm under a soft overcast sky, pale grey-white cloud with patches of soft blue. Endless parallel rows of raised beds of dark brown tilled soil, each lined with tall bamboo cane A-frame teepees tied with twine, young leafy green tomato and bean plants at their base, terracotta pots along low weathered timber bed edges.
The video opens with NO person visible. The first four seconds show only rows of plants and bamboo.
Shot 1, one continuous camera move: 0-4s: The camera is low, at waist height, and trucks sideways to the right at high speed, travelling perpendicular to the rows. Row after row after row of bamboo teepees and green plants rushes across the frame from right to left, each row flashing past one after another: canes, plants, gap of soil, canes, plants, gap of soil. Strong motion blur on the foreground canes, the horizon steady. Like a camera car racing along the end of the field. 4-5s: The camera brakes hard and stops dead, perfectly lined up looking straight down the length of one single row, the row's soil path running to a vanishing point in the centre of frame. A tiny dark figure is just visible far away at the end of the row. A brief still beat. 5-8s: The camera launches forward and dollies fast and low straight down that row between the bamboo canes, the canes streaming past either side. It decelerates as the figure grows into a woman kneeling in the soil and stops in a medium-wide side-on shot of her: early 30s, pale skin, dark brown hair in a low loose chignon, wearing a dramatic Victorian-silhouette ballgown made of crinkled glossy black plastic tarpaulin, with a deep V neckline, enormous puffed short sleeves and a huge gathered skirt pooled across the soil behind her. She leans forward over the bed, planting a small seedling with a steel hand trowel.
Hard cut.
Shot 2: 8-12s: Tight close-up at soil level on her hands. She presses dark damp soil firmly around the base of the seedling and pats it down twice, sets the trowel aside, then brushes her palms together to dust them off. Crumbs of soil fall from her fingers. The glossy crinkled black plastic of her skirt fills the background.
The plastic gown has real stiffness: it crackles, creases and catches soft highlights. Soil is clumpy and leaves dirt on her fingers. Soft diffused overcast light, no hard sun or hard-edged shadows, but rich contrast and dimension. Surreal fashion-editorial tone played straight. Photographic natural colour, subtle film grain.
Sound: natural diegetic location sound only — rushing wind and whoosh of canes flashing past, then quiet wind through leaves, the crinkle of the plastic gown, trowel scraping soil, soft pats, dry hands brushing together. No music, no score, no singing, no melody, no rhythm track.
Multi-shot storytelling
Wedding nibbler
A four-shot story directed from one image, with camera changes, dialogue, and synchronized sound.
Input
Generated output
Start exactly on the first frame: a fluffy white lop-eared rabbit nibbling the side of a tall three-tier buttercream cake on a glass cake stand, on a cream silk-draped plinth in front of a dusty-rose velvet curtain. Soft, warm, filmic light, true colour, fine 35mm grain. [Shot 1, 00:00–00:04] A slow push-in on the rabbit as it keeps nibbling a hole in the bottom tier, cake crumbs falling onto the cloth, one floppy ear twitching. [Shot 2, at 00:04 cut] Extreme macro close-up: the rabbit's twitching pink nose and whiskers dusted with buttercream as it chews fast. [Shot 3, at 00:07 cut] Medium-wide from the side: the velvet curtain parts behind the cake and a pastry chef in her fifties, in a white chef's jacket, steps through holding a piping bag, freezes, and says in a shocked, quiet voice: "That was for the wedding." The rabbit stops chewing and turns its head to look at her. [Shot 4, at 00:11 cut] Low angle at tabletop height, a slow dolly to the side: the rabbit looks straight into the lens, slowly resumes chewing, then hops once behind the cake out of sight, leaving a perfect bite-shaped hole. Keep every person, animal, object, outfit and the location exactly as in the first frame; nobody transforms or morphs into anyone else. Real people speak with natural lip-sync. SPEED IS CRITICAL: everything moves at normal real-time speed, like 24fps footage played back at 24fps - natural motion, NO slow motion. Sound: soft crunchy nibbling, crumbs pattering on silk, the heavy swish of velvet, the chef's one line, a tiny thump as the rabbit hops. Music: a delicate, slightly mischievous harpsichord waltz.
Birthday-cake sitcom
A five-shot sitcom sequence directed from one image, with dialogue, audience reactions, and sound design.
