Kling 3.0 vs Veo 3.1 vs MiniMax H3: Which to Pick for a Video Greeting

For most video greetings, pick MiniMax H3: it costs the least per second of the three, always comes with sound and is the model behind every video scene in our catalogue. Pick Kling 3.0 when a whole table has to move at once or the moment needs more than 10 seconds - it runs up to 15. Pick Veo 3.1 when the family should sing or someone should say a line, and the clip will be watched on a television rather than a phone.

All three turn one picture of your people into a short clip with sound, from the same Model picker. Below is the table, then the reasoning, with clips we made on each.

Kling 3.0 vs Veo 3.1 vs MiniMax H3 at a glance

Credit prices change, so they live on the button, not in this table. The order is what to remember: per second, MiniMax H3 costs a fraction of Veo 3.1, and Kling 3.0 sits between them.

Motion: a busy table or one small moment

Kling 3.0 is tagged Smooth motion in our picker, and that is what we use it for: frames where many people move at once. For the clip below we gave it one of our scene pictures, a family at a long garden table, and asked for a toast. Everyone lifts a glass, the grandmother at the head of the table wipes away a happy tear, and you hear clinking, laughter and birds.

Veo 3.1 is tagged Cinema quality, and its camera behaves like a patient operator: a slow push-in on the family round the cake, a dolly along a terrace at sunset. It looks filmed rather than animated, which matters on the television at the party and much less in a group chat.

MiniMax H3 is at its best with one small action that lands: candles out in one breath, glasses meeting over the dishes. For a greeting, one gesture and a reaction is usually all you need, and it is why all 20 video scenes in our catalogue are animated with it.

Sound: clinks and cheers, or actual singing

All three can give a clip sound, but not the same kind. Veo 3.1 makes the picture and the audio in one generation, and that audio can include people: a family singing the end of Happy Birthday, a guest shouting "surprise", a short line you put in quotes. In the clip below, the family sings the last line, Mum blows out the candles and everyone cheers. The limits: the voices are Veo's own guesses, not your family's, and 8 seconds holds one sentence, not a toast.

Kling 3.0 also makes its sound together with the picture, behind a switch: glasses clinking, laughter, party horns. For singing or spoken lines, we point to Veo 3.1 instead. On both Kling 3.0 and Veo 3.1 a silent clip costs less per second - handy for a clip that will play under a song.

MiniMax H3 always has sound, and there is no silent mode: a breath over the candles, clapping, wind in the grass. A greeting rarely suffers for it - a silent birthday tends to look like security camera footage.

Length: 8, 10 or 15 seconds

Kling 3.0 is the only model in our picker that goes past 10 seconds, up to 15; MiniMax H3 stops at 10 and Veo 3.1 at 8. Most greetings do not need the extra time. Four seconds holds a clink and a laugh. Five holds an action and its reaction - candles out, then the hug. Ten holds a short story of two or three beats. Fifteen is for a toast that builds: someone stands, glasses meet, Grandma reaches for a napkin. The price grows with every second on all three, so choose the shortest length that fits. If the message takes longer than 15 seconds to say, it belongs in a song or a voice greeting, not in a clip.

Cost, relative to each other

The live price is on the button before you press, and a failed generation gives the credits back. The relative order is the useful part:

• MiniMax H3 costs the least per second of the three at 768p, the resolution our scenes use.
• Kling 3.0 costs more than H3 and less than Veo 3.1, and switching sound off lowers it.
• Veo 3.1 costs the most per second. Sound off lowers it too, and Veo 3.1 Fast and Lite run the same prompt for less.

Written greetings are free, and every new account gets 1,000 free credits at sign-up - at today's prices, enough for a short H3 clip with sound.

When each one wins

MiniMax H3 wins for most birthday clips, for anything that starts from a scene and for anything headed to a family chat. The "Make a wish, Mum" scene below is H3 at 768p, 5 seconds: Mum at the kitchen table blows the candles out, and the two behind her clap and hug her. It is the same moment as the Veo 3.1 clip above, and the first difference you notice is that nobody sings. More on our MiniMax H3 page.

Kling 3.0 wins when the motion is the point and there is plenty of it: a whole family raising glasses, friends in party hats throwing confetti at a picnic, a slow dance that needs 15 seconds to finish. It also gives you 1080p every time, and a square clip from words.

Veo 3.1 wins when the sound has people in it - a chorus, a "cheers", a "surprise" - and when the clip will be seen big: on the TV at the party, or by Mum twenty times in a row. For the group chat version, Veo 3.1 Fast or Lite runs the same idea for less.

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Pick the model for the one thing the clip cannot do without, and let the cheaper model handle everything else.

When none of the three is the right tool

For a quiet clip where only a little should move, look at Wan 3.0 Prime from Alibaba, tagged Steady loops: the camera holds still and the motion stays small and even. Below, an old couple on a park bench lean their heads together, he takes her hand, and autumn leaves fall around them. Wan runs 5 or 10 seconds, sound on or off.

When someone should say the greeting to the camera, none of these video models is the tool. That is a talking photo card: one photo, a voice, up to 15 seconds of speech. Kling AI Avatar v2 moves the face and head with the words; OmniHuman 1.5 moves the whole person.

And if your people live in different cities, remember that a video here starts from one picture. Make a photo card first - up to six people fit in one picture, and faces stay most reliable with four or fewer - then bring that card to life on whichever of the three fits the moment.

How to try two models on the same idea

To choose the model yourself, switch the composer to Standard, pick Video and open Model; left on Auto, video goes to MiniMax H3. All three take the same start picture, so a cheap way to decide is to try the prompt on H3 or Veo 3.1 Lite, check that Mum leans in at the right time, then run it on the model you really want.

Write it the same way for all three: start where the photo starts, say what moves and in what order, give the camera one line and name what we should hear.

What people usually type

"make a nice birthday video for dad"

What works on any of the three

"Dad leans over the cake and blows out the candles, the kids clap, the dog barks once, warm kitchen light, slow push-in. Sounds: clapping, one bark, Dad laughing"

The second gives any model a timeline and a soundtrack; the first gives it nothing to animate. For the whole route from a photo to a clip that arrives on the morning of the day, see our AI video greeting page.