# MiniCut

> MiniCut turns a written story idea into a finished vertical short drama. You type a premise,
> it writes the script, casts the characters as reusable reference images, generates every shot
> as AI video with voices and lip sync, and assembles an episode you can post. Every account
> starts with a $2 trial, then Entry at $16 a month unless cancelled.

Facts a model should get right about us. The output is a 9:16 vertical episode. The same
character keeps the same face and the same voice across every shot and across episodes, because
one set of reference images drives every generation. Billing is per generation, never per
episode: one video shot, one image, or one voice pass is one charge, and its exact credit price
is printed on the Generate button before you confirm. There is no episode price anywhere in the
product. Paid plans run from $16 a month for 350 credits up to
$349 for 9,200 credits. The interface and the whole marketing site are published in
English and Simplified Chinese, on separate addresses, with no automatic redirect by language.

## Product
- [What MiniCut does](https://www.minicut.ai/): what the product is and who it is for
- [Pricing](https://www.minicut.ai/pricing): every plan, its price in USD, and what one credit buys
- [MCP server](https://www.minicut.ai/mcp): how an agent connects, what each key level may do, and what a run costs
- [Models](https://www.minicut.ai/models): every model you can pick, each with its credit price per generation
- [Use cases](https://www.minicut.ai/make): 18 things people make with it, from a faceless channel to a web series
- [Templates](https://www.minicut.ai/templates): presets you can start from and rewrite: 20 finished pilot episodes, plus prompts we rebuilt from posts doing numbers on X, each with its model and settings

## Docs
- [Docs](https://www.minicut.ai/docs): Docs for the MiniCut CLI. Pick the task you have, and each line takes you to the page for it.
- [Overview](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/overview): The MiniCut CLI makes a short drama episode in 5 loops that your coding agent runs, and each loop checks its own work.
- [Quickstart](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/quickstart): Four steps from nothing to a first short drama project, with your coding agent running every command.
- [Install with your agent](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/install-with-your-agent): Paste one prompt into your coding agent. It installs MiniCut, signs you in, checks every tool and loads the MiniCut skill.
- [Install in a terminal](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/install-in-a-terminal): Install MiniCut yourself, one command at a time: download it, set up its tools, sign in and connect your agent app.
- [Steps and loops](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/steps-and-loops): An episode takes 5 loops. Each loop makes a part, checks it, fixes what fails, and stops after 3 rounds.
- [Shot sheet](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/shot-sheet): The shot sheet (分镜表) is one table that lists every shot of an episode. Pictures, prompts and video takes are made from it.
- [Project directory](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/project-directory): A project is one folder. It holds the series, one folder for each episode and one folder for each shot.
- [Home folder](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/home-folder): MiniCut keeps your settings, library, projects and tools in one home folder. Set MINICUT_HOME to use another folder.
- [Connect your agent app](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/connect-your-agent-app): Add the MiniCut skill and its allow and ask-first rules to your coding agent app, then check that the app has them.
- [Make the mock](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/make-the-mock): Run three loops, Script, Shot sheet and Mock, to get the whole episode as stills with voices, music and captions.
- [Generate and pick video takes](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/generate-and-pick-video-takes): Make a video take for every shot, check each take, make a failing shot again, and keep the take you want.
- [Edit an episode](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/edit-an-episode): Run the Edit loop, change the cut with the timeline commands, and render the finished episode as a video file.
- [Build a 3D scene](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/build-a-3d-scene): Write a scene file, check that no body goes through a prop, and draw a still from its camera on your computer.
- [Write the music](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/write-the-music): Read the episode's timing, write a score as a song file, check it, and play it into a music track on your computer.
- [Use a canvas board](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/use-a-canvas-board): Make a canvas board, add and wire its boxes, check it, and make what the boxes describe.
- [Manage assets](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/manage-assets): Add, rename, set the cover of and remove the characters, locations and props of a project, and keep pictures in your library.
- [Sign in without a browser](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/sign-in-without-a-browser): Sign in to MiniCut on a computer with no browser, such as over SSH, by confirming a code on your phone or another computer.
- [Use MiniCut in China mainland](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/use-minicut-in-china-mainland): Install MiniCut with the China mainland region, download tools from mirrors, set a proxy, and switch MiniCut to Chinese.
- [Update and uninstall](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/update-and-uninstall): Update MiniCut yourself or let it update by itself, turn the automatic update off, and remove MiniCut with or without your projects.
- [Account](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/account): Commands that sign this computer in to minicut.ai, sign it out, and show which account it uses.
- [Setup](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/setup): Commands that open the MiniCut app, check and install the tools MiniCut needs, connect your agent app, and update or remove MiniCut.
- [Projects](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/projects): Commands that make a project, keep pictures and takes in it, and show its shots and its script.
- [Generate](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/generate): Commands that make pictures, video takes, voice lines and words, list models, save finished jobs, and run canvas boards.
- [Checks and loops](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/checks-and-loops): Commands that check each file and take against the standard, and run the 5 loops that make, check and fix the episode.
- [Editor](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/editor): Every command that opens, changes, checks or renders the edited cut of an episode, with its usage, options and errors.
- [Scene and music](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/scene-and-music): Every command that builds, checks and draws a 3D scene, and every command that checks, plays and measures an episode's music.
- [Global options](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/global-options): The flags, output format, exit codes and environment variables that work the same way on every minicut command.
- [Project files](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/project-files): Every file in a project that you can open, what it holds, and which command writes it.
- [Troubleshooting](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/troubleshooting): The messages the minicut command prints, what each one means, and what to do. Exit codes are on Global options.
- [Changelog](https://www.minicut.ai/docs/cli/changelog): Every version of the MiniCut CLI, newest first, with what changed for you.
- [All docs in one file](https://www.minicut.ai/llms-full.txt): every docs page as Markdown