Input
Generated output
A 1990s American multi-camera sitcom scene exactly like Image 1: bright, flat studio lighting on a living-room set, slight videotape softness, the same woman in red. A live studio audience laughs throughout. Hard cuts between different camera angles. [Shot 1] 0-3 s: wide shot. She carries a pretty birthday cake into the living room and sets it on the coffee table; a small dog in a party hat sits by the sofa, staring at the cake. (Audience: "Aww.") [Shot 2] 3-5 s: medium shot. A sudden knock at the door. She points at the dog: "Wait here. Don't touch it." and walks out of frame to answer the door. [Shot 3] 5-9 s: close-up, locked on the coffee table: the dog jumps up and wolfs down the cake, cream flying, party hat askew, tail wagging wildly. (Audience bursts out laughing.) [Shot 4] 9-12 s: wide shot. She comes back and freezes: only a small piece of cake is left, the dog has cream all over its face and sits back down as if nothing happened, licking its lips. She throws her hands up, baffled: "…What happened?!" [Shot 5] 12-15 s: close-up. The dog lets out a creamy little burp and tilts its head at her. She looks at the camera and sighs. (Big laugh and applause, sitcom transition music.) Sound: studio audience laughter and applause, a knock, the dog gobbling and a tiny burp, an upbeat 90s sitcom theme. Only these two lines. No subtitles or other text.
Motion graphics
Move
A geometric design animated with beat-synced transitions and typography.
Input
Generated output
A bold full-bleed motion graphic, NO frame, NO border, NO paper edges — the design fills the whole 16:9 screen. Flat Swiss/geometric style, exact colours and shapes of Image 1, crisp edges. BIG motion, never static, beat-synced to a punchy 120 BPM track. 0-3 s: the screen starts as one flat colour; geometric blocks slam in from all four sides on each beat, building the layout of Image 1. 3-7 s: circles roll across, triangles flip, stripes slide; a figure made of shapes runs through the composition, each step stamping a new colour block. 7-10 s: the letters of MOVE drop in one by one with heavy squash-and-stretch, then hold perfectly still; spell it exactly. 10-13 s: everything except MOVE explodes outward and snaps back on the beat, rearranged into a new layout. 13-15 s: fast camera push-in and a 15-degree rotation into the O of MOVE, ending on a solid colour. Sound: punchy electronic beat with a hit on every shape. No other text.
Sunday
A risograph poster brought to life with animated lettering, a moving character, and sound.
Input
Generated output
A bold full-bleed risograph motion poster, NO frame, NO border, NO paper edges: the artwork fills the whole 16:9 screen edge to edge, exactly the riso grain, flat ink colours and illustration style of Image 1. Start almost empty and assemble the poster of Image 1 with BIG, playful motion, ending exactly on its composition. 0-3 s: a flat blue sky with the city skyline; the giant black-and-white cat drifts down from the top of frame like a fluffy cloud and settles onto the rooftops, eyes closed. 3-6 s: the letters of SUNDAY slam up from behind the skyline one by one with a squash-and-stretch bounce; spell it exactly. The cat stays IN FRONT of the letters, its head poking out between them exactly like Image 1. 6-9 s: the cat yawns hugely, stretches one paw across the letters, and the letters wobble; then it snuggles back down. 9-12 s: tiny details come alive: windows light up, a small plane loops behind the letters, the cat's tail flicks and curls over the skyline. 12-15 s: confident slow camera push-in toward the cat's sleepy face as it opens one eye, winks, and closes it again; SUNDAY stays perfectly still and sharp behind it. Sound: a lazy lo-fi Sunday-morning piano loop, a big yawn, soft bouncy thumps on each letter, gentle purring. No other text.
Product films
Lip gloss
A single product reference guides a multi-shot beauty commercial.
Input
Generated output
A 15-second multi-shot product commercial for the chunky clear lip gloss tube with crimson jelly gloss from reference image 1 (exact same faceted clear cap, ridged neck and deep crimson gloss, no label), served like a luxury dessert. SHOT 1 (0-3s): Overhead crane move descending onto a duck-egg blue table as a polished silver cloche lifts off a white plate, revealing the pink panna cotta with the gloss tube resting on it. The cloche's mirror surface reflects only the pale blue room and soft light — no people, no camera, no crew reflected anywhere. SHOT 2 (3-6s): Extreme macro side angle: the panna cotta wobbles gently, light rolling across its glossy surface and through the crimson gloss inside the clear tube. SHOT 3 (6-10s): Hard cut to a clean, empty, seamless pale duck-egg blue background — no plate, no dessert, nothing else in frame. The gloss tube floats upright in soft light and opens by itself: the faceted clear cap slowly unscrews and lifts away, drawing the applicator wand up out of the tube, a thick glossy string of crimson gloss stretching between the doe-foot tip and the tube neck and catching the light. Slow-motion macro, camera arcing smoothly around it. No hands, no people. SHOT 4 (10-12s): Same clean duck-egg blue background: macro on the glossy crimson doe-foot applicator tip, a single drop of gloss gathering and glistening, light refracting through the faceted cap. SHOT 5 (12-15s): Hard cut back to the table: low dolly gliding across and settling on the final hero frame exactly like reference image 1. SOUND: refined restaurant ambience, the metallic lift of the cloche, a soft wobble, the satisfying twist-and-pull sound of the cap opening, a glossy stretch, then a chic playful French-pop instrumental. LOOK: high-end cinematic beauty/tech commercial, editorial and refined, Jacquemus / Loewe campaign energy. Soft pale true-colour grounds against deep saturated hero colours, large soft diffused light, shadows soft but present, low-to-moderate contrast, creamy highlights, subtle 35mm film grain, shallow depth of field, anamorphic feel. CAMERA is always moving with bold confident motion — dollies, macro orbits, crane moves, motion blur on fast moves — never static. Product always tack-sharp and recognisable. Hard cuts between shots, each shot a different angle and scale, one clear story from start to end. Correct real-world physics. NO text, NO titles, NO captions, NO logos, NO subtitles anywhere. Audio: no voiceover, no dialogue, only a polished commercial soundtrack plus crisp tactile sound design.
