Kie.ai vs Elyumfor Grok Imagine 1.5
Same xAI weights, different bill: Elyum previews every take for free and charges only a KEEP, while Kie.ai bills the task from a prepaid wallet.
15 seconds is the cap. Grok Imagine 1.5 is a short-form xAI video model tagged stylized and quick on Elyum, with text to video, image to video, and reference to video. Clips run from 1 to 15 seconds across three aspect ratios, so the same prompt can land as a feed post, a story, or a widescreen cut. It is built for stylized motion, not long multi-scene films. See the Grok Imagine 1.5 page for the studio listing.
What changes is the bill and the bad-take rule, not the weights. Elyum pricing is 1 credit = $0.01, with Free (up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them)), Plus $9/mo, Pro $29/mo, and Ultra $69/mo, and you only spend when you KEEP a take. Kie.ai is an API-first prepaid wallet: no subscription tiers listed, $5 minimum top-up, credits that do not expire, and no charge when a task fails. Kie.ai does not publish a Grok Imagine 1.5 rate. For the broader catalog and caveats, see the Kie.ai alternative page.
Kie.ai is often the cheaper pipe if you already live in createTask and one wallet across dozens of models. Elyum is not that pipe. We have no timeline editor, no stock footage, no avatars, no mobile app, no team seats, and no community feed. Kie.ai also has a reliability tax: reviews from mid-to-late 2026 cite video instability (Sora 2 most of all), a roughly 2.5/5 Trustpilot score, and credits vanishing in glitches. Midjourney access was pulled after the rightsholder objected. That is the trade if a low API sticker is your only metric.
Grok Imagine 1.5 on Kie.ai
$5 is the published floor. Bitdoze's 2026 Kie.ai review lists Grok Imagine among Kie.ai's video models. There is no named plan that unlocks it. Kie.ai lists no subscription grid. Access is a prepaid credit wallet with that $5 minimum. Third-party reviews mention about 80 free test credits on signup (not confirmed on Kie.ai's own pricing page, which returned 403 to automated fetch). Kie.ai does not publish a per-second or per-clip price for Grok Imagine 1.5. Clip length, resolution, watermark, and commercial-use terms for this model are unpublished.
A failed task is not charged, per the Kie.ai FAQ as cited by multiple reviews. A finished take you dislike is still a billed task. Several reviews describe credits disappearing after platform glitches, with support that is slow and concentrated in Asian time zones. Aisofting cited a support reply of "sorry money gone" with no refund. The product is an async createTask API plus a browser Playground, with webhooks for completion. Credits do not expire. The official site is Kie.ai.
Grok Imagine 1.5 on Elyum
On Elyum, Grok Imagine 1.5 runs 1 to 15 seconds at 6 credits per second. A 5-second take is {{price grok-imagine-1-5 per second 5}}. A 15-second take is {{price grok-imagine-1-5 per second 15}}. Text to video, image to video, and reference to video are all on. Three aspect ratios. Kept files download without a watermark, at full quality, with commercial use included. Listed prices already sit about 20 percent under comparable studio anchors.
Every render comes back as a free preview. You judge it, then KEEP the takes you want (that is the only moment credits are charged) or KILL the rest (full refund, automatically). A failed generation is never charged. Kills are metered lightly on the Free plan (one kill a month). Paid plans kill freely. Free is up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them) with no card. You can also work from Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor through the Elyum MCP server or the Elyum API.
What a Grok Imagine 1.5 take costs
| Scenario | Kie.ai | Elyum |
|---|---|---|
| One 5s take you keep | Not published | {{price grok-imagine-1-5 per second 5}} |
| Ten takes, keep two | Not published. Kie.ai bills completed tasks. | {{price grok-imagine-1-5 per second 5 x2}} |
| A failed generation | Not charged (Kie.ai FAQ, via reviews) | Not charged |
| A finished take you kill | Billed if the task completed. No kill refund published. | Full refund (Free plan: one kill a month) |
| Monthly plan needed to access the model | None listed. Prepaid wallet, $5 minimum. | No. Free plan has up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them) |
| Watermark on the file | Not published | None on kept takes |
Elyum: 1 credit = $0.01, charged only when you keep a take. Kie.ai figures from its own pricing pages and independent reviews, verified 2026-09-07; sources at the end. Full rate card on the Grok Imagine 1.5 page.
