Pika alternativeElyum, pay only for keeps

Pika is a consumer text- and image-to-video app at pika.art, built on Pika Labs' own Pika 2.5 model. It is genuinely good at stylized novelty work: Pikaffects, Pikascenes, Pikadditions, Pikaswaps, Pikatwists, and Pikaframes. Those effects are why casual creators and social-media users stay. Pika Labs (Palo Alto, founded April 2023 by Demi Guo and Chenlin Meng) has raised roughly $135M. Paid Standard, Pro, and Fancy plans include watermark-free downloads and commercial use.

Pika's pricing page lists a free tier of 80 monthly video credits, Pika 2.5 only, 480p, image-to-video only, watermarked, no commercial use. Standard is $10/mo ($8/mo yearly) for 700 credits. Official policy pages do not document a refund on failed or unwanted generations. Trustpilot shows 1.7/5 from 70 reviews (84% one-star), with reports of credits deducted on failed or low-quality output, plus cancellation trouble and a cited duplicate charge around $134 AUD. A Trustpilot reviewer wrote they subscribed to Pro expecting a stated weekly credit amount and ran out after a handful of generations.

Elyum is one studio and one credit balance across 50+ video, image, and audio models. 1 credit equals $0.01. Free is up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them), no card. Plus is $9/mo, Pro $29/mo, Ultra $69/mo. Every render comes back as a free preview (a take). You KEEP the ones you want (that is when credits are charged) or KILL the rest for a full automatic refund. A failed generation is never charged. Kept takes download clean, no watermark, commercial use included. See the pricing page for plans. Named models such as Seedance 2.0 sit in the same studio, not a separate developer catalog.

This is not for you if your workflow is Pikaffects and Pikatwists on a phone. Elyum has no mobile app, no timeline editor, no stock footage, no avatars or talking heads of its own, no team seats, and no community feed. If you want Pika 2.5 specifically, stay on Pika. If you want a $10/mo API Club membership that resells 100+ third-party models under one bill, Pika's developer product at dev.pika.art is built for that job.

What it actually costs

Pika's consumer plans are Free (80 monthly video credits, 480p, watermark, no commercial use), Standard at $10/mo or $8/mo yearly (700 credits, full Pika 2.5, watermark-free, commercial use), Pro at $35/mo or $28/mo yearly (2300 credits, faster, marked Best value), and Fancy at $95/mo or $76/mo yearly (6000 credits, fastest). A 1080p 5-second Pika 2.5 clip costs 40 credits, so Standard's 700 credits cover about 17 of those clips if nothing fails. Add-on credit packs are sold and, per third-party summaries, roll over; monthly plan credits on lower tiers are reported to expire at cycle end (not independently confirmed on the official pricing text).

Elyum's published plans are Free (up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them), no card), Plus $9/mo, Pro $29/mo, and Ultra $69/mo, with 1 credit = $0.01, plus top-ups. Pro and Ultra include fair-use unlimited image generation on selected image models. Pika also sells a separate developer product: the API Club at $10/mo. On that catalog, Kling 3.0 at 720p is $0.068-$0.09 per second and Veo 3.1-Lite at 720p starts at $0.03 per second. Those dollar rates are Pika API Club prices, not pika.art studio prices.

Worked example on a model both sides list. A 5-second Seedance 2.0 take at 720p on Elyum is 80 credits ($0.80). You see the preview first. KEEP and that is the charge. KILL and it is refunded. Pika's API Club lists Seedance 2.0 priced per million video output tokens by resolution; a consumer-app 1080p 5-second Pika 2.5 clip is 40 credits. Per-model side-by-sides live under Pika vs Elyum for Veo 3.1.