Video
Vidu Q4 Review 2026: Q4 Preview, Pricing and Verdict
Vidu Q4 review: Shengshu's lifelike AI video model adds native audio, 10-bit 4K and up to 15 image references. Real launch pricing and who should use it.
Reviewed by the AI Slop editorial team
We test every tool hands-on and verify pricing against the official pricing page before publishing. Some links are affiliate links — they never change our verdicts.
Bottom line up front: Vidu Q4 Preview is the newest video model from Shengshu Technology, the company behind Vidu, and it makes performance its priority. Facial expression, emotion, body movement and voice are generated together, so characters read as acting rather than being pushed around by a prompt. Add native audio, 10-bit 4K output and up to 15 image references, and Q4 is one of the more complete video models you can use today, especially at its launch price. The caveats are real: it is still a preview, text to video is not part of the Q4 routes yet, and you should expect to review outputs before publishing. For teams producing short drama, ads and social video at volume, it is a strong buy.
Editorial note: this review contains no affiliate links. We rate Vidu on the merits and update it as the model changes.
What is Vidu Q4?
Vidu is an AI video generator from Shengshu Technology, a company spun out of Tsinghua University’s AI research labs. Vidu Q4 launched as a public preview on October 7, 2026, the first public look at the company’s next generation flagship. Shengshu is releasing it ahead of the finished Q4 model so creators can use it in real projects, and says feedback on performance, creative control and day to day production needs will shape the final release.
The company’s stated ambition is broader than video: it describes building a general world model that unifies the digital and physical worlds, trained on visual and auditory information. Vidu is the product that ambition stands on, and Q4 is its current frontier. On Vidu’s own site, Q4 sits next to Vidu S, a real-time model the company markets for millisecond, interactive generation.
On our Vidu AI tool page you can see the full spec sheet and compare it against the rest of the video category.
What is new in Vidu Q4
Lifelike performance
Q4 is designed to coordinate four things at once: facial expression, emotion, body movement and voice. Shengshu’s pitch is nuanced acting, not just clean motion, with a creator noting that the eyes and expressions carry a scene even during a pause with no dialogue. The model also renders legible text, which matters for signage, packaging and short drama graphics that other generators mangle.
Native audio in one pass
Every Q4 generation returns a soundtrack unless you turn sound off. Dialogue, sound effects and ambience are produced with the video, with lip-sync and audio-video synchronization handled by the model rather than bolted on afterward. For anyone who has stitched together a video tool and a separate voice generator, this removes a whole step.
Up to 4K with 10-bit color
Output spans 540p, 720p, 1080p, 2K and 4K, with 2K and 4K using 10-bit color for smoother gradients and more detail in shadows and highlights. Aspect ratios include 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3 and 3:4, and image to video keeps the source photo’s ratio. That range covers early concept tests through final delivery without leaving the tool.
Consistent characters from references
Reference to video is where Vidu has built its reputation, and Q4 extends it: you can combine up to 15 image references and up to three voice clips to define characters, products and places, then keep them consistent across a scene, multiple camera positions and different angles. A saved references library lets you reuse a character or prop across projects.
Stable camera work and cuts
Q4 promises camera moves and cuts that follow the creator’s direction, with stable high-motion handling for action like turns, chases and dancing. It also supports automatic camera switching, so a single clip can carry multi-shot structure that would otherwise be edited by hand.
What you can and cannot do
Clips run 3 to 16 seconds, with multi-shot cuts inside one generation. In preview, the public routes are image to video and reference to video; text-only video is not part of the Q4 routes yet, so you need a start image or at least one reference. There is no end-frame or video-to-video input in Q4 Preview. Developers call the model as viduq4-preview at POST https://api.vidu.com/ent/v2/img2video, and returned creation links stay valid for 24 hours.
Vidu Q4 pricing
Vidu runs on credits behind the scenes, but the API is billed per second of video. Official rates from Shengshu (October 2026):
| Access | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| API, 540p | from $0.045/sec | scales up with resolution |
| API, 4K | up to $0.39/sec | 10-bit color output |
| Launch promotion | from $0.014/sec | limited time |
| Image and reference to video | 30% off | through November 30, 2026 |
| Free tier | $0 | trial credits plus daily bonus credits |
There are also web subscription plans for individuals and teams, on top of the pay-as-you-go API. Shengshu claims that at comparable output and billing conditions, Q4 delivers up to five times the output for the same budget as the model it replaces, which is a vendor figure rather than a measured one.
