LM Arena (lmarena.ai) rolled out its highly anticipated Video Arena, a free web-based platform that lets anyone generate AI videos and compare frontier text-to-video and image-to-video models in blind side-by-side battles.
Available at lmarena.ai/video, the feature requires only a quick account signup — no credit card, no waitlist, and crucially, no paywall for basic usage.
Users can now test and download clips from 15 leading models without paying per generation or dealing with individual API keys and rate limits.
How It Works: Blind Battle Mode for Fair Comparisons
The core experience is Battle Mode:
1. Log in (or create a free account).
2. Switch to Video Arena via the film reel icon.
3. Enter a text prompt for text-to-video generation, or upload an image + prompt for image-to-video.
4. The system anonymously selects and runs two different models.
5. Watch both resulting videos side by side.
6. Vote for the one you prefer (or tie/skip).
7. Download your favorite clip for personal projects, social media, prototyping, or workflows.
Each vote feeds directly into LM Arena's two dedicated leaderboards:
- Text-to-Video Arena (focuses on prompt adherence, motion quality, realism, physics, and overall coherence).
- Image-to-Video Arena (evaluates how well models animate still images with natural movement and consistency).
As of late January 2026, the leaderboards have already accumulated hundreds of thousands of community votes (e.g., over 132k on text-to-video and 269k on image-to-video), creating robust, crowdsourced Elo-style rankings similar to the original Chatbot Arena.
Current top performers include variants of Google's Veo 3.1 (frequently leading both boards with high motion fidelity and prompt understanding), OpenAI's Sora 2, Kling 2.6 Pro, Hailuo 2.3 / Minimax Hailuo variants, Seedance v1.5 Pro, and WAN 2.5, among others. Models appear under codenames during blind testing, adding an element of discovery — you might be voting on an unreleased or experimental version before its public debut.
The Model Lineup: 15 Frontier Generators at Your Fingertips
At launch, Video Arena offers access to 15 top-tier video models, with more planned soon.
Highlighted names include:
- Google's Veo 3 (and Veo 3.1-audio variants with enhanced capabilities);
- OpenAI's Sora 2;
- Kling-2.6-pro (from Kuaishou/KlingAI, strong in physics and long-duration clips);
- Seedance v1.5 Pro;
- WAN-2.5;
- Hailuo-2.3 (Minimax) and related pro variants.
These represent the absolute cutting edge of 2026 video AI, covering strengths from cinematic realism and complex multi-shot scenes (Sora 2, Veo) to exceptional motion dynamics and character consistency (Kling, Hailuo).
Truly Free? Yes — with Sensible Limits
Generation is free, but to prevent abuse there's a limit of 3 generations per 24-hour period for web users (this may evolve based on demand and infrastructure costs).
Videos are downloadable in the resolution and framerate provided by each model — typically up to 1080p or higher for top performers, with 5–10 second clips being common at launch.
No hidden fees, no credits to buy, and no need to juggle multiple subscriptions. This democratizes access dramatically compared to direct platforms where Sora remains lottery-based, Veo requires API access via Google, and Kling/Hailuo often involve paid tiers or regional restrictions.
Also read:
- Meta's Nuclear Power Pivot: Fueling the AI Boom with Gigawatts of Clean Energy
- Trump's Executive Order: A Lifeline for Paramount Amid Hollywood's Merger Wars?
- Matthew McConaughey's Legal Armor: Trademarking His Essence Against AI Deepfakes
Why This Matters in 2026
AI video has exploded in quality over the past year, with models now handling realistic physics, emotional character acting, multi-shot narratives, and even audio integration in some cases. Yet most people were locked out by cost, waitlists, or technical barriers.
LM Arena's Video Arena changes that overnight:
- Side-by-side blind testing reveals true relative strengths (no brand bias).
- Free downloads let creators, marketers, educators, and hobbyists experiment and incorporate clips into real work.
- Crowdsourced leaderboard evolves in real time as more votes come in, providing the most transparent benchmark available.
- Discovery factor — you might stumble upon a codenamed model that's secretly the next big thing.
As the team promises rapid additions (more modes, longer clips, higher resolutions, perhaps direct model selection), Video Arena positions itself as the go-to hub for evaluating and using state-of-the-art AI video in 2026.
Head to lmarena.ai/video, create your account, drop a wild prompt, and start battling the best video AIs on the planet — for free. The era of accessible, high-quality AI filmmaking just got a major upgrade.