Headphones
A single product reference guides beat-synced cuts, macro details, and changing camera angles.
Input
Generated output
A 15-second fast-cut, high-energy cinematic product commercial for the cobalt-blue over-ear headphones from reference image 1 (exact same shape, colour, mesh headband, knit cushions and metal hinges, no logos) about deep bass. Edited like a premium tech launch film: rapid hard cuts on the beat, every shot a bold, different cinematic angle and lens. The film is about the HEADPHONES. NO glass, NO water, NO plants, NO other props. The whole film stays on a clean seamless powder-blue studio set; the background is always clean powder blue, never a wall edge or dark studio. SHOT 1 (0-2.5s): OPENS on exactly the composition of reference image 1 — same framing and angle, the cobalt headphones holding the ripe peach between their ear cups on powder blue. The peach stays perfectly still and seated in place — it does NOT jump, bounce or move position — it only PULSES: its surface subtly swells and contracts like a heartbeat in time with each deep bass hit, the ear cups gently tightening with it. Slow push-in. SHOT 2 (2.5-4s): Hard cut on the beat, the peach is gone for the rest of the film: snap-zoom extreme macro across the cobalt headband mesh, the fabric trembling with the bass. SHOT 3 (4-5.5s): Extreme low worm's-eye angle, wide lens, looking up at the empty headphones towering against powder blue, fast dolly-in. SHOT 4 (5.5-7s): Top-down overhead shot spinning slowly, the headphones laid open in a perfect graphic shape on powder blue. SHOT 5 (7-8.5s): Dutch-angle macro sliding along the polished metal hinge and telescoping arm, light streaking across the metal. SHOT 6 (8.5-10s): Rack focus from the soft knit ear cushion in the foreground to the second ear cup behind, shallow depth of field. SHOT 7 (10-12s): Fast whip-pan into a low tracking shot as the headphones glide across the powder-blue floor toward camera, heavy motion blur, on the drop. SHOT 8 (12-13.5s): Profile silhouette-style side angle, soft edge light outlining the curve of the headband, slow-motion. SHOT 9 (13.5-15s): Crane down to the final hero shot of the empty headphones alone, three-quarter angle on powder blue, held on the last beat. SOUND: a deep sub-bass heartbeat pulse building into a punchy, stylish minimal electronic track with hard hits on every cut and a big drop. LOOK: high-end cinematic beauty/tech commercial, editorial and refined, Jacquemus / Loewe campaign energy. Soft pale true-colour grounds against deep saturated hero colours, large soft diffused light, shadows soft but present, low-to-moderate contrast, creamy highlights, subtle 35mm film grain, shallow depth of field, anamorphic feel. CAMERA is always moving with bold confident motion — dollies, macro orbits, crane moves, motion blur on fast moves — never static. Product always tack-sharp and recognisable. Hard cuts between shots, each shot a different angle and scale, one clear story from start to end. Correct real-world physics. NO text, NO titles, NO captions, NO logos, NO subtitles anywhere. Audio: no voiceover, no dialogue, only a polished commercial soundtrack plus crisp tactile sound design.
Animated shorts
Gothic wardrobe
A character and style reference guides a multi-shot animated wardrobe sequence with interface sound effects.
Input
Generated output
NOVA space courier
A character reference guides an eight-cut retro-anime trailer with title cards and music.
Input
Generated output
Composition from multiple references
Knitted game world
A game-asset overview guides characters, environments, and objects across a multi-shot sequence.
Input: 7 reference images
Generated output
Brutalist moodboard
A moodboard guides characters and architecture in a three-shot cinematic sequence.
Input: 6 reference images
Generated output
A quiet, cinematic three-shot sequence, 12 seconds, 16:9, shot on medium-format film with soft overcast light, using the attached references.
Fabric moves with weight, steps land with weight. No one speaks. No music; only soft footsteps on concrete, the brush of her hand on his sleeve, and a light wind.
Input
Input
Input
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