Overview Hailuo AI is the text to video and image to video product from MiniMax, the Shanghai based AI lab founded in 2021 that also ships the abab family of language models and the widely used Talkie companion app. Hailuo (海螺, "conch shell" in Chinese) launched in late 2024 as one of the first freely usable frontier class video models on the market, and by 2026 it has become the tool that most creators outside the US use first — and the one many working video creators inside the US quietly keep in their rotation for shots that Runway and Sora struggle with. Hailuo's positioning is specific and honest: it is the best free to try, high motion, high fidelity video model that is not gated behind a US only ChatGPT Plus subscription, an invite only Sora waitlist, or a $76/month Runway Unlimited plan. In 2026 it is the closest thing to "just go to a website, type a prompt, and get a 6 second clip that looks like a real movie shot" that exists on the open web. That accessibility is not a marketing accident — it is MiniMax's deliberate strategy to seed the market and gather usage data in territories where OpenAI and Google have been slow to fully roll out. The model itself, in 2026, produces 6 second clips at 720p (upgradeable to 1080p on paid tiers) with a striking eye for lighting, physics, and cinematic camera work. Where Hailuo notably outperforms competitors is on human movement,…