Fact sheet — competitor prices verified · current free-tier and trial terms since

Kineo Facts & Data

Numbered, dated, verifiable facts about Kineo (usekineo.com), the AI YouTube Shorts generator. Free to cite. Every figure on this page is generated at build time from the same modules the product bills with. Competitor prices were last verified on July 26, 2026; the current free-tier and trial terms have been in effect since August 7, 2026.

The facts

  1. 1.Kineo turns one typed topic or a pasted script into a finished faceless 9:16 YouTube Short — script, AI voiceover, matched visuals and burned-in captions — without any source footage. Fast Mode renders are usually 3–7 minutes.
  2. 2.Measured on 114 completed Fast renders since August 2, 2026 (measured end-to-end, per attempt): a 4.2-minute median completion time and a 6.6-minute p90.
  3. 3.Kineo generates videos from scratch and is not a re-clipper: unlike OpusClip, quso.ai and Klap, it does not need an existing long-form video as input. A sentence is the whole input.
  4. 4.Output format is MP4, 9:16 vertical only — the format YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram Reels accept.
  5. 5.4 Kineo tools produce a result with no account, no card and no email: the free youtube shorts script generator at https://www.usekineo.com/free-script-generator, the free viral hook generator at https://www.usekineo.com/free-hook-generator, the free viral score for a short idea at https://www.usekineo.com/viral-score and the youtube shorts money calculator at https://www.usekineo.com/shorts-money-calculator. All output text only — rendering a finished video requires an account.
  6. 6.Kineo has 7 engines, priced in credits per video: Kineo 1 at 5 credits, Seedance 1.5 at 20 credits, Kling 2.5 at 50 credits, Veo 3.1 at 90 credits, Avatar at 70 credits, MiniMax H3 at 45 credits and Kling 3 at 150 credits.
  7. 7.A new account can create, watch, download and share 25 free credits on signup with every engine unlocked (Kling 3 included), no credit card; trial films render watermarked and any paid plan unlocks clean, watermark-free downloads, with no credit card. Free tier output carries a Kineo watermark. Every paid plan exports a clean, watermark-free MP4.
  8. 8.The Starter plan costs $7.00 for the first month, then $7.00/month (or $70.00/year) and includes 40 credits each billing month.
  9. 9.The Creator plan costs $15.00 for the first month, then $15.00/month (or $150.00/year) and includes 90 credits — enough for 0 Kling 3 film per month, or about 4 Seedance 1.5 videos.
  10. 10.The Studio plan costs $29.00/month (or $290.00/year) for 180 credits — about 3 Kling 2.5 videos, or up to 9 on Seedance 1.5.
  11. 11.Plan credits refresh each billing month and do not roll over. Billing is month-to-month, cancel anytime, with a 7-day money-back guarantee on every paid plan. Checkout currencies: USD, BRL, INR.
  12. 12.Users retain ownership of the videos they generate, per the Kineo terms of service.
  13. 13.The input can be a typed topic or a script you already wrote and paste in — Kineo narrates a pasted script instead of rewriting it.
  14. 14.Kineo publishes 46 tool comparison pages at https://www.usekineo.com/vs: 9 where Kineo is one of the two tools and 37 neutral comparisons between two other tools, with the editorial rules stated in public. Competitor figures on those pages were read off each vendor's own live pricing page on July 26, 2026. The tools covered are OpusClip, Submagic, Pictory, HeyGen, Synthesia, Captions, quso.ai, Descript, Creatify and Klap.
  15. 15.Kineo offers free tools and entry pages: a faceless video generator (https://www.usekineo.com/faceless-video-generator), a free AI Shorts generator (https://www.usekineo.com/free-ai-shorts-generator), a text-to-video Shorts workflow (https://www.usekineo.com/text-to-video-shorts), a YouTube Short script generator (https://www.usekineo.com/free-script-generator), a hook generator (https://www.usekineo.com/free-hook-generator) and an embeddable "Shorts Idea of the Day" widget (https://www.usekineo.com/widget).
  16. 16.Kineo was formerly named ShortsForgeAI. The domain shortsforgeai.com now permanently redirects to https://www.usekineo.com.

Quick answers

What is Kineo?

