Original data · read September 24, 2026
Seedance vs Veo vs Kling for Shorts (2026): measured on 1439 real renders
Kineo turns a topic or a finished script into a narrated vertical Short, and lets you pick the engine that renders the scenes. That gives us something review sites don’t have: a count of what people actually finished on each engine. This page reads it from our production database — 1439 finished renders in the last 90 days, founder and test accounts excluded.
It measures usage and cost, not visual quality. Free to cite with a link to this page.
Have a script from ChatGPT?
Paste it into Seedance 1.5 — the engine people publish with.
From $9.90/month = 4 films of 35 s. Kineo 1 is the free rehearsal: stock footage, watermark after the trial.
Render my script on Seedance →Every engine, measured
| Engine | Finished (90 d) | People | Median length | Credits / 60 s | At Starter credit price | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kineo 1 | 1076 | 722 | 45 s | 5 | $0.83 | Curated stock footage matched to each narration line. The default engine and the only one included in recurring free access. |
| Seedance 1.5 | 354 | 303 | 45 s | 25 | $4.13 | Every scene generated by a text-to-video model instead of stock footage. |
| Veo 3.1 | 2 small sample | 1 | 40 s | 100 | $16.50 more than one Starter month | Google Veo 3.1 for the highest-fidelity generated scenes, with native audio. |
| Kling 2.5 | 4 small sample | 4 | 40 s | 50 | $8.25 | Premium generative engine for higher visual quality and motion. |
| Kling 3 | 0 small sample | 0 | — | 150 | $24.75 more than one Starter month | The longest, most expensive multi-scene format. Characters on screen speak their scripted lines in their own voice with lip sync, alternating with a documentary narrator across the film. Two fit each month on the Studio plan. |
| MiniMax H3 | 3 small sample | 1 | 38 s | 45 | $7.43 | Back online since 22 September 2026 (768p, own narration voice, 45 credits per 60 s). Lower-credit cinematic multi-scene film. Renders talking-character scenes — a person on screen speaks the exact scripted line with lip sync — alternating with documentary narration. Kineo seeds each scene with one planned anchor image; identity can still drift between shots. |
| Omni Flash paused for maintenance | 0 small sample | 0 | — | 150 | $24.75 more than one Starter month | TEMPORARILY PAUSED for maintenance since 15 September 2026 — new films cannot be started and nothing is charged for a blocked attempt; Kling 3 covers the same job meanwhile. Google's Gemini Omni Flash — the #1-ranked video model in the August 2026 blind arena — as a full multi-scene film: image-anchored scenes for consistent characters and world, documentary narration, karaoke captions. Same price tier as Kling 3. |
What the numbers say
Seedance 1.5 is where generative Shorts actually get finished: 354 films by 303 people, at 25 credits for 60 seconds. Veo 3.1 (2 films) and Kling 2.5 (4) are chosen far less often — they cost 100 and 50 credits per 60-second film, and at that size of sample the honest reading is “rarely picked”, not “worse”. Kineo 1 carries the volume because it is the free rehearsal: stock footage, not generated scenes.
Method
- Window: videos created in the last 90 days with status “completed” — failed renders are not counted.
- Engine = the engine that actually rendered the film (the database
quality_mode), not the one advertised. - Founder, staff and test accounts are excluded. People = distinct accounts with at least one finished film on that engine.
- Length = median duration of the finished MP4, in seconds. Credits = the price of a 60-second film on a paid plan, from Kineo’s single pricing source.
- Engines with fewer than 20 films are marked “small sample”.
- Measured live from the database on September 24, 2026; the page refreshes once a day.
Questions, answered
Which is better for YouTube Shorts: Seedance, Veo or Kling?
On Kineo's own data for the last 90 days, Seedance 1.5 is the generative engine people actually finish films with: 354 finished Shorts by 303 people, against 2 on Veo 3.1 and 4 on Kling 2.5. Veo and Kling cost more credits per film (100 and 50 vs 25 for 60 s), so their samples are small — read them as "rarely chosen", not as a quality verdict.
How much does one 60-second AI Short cost on each engine?
In credits: Kineo 1 5, Seedance 1.5 25, Veo 3.1 100, Kling 2.5 50, Kling 3 150, MiniMax H3 45, Omni Flash 150. At the Starter plan's credit price ($9.90/month for 60 credits) a 60-second Seedance film is worth $4.13 of credits. Engines above 60 credits do not fit in one Starter month.
Where do these numbers come from?
From Kineo's production database: every video with status "completed" created in the last 90 days, grouped by the engine that actually rendered it. Founder and test accounts are excluded. Lengths are medians of the finished MP4 duration. Read on September 24, 2026.
Can I paste a script I wrote with ChatGPT?
Yes. Paste the script into Kineo, choose "Use my script as is", and the engine you pick narrates it word for word — Seedance 1.5 generates every scene with AI; Kineo 1 matches stock footage and is the free rehearsal.
Try the engine people finish with
Paste your script or one idea — Seedance 1.5 renders every scene, with voice and captions.
Open Seedance 1.5 →