Is Vidu Q4 worth the price? At the launch rate it is one of the cheaper paths to a capable video model, and the per-second structure means you pay for what you generate rather than a fixed monthly ceiling. Compare your expected volume against the resolution you actually need: staying at 1080p rather than 4K changes the per-second cost dramatically.
Vidu Q4 versus the alternatives
How Q4 stacks up against tools and models we have covered:
- Flova AI aggregates Vidu Q3 Pro alongside Seedance 2.5, Sora 2, Veo 3.1 and Kling 3.0 in one workspace. If you want a single dashboard across many models, Flova is the aggregator; Vidu Q4 is the specialist with its own audio and reference pipeline.
- Sora remains a quality benchmark for photorealistic clips, but it is generation only, with no integrated audio or reference library.
- Veo matches Sora on quality and plugs into YouTube workflows, again without Vidu’s consistency tooling.
- Runway is the strongest editing suite around generation; Vidu is stronger on character and voice consistency.
- Kling AI does long takes and many references, and is a close rival on realism per clip.
- Hailuo AI is known for emotional character performances, which is exactly the ground Q4 is now competing for.
The pattern: most tools do one thing well. Vidu Q4’s bet is performance plus sound plus reference consistency in one model, priced per second. If you only need single silent clips, a simpler generator may cost less. If you make dialogue driven or character driven video, the audio and references save real time.
Compare any of these side by side on our compare page, or see the full spec on the Vidu AI tool page.
Who should use Vidu Q4
Great fit:
- Short drama and serialized teams that need consistent characters and synced dialogue
- Advertising and social producers working from a product or reference image
- Creators who want motion and sound from a single generation
- Small studios that want flagship quality without a big monthly commitment
Skip it if:
- You need text to video with no source image, which Q4 Preview does not offer yet
- You need talking-head avatar presenters, where HeyGen or Synthesia are the better fit
- You only edit existing footage, where CapCut remains the practical choice
- You need the finished, stable model and cannot tolerate preview level change
How to get started with Vidu Q4
- Create a free account at vidu.com to collect your trial and daily bonus credits
- Pick a route: image to video to animate one photo, or reference to video to build a consistent scene from references
- Add references and voice: up to 15 images and three voice clips, saved to your references library for reuse
- Write the prompt, including spoken lines in quotes and the sounds you want, and choose resolution, ratio and length
- Generate and iterate: review the clip, adjust the prompt, and regenerate shots you do not like
FAQ
What is Vidu Q4? Vidu Q4 is the newest flagship video model from Shengshu Technology, the company behind Vidu, released as a public preview on October 7, 2026. It generates facial expression, emotion, movement and voice together, with output from 540p to 4K and native audio.
How much does Vidu Q4 cost? Official API pricing starts at $0.045 per second at 540p and scales to $0.39 per second at 4K. Shengshu also offers launch promotional pricing from $0.014 per second and a 30% discount on image-to-video and reference-to-video generation through November 30, 2026.
Is Vidu Q4 free to try? Yes. Every account gets free credits to generate videos, plus daily bonus credits for logging in, so you can evaluate Q4 before paying.
What is the difference between reference to video and image to video? Image to video animates a single start frame from a prompt and keeps the photo’s aspect ratio. Reference to video combines up to 15 image references and up to three voice clips to keep characters, products, places and voices consistent across a scene.
Does Vidu Q4 generate sound? Yes. The audio parameter defaults to true, producing dialogue, sound effects and ambience in the same pass, with lip-sync and audio-video synchronization.
Is Vidu Q4 available yet? Q4 is available now as Q4 Preview, ahead of the finished Q4 model. Shengshu says the full release will be shaped by feedback from the preview.
Final verdict: is Vidu Q4 worth it?
Rating: 8.5/10
Vidu Q4 Preview is the most convincing case yet that AI video is moving from “generate a clip” to “direct a performance.” Coordinating expression, motion and voice in one model, then pairing it with reference driven consistency and native audio, covers the parts of video production that used to need three tools. The gaps are honest ones: it is a preview, text to video is missing from the Q4 routes, and no AI video tool removes the need to review before you publish.
If your work depends on characters that look and sound like themselves across shots, Q4 is worth trying today at the launch rate. Start free, generate a handful of takes, and you will know quickly whether it fits your pipeline.
More from us: browse all video tools, read our guides to the tools above, or compare any two on the compare page.
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