Google opened one of its most capable AI tools to the public on September 23, announcing that Google Vids, the company's browser-based video editor, now offers free 1080p AI video generation and upscaling to anyone with a Google or Workspace account, according to an official Google announcement. The feature runs on Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, an AI model that turns text prompts, photos, audio, or existing clips into new video footage. Until now, that kind of generation largely lived behind a subscription.

Anyone can visit vids.new, sign in with any Google account, and start generating in 1080p—the same crisp high-definition resolution most streaming platforms use—at no cost. Decrypt tested the tool and found the creation process straightforward, though the outlet was only able to generate 720p resolution videos in both horizontal and vertical orientations during testing. The gap between the advertised 1080p ceiling and the 720p output observed in testing is one detail to watch as the rollout expands.

Google also added editing controls that previously required a paid tool. Scene extension lets users lengthen a clip while keeping the lighting, characters, and setting consistent, instead of the footage suddenly changing halfway through. Users can also set an exact scene duration so a clip lines up with a script or voiceover, and can upscale older, lower-resolution AI clips to 1080p instead of regenerating them from scratch.

Every video the tool produces carries SynthID, a Google DeepMind watermark that is invisible to the eye but readable by machines, embedded directly into the video frames. Anyone can check whether a clip was AI-made by running it through Google's SynthID Detector, a separate tool built to catch AI-generated content passed off as real. With high-definition generation now free for anyone, that invisible, machine-readable watermark becomes one of the main signals for distinguishing AI footage from camera-recorded video.

It is also fast. Decrypt generated a short video in less than 30 seconds, a bit faster than the usual speeds using Google Flow.

The change substantially lowers the barrier to video production. Making a decent HD video once meant paying for software, hiring an editor, buying a stock-footage subscription, or owning a powerful computer capable of handling open source video models. Now it is a free browser tab, and that changes who can afford to produce video content at all, for better or worse.

Not every account receives the same free generation allowance. Personal Google accounts get a standard allowance, Google's paid AI plans unlock more, and Workspace Business and Enterprise subscribers receive bigger generation pools plus admin controls for managing them across a team.

Gemini Omni first launched in May 2026 as a paid feature for Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers, with free access limited to YouTube Shorts and YouTube Create. Folding a free tier into Vids is the broadest release of that technology yet.

The timing is hard to ignore. OpenAI shut down the consumer Sora 2 app and website back in April 2026, and its developer API—the piece still running—went dark for good on the same day Google's free Vids rollout landed.

Google has been racing on price as well. It recently cut the API rate for its Veo 3.1 Lite model to $0.05 per second, undercutting developer-facing rivals while Chinese competitors like Kling and Hunyuan Video keep pressure on price from the other side.

Google says a companion feature, Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite text-to-speech, is coming next to turn written scripts into voiceover narration in more than 100 languages.