Luma Agents vs Pika

Luma Agents

Luma has folded Dream Machine into Luma Agents, a canvas where one agent dispatches work to its own Ray and Uni models and to rivals' models, so you are buying a workflow more than a model. That suits teams producing campaign variations across formats, less so someone who just wants the best text-to-video clip, where credits per second add up fast at 1080p. The API is the cleaner buy for developers: per-generation prices, no subscription.

Pros

• +Own video models (Ray3.2, Ray3.14) and image model (Uni-1) plus third-party models in one workspace
• +Consistency tools for characters and brand assets across variations
• +API with published per-generation prices from $0.15 for a 540p five-second clip and no commitment on the Build plan
• +Audio generation, lip sync, transcription and captions built into the same canvas

Cons

• −No free plan listed on the pricing page, and the cheapest plan is $30 a month
• −Credits expire at the end of each month, and 1080p video costs 80 credits a second
• −The Dream Machine name and the iOS app have disappeared from the site, so older guides no longer match
• −The API's provisioned-throughput minimum is stated inconsistently (4 versus 8 units)

Pika

Pika is now less a video model than a storefront for them: Seedance, MiniMax, Wan and Google models for video, GPT Image and Nano Banana for stills, ElevenLabs for speech, all behind one credit balance and one editor, with Pika's own effects and swaps as the house specialty. That is convenient for social creators who want to try whichever model is best this month without five subscriptions, and the no-watermark free tier is a fair way to test. The catch is the credit maths, which differs per model and resolution, and the fact that top-up packs cannot be spent on the API or the iOS app.

Pros

• +No watermark on any plan, including Free
• +A dozen current third-party video, image and speech models alongside Pika's own
• +Credit packs available on every plan, so Free users can pay as they go
• +Commercial licence from the $35 Creator tier and an API club for developers

Cons

• −Credit cost per generation varies by model and resolution, so plan credits are hard to translate into clips
• −Top-up credits are limited to the web app and expire after 365 days; plan credits do not roll over
• −All payments are non-refundable under the terms
• −Pricing page shows conflicting yearly figures for Creator and Fancy between the cards and the comparison table

Is Luma Agents cheaper than Pika?

On published entry prices, Pika starts lower — $10/mo against $25/mo for Luma Agents. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does Luma Agents or Pika have a free tier?

Pika has a free tier; Luma Agents has paid plans only.

Which has a public API, Luma Agents or Pika?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.