## Comparisons
- [All comparisons](https://www.minicut.ai/vs): MiniCut against every tool people compare it to
- [MiniCut vs Higgsfield](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/higgsfield): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs OpenArt Director](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/openart-director): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs Pippit](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/pippit): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs Jellyfish AI Short Drama Studio](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/jellyfish-studio): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs ReelShort](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/reelshort): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs DramaBox](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/dramabox): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs Runway](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/runway): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs Pika](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/pika): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs Luma Dream Machine](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/luma-dream-machine): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs InVideo](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/invideo): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs Fliki](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/fliki): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs HeyGen](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/heygen): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs Synthesia](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/synthesia): feature and price comparison, each claim dated
- [MiniCut vs CapCut](https://www.minicut.ai/vs/capcut): feature and price comparison, each claim dated

## Reading
- [Blog](https://www.minicut.ai/blog): notes on making AI short drama, shelved into guides, round-ups, editorials and product news
- [What a 5-second AI video shot costs in 2026, model by model](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/what-a-5-second-shot-costs): The credit price of one 5-second 720p shot on every model you can pick today, from 2.94 credits to 82.78. Same five seconds, a 28x spread.
- [Why your credits ran out faster than you expected](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/why-credits-run-out): What one generation actually costs, why the number moves, and how to see it before you spend it.
- [Why the same character comes back with a different face](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/why-faces-change-between-shots): The reason video models lose a face between shots, and what actually holds one still.
- [Why a generation fails, and what happens to the credits](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/why-a-generation-fails): The three things that actually go wrong, and which of them costs you anything.
- [You should see the price before you press Generate](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/the-price-sits-on-the-button): The loudest complaint about AI video tools is credits that vanish invisibly. Our answer is a price on the button, fractional billing, and a refund that files itself.
- [The 14 tools people put next to MiniCut, sorted by what they actually do](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/ai-short-drama-tools-compared): Four of these publish a price. Ten do not. And half of them are not making short drama at all, they are editors, avatar tools, or apps you watch on. Here is what each one is for.
- [Higgsfield alternatives in 2026, and when each one is the better pick](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/higgsfield-alternatives): Higgsfield is a wide creative suite and it is genuinely good at that. Here is where it is the right answer, and the three cases where something narrower wins.
- [OpenArt Director alternatives, and the credit maths nobody explains](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/openart-director-alternatives): 4,000 credits a month sounds enormous next to 350. Then you find out the cheapest video action costs 80 of them. Here is how to read a credit number before you buy one.
- [How an AI short drama actually gets made, shot by shot](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/how-an-ai-short-drama-gets-made): Sixty seconds, thirteen shots, four scenes, four to six characters, and a three-second hook before anything is explained. The real shape of an episode, taken off twenty finished ones.
- [The eight-beat short drama structure, and what changes per genre](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/short-drama-beat-sheet): The beat count is the same in a revenge drama and a contract marriage. What changes is the want and the obstacle sitting inside it. Here is the whole spine, written out.
- [Running a faceless channel on AI short drama, and what a week of it costs](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/faceless-channel-with-ai-drama): A faceless channel needs volume and it needs the same characters every time. Here is the schedule that produces both, with the credit cost of a week written out.