Where the two differ
Elyum charges 6 credits per second, and only after a KEEP. Kie.ai uses a prepaid wallet at a reported $0.005 per credit. It does not publish a Grok Imagine 1.5 rate.
On Elyum, KEEP pays, KILL refunds in full, and a failed generation is never charged. On Kie.ai, failed tasks are not charged (FAQ cited in reviews). There is no published refund for a completed take you dislike. Reviewers also report credits vanishing in glitches.
Elyum: 1 to 15 seconds, three aspect ratios. Kie.ai does not publish max clip length or max resolution for Grok Imagine 1.5.
Kie.ai is API-first (async createTask, query-task, webhooks, plus a Playground). Elyum is a web studio plus MCP and REST. More side-by-sides sit on the compare index.
Kept Elyum takes download clean, no watermark, commercial use included. Kie.ai watermark and commercial-use terms for Grok Imagine 1.5 are not published.
Kie.ai credits do not expire, and one wallet covers image, video, music, and chat models. Elyum credits sit on one studio balance across 50+ models.
Pick Kie.ai when
- One API key and one prepaid wallet across image, video, music, and chat models, with webhooks.
- Credits do not expire, and the floor is a $5 top-up rather than a monthly seat.
- Failed tasks are not charged, which matters if you batch createTask jobs.
- List prices are often 30-70% below official APIs. Grok Imagine 1.5 itself has no published Kie.ai rate.
Pick Elyum when
- Every Grok Imagine 1.5 render is a free preview. Credits move only on KEEP.
- Clip rate is published: 6 credits per second, 1 to 15 seconds.
- Free plan is up to 150 credits once (our algorithm may grant them), no card. Paid plans kill freely.
- Kept takes have no watermark and include commercial use. Studio plus MCP and REST.
Grok Imagine 1.5 in three styles, rendered on Elyum
Getting the most out of Grok Imagine 1.5
- State one continuous action and a duration that fits it. A 3-second clip cannot hold a walk, a turn, and a reveal. Cut the prompt to the seconds you will actually render (1 to 15).
- Name the camera like a shot list: locked off, slow push-in, handheld drift, or a short orbit. Vague cinematic-camera language gives Grok Imagine 1.5 generic drift.
- If you have a frame you like, use image to video or reference to video and describe only the motion. Do not re-describe wardrobe and set that the still already holds.
- Pick the aspect ratio before you write. Feed, story, and widescreen crop the same action differently. Put the subject where that frame actually has room.
- Lean into stylized looks (illustration, graphic light, defined edges). Asking it to behave like a long multi-scene film fights the 15-second cap.
- Avoid stacked cuts, on-screen readable text, and two subjects doing different actions. One subject, one move, one lighting setup.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Grok Imagine 1.5 video cost on Elyum vs Kie.ai?
Is Grok Imagine 1.5 the same model on both?
What happens to a bad Grok Imagine 1.5 take?
Do I need a subscription to use Grok Imagine 1.5 on Elyum?
Does Kie.ai watermark Grok Imagine 1.5 downloads?
Can I call Grok Imagine 1.5 from an API on both?
- Kie.ai Review 2026: One Cheap API for Nano Banana, Veo & Suno (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Kie AI Review 2026: Is This Cheap Multi-Model API Actually Worth The Risk? - Aisofting (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Kie AI Review (2026): Cheap AI APIs Come With a Catch - Ai Insights News (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Kie.ai Video Generation Guide: Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0 & Seedance API (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Seedance 2.5 Pricing: What We Know (2026) (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Wan3.0 API product page (accessed 2026-09-07)
- Kling 3.0 docs (accessed 2026-09-07)
- The Most Affordable Veo 3 AI API by Kie.ai (accessed 2026-09-07)
- What Is Hailuo H3? MiniMax Video Model Guide (accessed 2026-09-07)
- SaaSHub comparison: Veo 3 Prompt vs Kie.ai Veo 3 AI API (accessed 2026-09-07)
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Create everything. Keep the best.
Grok Imagine 1.5 is a AI video generator you can preview free on Elyum. Keep the takes you love, kill the rest for a full refund.