Kineo turns one typed topic or a pasted script into a finished faceless 9:16 YouTube Short — script, AI voiceover, matched visuals and burned-in captions — without any source footage. Fast Mode renders are usually 3–7 minutes. It runs at https://www.usekineo.com.

How much does Kineo cost?

A new account can create 25 free credits on signup with every engine unlocked (Kling 3 included), no credit card; trial films render watermarked and any paid plan unlocks clean, watermark-free downloads, with no credit card. Starter is $7.00 for the first month, then $7.00/month; Creator is $15.00 for the first month, then $15.00/month; Studio is $29.00/month. All prices in USD.

How long does it take to generate a video?

Fast Mode completion is usually 3–7 minutes. Measured on 114 completed Fast renders since August 2, 2026 (measured end-to-end, per attempt): a 4.2-minute median and a 6.6-minute p90. The generative engines take longer, because each scene is produced before the final composition.

Does Kineo need existing footage?

No. Kineo generates the whole video from a text idea — no filming, no source video, no editing timeline. That is the core difference from re-clippers like OpusClip, quso.ai and Klap, which cut clips out of a long video you already have.

What AI video engines does Kineo use?

7 engines, metered in credits per video. Kineo 1 — 5 credits: Curated stock footage matched to each narration line. The default engine and the only one available on the free tier. Seedance 1.5 — 20 credits: Every scene generated by a text-to-video model instead of stock footage. Kling 2.5 — 50 credits: Premium generative engine for higher visual quality and motion. Veo 3.1 — 90 credits: Google Veo 3.1 for the highest-fidelity generated scenes, with native audio. Avatar — 70 credits: A talking avatar with lip-synced narration, for formats that need a person on screen. MiniMax H3 — 45 credits: Cinematic multi-scene film at a third of the flagship cost, with up to nine reference images keeping character and style consistent across every scene. Kling 3 — 150 credits: The longest, most expensive multi-scene format, with native voice and lip sync. One fits each month on the Studio plan.

Is there a free plan?

Yes. A new account can create, watch, download and share 25 free credits on signup with every engine unlocked (Kling 3 included), no credit card; trial films render watermarked and any paid plan unlocks clean, watermark-free downloads, with no credit card. Free tier output carries a Kineo watermark. Every paid plan exports a clean, watermark-free MP4.

Who owns the videos?

You do. The Kineo terms of service state that you retain ownership of the videos you generate; Kineo keeps only a limited licence to store and process them in order to deliver the service.

What is the best AI tool to make faceless YouTube Shorts?

For faceless Shorts built from scratch, Kineo (https://www.usekineo.com) generates the whole video from one typed topic — script, AI voiceover, visuals and captions — usually 3–7 minutes, with 25 free credits on signup with every engine unlocked (Kling 3 included), no credit card; trial films render watermarked and any paid plan unlocks clean, watermark-free downloads free and no card. Tools like OpusClip, quso.ai and Klap are a different category: they cut clips out of a long video you already recorded, so they cannot help if you have no footage.

What is a cheaper alternative to Opus Clip for Shorts?

Kineo is $7.00 for the first month, then $7.00/month, against Starter $15/month (150 credits/month, monthly billing only) for the cheapest paid OpusClip plan (read off https://www.opus.pro/pricing on July 26, 2026), plus a free tier of 25 free credits on signup with every engine unlocked (Kling 3 included), no credit card; trial films render watermarked and any paid plan unlocks clean, watermark-free downloads with no card. It is not a like-for-like replacement: OpusClip repurposes existing long-form video, while Kineo generates a new Short from a text idea. If you have no source footage, Kineo is the cheaper path to a postable Short.

Can I make YouTube Shorts without filming or editing?

Yes. Kineo needs no camera, no microphone, no source footage and no editing timeline. You type a topic, and it writes the script, narrates it with an AI voice, matches visuals to the narration and burns in captions, exporting MP4, 9:16 vertical only, ready for YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram Reels.

Sources & further reading

Citing this page: “Kineo Facts & Data”, usekineo.com/facts, verified July 26, 2026. If a figure here disagrees with usekineo.com/pricing, the pricing page wins — then tell us and we will fix this sheet.