I Tried Bing’s Free AI-Powered Video Generator and It Doesn’t Compare to Paid Options
AI video generation is a rapidly evolving field, with companies like Google Veo and OpenAI Sora constantly outperforming each other. We’re getting to the point where it’s hard to tell AI-generated video content apart from the real thing . But all of these advances are limited to premium paid services. To get access to Google’s flagship Veo 3 (which can now generate conversations), you’ll need to shell out over $250 a month . No one has tried to make free AI video generation a thing yet, given how resource-intensive it is. But now Microsoft is stepping up.
Of all of this, the Bing app integrates a free video editor that, while limited, generates short videos for free using OpenAI’s Sora model. But is it worth your time? And how does it compare to Gemini’s Veo 2, which requires Google’s $20-per-month AI Pro subscription?
How Bing’s Free Videos with AI Work
Microsoft is launching the Video Creator feature first in the Bing apps for iPhone and Android, with web and desktop versions coming soon. It’s completely free to use, but has some limitations.
The feature is built on OpenAI’s text-to-video platform Sora, which is still in public beta and is usually part of ChatGPT’s $20-per-month Plus subscription. With Sora, you can edit and adjust videos after creation, but Bing Video Creator doesn’t have that option.
Bing Video Creator also limits videos to 5 seconds at 480p resolution and only in portrait aspect ratio 9:16 (landscape aspect ratio coming soon).
Since the platform is free, it revolves around Fast Generation credits. When you first start using Video Creator, you are given 10 of these credits, which you can use to generate videos in just a few seconds. Once they run out, you have to wait a couple of hours for each video you generate (the app will send you a notification when the video is ready). Unfortunately, there is no direct way to buy more credits, but you can use 100 Microsoft Rewards points for future Fast Generations.
How to Create Free Short Videos Using AI with Bing Video Creator
To get started with Bing Video Creator, first download the Bing app on your smartphone, then tap the Menu button on the right edge of the toolbar. From there, select the Video Creator feature.
You’ll see a text box where you can type your query, as well as a settings icon to change the aspect ratio, video length, and generation speed. Microsoft will expand these first two options in the future, but for now, you can set the generation speed to Standard to avoid using up your Fast Generation credit. When you’re ready, click Generate to begin generating your video.
After that, your video will be saved to your gallery and you will have 90 days to share or download it.
How is Bing’s free AI-powered video generator different from paid options?
As I mentioned above, completely free AI video tools are mostly unheard of or extremely limited. Canva offers 5 free video generators, but then requires upgrading to Canva Pro. Runway has a free plan that offers 125 credits, but in my testing I found that I couldn’t use it to generate videos — only images.
I generated three videos using Bing’s free video generator and was pleased with the result of one of them. My search for a bride in a wedding dress resulted in a video of the bride twirling her body in front of a mirror, but not her head. Creepy.
Then I asked it to generate a video of someone taking a carrot cake out of the oven (which has nothing to do with my sugar fast at all), and it simply couldn’t capture the motion of a person moving a physical object with their hand.
However, he did one thing well: he filmed a video of a freshly brewed cup of coffee with people in the background.
Canva’s takeaway was equally sharp. There’s a nice moment with the camera flash, but the hands are like putty and the facial expressions are very far from real.
Google Veo 2 did a much better job, showing the bride smiling in her new white dress. The image was a little too cropped for my taste, but at least there were no dislocated elbows or necks.
At this point, the video quality of paid AI-powered video generators is still much better, and the free options are akin to the early days of DALL-E, when the AI couldn’t really recognize fingers and hands.
If you want to generate a short video to post on your company page or just as a joke, sure, go ahead and give it a try. For anything else, it might be best to try Google’s Veo, which is currently the best AI-powered video generator, at least based on testing by my colleague David Nield .