Six AI video tools to try this week, and one deadline

Six things are worth your time this week if you make AI video. Every entry is something you can act on now, as of Friday, 16 October 2026: three models that shipped in the last seven days, an offer that is running, a music video tool that is live, and a shutdown you have six days to prepare for. The ranking weighs how directly useful each one is to the work: a model that generates video outranks one that makes a still, and a cheaper price outranks a roadmap.

I checked each figure on the maker's own page and say so where a number is the maker's claim rather than a fact. Everything below was verified as of 16 October 2026. No hands-on tests were run for this list; the ranking weighs price, license, hardware, inputs and availability, and judges fit rather than output quality I have not seen.

1. BACH 1.0 Pro (Video Rebirth)

Video Rebirth shipped BACH 1.0 Pro on 15 October 2026, the production build of the industrial video model the Singapore company makes for studios. The company says it is built for characters and products that have to hold across a scene and survive revisions, which is the part of an AI video job that usually breaks first.

References are the draw. Video Rebirth's site says BACH 1.0 Pro takes up to 12 image, video or audio references in one generation, so you can hand it a character sheet, a product photo and a music bed and ask for the shot. The company's site lists published pricing at $0.12 per second at 1080p and points to a developer API, and it says a comparable frontier video model lists at $0.90 per second at the same resolution. If you are pricing a scene this week, run that math before you commit to a plan.

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• Tool: BACH 1.0 Pro
• Maker: Video Rebirth
• Released: October 15, 2026
• Inputs: up to 12 image, video or audio references per generation
• Price: $0.12 per second at 1080p (published), via API
• Try it: https://www.bach.art/welcome

2. FLUX 3 Image Klein (Black Forest Labs)

Black Forest Labs released FLUX 3 Image Klein on 15 October 2026, a 5.6-billion-parameter open weights model for text-to-image, image editing and multi-reference generation with up to 10 reference images. It is an image model, and a video pipeline still needs one: keyframes to animate, title cards, poster frames and thumbnail art all start as a still.

The numbers make it cheap to keep around. Black Forest Labs lists the generator weights at 11.2 GB in BF16 and 5.6 GB in FP8, and says the INT8 build runs on NVIDIA RTX GPUs with as little as 8 GB of VRAM through ComfyUI or Diffusers. Through the BFL API the distilled model starts at $0.009 per 1K image. The weights ship under the FLUX Kommunity License, which allows free commercial use for individuals and companies with annual revenue under $5M. Load the distilled checkpoint for speed; use the base checkpoint if you plan to fine-tune.

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• Tool: FLUX 3 Image Klein
• Maker: Black Forest Labs
• Released: October 15, 2026
• Weights: 11.2 GB BF16, 5.6 GB FP8
• Hardware: from 8 GB VRAM (INT8 build)
• Price: API from $0.009 per 1K image
• License: FLUX Kommunity License (free commercial use under $5M revenue)

3. Grok Voice 3.0 (xAI)

xAI announced Grok Voice 3.0 on 14 October 2026, a speech-to-speech model it calls the world's most intelligent voice model and ships on the same day in the Voice Agent API. For a video maker it is a voiceover and dialogue tool: the API price is $0.08 a minute, the same as the Grok Voice 2.0 it replaces.

xAI says the model scores 86.9 on Artificial Analysis's Speech-to-Speech Index, the top mark in that test, and reports latency under one second. Treat those as the maker's numbers, measured by Artificial Analysis. If you need scratch dialogue or a temp voice track before a final read, or an interactive character voice, this is an inexpensive way to hear a line out loud this week.

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• Tool: Grok Voice 3.0
• Maker: xAI
• Released: October 14, 2026
• Type: speech-to-speech voice model
• Price: $0.08 per minute in the Voice Agent API
• Try it: https://console.x.ai/

4. A free week of Wan 3.0 (Higgsfield)

Higgsfield is running a free week of Wan 3.0 and Wan 3.0 Prime for Pro plans and above, alongside 60% off Wan 3.0 on the Higgsfield API. The changelog dates the terms 13 October 2026 and was last modified 15 October 2026, and the API discount runs until 31 October 2026.

If you have been meaning to test Alibaba's Wan 3.0 on finished work rather than a demo reel, this is the week to spend the time. The free week is free to subscribers, so the only cost is your hours, and the API cut makes batch work cheaper for the rest of the month. Check your plan tier first, because the free week starts at Pro.

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• Offer: free week of Wan 3.0 and Wan 3.0 Prime
• Maker: Higgsfield
• Plan: Pro and above
• API discount: 60% off Wan 3.0 until October 31, 2026
• Terms dated: October 13, 2026
• Try it: https://higgsfield.ai/creator-hub/changelog

5. Veo 3.1 preview models retire on October 22 (Google)

Google will shut down three Veo 3.1 preview models on 22 October 2026, and its deprecations page names the deadline. The three model IDs are veo-3.1-generate-preview, veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview and veo-3.1-lite-generate-preview, each listed with gemini-omni-1.1-flash as the recommended replacement.

This is the do-it-now entry. If your pipeline still calls any of those three strings, change the model name to gemini-omni-1.1-flash before 22 October or the calls stop. The replacement is already available: Google lists gemini-omni-1.1-flash as released 27 August 2026 with no shutdown date announced.

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• Change: Veo 3.1 preview models retire
• Maker: Google
• Retiring: veo-3.1-generate-preview, veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview, veo-3.1-lite-generate-preview
• Shutdown date: October 22, 2026
• Replacement: gemini-omni-1.1-flash
• Details: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations

6. PixVerse Music Video (PixVerse)

PixVerse's music video tool is documented on its own blog, which has carried the workflow since June 29, 2026: upload an MP3, WAV, M4A or AAC file of 10 seconds to 6 minutes and up to 15 MB, choose a Video Style and a Music Style, add lyric subtitles or an optional character photo, and export in 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1. The tool itself is live at app.pixverse.ai/music-video/one-click-mv, headed One-click MV Setup, with three modes: Performance MV with lip sync, Expressive MV for atmospheric shots, and Storytelling MV that takes prompts for the storyline. PixVerse promoted it on its own social accounts as an EP.01 "One-click MV" campaign.

If you have a song and no time, the workflow is ready to use now, and the blog guide spells out the limits before you upload.

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• Tool: PixVerse Music Video (One-click MV)
• Maker: PixVerse
• Input: MP3, WAV, M4A or AAC, 10 seconds to 6 minutes, up to 15 MB
• Modes: Performance MV, Expressive MV, Storytelling MV
• Export: 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1
• Try it: https://app.pixverse.ai/music-video/one-click-mv