Seedance vs Kling vs Sora vs Veo 3: An Honest Comparison
How Seedance 2.0 compares to Kling, Google Veo 3, and the now-discontinued OpenAI Sora 2 — positioning, native audio, access, and cost — without the fake benchmark numbers.
Seedance, Kling, Sora, and Veo are the four AI video models most people have been choosing between — though the field just changed: OpenAI discontinued the Sora app on April 26, 2026, and its API shuts down on September 24, 2026. Plenty of "comparison" posts quote precise benchmark scores — most of those numbers come from marketing pages and don't hold up, so we're leaving fabricated rankings out and sticking to what's verifiable: who makes each model, what it does, how you access it, and roughly how it's priced.
At a glance
| Model | Maker | Native audio | Access | Billing (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seedance 2.0 | ByteDance | Yes, incl. lip sync | Dreamina, CapCut, API | per-second or per-token |
| Kling 3.0 | Kuaishou | Yes | kling.ai, app, API | per-second (from ~$0.11/s) |
| Sora 2 | OpenAI | Yes | Discontinued — API only until Sep 24, 2026 | per-second (~$0.10–0.70/s) |
| Veo 3 | Google DeepMind | Yes | Gemini, Flow, Vertex AI | per-second (~$0.15–0.40/s) |
| Runway Gen-4.5 | Runway | Yes (since Gen-4.5) | runwayml.com | subscription |
All prices are approximate third-party rates as of mid-2026 and change often — confirm on the platform you use.
How each one is positioned
- Seedance 2.0 leans on multimodal reference inputs (up to 9 images + 3 videos + 3 audio clips in one prompt) and director-style control, with strong motion/physics and native audio — plus it's directly usable in Asian markets. Good when you want to steer a generation precisely and get sound in one pass.
- Kling 3.0 is known for multi-shot planning (defining several shots, each with its own prompt and duration) and a cinematic feel. Full Seedance vs Kling comparison →
- Sora 2 emphasized physical realism and a social/remix angle — its companion app and "cameo" feature let you drop yourself or friends into generated clips. It's on the way out: OpenAI shut the app on April 26, 2026, and the API follows on September 24. Full Seedance vs Sora comparison — and the alternative question →
- Veo 3 is deeply integrated into Google's ecosystem (Gemini app, the Flow filmmaking tool, Vertex AI) with strong synchronized audio and lip sync. Full Seedance vs Veo 3 comparison →
- Runway is the veteran, and Gen-4/4.5 shine at post-generation editing and iteration — extend, inpaint/outpaint, and a mature in-browser toolkit (Gen-4.5 added native audio in late 2025).
Which should you pick?
- Want maximum control + multiple references + audio in one generation → Seedance.
- Wanted social distribution / real people in clips → that was Sora 2; with Sora discontinued, no active model ships an equivalent social layer.
- Already live in Google's tools → Veo 3.
- Want fine-grained editing and iteration → Runway.
- Want shot-by-shot cinematic sequencing → Kling.
They overlap more than the marketing suggests, and the honest answer is that the best model is the one you'll actually iterate on. The cheapest way to judge Seedance for your use case is to run a prompt you already trust: grab one from the library and generate it on ponpon. For where the series is heading next, see what is Seedance 2.5.