Start With Your Constraint, Not the Leaderboard

There are nine text-to-video models on fal right now, and asking which one is "best" is the wrong question. A 5-second Veo 3.1 clip at 1080p costs $2.00. The same clip on Pixverse v6 costs $0.15, a 13x spread. Your pick should start with the constraint you can't bend: budget, audio, duration, resolution, or aspect ratio.

Walk the tree below before you open a playground.

The Decision Tree

• Yes, with dialogue and lip-sync → Veo 3.1, Veo 3.1 Lite, Kling v3 Pro, or Seedance 2.0
• Yes, just ambient or BGM → any of the above, plus Pixverse v6/C1 (opt-in), LTX 2.3, Wan 2.7
• No, audio is added in post → Grok Imagine or Pixverse with audio off

• 4K delivery → Veo 3.1 (up to 4k) or LTX 2.3 (up to 2160p at 48/50 fps)
• 1080p is enough → Wan 2.7, Veo 3.1 Lite, Kling v3 Pro, Pixverse v6/C1
• 720p for drafts or social → Seedance 2.0, Grok Imagine, Pixverse at 720p

• 15s in one shot → Wan 2.7, Seedance 2.0, Kling v3 Pro, Pixverse v6/C1, Grok Imagine
• 8s max → Veo 3.1, Veo 3.1 Lite (both capped at 8s)
• 10s max → LTX 2.3

• Yes → Kling v3 Pro (native multi_prompt list with per-shot durations)
• No, I'll stitch in post → anything else

• 21:9 cinematic → Seedance 2.0, Pixverse v6/C1
• 9:16 vertical → all nine
• 4:3 or 3:2 → Seedance 2.0, Pixverse v6/C1, Grok Imagine, Wan 2.7

• Yes → Wan 2.7, Veo 3.1, Veo 3.1 Lite, Kling v3 Pro, Pixverse v6
• Not critical → Seedance 2.0, Pixverse C1, LTX 2.3, Grok Imagine

Spec Comparison (All 9)

*Seedance bills per unit, not per second; a 5s 720p clip lands near $0.07 in practice.

Buyer Profiles

You're iterating social shorts at scale (50+ drafts/day) → Pixverse v6, fallback Grok Imagine. Pixverse v6 at $0.03-$0.12/sec (tiered) gives you 1080p, eight aspect ratios, negative prompts, and optional audio. A 5s draft at 360p with no audio is $0.15. Grok Imagine at $0.05/sec is the fallback when you want a different aesthetic without paying Kling rates.

You need a single polished hero clip with dialogue and 4K delivery → Veo 3.1, fallback LTX 2.3. Veo 3.1 is the only model that combines 4K, synchronized dialogue, and lip-sync in one pass. The $0.40/sec is the tax for skipping post. If you don't need speech, LTX 2.3 at $0.08/sec delivers 2160p with ambient audio.

You're building a narrative with 4+ shots → Kling v3 Pro, fallback Wan 2.7. Kling's multi_prompt takes a list of shot descriptions with individual durations, one request, consistent styling. Wan 2.7's 15s single-shot window plus driving-audio input handles longer continuous takes if you'd rather stitch externally.

You need the cheapest usable 1080p with audio for ads → Veo 3.1 Lite, fallback Seedance 2.0. Lite keeps Veo's audio model at 1/8 the price but caps at 1080p and 8 seconds. Seedance's per-unit billing (not per-second) rewards shorter clips and gives you 21:9 if your spec demands it.

Combining Models

The useful combo is cheap-for-drafts, premium-for-finals. Pin down your prompt, aspect ratio, and duration on Pixverse v6 at $0.15 per 5s draft (360p no audio). Once the shot list is locked, re-run the winners on Veo 3.1 or LTX 2.3. If you skip the draft phase and iterate directly on Veo, a 20-revision cycle runs you $40. The same cycle on Pixverse runs you $3, and only the final pass hits premium pricing.

What Not to Do

• Don't default to Veo 3.1 for iteration, a 20-draft cycle at 5s each burns $40 before you ship anything.
• Don't pick Grok Imagine if you need audio, there's no audio generation flag; you'll add it in post anyway.
• Don't pick Seedance or Pixverse C1 if your workflow depends on negative prompts to suppress artifacts, neither exposes that field.
• Don't pick Veo 3.1 Lite for clips over 8 seconds, it's capped. Use Kling v3 Pro, Wan 2.7, or Pixverse for longer takes.
• Don't pick LTX 2.3 for vertical with 1:1 or 4:3, it only supports 16:9 and 9:16. Seedance or Pixverse handle the odd aspect ratios.
• Don't assume Wan 2.7's audio_url generates dialogue, it drives the video from supplied audio, it doesn't synthesize speech.