Open-source video stopped being a compromise in 2026: the open models now match closed rivals on resolution, ship native audio, and in one case output 4K HDR with RAW support. Here is what actually shipped, what hardware it needs, and what the hosted fallbacks cost.
LTX 2.5 – the local 4K HDR studio
Lightricks’ LTX 2.5 is the most production-ready open video model: coherent multi-shot scenes with synchronized audio, editing of real footage, and 4K HDR or RAW output that no closed consumer rival matches. The weights run locally on your own GPU and are customizable – fine-tune on your own footage or wire it into ComfyUI. Not ready to self-host? LTX Studio wraps the same model with storyboards and node-based Flows from a free 800-credit tier, Lite at $15 per month ($12 billed yearly, 8,000 credits), Standard $35 ($28 yearly) and Pro $125 ($100 yearly). The LTX-2.5 Fast API prices per second: $0.09 at 720p, $0.30 at 4K. Local 4K wants a serious GPU, but nothing else open touches its output ceiling.
MiniMax H3 – the 2K stereo bargain
MiniMax H3 ships open weights alongside a polished hosted editor at hailuoai.video. It generates 2K (up to 1440p) clips of 5-15 seconds at 24fps with native stereo sound in a single pass, steered by up to 12 multimodal references (9 images, 3 videos, 3 audio) that carry characters, voices and camera moves between scenes. Its editing layer – replace people, relight, revoice – is the deepest in the open cohort. The hosted route costs from $9.99 per month with H3 2K generation running an estimated $0.073-$0.120 per second, roughly half of Seedance 2.5’s 720p rate; the H3 Max API variant starts at $0.05 per second. The catch: clips cap at 15 seconds.
The Wan family – the Apache-2.0 ecosystem
Alibaba’s Wan line is the largest open video ecosystem: Wan 2.1 and 2.2 shipped fully under Apache-2.0 and still anchor most ComfyUI workflows, and Wan 2.7 (March 2026) opened select models with premium features staying API-only. The flagship Wan 3.0 itself runs hosted on wan.video (free tier, Pro $5-$10, Premium $20-$40) with native 4K and 30-second clips; industry trackers reported 1.3B and 14B open-weight checkpoints around April 2026, but Alibaba has not documented the release the way it did for 2.x – so treat Wan 3.0 weights as community-reported, not confirmed, and use the hosted app for production today.
Which one should you run?
- Maximum fidelity, own hardware: LTX 2.5 open weights – 4K HDR/RAW and footage editing beat everything else open.
- Cheapest hosted 2K with sound: MiniMax H3 via Hailuo – about half the per-second cost of comparable closed models.
- Longest clips with the biggest ecosystem: Wan 2.x/2.7 locally, or Wan 3.0 hosted for 4K 30-second scenes.
- Zero budget: all three start free – LTX weights, H3 weights, and Wan’s daily credits.
Pricing verified against vendor pages in November 2026. Hosted costs change with credit policies, so re-check per-second rates before committing a production budget.