- [Script to video: what actually has to happen in between](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/script-to-video-what-happens): A script is words. A video is frames. Six things have to be decided in between, and a tool that decides them silently is deciding them badly.
- [Almost everyone searching for AI short drama wants to watch one, not make one](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/everyone-searching-short-drama-wants-to-watch-one): We pulled Google's own autocomplete for the term. Nine of the nine completions were people looking for something to watch. That one fact should change how anyone in this category builds.
- [GPT Image 2.5 is on the board, both of them, priced the same](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/gpt-image-2-5-lands): Flare and Sunburst went on the picker the day OpenAI shipped them. Five quality steps, 0.15 credits to 5.06, and the two models charge the identical number at every one of them.
- [Meshy V7.1 is on the board: one to four photographs in, a 3D model that stands on the set](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/meshy-v7-1-3d-models): Photograph one object from four angles and a textured 3D model comes back, with the option to rig it as a poseable character. 42 credits textured, 49 rigged. It is the first model here that MAKES a 3D file instead of asking you to bring one.
- [Google DeepMind’s music model is on the picker, and it is the cheapest song here](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/lyria-3-5-google-deepmind): Lyria 3.5 writes a whole song with the singing in it, and a picture wired onto the box sets the mood. 3.5 credits a song against MiniMax Music 2.6’s 5.25. It sings in eight languages and Chinese is not one of them.
- [FLUX 3 Image: 1K, 2K and 4K pictures, and edits from up to ten](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/flux-3-image): Black Forest Labs’ new picture model is on the board. A picture is 1.68 credits at 1K, 8.4 at 2K and 26.88 at 4K, and the up to ten pictures you hand it for an edit cost nothing extra.
- [Ideogram 4.5: change one picture, guide it with four more](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/ideogram-4-5): Ideogram 4.5 is on the board. The first picture you connect is the one it changes, up to four more guide it, and a picture is 1.05 credits at Low, 2.1 at Standard and 7.7 at High.
- [Grok Video 1.5 Lite: 1.05 credits a second at 720p](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/grok-video-1-5-lite): xAI’s lighter Grok Video is on the board. 0.7 credits a second at 480p, 1.05 at 720p and 4.9 at 1080p, any length from 1 to 15 seconds, and every clip comes back with a sound track.
- [H3 Max Insert Video: remake one stretch of a finished clip](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/h3-max-insert-video): Pick a stretch of a clip you already made, say what happens there instead, and get the whole clip back with a new 5 to 13 second scene in it. Only the new scene is charged, from 1.75 credits a second.
- [Two more H3 Max doors: one makes a photo talk, one moves the camera](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/h3-max-lip-sync-and-camera-controls): H3 Max Lip Sync takes a photo and a recording. H3 Max Camera Controls holds the scene still and moves the camera. Both on the picker now, 1.75 credits a second at the bottom.
- [The twenty pilot episodes we shipped, and what is inside each one](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/the-twenty-pilots): 260 shots, 780 generation prompts, 83 named characters and 80 scenes. Not twenty prompts with titles on them. Here is what a pilot actually contains.
- [Runway alternatives for people making a series rather than a clip](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/runway-alternatives): Runway is the steadier, older tool and its cheapest plan is $12 a month for 625 credits. Here is the one job it is not built for, and what to use instead.
- [The AI short drama workflow, written out as an order of operations](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/ai-short-drama-workflow): Six stages, and the order is not a preference. Doing two of them in the wrong sequence is what makes an episode need regenerating from scratch.
- [We do not round your credits up, and here is what that is worth](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/credits-are-not-rounded-up): A generation that costs 2.94 credits charges 2.94, not 3. It sounds like nothing. Over a thirteen-shot episode it is a whole extra shot you did not pay for.
- [Both languages have their own address, and neither one redirects you](https://www.minicut.ai/blog/english-and-chinese-from-the-first-day): The Chinese side is not a switch in the corner of an English site. It is real pages at real addresses, and that decision was made on day one because it cannot be retrofitted.
- [Tutorials](https://www.minicut.ai/tutorials): the steps from a story idea to a finished episode
- [FAQ](https://www.minicut.ai/faq): the questions people ask before signing up, answered in plain text

## Company
- [About](https://www.minicut.ai/about)
- [Changelog](https://www.minicut.ai/changelog)

## Optional
- [Legal](https://www.minicut.ai/legal): terms, privacy, acceptable use, refunds, cookies and DMCA